March 4, 1974
Agora Nightclub
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.

It was announced the gig was going to be recorded for a live album. The band came on, but they ended up doing blues jams for almost forty minutes while they were fixing all these microphones that weren't working. Then they did a really long set with lots of encores. Afterwards, we went backstage.

They were drenched in sweat. Pete Ham was by himself sitting in a chair, catching his breath, and we went up to him and introduced ourselves. He shook our hands and I said, 'Pete, this is the highlight of my career so far. I really like your music.' He said, 'Listen, it's my honor that you like our music.' Then he put his arms around me and my dad. He called my dad 'Mr. Lambert' and he said, 'You're the guys who have to go out and work all day. You're the guys who should be put on pedestals. I'm just singing songs.' That blew us away!

Chris Lambert (writer for "Scene Magazine", Cleveland, Ohio)
from "Without You, The Tragic Story of Badfinger" by Dan Matovina, p. 236-237



Scott McCarl of "Raspberries" fame did an interview with Randy Justesen back in 1998...

The next time I saw Badfinger was kind of a landmark night for them. I had just joined Raspberries in February '74 in Cleveland, Ohio and they played the Agora Ballroom. It is mentioned in Dan Matovina's book. That show was taped for possible release later and never happened. They were great though...still jamming a bit more than I would have liked to have seen. But that is what happened in that era. (Singing on tape) "Only you know and I know..." and all this jam bands were coming in. Just doing your three minutes songs maybe wasn't enough for the crowds of 1974. I remember I didn't speak with them. It is funny because I could have come up and introduced myself as Scott of the band Raspberries. There was a good chance they would have known who that was. But I didn't. I just enjoyed the show from the audience.

Scott McCarl

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