MONSTER OF ROCK
Inside Ginger Baker’s wild life of sleeping with his daughter’s pals, threatening bandmates with knives and having orgies with Hendrix
HIS tour demands were blunt: Two prostitutes and a limo.
The extraordinary Ginger Baker achieved rock infamy for his rage towards journalists, fellow musicians, a documentary film director and most of all his Cream bandmate Jack Bruce.
He spent years drunk and addicted to heroin, gave his own 15-year-old son a line of cocaine to perk him up for a gig and had sex with his daughter’s mates.
It is no shock the music legend, regarded as one of rock’s greatest drummers, was once voted the man least likely to survive the Sixties.
As the first of his four wives once said: “The devil takes care of his own.”
Famous for his smashing — but perfectly timed — rhythms, one critic dubbed him “a human combine harvester”.
From 1966 to 1968, Cream sold 35million records and were awarded the world’s first platinum disc for a double album, for Wheels Of Fire.
Their 1967 album Disraeli Gears is seen as one of the seminal records of the Sixties.
All three members — Ginger, bassist Jack and guitarist Eric Clapton — sang lead and backing vocals.
Ginger said: “People say Cream gave birth to heavy metal. If that’s so, we should have had an abortion.”
He was born Peter Baker, in Lewisham, South East London, and got his nickname from his red hair.
Ginger was brought up in poverty by his mum, step-dad and aunt after his dad was killed in World War Two.
As a teen he became a petty thief and joined a local gang. When he tried to leave, they attacked him with a razor.
He wanted to become a professional cyclist but gave up when his bike got hit by a cab. But it gave him the strong leg muscles he would later use to play two bass drums at the same time.
Ginger recalled: “I was always banging on the desks at school. The kids kept saying, ‘Go on, go and play the drums’. I just sat down and I could play.
“It’s a gift from God. You have either got it or you haven’t. And I’ve got it: Time. Natural time.”
Ginger bought his first drum kit aged 16 and played in London’s jazz clubs.
He met girlfriend Liz Finch, who he married aged 20, in 1959. Their daughter Ginette, known as Nettie, was born the next year.
Jazz also gave Ginger a taste for heroin. He explained: “I got involved with drugs for the music. I took some smack and people told me, ‘You play incredible’. So I took smack before every gig.
“Soon I was having trouble making enough money to feed my wife and baby. I’d turn up to a gig stoned and they’d say, ‘What are you doing?’ I’d tell them, ‘I’m taking smack’, and they’d fire me. I used to think they were idiots. And this happened continually.”
In 1962 he met Jack and they formed The Graham Bond Organisation, but he fired Jack from the band.
Ginger got in touch with Eric with a plan for a new band. The guitarist insisted Jack be involved, much to Ginger’s displeasure.
Cream released debut single Wrapping Paper in 1966, with first album Fresh Cream coming out that year.
In 1968 Ginger and Liz had a second daughter, Leda, and the following year their son Kofi was born.
God bless Ginger Baker. Incredible musician. Wild and inventive drummer.
Ringo Starr
Despite having a young family, Ginger was involved in foursomes with Jimi Hendrix and bedded a string of groupies and fans. These included, in 1969, feminist writer Germaine Greer, who was then 30.
He said later: “She didn’t want any kinky stuff. Just straight, normal, man and woman. She’s a really nice girl, Germaine. I’ve always thought the world of her.”
In her book Tales Of Rock Star’s Daughter, published last year, Nettie told how she found her dad in bed naked — except for a waistcoat — with two women.
She said: “It was funny. Dad’s sex life just seemed normal to me. Your upbringing isn’t unusual to you. I liked most of Dad’s girlfriends. I had some control over the women he was having because they were my friends.”
Nettie also revealed she was made first prize in a game of pool that included George Harrison at Eric’s Surrey mansion.
Baker was notorious for his drug-fuelled, foul-mouthed outbursts, often directed at fellow musicians.
He was scathing of the Rolling Stones, once saying: “They were like a load of little kids trying to play black blues music and playing it very badly.”
He branded Mick Jagger a “musical moron” and said of Paul McCartney: “He boasts that he can’t read music. How can a musician boast that he can’t read music?”
Even Hendrix was damned with the faint praise: “He could play OK. But he started doing all this showman s**t. His big thing was pulling chicks, which he was very good at.”
But it was Jack who bore the brunt of Ginger’s fury. On stage they would compete for lengthy solos and turn up their amplifiers to drown out the other.
Ginger would usually content himself with throwing drumsticks at Jack’s head, but once the drummer pulled a knife on him on stage.
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Jack responded by clobbering him and his kit with a double bass. Eric was often driven to tears by the rows.
Cream were at the height of their fame when they split in November 1968, blaming the arguments. Yet when their fourth album, Goodbye, was released in February 1969, it went to No1.
Ginger then joined the new supergroup Blind Faith with Eric but he soon jumped ship and formed his own band.
Although Ginger continued to make music, including playing with John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd, he never enjoyed the same level of fame and fortune as he did with Cream.
His son Kofi, also a talented drummer, would often accompany him on tour, but one night in the Eighties he complained he was too sick and tired to go on stage.
Kofi said: “When I was 15 I had to play a show with my dad to make the money to get back to England from Italy, where I was staying with him.
“I was so sick I couldn’t play, so my dad gave me cocaine. I played my ass off. I’ve never taken cocaine ever again.”
Sad news Ginger Baker has died. I remember playing with him very early on. He was a fiery but extremely talented and innovative drummer.
Mick Jagger
His dad found it harder to resist, and confessed even after he quit heroin he relapsed, “something like 29 times”.
Ginger finally managed to kick his addiction in 1981, and said: “There’s only one person who can help an addict and that’s an addict himself. The whole rehab thing is just a bloody con to make money and take advantage.”
He moved to a remote village in Italy, “where nobody spoke English”, and, “got into olive farming”.
But it brought about the end of his marriage to second wife, Sarah. He said: “She got bored with farming and me being straight. Without drugs, I guess I’m not as exciting.”
In 1998 he moved to Los Angeles, where he met his third wife Karen Loucks, but that too ended in divorce.
Cream performed together again in 2005 after Eric managed to convince Ginger and Jack to reform for a series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.
There were also plans for a full-scale tour. But by the end of the London gigs, the trio realised the rhythm section still hated each other too much.
Eric said: “After that I was pretty convinced that we had gone as far as we could without someone getting killed. At this time in my life I don’t want blood on my hands.”
The feud continued right up until Jack’s death from liver disease in 2014. When he knew he had just hours to live, he began ringing round friends to say goodbye.
Then he thought of his nemesis. Determined to have the last word, he dialled Ginger’s number and said: “I’m dying Ginger, f*** you,” before slamming down the phone.
Without drugs, I guess I’m not as exciting.
Ginger Baker
Ginger tried repeatedly to call back but Jack refused to pick up.
Ginger later moved to South Africa, where he met and married fourth wife Kudzai, 42 years his junior, in 2010. He was plagued by financial difficulties, partly due to an expensive hobby of buying horses to play polo.
Yet he never lost his rage. 2012 documentary Beware Of Mr Baker, which was named after a sign on his own drive, begins with him bloodying the face of the director with his cane while letting loose a string of expletives.
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His final years were plagued by poor health. Gigging had left him deaf, smoking 40 cigarettes a day for 60 years gave him emphysema and he was suffering from a serious heart condition and osteoporosis.
Ginger also left Africa and returned to Kent, a few miles from his birthplace.
He was, just as he had been in childhood, practically broke.
British band Cream perform the song Crossroads at their 2005 reunion
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