Post-2006 Badfinger Convention FAQ
by Keith James
June 2006

When did you first have the idea for the convention?
Doing a Badfinger Convention was something that had been going through my head for about two decades, but it was only in August 2005 that I decided to definitely go for it. As most people know, I am from Swansea originally, but now I live five hours drive away, in Merseyside. Geographically, this meant it was difficult liasing with the Dragon Hotel initially. I went back and forth for long weekends three times between August and the eventual day.

Why did you choose the Dragon Hotel?
I checked out a lot of places on one full day in Swansea and there were cheaper places, but the Dragon was by far the best and the most central in Swansea. It also looked elegant and although it wasn't cheap, it still represented value for money. The other options were the Dolphin Hotel who quoted the same price but their rooms weren't as nice as the Dragon, or the YMCA who gave us a good quote, but could only accommodate us from 5PM onwards. I'm really glad we went with the Dragon and their staff of Pam, Melanie and Leighton were brilliant in all the months leading up to the conny (convention) and during the weekend itself.

What was the thinking behind getting the Barnardo's charity involved in the event?
I wanted to get a charity involved from day one, purely and simply because we didn't want to be accused of putting together a money-making event. Therefore, the thinking was that a charity would benefit from any extraneous money in the convention coffers. My first plan was to get Pete Ham's favourite charity (The Society for Brain-Damaged and Crippled Children) involved, but they don't exist any more. I went to a website for South Wales charities and touched bases with Barnardo's and their representative Allyson Byrne. We agreed that they'd have an un-manned display board there, with collecting tubs. As it happened, there was no extra money in the account, in fact we were well short of our budget, but I still set up a system whereby people could contribute and guys like Ellie, Bev and three Badfinger fans from the States: Brenda Watkins, Debbie Harrison and Mark Perkins gave us items to auction off. We also gave a third of programme sales to Barnardo's. In the end, Barnardo's made over £200 which is a credit to everyone who contributed.

Why did the locations on the Sunday tour change to the planned itinerary?
First and foremost, we were late leaving Swansea Central Library through nobody's fault and then I had the telephone call to confirm that we'd been allowed to go into Pete's childhood home in Townhill. Up to that point, I hadn't had verbal confirmation and I didn't want to promise the fans we'd be visiting there unless I was 100% sure. I knew early on in the tour that we probably would have to give Mike's childhood home a miss because of time constraints. You'll notice by the schedule that we'd planned to visit David Jenkins' home too, but I wanted people to have quality time in Pete's house, so that too, was knocked out of the original itinerary. I've never organized a coach tour before (like I've never organised a convention) so it was just a case of my trying my best to give everyone as good and enriching a day as possible. I'd booked the coach for two hours and we couldn't go over this time.

The Bob Jackson concert was great, but why only one hour?
Well, that was the duration we agreed with Bob from the time we asked him to do the performance late last year. When Bob agreed to do his songs, the Dragon told us they'd extend our rental of the room by an hour for no extra charge, which was quite laudable. We couldn't go past this. Bob said he had some extra songs, but to be honest, I thought the day had reached its zenith when Bob and Ron did "Come And Get It" and that seemed the judicious time to call an official halt to proceedings. There was another reason to stop things at this stage, which probably no-one knew about at the time: I had noticed some drunken guys at the back of the hall who wouldn't shut-up when Bob was playing. I asked them both to be quiet and they became quite volatile. I ended after "Come And Get It" because I feared there might be a situation developing and didn't want to end such a fantastic day on what could have been a bad note.

Some people have said the convention was too short.
Anyone who bought a ticket knew well in advance that the event was over a long weekend. We simply couldn't afford any more. As I said earlier, we were already way short of the budget; who was going to pay for the extra rooms and who was going to supervise them? I'd already ran myself into the ground over the three days. I don't think it would have been fair to have asked me - or any of the other convention organisers - to commit to do anything else. We're all busy people holding down full-time jobs with families and had already worked our socks off putting the weekend together. In stark monetary terms, an additional day would have added £1250 to the budget and nobody from the team had anything like that kind of money.

Was there anyone at the convention that you hadn't met before?
Yes, many. Mostly the people from overseas. I had been corresponding with Badfinger people for so many years; I can't tell you how awesome it was to actually put faces to the names. I'm not exaggerating here! It seems churlish to mention individuals, but regarding the fans, I think I had been in contact with Steve Sage for the longest time. He and his wife Jane were completely lovely - I still see Jane's warm smile as the insignia of the event! Then there was Mark Perkins and his cool sons. Fumiko and her husband from Japan, and of course, a handful of British fans I'd never met in spite of writing to them over the decades.

Regarding those in the Badfinger circle: I've known Ron, Bob and Bev for years; I had met Petera and Ellie before, but people like Marianne and David Evans were new to me. Likewise, Tim Boyle and Nicky Bell. I tried to spread myself as thinly as I could, but couldn't get around to everyone. That's probably my only regret: not having enough time to spend with people.

Why wasn't there more publicity given to the event (local newspapers, television, etc)?
As everyone knows, the whole Badfinger story carries a massive sensitivity behind it. I didn't want members of the press arriving on the day and asking what could have been painful questions of those involved in the Badfinger story. I didn't give any further publicity via newspaper articles etc. (though there was certainly enough interest from the press) because I wanted to keep the numbers going into the convention beneath two hundred. Had I advertised, we could have been left with a ludicrous situation of having too many people at the event and believe me, that's worse than not having enough.

How many eventually went?
I think about a hundred and eighty in total. Ruth thinks a little less than that. It was a good mix of ages, too.

Is there any more you could have done to make the convention a success?
Of course there is, but you have to keep everything in perspective. I actually made a vow from the first day of putting the event together that I would not berate myself after the event for any shortcomings!

Are you doing a publication based on the convention?
Hopefully, I will do a couple more editions of "Better Days" with features on the conny.

Will there be another convention?
I said from day one that this was the only Badfinger convention I would be organizing, but I'm not egotistical enough to say there wouldn't be another one organized by someone else. It's more realistic to organize a general get-together in the forthcoming years, rather than a specific event. I have had meet-ups with Badfinger fans over the last five or so years and they've been every two years or so. Ron, Bev and Dan Matovina have mixed and mingled with the fans at these meet-ups. I'd like to have another meet up at Golders Green some day. That place is beautiful!

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