HOME	Pete Ham Biography by Dan Matovina and Tom Brennan last updated: January 13, 2024	SOLO HOME

Peter William Ham was born on April 27, 1947 in the "Townhill" district of Swansea, South Wales. Pete began to play the mouth organ at age 4. He received his first guitar around Christmas of 1959. Inspired, Pete began to play with school friends around 1961. By 1963, Pete had recruited for a group that began to play gigs around the local area. After going through various band names such as The Panthers, The Black Velvets and The Wild Ones, by 1964, the group had settled on a new name, The Iveys.

Ham was noticeably gifted as a guitarist early on and he and his bandmates' overall talent drew the attention of the manager of the nationally known U.K. group, The Mojos, at a gig in Ammanford, South Wales on March 11, 1966. By July of 1966, Bill Collins had convinced The Iveys and their parents to allow a move to his London home, where he started the teenagers onto constant gigging and a songwriting push, hoping to get them signed to recording and publishing deals.

Ham proved to be truly impressive at writing and recording demos on a two-track sound-on-sound machine, with early ones impressing Ray Davies of The Kinks to want to produce The Iveys for an album for Pye Records. In July of 1967, the proposed deal fell off, but road manager, Mal Evans of Beatles' fame, was showcased the group by Collins on January 25, 1968 at the Marquee Club. Mal Evans turned The Beatles onto The Iveys' demos, and John, Paul, George and Ringo all listened to a variety of them and were eventually excited enough to want The Iveys to be signed to recording (on July 31) and publishing (on October 31) deals later in the year for The Beatles' new Apple Corps Limited company.

After the disappointing chart performances of The Iveys' first single, Maybe Tomorrow, Ham still believed in the band's writing ability. Paul McCartney wanting the group to record his song "Come And Get It" for The Magic Christian film and soundtrack. Ham first rebelled against the idea, but was convinced recording and releasing it could set the group on a course of success. The song was released under a new group moniker, Badfinger, and became an across-the-board Top Ten worldwide hit on Apple Records.

In December of 1970, Pete Ham's composition, "No Matter What," was released by Badfinger and became his first composed worldwide hit, peaking #8 on Billboard charts on weeks ending December 5 & 12, 1970 and #6 on Cash Box on week ending December 19, 1970. In the U.K., it peaked at #6 on the NME chart on weeks ending January 31 and February 06, 1971 and #5 on Melody Maker's top 30 chart on week ending February 20, 1971.

Ham's next worldwide hit song was released in November of 1971, "Day After Day," reaching #4 on Billboard on week ending February 5, 1972 and #3 on Cash Box on weeks ending January 29, February 5 & 12, 1972, but reaching #1 on Record World on weeks ending February 5 & 12, 1972. On March 1, 1972, Badfinger were presented with a gold record award in New York City for Day After Day by Al Steckler, Apple A&R Manager.

While Badfinger was signed to Apple Records, Pete Ham was recruited to play guitar or sing on many related label or Beatles-inspired projects: Jackie Lomax's "Take Me Down To The Water," Billy Preston's Encouraging Words LP sessions, Ringo's "It Don't Come Easy" and "Blindman" recordings, Gothic Horizon LP session (credited as "Piggy"), George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album sessions, Splinter's early unreleased version of "Lonely Man," and Harrison's concert & LP Bangladesh projects including an acoustic duet with Harrison on "Here Comes The Sun." It has been also rumored that Ham was on Ronnie Spector's sessions and some early Harrison Living In The Material World LP sessions. Soon after these Harrison sessions, Pete attended an Alice Cooper session at Morgan Studios, where a jam took place that included Keith Moon.

Ham's following hit song was a co-write with bassist, Tom Evans, and it was Nilsson's version of "Without You," yet another worldwide smash, reaching #1 on both Billboard and Cash Box charts in March of 1972. It has become an iconic song standard, once voted by several U.K. newspaper polls as the greatest love song of the 1990s. It was a Grammy-nominated song and a winner for Nilsson, for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male in 1973. The song was a two-time Ivor Novello award winner in 1973 as The Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and International Hit of the Year.

Ham's next worldwide composed hit for Badfinger was "Baby Blue," reaching #14 on Billboard on weeks ending April 29 and May 6, 1972 and #9 on Cash Box on weeks ending May 6 & 13, 1972 in May of 1972. That same recorded version became a worldwide digital song chart hit in 2013, peaking on many countries' charts at #1, as a result of promotion of it appearing in the final scene of the final episode of the television series, Breaking Bad.

After a disappointing start with a new label, Warner Brothers Records, in late-August 1974, Ham had briefly quit Badfinger over internal disagreements about how the group should handle its business affairs, rejoining in late-September, when Warner Brothers Inc. threatened to end support of the band's deals for the other remaining members, advising Ham they were not worthy of promoting without his talent available. He rejoined and performed with Badfinger a tour of England in October of 1974, then he helped record, in December of 1974, an album unreleased until 1999, entitled Head First.

During the early morning hours of April 24, 1975, Pete Ham hanged himself in his home garage in Surrey, England. There was not one word announced from Apple Corps Ltd. or Warner Brothers Inc. on his death, at the time. No tributes came from any fellow musicians until Paul McCartney was quoted a month later in a printed Wings interview ("So did the death of Pete Ham...").

On his birthdate, April 27 of 2013, in his hometown of Swansea, Ham was honored by the city with a Blue Plaque and a tribute concert was held with many of his family, friends, and ardent fans in attendance. In honor of his selfless and encouraging nature, his contributing bandmates of note were also named on his plaque.

There have been official demo collections of many of his solo demos released since 1997 through 2024 (7 Park Avenue, Golders Green, and Keyhole Street). The latest collections released through his estate in 2021 and 2024, are entitled Demos Variety Pack and Gwent Gardens.

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