Dan Matovina announcement - Ham/Evans publishing deal - August 30, 2005   Back to main page

A major development has come about concerning Badfinger-related business. New administration deals have been agreed to by both the Estates of Pete Ham and Tom Evans regarding U.S. copyrights of the Ham and Evans solo-written and co-written songs with Badfinger and The Iveys during the Apple and Warner Brothers periods. All of these songs were previously registered and/or published in the U.S. through Apple Corps Ltd. and Warner Chappell Music. This new deal of U.S. domestic administration by Bug Music included advances totaling $215,000, which were immediately paid out and shared according to a 1985 court settlement agreement between the living Badfinger members and deceased party's estates. The Estate of Pete Ham's overall advance was for $152,500, while Tom Evans Estate's advance was for $62,500.

To help understand this, in 1985, a settlement was reached of an action first started in 1979 that had been risen in the High Court Of Justice Queens Bench Division regarding Badfinger Music (a division of Badfinger Enterprises) vs. Evans, et al (84/NJ/2535) which was then struck between The Estate of Pete Ham, The Estate of Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins, Joey Molland and Bill Collins, (With Stan Polley receiving a one-time payment) and this included the sharing of all of the Badfinger song's publishing, sales, and performance income generated(*song titles listed at end).

This settlement became a court order and it indicates that any "publishing" income for the songs listed below, which were previously released through Apple Publishing or Warner Brothers Music (Publishing), be paid with 32.5% going to the actual writer(s) of the song, and the remaining 67.5% being split equally amongst all five Badfinger parties. An additional split was set for all performing rights royalties of 25% and 75%. All sales of the recordings was to be split equally - 20% each.

That same percentage split was used in figuring the portiona due of the new deal's "advances" - thus Molland, Gibbins and the Collins Estate received a $29,025 portion of these two advances total take. The settlement also included a different percentage division of ASCAP income; highly unusual because that society was originally set-up to gather income for the benefit and protection of the actual writer(s) of songs. This income is rarely shared by other parties. This still is a controversial aspect of the band's history.

Both the Ham and Evans Estates own the U.S. copyrights of the songs listed at the bottom of this page, meaning Pete Ham’s sole heir, daughter Petera, now owns the Pete Ham copyrights, while Tom Evans' wife, Marianne, along with their son, Stephen, own the Tom Evans copyrights. Any Badfinger songs listed in the 1985 court order which involve co-writing with Joey Molland and Mike Gibbins, are now to be split by this criteria. Both Gibbins and Molland still have their songs' publishing controlled for the entire world by Apple Corps Ltd. Apple Corps utilize Warner Chappell Music as their administrator and are closely involved with every decision. Ham & Evans songs still have their publishing outside the U.S. controlled by Apple Corps Ltd.

At a certain point, while I was working as an official music agent for both the Ham and Evans Estates, in regard to their previously "unpublished" material, was made aware of this new opportunity for the Estates to invoke a "Copyright Termination" for the U.S. territory on the other "prevously" released material written prior to 1978.

As it stood, a "Copyright Control Termination" could be allowed for the U.S. territory, if certain aspects fell under certain circumstances and guidelines. These aspects allowed a deceased author's Estate the potential to terminate any previous interest of that copyright back to themselves, or whomever they might authorize. As it was, by a certain date, regarding a deceased writer's song's copyright, the heir(s) could have the legal right to take back whatever rights had been transferred through the original agreement.

Because of U.S. Copyright Acts, with necessary factors as to the date of death for Ham & Evans - plus the composition’s original copyrights dates - an opportunity became clear to me; that all of the then-current Apple Publishing songs and previous Warner Brothers Music (now Warner Chappell Music) material of Pete Ham and Tom Evans had potential to fall under this "umbrella."

While I had been working as the representative music agent for both the Pete Ham Estate and Tom Evans Estate, I opened up this potential process by beginning the initial steps necessary for a potential transfer of all of the Ham and Evans’ past Apple and Warner Brothers Music copyrighted material as registered up through the end of 1977. The Ham and Evans Estates eventually gave me the okay to complete the steps of the transfer and explore the possibilities of how to potentially sell, exploit, invest, and/or promote copyrights.

What I’d found, through my experiences in the music industry, was that the Badfinger songs are very highly regarded by many in the entertainment business. The band’s accomplishments and legacy of quality music had stood the test of time, despite their being underexposed and often ignored of licensing requests. An example of how much respect Badfinger have in the music industry was shown when I had approached the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame archivists about putting up a display on Badfinger. I was very pleasantly surprised, as together we eagerly started to put together a plan toward having a major display at their museum in Ohio. Disappointingly, after much work, it fell through, due to budgetary considerations. A legendary Gibson SG guitar, previously owned by George Harrison and Pete Ham, had been displayed there for almost two years.

As far as the Badfinger songs which were written or co-written by Ham and Evans, I had always felt they had enormous potential for various commercial uses. Actually, I think all of the writers of Badfinger have generated a lot of material that had this vast potential. So, with this possibility of garnering the Pete Ham and Tom Evans song catalogs more exposure, through a more aggressive administrating publisher, I set off to see what opportunities could be found, or to see what Apple's future plans may hold

This whole matter took almost three years to resolve: constant researching of various copyright laws, sorting of all the past monetary information, confirmations through DNA testing, consulting with experts in various legal fields, researching music business trends as they developed, entertaining offers, dealing with various lawyers, weathering long delays created by a constant transitioning of lawyers and some misleading hassles thrown at The Estates by Joey Molland, a variety of attempted negotiating of deals with various individuals and companies, and finally, long discussions of the different options with the Estates of Pete Ham and Tom Evans.

New U.S. territory administration deals were finally agreed to by The Estate Of Pete Ham and The Estate Of Tom Evans with Bug Music.

As far as Apple Corps Ltd., they did show an interest in striking a new deal to get back what was their previously-controlled rights, which they had acknowledged they had legally lost control of once the claims were put in. Apple’s offer was seriously considered. One major aspect to consider was the potential approvals of any Apple-related Ham and Evans written music still staying within the Apple/Warner Chappell's arena. Apple Corps Ltd. still control Molland and Gibbins copyrights worldwide, besides controlling the Ham and Evans copyrights for Rest Of The World.

Early on, I had started inquiring of Apple's potential of gaining total ownership of the copyrights in perpetuity. This came after I had to first satisfy Apple's request for a confirmation that Petera Ham was clearly the daughter of Pete Ham through DNA testing. I also granted proof that Stephen Evans was Tom Evans’ son, through his birth certificate. As it was, Apple had encouraged that I represent both the Ham & Evans parties. They indicated they wanted as few representatives involved as possible. I had given some figures to initiate some discussions when Neil Aspinall and one of Apple's lawyers indicated to me they had discovered a major "overpayment" from the past, regarding previous songwriting income paid out to all the Badfinger parties. This temporarily ground to a halt our discussions, as Apple had to do a detailed investigation into the details of this overpayment. On my side of the matter, I had to investigate their rights of their recouping this against the alleged overpayment.

Many, many months later, Apple had generated their report on the matter. This scenario ended up with Apple deducting an amount from future income for the Badfinger parties, adn that ended up taking almost two years to recoup. Later on, Apple Corps Ltd. came up with their initial offer for the U.S. territory, which was they continue an administration of the U.S. copyrights in question, simply entailing a higher percentage split than before for the U.S. domestic administration only. This offer involved no advance or capital payment offer.

At a certain stage in all this, it became quite clear that I could no longer fairly represent both Ham & Evans interests simultaneously. It was imperative The Estate of Tom Evans settle on a new representative lawyer/agent based in the U.K. to finalize their deal. The new lawyer took over the stages of what I had developed. I gave him a briefing and we continued by working together closely, consistently discussing our situations where we could, in order to improve both of our clients' options. Ultimately, this did help bolster the results of the two deals.

Bug Music Ltd. seemed especially eager to promote the catalogs, as Apple and Warner Chappell hadn't been active in promoting Ham/Evans material in the past. Bug Music had already done a good job of handling the administration of Ham and Evans unpublished material. Thus, they were seriously thrown into this mix of possible companies. At some stage, I weighed all the options down to just the offers from Bug, and the offer from Apple. The Evans Estate ultimately considered similar offers, too. Both estates eventually chose Bug Music to administrate - starting with three-year terms and optional agreements beyond that.

I had focused on the prospects of engaging a company that would promote the songs, hopeful to elevate the profile of the songs. I desired an aggressive, competent administrating publisher that was willing to work with The Estates on the various offers as they came in. Also, a company that was going to put on a focused campaign to try and land the songs for uses in a huge variety of modes, quote reasonable prices, and have a willingness to negotiate

If a song's profile rises, the worth of the copyright rises accordingly for the future.

The Estates can always consider whether to sell their interests. But I had strongly recommended that they retain them, especially as there are four "rock/pop standards" involved - "Without You," "No Matter What," "Day After Day," and "Baby Blue." These will consistently generate a very steady income source for the long-term future for all the families involved of Badfinger because of their agreed 1985 settlement divisions.

I expect great accomplishments with these songs now being more prominently exposed. That’s always been one of my goals in working on Badfinger-related matters, to promote this great band’s music and the more positive messages.

I want to publicly thank some people who have been especially great support and excellent advisors for me during this process – Peggy Burneka, Flemming Carlson, Bob Jackson, Kevin McElligott, and Mark Perkins. There are others, but these particular parties know the very special contributions they made on this matter and I wanted to acknowledge them here.

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