Ginger Baker: Hellraiser - Tapa dura

Peter 'Ginger' Baker is a legend. A pioneering drummer who has transcended genres, he did much to popularise world music with his fierce passion for the rhythms of Africa. He is that rare thing, a critically-acclaimed musician who has enjoyed global success with not one but several supergroups to his name, including Cream and Blind Faith. He has also lived a life that has been more rock'n'roll than most. Ginger tells his story for the first time and without any self-censorship. It's an often harrowing, but honest journey from his humble beginnings in war-torn south London to his adopted home in South Africa's beautiful Western Cape - complete with polo club. Along the way he tells of his life-long love of jazz, how he discovered the drums and African music for himself, life on the road and he confesses to the heroin use that should have killed him in his colourful 1960s' prime, working and playing with the biggest names of the time. In the 1970s, he came up with a trans-Saharan trucking scheme, was a successful rally driver and built an ill-fated recording studio. He also discovered a consuming passion for playing polo. He talks candidly of the loss and recovery of his fortune, his three marriages, Cream's induction into the rock'n'roll hall of fame in 1993, their subsequent successful reunion in 2005 and his hopes for the future.

Ginger Baker was born in Lewisham, London in 1939 and brought up along with his sister and cousin by his mother and aunt. After forging his reputation on the London jazz scene, he found phenomenal success by forming Cream with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton in 1966. Ginger lives in South Africa, where he is an avid correpsondent to the letters pages of various polo publications.