Australian rock lost its heartbeat this week. James Baker, the legendary drummer who helped forge the nation’s punk and garage-rock sound, passed away Monday evening in his Perth home. He was 71.
Known affectionately as the “King of the Perth Big Beat,” Baker’s final bow came after a lengthy battle with liver cancer. Yet somehow, that seems too clinical a way to describe the departure of a man who spent five decades creating sonic mayhem behind the kit, his trademark Brian Jones bowl cut bobbing in perfect time to whatever thunder he was cooking up.
“The godfather of Perth Punk and Australia’s Garage Guru passed away around 7:30 last night at home in Perth,” read the statement announcing his departure — words that barely capture the seismic shift his absence creates in Australia’s musical landscape.
Like so many great rock tales, Baker’s story started with The Beatles. A teenage obsession with Ringo Starr led to that first drum kit at 16, and the rest… well, that’s where things get interesting. Baker went on to pound the skins for some of Australia’s most influential bands — The Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon. Each group bearing his distinctive “caveman stomp” that became a cornerstone of the Aussie punk sound.
There’s a brilliant what-if moment in Baker’s story that feels ripped from a rock ‘n’ roll fever dream. Picture this: London, late ’70s, after a Damned concert. Baker — sporting a Ramones t-shirt — gets approached by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash. They need a drummer. Baker hasn’t played in a year. The moment passes, becoming just another colorful thread in his tapestry of tales.
1977 saw Baker help birth Australian punk proper with The Victims and their raw, urgent single “Television Addict” — a track that still crackles with the same electricity today as it did nearly 50 years ago. His stint with Hoodoo Gurus produced their landmark debut “Stoneage Romeos” in ’84, though his departure shortly after prompted their manager Stuart Coupe to muse that “with [Baker’s] departure went a big part of the spirit and soul of what made them great.”
Even cancer couldn’t keep Baker from his craft. After his 2014 diagnosis, he kept the beat going, releasing his debut solo EP “Born to Rock” just last year. His final recording — a single with Dom Mariani — dropped in January 2025, barely a month before his passing.
The loss adds to a brutal year for the extended Hoodoo Gurus family, following the deaths of managers Michael McMartin and Mick Mazzone, along with founding member Kimble Rendall.
Baker leaves behind his wife Cathy, daughters Lorna and Faye, sister Barbara, and — in a bittersweet twist — an unborn grandson due in the coming weeks. That’s perhaps his most profound legacy: a new generation who’ll inherit the echoes of Australia’s rock revolution, shaped by every beat of James Baker’s drums.
Leave a Reply