Director's Word

As the plane touched down at Cape Town I knew that the next few days would be exceptionally difficult.

I hadn’t seen Ginger since following him from The Speak Easy at approximately 3:45 AM in the morning as

he drove his Jenson in north London some 35 years ago.  I wondered if he remembered that early

morning. Unfortunately after speeding throughout 8 sets of traffic lights, I lost Ginger and we never made

the after party.

 I was rather dubious about my expedition to see Ginger although we could talk for hours about polo an

his horses, I was wondering whether or not he was going to tell me the full story and the real story of

what happened to Cream.   

The crew and I sped into the mountains of South Africa with camera gear in tow, and it suddenly appeared

to me where I thought I saw rocks, they were actually herds of baboons! They started to move closer to

the car in packs, and then they were jumping all over the car! We struggled to get past the herds

but eventually we saw a massive sign saying “BE WARE MR. BAKER”. We pulled up into a drive way

with colossal gates that magically opened and there was the Baker estate.  

Ginger spent the next 2 days insisting on being filmed at 5 in the morning- reciting and telling wild stories

of South African policeman, getting chased out of various African states, and finding himself deported from

the US due to harbouring an illegal immigrant- his polo groom. He also accounted his whole life history,

which one day is worthy of an entire film about Ginger Baker, probably the greatest Rock and Roll drummer

to have ever lived.  

Jon Brewer

Producer/Director