Joey Molland grew up in Liverpool England with the same dreams as John, Paul, George and Ringo.
“We all wanted to sing like Little Richard, play guitar like Chuck Berry and rock with ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’” he said Friday before taking the stage with Joey Molland’s Badfinger at the Savannah Center.
Childhood rock and roll fantasies are one thing, but present-day reality hit Molland when he arrived in Florida only to discover his guitar was broken on the airplane.
“I found out when we landed at that Mickey Mouse airport (Orlando). I was lucky to get another guitar,” he said, in his English accent. “I broke a string tonight but it’s still pretty good.”
The same could be said for his band, which included Mark Haley, bass; Gregg Inhofer, keyboards and Mike Ricciardi on drums.
Those expecting a predictable Badfinger oldies show were surprised.
“We’re not going out there just to play the same songs,” Molland said. “We try to bring new life to them every night.” He wore a black jacket and slacks, with a rainbow-colored tie-dye shirt.
Molland is 70 but still has the rock and roll bug. On stage, he can be jumpy and jittery, chatting away with the audience.
But when Molland played his Les Paul guitar, you knew this guy has the heart and soul of Liverpool kid with American rock and roll in his blood.
Molland – like the Beatles – honed his guitar chops at the Cavern Club. On a Savannah Center stage nearly six decades later, Molland can still crank out stinging guitar riffs.
He covered Badfinger’s big hits with the Beatles’ Apple Records. Badfinger worked with Paul McCartney – who wrote and produced the band’s biggest hit “Come and Get It”—and also John Lennon and George Harrison.
Molland and his band played a Badfinger biggie early on, the hard-driving pop number, “Baby Blue.” Then he sang a power- ballad, written by the late Peter Ham, “Without You.”
That song became a standard for Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey. “But we’re going to do it Badfinger style,” Molland said. Ham and fellow Badfinger member — the late Tom Evans — combined to write the song, Molland said.
“Pete came up with the verse and Tom helped him finish it. We recorded it as kind of a little bluesy number. We never knew it would be such a big song.”
Molland couldn’t quite match Peter Ham’s vocals but provided plenty of punch to another smash, “No Matter What.” Then he teamed with Mark Haley on “Day After Day.”
But it was the songs in between the big hits that made this concert special.
These talented four musicians turned up the rock and roll burner. At times, they sounded more like The Who than Badfinger.
Molland ripped through “Vampire Wedding,” with some ferocious guitar playing. He continued kicking out serious jams on “No More” and “Happy.”
Badfinger was known for short, tight singles that sounded best with the car radio going full blast.
“We liked the little songs,” Molland said. “We tried to write long songs, but they were boring long songs. I mean, how many times can you say ‘I love you, I love you,’ in a one song?
“But one time we put two of our little songs together and we’ll do it for you now.” The band delivered clean and crisp harmony on a couple of moody tunes, “Money” and “Flying.”
Despite selling millions of records in the early 70s, and working with the Beatles, Badfinger was a hard-luck, star-crossed band.
Peter Ham and Tom Evans would both commit suicide. The group never saw millions in royalties and seemed to vanish after a few years on top of the charts.
Despite all that – as Bob Seger said — rock and roll never forgets. And Molland cherishes the band’s past as well as his present.
“The old days were a great time for us,” he said before the show. “But the best part is that I’m still playing these songs. I never expected I would still be here doing it today. But here I am.”
