NewsPete Ham / Keyhole Street: Demos 1966-67 / 2CD archive release
Pete Ham, singer and composer in British rock band Badfinger, died too young in 1975, but his songwriting skills and early years are being remembered with a limited edition 50-track double CD set – Keyhole Street: Demos 1966-67.
Released by Pete Ham’s estate, and only available through direct-to-fan specialists PledgeMusic, this set contains songs recorded when Pete would have been aged 19 and 20. The demos were recorded on a two-track recorder with Ham layering performances via the ability to ‘bounce’ tracks. Listeners will enjoy classic balladry, Pink-Floydian psychedelia, rock’n’roll tributes, R&B, Beach Boys type harmonies, interesting instrumentals, music hall stereotypes, an Elvis tribute, blues, humorous lyrical content, Beatle-ish tracks, and a horror film soundtrack.
Various limited editions of this archival release are being made available, some with an exclusive seven-inch vinyl and others with posters or lithographs. All the details can be found here.
Ham is to be awarded a blue plaque at the railway station in his home town of Swansea on 27 April 2013 which will be followed by a concert in memory of Ham, featuring two original Iveys members (they changed their name to Badfinger at the suggestion of Paul McCartney).
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[…] skills and early years are being remembered with a limited edition 50-track double CD set – Keyhole Street: Demos 1966-67. Released by Pete Ham’s estate this set contains songs recorded when Pete would have been aged 19 […]
[…] skills and early years are being remembered with a limited edition 50-track double CD set – Keyhole Street: Demos 1966-67. Released by Pete Ham’s estate this set contains songs recorded when Pete would have been aged 19 […]
[…] skills and early years are being remembered with a limited edition 50-track double CD set – Keyhole Street: Demos 1966-67. Released by Pete Ham’s estate this set contains songs recorded when Pete would have been aged 19 […]
If this is as good as the 2 Ryko CD’s from the 90s, it should be excellent indeed! Those demo CD’s released by Rykodisc were right up there with the best of Badfinger’s work, if you can still find them you should do so.
What!? What on earth have these historically significant Pete Ham demos got to do with that Ryko thing, which was an anti-artistic money-grab cash-in? That Ryko travesty that Joey did was an insult to the real Badfinger (not to be confused with Fakefinger, the Badfinger cover band that suddenly popped up years later headed up by Joey), which never wanted these rough-as-guts tapes of a certain live gig turned into records.
The Rykodisc CDs he is referring to are 7 Park Avenue and Golder’s Green, compilations of Pete Ham Demos, not Day After Day Live, the Cleveland Agora concert with overdubs.
So with all these recent bundled album collections, is this in any way related to 2013 being the year artists can start reclaiming their copyrights? Maybe its the record labels last chance to collect some cash off these things? Just a thought.