In my book, The Country of Liverpool, I was told about an amazing club that was in Liverpool during the 1980s, which had a link to D-day, 6th June 1944. Mick Kinney, bass player with Phil Brady and the Ranchers, told me about the strangest club ever!
“One of our greatest and strangest experiences was playing on this boat at the docks in Liverpool. It was called the Club Ship Landfall, but we called it the Bad Ship Landfall. It was a large landing craft.
“This guy, Joe McGlory,” recalled Mick, “who owned a number of pubs in Liverpool, came up to us one night when we were playing for him. He says; ‘Hey Phil, you’re not going to believe this, but I’ve bought a boat and turned it into a club! It is down at the dock. I want you to play there, but it’s a late finish, so you can do your early gig and then come down and do the spot there about 12:30-2:30am. We did it for about three years. It was a bizarre place.
“The first time we saw it we went down after a gig and there was this huge boat in the dock with a gang plank that you walked over on. It’s an old army boat, one of those landing craft where the front comes down to unload whatever it was carrying. It had port holes down the side too. It was huge.”
D-Day Landing Craft
The Landfall was the LCT 7074 Landing Craft Tank and was used at D-Day in June 1944 at the Normandy Invasion. It landed tanks and troops on Gold beach on D-Day and continued to carry supplies across the English Channel over the next few months. She arrived in Liverpool in 1945 with a view to her being converted into an emergency repair ship for the Far East, but the Japanese surrender meant it wasn’t needed. It remained in Liverpool and was turned into a club, permanently based in Bramley-Moore Dock.
The LCT 7074 Landing Craft
“It had all been converted inside, so that when you went in around the middle, if you turned left, there was a disco, or to the right it was a club, and neither sound bled into the other club. It had a proper stage in each club and because it had double doors for each club, it was perfect. So it became the place to go for the lads after they’d finished playing. We played the Friday night and Saturday nights, so everyone knew Phil would be on, so they’d come down for a couple of pints. It was a bit rough and you’d get a couple of sconeheads, but it was good. That was around 1980.
The Guy Got Bottled
“There was one nasty incident when a guy got bottled. The other lad smashed a bottle and then cut the guy’s throat, so the blood was spurting out everywhere. He was losing a lot of blood and by the time the ambulance got there he was about to pass out. There was just this pool of blood by his foot where it had run down his body. Unreal. He lived though. We were playing when it happened and it was right in front of us. You had to be careful because there were some strange people who turned up there!
“By the time we finished playing, especially in the summer, the sun was already up and we were going home while the birds were singing, about 5 o’clock in the morning.”
Ford Cortina
“I remember coming out of the club one night with Phil, who had a Mark 3 Ford Cortina, bright yellow, vinyl roof and sports wheels. He said; ‘there’s a guy in my car and he’s trying to rob it’ but he didn’t see us. So I went over and opened the door. He was shocked, so I punched him and dragged him out of the car. Phil came over and started battering him with a mic stand! It was hilarious! The kid jumped up and started running away so Phil threw the mic stand at him and it hit him on the back! So, he fell on the floor and rolled over, before jumping up and saying; ‘I’ll be back with my brothers’ etc. A strange experience!”
The Landing Craft Now
Who knew that the only surviving Landing Craft from D-Day on 6th June 1944 would end up in Liverpool? The craft was taken to Portsmouth and restored to its original state and is on display at the “D-Day Story” museum.
This is my copy of the sheet music for the song “Linda”, dedicated to Miss Linda Eastman, written by Jack Lawrence back in 1946. Jack wrote the song to deal with a debt that he owed Linda Eastman’s father, Lee Eastman. The song was a hit and turned out to be a great investment for Lee Eastman. The song was recorded by many well-known artists including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Jan and Dean. Paul’s knowledge and attraction for music publishing was certainly encouraged by the Eastman family when Paul joined the family by marrying Linda in 1969.
The tragic story of Pete Ham and Badfinger is certainly one for the musical history books. The subject of today’s post will be the magnificent job that the late Dan Matovina did and the person he handed the mantle to prior to passing away, Badfinger super-fan Tom Brennan, in order to help preserve the wonderful legacy of a great songwriter, Pete Ham!
Both Matovina and Brennan in ensuring that the voluminous songwriting output of Peter Ham is shared and enjoyed with the public at large, deserve our accolades! It is truly amazing at the amount of unreleased material that Ham left his family in his personal archive. Both Matovina and Brennan have performed an extraordinary job in assisting the families in both cataloging and preserving the magnificent legacy of the Iveys and Badfinger. Today we will highlight some of the Pete Ham releases that have been issued since Matovina began his project to share the precious unreleased material with the rest of the world…
The photos of the material presented in this post are items from my collection that I have purchased from eBay, Discogs, or directly from the links provided by Dan Matovina or Tom Brennan
The Badfinger Library
First of all, here is an excellent site where you can locate some of the disks you will see mentioned here. Tom Brennan is an excellent authority on all Badfinger/ Iveys releases over the years!!!
I want to show you some of the releases concerning Pete Ham or Ivey demos in recent years that I have purchased for my collection. This list does not claim to be all-encompassing or totally comprehensive of everything that is out there on the marketplace but these are some of the ones that I individually have purchased. The links to acquire many of these releases can be found by clicking the above link to Tom Brennan’s website! (badfingerlibrary.com)
My latest acquisition was a very limited edition vinyl 45 of Pete Ham put together by Dan Matovina in an issue of 500 copies. The limited edition 45 is very difficult to find and can be very expensive to obtain! Please note that these entries are not being presented in the chronologic order of original release. Some of you will love these tunes but may object to the overdubs being added to some of them to enhance the sound of the recording. That is a matter of personal opinion and individual subjective assessment. I personally enjoy all of the recordings because now we have them all to listen to and to enjoy and to remember!!!
The 500 limited edition vinyl of “No, Don’t Let It Go” and “You’re Such a Good Woman”
The back cover of this rare 45:
The A and B sides of the 45:
Another recent acquisition: Pete Ham Demos Variety Pack
The track listing for the cd above:
The brand new release of GWENT GARDENS: I personally love this new release
The track listing for Gwent Gardens:
Pete Ham -7 Park Avenue release
The back cover with the track listing:
Keyhole Street-the 2 cd Ivey’s era demo set:
TRACK LISTING:
Testing
I Want You
Come A Bit Closer
Horse With A Green Tail
Come and Join Us
You Don’t Know Each Other Very Well
Never Felt Like This
1988- Bass Ron Griffiths
I’ll See You Tonight
Think Twice
Happened Again
I’ve Cried Bass – Ron Griffiths
Blackjacks (Instrumental)
I’m Only Crying
Dressed Myself in Black
Heartburn
Girl Next Door In A Miniskirt – Ron Griffiths
Grand Prix
Can’t Stop Bass – Ron Griffiths
Graham Hill
Cavalier Club Rock (Instrumental)
Memories Bass – Ron Griffiths
Free Sample
Loved By You
Punch With Judy
I’m In Love
For My Sympathy
Black And White Rainbows
Keyhole Street
I’ll Kiss You Tonight
Mrs. jones Bass Ron Griffiths
Little Sue
Knocking Down Our Home
DISK 2
Testing (Grampian)
Church
How Much Is The Sky
Do What You Like
Open Your Mind
Down Down Down
Never Been Alone
Tender Embrace Bass – Ron Griffiths
I’ve Been There Once Before
Genie
Stink
Beautiful Dream
Another Day
When I’m Asleep
Hurt Too Many Times
Has Someone Really Got Into My Heart
Get Up
Joker
Hempstead Heath (Instrumental)
I Need You
I’m Alone
Weep Baby
THE RAVEN (Horror Soundtrack)
He’s A Raven
Meeek
Frank Gravity
Nightwing
Drifting
Taking Flight
Raven Reprise
Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – The Heirs & Estate of William Peter Ham
Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Electric Guitar, Vocals – Pete Ham
Composed By – Pete Ham
Executive-Producer – Allan Wodtke, Bill Koumarelos, Darren English, John Schwartz, Stefano Zuppet
Liner Notes –Dan Matovina
Producer [Project] – Dan Matovina
Notes
Funded for release on disc via pledges. These are Pete’s earliest demos, recorded with a sound-on-sound tape machine in a small soundproofed room in a house located at 7 Park Avenue, Golder’s Green, London, when Pete was in The Iveys. Rear cover has the artist as ‘Pete Ham of The Iveys’
Pete’s “Golders Green” cd:
The back cover with the track listing:
A wonderful 1968 recording of the Iveys that has survived:
A 1968 live recording of the Iveys:
It is amazing that these early Ivey recordings still exist: Here is the cover of the Iveys South Wales live recording:
The contents of this wonderful early live recording of the Iveys:
On Amazon and another link provided at Tom Brennan’s site link above there is a “digital only” streaming release of Pete Ham recordings entitled “Misunderstood” I just purchased this streaming only recording and I am thoroughly enjoying it!
Without You Music Released: 2023 May 19
Track listing: 01. Ringside [original demo] (Pete Ham) (1:11) Previously issued on Without You-The Tragic Story of Badfinger 2nd edition book CD (2000). 02. No, Don’t Let It Go [dubbed version remixed 2023] (Pete Ham) (3:51) Previously issued on Demos Variety Pack (2022). 03. Keep Your Country Tidy [Remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (2:20) Acoustic guitar demo previously released in 2000 on Head First CD2. 04. It Doesn’t rally Matter [dubbed version remixed 2023] (Pete Ham) (2:46) Previously issued on Demos Variety Pack (2022) and 7 Park Avenue (1997). 05. Helping Hand [dubbed version remixed 2023] (Pete Ham) (3:46) Previously issued on Golders Green (1999). 06. Are You Satisfied (Pete Ham) (1:53) Previously unissued acoustic guitar demo. 07. Nothing To Show [remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (0:59) Acoustic guitar demo previously released in 2000 on Head First CD2. 08. Smokin’ Gun [remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (1:20) Acoustic guitar demo previously released in 2000 on Head First CD2. 09. Time Is Mine (instrumental) [remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (1:40) Acoustic guitar demo previously released in 2000 on Head First CD2. 10. It Doesn’t Really Matter (acoustic demo) [remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (2:52) Previously issued on Without You-The Tragic Story of Badfinger 1st edition book CD (1997). 11. Pete’s Escape (instrumental) (2;03) Previously unissued acoustic guitar instrumental. 12. Just How Lucky We Are [dubbed version remixed 2023] (Pete Ham) (3:38) Previously issued on 7 Park Avenue (1997). 13. I Can’t Believe In [remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (2:05) Acoustic guitar demo previously released in 2000 on Head First CD2. 14. No More [remixed 2023] (Pete Ham) (3:56) Previously unissued unedited version. 15. Ringside (acoustic demo) [remastered 2023] (Pete Ham) (4:06) Previously issued on Without You-The Tragic Story of Badfinger 1st edition book CD (1997).
Pete Ham – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, harmonica
Additional post overdubbing by other musicians / technical people (listed alphabetically): Derrick Anderson, Richard Anton, Scott Bledsoe, Donnie Bott, Bennett Bowman, Nelson Bragg, Tom Brennan, Rick Cammon, Tom Evans, Damon Fox, Pete Fox, Anthony Gliozzo, Kent Gray, Probyn Gregory, Ron Griffiths, Bob Jackson, Andy Jones, Bruce Kaphan, Jonathan Lea, Adam Marsland, Dan Matovina, Kevin McElligott, Terry Messal, Jim Mills, Eric Nielsen, Fernando Perdomo, Tony Perkins, Steve Refling, Derek Ritchie, Michael Romanowski, Guy Slater, Tom Sullivan, and Chris Von Sneidern.
Production, engineering, editing and mastering – Dan Matovina
Special thanks to Tom Brennan, Anne Herriot, Tony Herriot, Petera Ham.
In conclusion I have also seen on the internet, on eBay specifically, BBC recordings of the Iveys and Badfinger. However I am not sure that those recordings have been authorized or licensed by the estates of the band members or if they even own those recordings in order to officially release them one day or if they are soley controlled by the BBC. One can only hope that one day we shall be able to purchase it all. Hope you have enjoyed the exposure to many of these rare recordings obtained thanks to the great efforts and hard work of the late Dan Matovina and the Badfinger/Iveys specialist and very knowledgeable, Tom Brennan! Don’t forget to check out Tom Brennan’s wonderful site!
Heavenly Encounters: Wish You Were Here Part 2 (Paperback)
Inspired by the group Badfinger.
Rock star Tomas Alvers finds that searching for his friend Paul isn’t as simple as he’d hoped. Still in Heaven, Tomas meets past souls from times gone by, such as Marc Bolan and Marylin Monroe. Along the way, Tomas discovers a strange and mysterious stone and stumbles upon an exact replica of a club where his Earthly band debuted.
