Baker Gurvitz Army

Baker Gurvitz Army

by Pete Clemons

Not only did 2019 see the loss of renowned and charismatic drummer, Ginger Baker, it also saw an influx of reissues from a band who are only touched upon when the media focuses on Ginger's life.

Firstly, April saw the release of a box set collecting together remastered editions of the entire studio works from the Baker Gurvitz Army.

Then, during the second half of the year, and, in celebration of Gingers 80th birthday, as well as in remembrance of their manager Bill Fehilly, a previously unreleased live album by the Baker Gurvitz Army was set free.

And all of these albums are really worth investigation. In fact almost any release involving the Gurvitz brothers is worth a listen.

Ginger Baker was famed for being taught 'time' by fellow drummer Phil Seamen during the late 1950s. This led to Ginger having stints with Blues Incorporated, Graham Bond, Cream and Blind Faith.

Ginger also formed Airforce with jazz drummers Phil Seamen and Art Blakey at, it was reported at the time, huge expense. And it was apparently an incident at one of those gigs that set the scene for an ice breaker when he met the Gurvitz brothers several years later at the Speakeasy.

Following Airforce Ginger move to Africa to get into a style of music first introduced to him by Phil Seamen. While there he played and recorded with multi instrumentalist Fela Ransome-Kuti and Africa 70. But after three years in Nigeria, that included the building a recording studio, it all went badly wrong.

Returning to England, Ginger was absolutely broke, and needed to start working again in order to get some much needed money.

And it was at this point that Ginger met with Adrian and Paul Gurvitz at the Speakeasy in London during 1974. They invited him to a rehearsal with them. It was all he could get according to his wife. But it was also around this time that Ginger left his wife for his daughters first boyfriends sister. Married 18 year old Sarah Dixon.

By all accounts the bands manager, Bill Fehilly, was quick to see the potential in the Baker Gurvitz Army and also guided Ginger through a more settled period as he became a good friend and ally. The Baker Gurvitz Army also included Steve Parsons aka Mr Snips on lead vocals and keyboard player Peter Lemer.

Ginger Baker became fitter and healthier during most of his time with BGA. He appeared to have left the hard drugs behind. But that was all to change during the recording of the 'Hearts of Fire' album. 'Hearts of Fire' was the third and final studio album by BGA, released during 1976.

The crux of this set back for Ginger coincided with the loss of his new mentor Bill Felhilly who was killed in a plane crash during July 1976. It was a disasterous period for Ginger who decided to get away from everyone he knew and moved to Italy. During his time there he kept dogs and a couple of horses and lived in, what was described as a 'delapedated house'. Second wife, Sarah, ended up going off with a young local lad.

The Baker Gurvitz Army were no more. But they left us with a wonderful legacy that has, once more, been made available to us.

Incidentally, there is a tenuous link between the Gurvitz brothers and Coventry. Both Paul and Adrian Gurvitz were once members of rock trio, The Gun, who will always be remembered for their hit single 'Race With the Devil'. Coventry musician and songwriter, Johnny Goodison was credited as the producer of The Gun's self titled album from 1968. This was purely by the fact that John had worked for CBS records and had them up the band. That was about all he did by way of production work.