RIP James Baker: Australia's Guru of Garage

PL farewells one of Australia's most influential drummers

The Baker boy

James Baker, one of the cornerstones of the Australian punk and new wave scene, died on Monday, aged 75.

Baker provided his distinctively hectic swamp-rock beat to some of the most important bands of the era: The Victims, Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus and the Beasts of Bourbon. The boy with the Trogg bob had a knack for being in the right place at the right time, but it may well have been that the right place and time were wherever James was.

Baker and his bands were loved by the Seattle grunge outfits that emerged later. Mudhoney paid tribute on his passing.

Born in 1954, the son of an East Fremantle footballer was playing in cover bands when he and a mate took off from Perth for the northern hemisphere in the mid-70s. Punk was about to explode, and somehow these lads from the furthest corner of a distant continent heard its calling.

Baker recalled the odyssey in an interview with Sylvester Fox in Perth’s Groove magazine some years back.

“Yeah it was 1976, I went to LA first. And then to New York and London. It was the perfect time for rock n roll. I actually saw The Ramones with The Flamin’ Groovies at the Roxy Club on Sunset Strip for four bucks!!”

You spent some salubrious times with The Dictators.

“Ah yeh. I met Dick Manitoba when I was queuing up to see them at CBGB’s and I had a Brian Jones button on. And he wanted it and I gave it to him and I said, ‘Can you get me in for free’. And he took me up to the front of the queue and he said, ‘This guy is coming in as a friend of Dick Manitoba’ and he bought me a Guinness.”

Tell me about Sid Vicious?

“I met Sid Vicious on a bus in London in September 76. My first day in London. I had a New York Dolls t-shirt on and he came up and sat next to me and said how much he liked the New York Dolls. I told him I’d just seen Johnny Thunders in New York and he told me Johnny Thunders was apparently thinking of coming to England. Which he did. So he got that one right. He introduced himself as John Richie, which was his name not Sid Vicious. And he was a nice guy, to me. I met up with him again at a Clash gig one night and these skinheads were going to beat me up. And he came in and said ‘ leave him alone’. And they did. So I’ve got no … well everyone thinks he’s sort of … well obviously he got really fucked up in the end. You know really fucked up. But at that time he wasn’t. He used to play in a band called Vicious he told me with Siouxsie Sue and Keith Leverne and he played drums in that.”

You auditioned for The Clash?

“I met Joe Strummer and Mick Jones at a pub after a Damned gig. I had a Ramones t-shirt on and they came up to me and talked to me about that. They said they needed a drummer. But I hadn’t played for a year so.”

So you’d been to the States, you’d seen The Ramones, The Flamin Groovies, The Dictators. Did you sense something was going to happen in London punkwise?

“Yeah it was 1976, I went to LA first. And then to New York and London. It was the perfect time for rock n roll. I actually saw The Ramones with The Flamin’ Groovies at the Roxy Club on Sunset Strip for four bucks!!”