Baker Gurvitz Army

On the Road Again (Live)

The sTore For musiC

Ginger goes back to work.

The Gurvitz brothers were post-Cream power trio veterans when they asked Ginger Baker to join their band during a 1974 Speakeasy booze-up, as if he was still some jobbing Soho drummer looking for a gig. Out of options as his new start in Nigeria collapsed, Ginger’s conventional rock career gave its last gasp with the Baker Gurvitz Army, a second-division Cream whose sole year of touring resulted in Live In Derby ’75, and this already partially bootlegged London show.

Peter Lemer’s inventive synth work and JB’s-style guitar on The Hustler are among the signs that this is ‘75, not ‘68. Ginger’s rapidly tumbling bass-drum and bad poetry on Time show he’s reasonably engaged, amidst general heaviness and extensive solos leavened by the baroque, 60s-style The Artist, and Space Machine’s glam swagger. Extras include a rollicking if sloppy Sunshine Of Your Love, tactfully dedicated by Ginger to “Jim Hendrix”, who “unfortunately can’t be here, because he’s not alive anymore”.

Little seems that urgent in this professional but aimless album, which irresistibly recalls why punk happened. ■■■■■■■■■■