'Great drummer, wild and lovely guy': Paul McCartney leads tribute to Ginger Baker who formed iconic 1960s group Cream with Eric Clapton and has died aged 80
- Family said the music legend 'passed away peacefully' in hospital this morning
- Ginger Baker played alongside Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce in 1960s trio Cream
- Noted for his groundbreaking drumming technique as well as his showmanship
- The star suffered numerous health issues and had been critically ill in hospital
Paul McCartney has led the tributes today to the 'wild and lovely guy' Ginger Baker after the legendary Cream drummer died this morning aged 80.
Known as 'the human combine harvester' for his unique drumming style, Baker helped make Cream, fronted by Eric Clapton one of the world's first super groups with global sales success and a lasting musical legacy.
His family had announced on September 25 that the London-born drummer, widely recognised as one of the most influential of all time, was critically ill in hospital, adding that he was 'holding his own'.
A post on his Twitter account today read: 'We are very sad to say that Ginger has passed away peacefully in hospital this morning. Thank you to everyone for your kind words over the past weeks.'
Baker, pictured middle, founded Cream in 1966 along with his band mates Eric Clapton, left, and Jack Bruce, right. The band broke up in 1968 before a reunion in 2005
Sir Paul McCartney described Baker as a 'great drummer, wild and lovely guy' after working together in Nigeria on the Wings album Band on the Run
Baker, picture right, founded Cream along with his band mates Jack Bruce, left, and Eric Clapton, centre, in 1966. The band broke up in 1968
Baker wielded his blues power and jazz technique to help break open popular music and become one of the world's most admired and feared musicians, also drumming for Blind Faith, Hawkwind and Fela Kuti.
With blazing eyes and orange-red hair, and a temperament to match, the London native ranked with The Who's Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham as the embodiment of musical and personal fury.
Using twin bass drums, Baker fashioned a pounding, poly-rhythmic style uncommonly swift and heavy that inspired and intimidated countless musicians and also pioneered 20-minute drum solos.
But every beat seemed to mirror an offstage eruption - whether his violent dislike of Cream bandmate Jack Bruce or his on-camera assault of a documentary maker, Jay Bulger, whom he smashed in the nose with his walking stick.
Cream, pictured in 1967, are widely regarded as the world's first supergroup after forming from different bands
Ginger Baker performs at a Cream reunion in Madison Square Gardens in New York on October 25, 2005
Bulger would call the film, released in 2012, 'Beware of Mr. Baker.'
While the Rolling Stone magazine once ranked him the third-greatest rock drummer of all time, behind Moon and Bonham, Baker had contempt for Moon and others he dismissed as 'bashers' without style or background.
Baker and his many admirers saw him as a rounded, sophisticated musician - an arranger, composer and student of the craft absorbing sounds from around the world.
He had been playing jazz since he was a teenager and spent years in Africa in the 1970s, forming a close friendship with the Nigerian musician-activist Fela Kuti.
'He was so unique and had such a distinctive personality,' Stewart Copeland of the Police told www.musicradar.com in 2013.
'Nobody else followed in his footsteps. Everybody tried to be John Bonham and copy his licks, but it's rare that you hear anybody doing the Ginger Baker thing.'
But many fans thought of him as a rock star, who teamed with Eric Clapton and Bruce in the mid-1960s to become Cream - one of the first supergroups and first power trios.
Baker's wild and flamboyant performances drew comparisons to Keith Moon from The Who
Director Edgar Wright was among those offering tributes to the drummer this morning, calling him a 'musical giant'
All three were known individually in the London blues scene and together they helped make rock history by elevating instrumental prowess above the songs themselves, even as they had hits with 'Sunshine of Your Love,' 'I Feel Free' and 'White Room.'
Cream was among the most successful acts of its time, selling more than 10 million records.
But by 1968 Baker and Bruce had worn each other out and even Clapton had tired of their deafening, marathon jams, including the Baker showcase 'Toad,' one of rock's first extended drum solos.
Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg offered a simple message this morning, saying 'Thank you Ginger Baker
Rolling Stone magazine once ranked Ginger Baker the third-greatest rock drummer of all time
Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet was another musician offering tributes following the death of Ginger Baker
Cream split up at the end of the year, departing with two sold-out shows at London's Albert Hall. When told by Bulger that he was a founding father of heavy metal, Baker snarled that the genre 'should have been aborted.'
To the surprise of many, especially Clapton, he and Baker were soon part of another super group, Blind Faith, which also featured singer-keyboardist Stevie Winwood and bassist Ric Grech.
As Clapton would recall, he and Winwood had been playing informally when Baker turned up (Baker would allege that Clapton invited him).
Named Blind Faith by a rueful Clapton, the band was overwhelmed by expectations from the moment it debuted in June 1969 before some 100,000 at a concert in London's Hyde Park. It split up after completing just one, self-titled album, as notable for its cover photo of a topless young girl as for its music.
A highlight from the record: Baker's cymbal splashes on Winwood's lyrical ballad 'Can't Find My Way Home.'
Baker has been married four times and has three children
From the 1970s on, Baker was ever more unpredictable. He moved to Nigeria, took up polo, drove a Land Rover across the Sahara, lived on a ranch in South Africa, divorced his first wife and married three more times.
He recorded with Kuti and other Nigerians, jammed with Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and other jazz drummers and played with John Lydon's Public Image Ltd.
He founded Ginger Baker's Air Force, which cost a fortune and imploded after two albums.
He endured his old enemy, Bruce, when Cream was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and for Cream reunion concerts a decade later. Bruce died in 2014.
Baker has suffered several health issues in recent years.
'God is punishing me for my past wickedness by keeping me alive and in as much pain as He can,' he told Rolling Stone in 2009 when he was diagnosed with the onset of emphysema.
In 2013, he revealed he had been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from years of heavy smoking.
Three years later, it was reported that he was recovering following open heart surgery and had also suffered a bad fall.
In an interview in 2013 with The Guardian, Baker admitted he had spent more than 20 years battling a heroin addiction.
Members of Cream depart from Heathrow Airport in London for their American tour with two female companions
He said he started taking heroin in London in the late 1950s and early 1960s while performing as a drummer in jazz clubs.
He said: 'I don't have fond memories of it at all. To find you have to do something just to feel normal is not a good road. I got involved in 1960 when people were getting more than they were using on prescription and selling it. It was called a 'jack', one sixth of a gram of heroin in one tiny white pill.'
Baker said he tried to kick heroin some 29 times until he was finally successful after moving to Italy in 1981.
He added: 'That's when I got clear of it all. I moved to a little village in the middle of nowhere, where nobody spoke English.
'I got into olive farming. It was very rewarding, very hard work but very good therapy.'
Baker has been married four times and is survived by three children.
No strange to vices and not a fan of modesty, he called his memoir 'Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer.'
Baker said he tried to kick heroin some 29 times until he was finally successful after moving to Italy in 1981
'John Bonham once made a statement that there were only two drummers in British rock `n' roll; himself and Ginger Baker,' Baker wrote in his book. 'My reaction to this was, `You cheeky little bastard!''
Born in 1939, Peter Edward Baker was the son of a bricklayer killed during World War II when Ginger was just 4.
His father left behind a letter that Ginger Baker would quote from: 'Use your fists; they're your best pals so often.'
Baker was a drummer from early on, even rapping out rhythms on his school desk
Baker was a drummer from early on, even rapping out rhythms on his school desk as he mimicked the big band music he loved and didn't let the occasional caning from a teacher deter him.
As a teenager, he was playing in local groups and was mentored by percussionist Phil Seamen.
'At this party, there was a little band and all the kids chanted at me, `Play the drums!'', Baker told The Independent in 2009. 'I'd never sat behind a kit before, but I sat down - and I could play! One of the musicians turned round and said, `Bloody hell, we've got a drummer', and I thought, `Bloody hell, I'm a drummer.''
Baker came of age just as London was learning the blues, with such future superstars as Clapton, Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page among the pioneers.
Baker joined Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, where he met (and soon disliked, for allegedly playing too loud) the Scottish-born bassist Jack Bruce, with whom he was thrown together again as members of the popular British group the Graham Bond Organization.
In 2013, Baker, pictured, said he spent much of the time between 1960 and 1980 as a heroin addict, having started the habit while drumming in London jazz clubs in the late 1950s
Clapton, meanwhile, was London's hottest guitarist, thanks to his work with the Yardbirds and John Mayall's Blues Breakers, his extraordinary speed and agility inspiring 'Clapton is God' graffiti.
Clapton, Baker and Bruce would call their band Cream because they considered themselves the best musicians around.
'Oh for god's sake, I've never played rock,' Baker told the blog JazzWax in 2013. 'Cream was two jazz players and a blues guitarist playing improvised music. We never played the same thing two nights running. Jack and I had been in jazz bands for years.
'All that stuff I did on the drums in Cream didn't come from drugs, either. It was from me. It was jazz.'
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