Pete Ham

Peter William Ham, who was born on April 27th, 1947, in Townhill, Swansea, Wales, U.K., was a Welsh singer, songwriter, and guitarist.  The son of William and Catherine Ham, he formed his first rock group, The Panthers, around 1961.  Undergoing several name changes, they became The Iveys in 1965, moving to London the following year after being talent-spotted by The Mojos' manager, Bill Collins.  With Ham becoming the band's chief songwriter, they toured around the U.K. for the next three years, coming to the attention of both The Kinks' Ray Davies (who produced some of their early tracks) and The Beatles' personal assistant Mal Evans (who signed them to The Beatles' Apple Records label).  Changing their name to Badfinger, the band's first single release was a Paul McCartney composition, Come and Get It, which became a worldwide top-ten hit.  They followed this with three more Ham-composed singles in 1970 and '71, which all did well around the world.  Ham's greatest success as a songwriter came with the song Without You, co-written with bandmate Tom Evans, which became a worldwide number-one hit for Harry Nilsson in 1972, and has become a widely-covered standard; Ham received two Ivor Novello songwriting awards related to the song in 1973.  In 1974, Badfinger transferred to Warner Brothers Records, releasing possibly their finest album, Wish You Were Here.  Shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. sued the band's manager, Stan Polley, after an advance payment vanished, and, after Polley disappeared, the band were left penniless.  Ham found himself unable to pay mortgage payments on the new house which he shared with his pregnant girlfriend, Anne Herriot, and her son.  Believing that his finances had been wiped out, Pete Ham hanged himself in his garage in Weybridge, Surrey, England, on April 24th, 1975.  Five weeks after his death, Anne gave birth to Ham's daughter, Petera.  Fellow bandmember, Tom Evans, also committed suicide by hanging in 1983.  Only three days before his twenty-eighth birthday, Pete Ham was just 27 years old.