On May 11, 1978, viewers watching the BBC current affairs show Nationwide were greeted by an unusual sight, as former Cream drummer and erstwhile hellraiser Ginger Baker invited BBC journalists to his farm, where he regaled them with his plans to create the best polo team in the world before playing a drum solo for the animals.
The roots of this story begin in Africa. After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1970, Baker realised that he needed a break from his less-than-successful jazz-rock outfit Ginger Baker’s Air Force. So he packed his bags and drove his Land Rover overland to Lagos in Nigeria, where he opened up a recording studio and made friends with Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. He also joined the Lagos Polo Club, where he got to know a local player, Colin Edwards.
