Читать книгу Ginger Baker - Hellraiser - Ginger Baker - Страница 5

In the years immediately following the incredibly successful Cream reunion of 2005, both Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton have had a book of their experiences in print. Myths and legends a plenty seem to have grown up around tales of Cream’s formation, the ups and downs within the band and what led to its sudden death. Similarly, rumours abound about problems faced during the brief Blind Faith hiatus. For many years I have wanted to voice my own account.

At last, what I think of as ‘My Accursed Book’ is finally finished and this is another story on its own! Benny Fisher (Miriam Lane’s adopted son) first suggested it back in 1978, as we made plans to set up a polo club on Miriam’s estate in Ashton Wold. But after several weeks of work Benny died suddenly from a massive brain haemorrhage at the age of 32.

Two years later I was rehearsing with Hawkwind on a sheep farm in Wales when a large, female journalist arrived. She also wanted to do my book; but all she seemed to be interested in was stories of graphic sex.

When I moved to Italy I sat down and wrote the book myself. I took the manuscript with me to the U.S.A. and in 1988 I sent it to ten publishers. Only one replied, totally unaware of who I was and labouring under the misapprehension that it was fiction!

In 1991 I was approached by a writer named Geoffrey Guiliano. By then I wasn’t interested, but Karen, my wife at the time, bought into his stories of ‘lots of dollars’ and persuaded me. After months of interviews Guiliano ‘finished’ the book and sent it to the publishers, wrongly telling them that I’d seen and okayed the manuscript. The first I knew of this was when my first wife, Liz, phoned me and told me it was ‘rubbish’. I contacted the publishers and their response was to draft in yet another writer, who was, if anything, worse than Giuliano. The end result was that the publishers sued me, in my absence, for the entire advance, including the monies received by Guliano and his agent. After hiring a lawyer, I ended up having to pay back my portion; but the book, thank God, was not published.

I had by now written several articles for Polo magazine and through this I met Hunter S Thompson’s editor Shelby Sadler. With Shelby I wrote the book all over again. But due to problems I had with the United States Justice Department I moved to South Africa. Shelby arranged to fly out for a couple of weeks in order to finish it. But she never arrived and has since disappeared. Maybe Hunter shot her and buried the remains somewhere in Colorado?

After all this, I had totally given up on the idea of writing my book, until in 2008 I was approached by yet another American writer, who again offered me large financial rewards. But on closer inspection I found that his credentials didn’t add up. It was then I decided to enlist the help of my daughter Nettie as she had edited several of my polo articles. Fortunately, some 30,000 words that I had already written came to light and so I sent them to her. After a couple of visits to South Africa and lots of tireless work by Nettie we had the book finished.

So here it is, finally (after some teething troubles), an accurate story of my life to date. I sincerely hope that readers will enjoy it. This is the true story, as it happened.

Ginger Baker