Ron is the man all Badfinger fans know from his long stint in The
Iveys. Blessed with an amazing voice and a skilled bass player, Ron sung
on Iveys classics such as "Dear
Angie", appeared on hits like "Maybe Tomorrow" and even performed on "Come And Get It" written by Paul McCartney.
Mike always looks back at the way Ron was
treated as the Iveys turned into Badfinger with regret, so he was delighted
when Ron visited and stayed with Mike in Florida. During which time he
contributed on 2 songs on "More Annoying Songs".
Here is an exclusive insight from Ron himself
on the Iveys first time in a recording
studio:
The band had never set foot in anything like a studio , well a real one
until Ray Davies of the Kinks took an interest in the material. We were introduced to them very early on because their then management was the same
crowd that looked after David Garrick: A geezer called Robert Wace. It also
coincided with their roadie, Dave Duffield living at 7 Park Avenue (Dave was with The Foundations before he landed the job with The Kinks)
We actually were meant to have done a gig at one time at the "dreamland
Ballroom" in Margate, as support to the Kinks, but one of them was ill, I
think
it was their drummer Mick Avory. The Davies brothers put in a personal
appearance and signed autographs etc, and we all got talking.
Ray (Davies) was quite interested to hear that we had a shed full of songs in rough demo
form. He arranged to pay a visit to Golders Green and have an evening with us
and listening to our home-made efforts. To our great delight - being a man of
taste you understand! he liked a lot of the stuff and said he would book
some studio time at a demo studio he used.
So several days later we received a 'phone call from the great man to
tell us he had booked some time at a place in London's Old Kent Road.. (look
on your Monopoly boards folks!) It was a 4 track place, and to be honest that
was about par for the course in those days. The tunes that Ray wanted to do
were "I believe in you girl" & Taxi" It was not an
environment we were
unhappy with as we had spent God knows how many hours in the sweat-box
studio at Park Avenue, so I guess you could say it was like a duck taking to
water. The main difference was on play back to our first backing track
takes, I wish there had been a camera to register the delighted looks on the
faces...especially the looks on Mike's and my faces. The power of the bass
and drums thundering through the biggish monitors in the control room was a
real treat. Sadly although the tracks still exist, there is not the clarity
that was there on those original takes and the ending of "Taxi" is
clipped
the original rang out for a couple of seconds more with glorious vocal
harmony reverberating into infinity!!
They were certainly happy days which I would gladly live over again and
do a much better job 2nd time around, but then, life is not like that.
Ron Griffiths
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