Tommy Evans of Badfinger

godofthunder · December 29, 2013, 11:42:21 AM

Seems to be some renewed interest in Badfinger due to the show Breaking Bad. I posted this over at TB. Pictures from the '79 rehearsal session for Airwaves in LA. All pictures were taken by my friend Norm Hasenfang. First Tommy with his modded EB1

Tommy with a P bass and Joey in the background with a Les paul.

Tommy at the piano, Pretty sure that's Mike on the drums

Tommy and Joey playing ping pong

A close up of Tommy's EB1, this is the bass I got to play when he made the rounds upstate in the early 80's. If I remember correctly by then it had a cream colored Dimarzio P pickup installed...........but I could be mixing up my memories.

godofthunder · December 29, 2013, 11:42:59 AM

Here is my little Badfinger Story. On of my favorite bands ever. I got to know Tommy back in the early 80's when Badfinger (Tommy, Mike the drummer and a couple of stand ins, No Joey maybe he was at some shows I can't rememeber) toured the clubs in Upstate NY. He was a bit down then but I was a little surprised and deeply saddened when he committed suicide. I remember one gig in a little club outside Akron NY, the usual appalling upstate NY winter weather. Their gear didn't make it but they had their guitars so the played to about six of us while the snow piled up. Tommy was pleased I had made it to the gig(I drove in from Oswego)I made a huge Back On The Airwaves banner and had hung it on the outside of the venue,Tommy was pretty chuffed. Later people tore pieces off it for autographs. At the end of the night they had no ride back to the hotel so we all piled into my '72 Monte Carlo and I dropped them off at the hotel. Great band, great sound, great songs they had it all really. The were fantastic live, Day after Day is a live show from '74 at the Cleveland Agora Ballroom, Highly recommenced listening. I have a couple of Tommy's picks and Tommy's autograph around here somewhere. He even let me play his Modified Gibson EB I, nice guy it's a pity really.

Highlander · December 29, 2013, 04:46:33 PM

Great band... I always wonder at the irony of the song Without You...

godofthunder · December 29, 2013, 05:55:01 PM

Indeed. I love their version, though Harry Neilson had the hit with it.

Quote from: CAR-54 on December 29, 2013, 04:46:33 PM
Great band... I always wonder at the irony of the song Without You...

lowend1 · December 29, 2013, 06:35:59 PM

Quote from: godofthunder on December 29, 2013, 05:55:01 PM
Indeed. I love their version, though Harry Neilson had the hit with it.

Both are great, for different reasons - Nilsson's version was more radio-friendly, but the vocals in the original are full of raw, tortured emotion.
Indeed, Badfinger is one of the saddest stories in the annals of rock music.

mc2NY · December 30, 2013, 08:25:31 AM

One of my two guitarists (Nick Lohri) on my first album was actually slated to be the replacement for the late Pete Hamm in the late 70s, for what was to be the first Badfinger reunion and tour. But one of the member's mother died unexpectedly and they scrapped the project.

A real shame because Nick would have been perfect. He was a great guitarist, also played slide and decent keyboards and could sing all the Hamm parts...even wrote material in the Badfinger style and looked the part! He was my best friend from high school's guitarist for years and did a lot of NYC area session work (amazingly fast sight reader.) He was a Badfinger/Beatles freak, although he could play anything from Beck to Clapton.

I was living in Rochester at the time and thought he'd be the perfect second guitarist we needed for our project to complement Dick Grammatico, Lou Gramm's brother, our other guitarist.) When I called him for the gig. he had just learned that the Badfinger job got cancelled a couple days earlier. His bad luck turned out to be good luck for us. Eerily. our other guitarist Dick, had committed to joining the project but was booked for a two month gig and said he had to wait until that was over.....two days later he called and said the venue had burned down the next day with all the bads gear in it, so he was available. So, that's how I snagged two great players. Crazy, no?

I have a 60s Thunderbird case that I got from Baz....supposedly made for the export market...black, form-fit, heavier than chipboard but not wood. Baz got it from someone in the Badfinger camp. I've never seen another one like it in the U.S. Maybe it's more common in Europe? Attaching a pic.....have my 1963 Firebird carcass in it that I got from an old Kalamazoo employee...has one of the rare two-piece necks and is factory stamped with a '63 SN#. Never assembled. I have all the original parts except the PUPs...so it's on my list of 'projects.'

Bionic-Joe · December 30, 2013, 04:53:08 PM

you still have that case??? Awesome!!! I got it from Bruce Hastell, who played in Badfinger or some form of it and suppossedly managed it?? I'd Love to get that case back!

Grog · December 30, 2013, 05:28:38 PM

We see Joey Molland every year at our local guitar show, he's been living in the Minneapolis St. Paul area for many years. He's come by our both & tries out a friends 30's Dobro every year but never bought it. It looks the the show "Breaking Bad" has helped his popularity. Maybe next year he'll bite on it!