Ginger Baker...

Ginger Baker, drummer with Cream and many other bands, has died. Despite being voted “the man least likely to survive the Sixties”, and having taken heroic amounts of class-A drugs throughout his chaotic life, he survived to the age of 80.

Disraeli Gears, featuring songs such as ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses’ and ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, came out in 1967. I didn’t need to buy the LP because a boy at school played it continuously from his study across the corridor… only stopping to turn the record over. It sounded like the future.

Cream split, acrimoniously, after Baker pulled a knife on bassist Jack Bruce, thereby creating a self-destructive template for every other band he subsequently joined or started. While touring, his demands were specific: two black prostitutes and a limousine to be provided at every venue. He wasn’t a good man to work with… or to marry. I’m at a loss to know why four women decided to walk up the aisle, and say “I do” to this monster of a man.

Baker never mellowed into a comfortable old age, being lionised by fans, but just become ever more embittered. A documentary film, Beware of Mr Baker, made in 2012, reveals a man who had run out of money and friends, and could not hide the contempt he felt for every musician he had ever played with.

Licensed today: the original Co-Operative shop on Toad Lane in Rochdale...