Goodbye to Joey Molland, the former Badfinger was 77 years old

Joey Mollandthe last member of the original formation of Badfingerdied at the age of 77. The news was announced with a message published on the Facebook page of Badfinger. Molland had health problems and had pneumonia last December.

Molland was born in Liverpool, England, and had started his career together with Gary Walkerformer member of Standells and gods Walker Brothers. Molland was part of the Gary Walker and the Raina group that released his only album in 1968. A year later, Molland joined the IVEYSwho had signed with the Apple Records of Beatles. The band after his arrival, as well as by him was also formed by Pete Ham (voice), Mike Gibbins (battery) e Tom Evans (Bass). The band had recently recorded the song “Come and Get it”written and produced by Paul McCartney. Published in December 1969, the individual was a great success of the Badfingeras they had been renamed just before the passage of the song. “Come and Get it” He reached the ranking number seven in the United States and the number four in Great Britain.

Joey Molland he played in seven studio albums of Badfinger: “No he says” (1970), “Straight up” (1971), “Ass” (1973), “Badfinger” (1974), “Wish you were here” (1974), “Airwaves” (1979) e “Say no more” (1981). Being part of the Apple, Molland had the opportunity to collaborate with the former members of Beatles. He played in “All Things Must Pass” And “The concert for Bangladesh ”by George Harrisonas well as in the 1971 album of John Lennon, “Imagine” (Read the review here).

The popularity of Badfinger he fell in the second half of the 70s hand in hand with the chaos and financial difficulties within the band, largely due to the undue appropriations of their manager, Stan Polley. Some time after Molland commented: “It was such a beautiful period that I never paid much attention to contracts and everything else and I blindly trusted the businessmen we had. I would like it to have been different. We had been committed to us with more honest, more responsible people, but we did not do it”. Things reached their lowest point when Pete Ham, the main singer and composer of the Badfinger, committed suicide in 1975. The group melted shortly after.

Molland formed the supergroup Natural Gaswith members of Humble Pieof the Uriah Heep and of Aardvark. THE Natural Gas They released a single homonymous album before melt in 1976. Then Molland and Evans brought back to life the Badfinger With a new formation, but they achieved modest success. Tom Evans He committed suicide in 1983. Joey Molland He embarked on a solo career, publishing six studio albums. His latest album, “Be True to Yourself”came out in 2020. Always In 2020 the Cleopatra Records republished a new version Of “Come and Get it”to which he contributed Rick Wakemanthe keyboardist of Yes.