Rock Musician. Born in the Townhill district of Swansea, South Wales, he was given his first guitar for Christmas 1959, and soon began to play with various local groups, before forming "The Iveys" with Mike Gibbins, Ron Griffiths and Dai Jenkins. They moved to London, England and in 1968, became the first band to be signed by The Beatles' Apple Records label. Their first single, "Maybe Tomorrow" was successful in Europe, but not in Great Britain, and Ham and Gibbins formed a new band "Badfinger", with Tom Evans and Joey Molland. They were asked to write and perform the music for the motion picture "The Magic Christian", starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. One song from the soundtrack, "Come and Get It", written not by the band but by Paul McCartney, was released as a single and became a Top Ten hit in both Great Britain and the United States. Other hit songs followed, written this time by the band, notably "No Matter What", "Baby Blue" and "Day After Day", and, in 1971, Ham and Evans' composition "Without You" was covered by singer Harry Nilsson and reached Number One in both Britain and America in 1972. The key albums Badfinger released during the Apple Records period include: "Magic Christian Music" (1970), "No Dice" (1970), "Straight Up" (1971) & "Ass" (1973). In 1974, "Badfinger" transferred to Warner Bros. Records and released what many consider to be their finest album, "Wish You Were Here", a year before the Pink Floyd record of the same name. However, at about the same time, a large sum of money went missing from their account, and the record was withdrawn from circulation only days after its release. Pete Ham was living with his girlfriend and son, and they were expecting a child together, but such was the disarray of the band's finances (a situation which many blame on their manager, Stan Polley) that Ham was unable to pay the mortgage instalments on his new house in Weybridge, Surrey. On the morning of April 24, 1975, he was found to have passed away.