ROCKOBIT: Mike Gibbins

The death has been announced of Mike Gibbins, drummer with Badfinger.

Formed in Swansea in 1968, the band took their name from Bad Finger Boogie, which had been the working title for With A Little Help From My Friends; it was far from their only connection with the loveable moptops. Indeed, John Lennon had even suggested an alternate name - The Prix, which says much about Lennon's dead ear - when they'd been casting around to dump their original band name, The Iveys. Their debut single, Come and Get It, was a Paul McCartney compostion and released on Apple.

Ironically, considering their first hit was a bitter rant about The Beatle's money problems, it was finances which would wreck the band and lead to their reputation as a tragedy-magnets. A 1973 deal to take them to Warner Bros screwed their relations with Apple, and with money mysteriously disappearing from the band's accounts, threw them into an unsymapthetic environment which moved quickly from uncomfortable to unworkable. Stricken by personal debt and animosity, their third Warners Album, Head First, never made it out the studios. On April 23rd 1975, Peter Ham was found, having hanged himself while bottoming out in depression. A reunited band formed itself in 1978; history repeated itself in 1993, however, when Tom Evans also hanged himself after financial problems.

After the original Badfinger split, Gibbins continued to work in music - it was his drumming on Bonnie Tyler's It's A Heartache. He eventually relocated to the US; towards the end of the 1990s he tried his hand as a solo artist with a couple of albums, A Place In Time and More Annoying Songs.

Badfinger's biographer, Dan Matovina, told BBC News Online that his time in Badfinger was the highlight of a life in music:

"Badfinger was the highlight of his life, coming out of Wales, having success, touring America. But the tragedy of the loss of two of his bandmates to suicides weighed heavily on that. A lot of things happened that were difficult for him to deal with, the loss of Pete Ham especially, his close friend from Wales - I don't think he ever got over that."

Thanks to Eleanor G for the prod on this one.

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