Beware of Mr BakerSaturday, 6.45pm at BUEIThere is a wonderful moment in ‘Beware of Mr Baker’ when an interviewee is describing how Africa in the 1970s was a “hotbed of revolution, death [and] unaccountable violence” over footage of a street riot.Cut to legendary drummer Ginger Baker, who spent six years living there during that decade before fleeing in his Range Rover after his studio in Nigeria was invaded by gunmen.The notorious hellraiser, somewhat wistfully, says: “It was a great place to be in those days.”There’s nothing ironic about the comment. As this fascinating documentary shows, Baker has always been drawn to mayhem and madness.The incredible energy he expended on the drums in his heyday was matched in his everyday life, as he bounced from one heroin-fuelled bender to another, leaving a trail of groupies (and a badly neglected family) in his wake.He created discord wherever he went, leading band mates like Cream’s Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce to eventually distance themselves from him.No one interviewed for this film — which traces Baker’s rags to riches to almost-rags again story — is in any doubt about his immense talent, least of all him.But would any of them actually want to spend any time with him? Not likely, since Baker is depicted as a violent, unpredictable, utterly selfish egomaniac.Jay Bulger’s film nicely demonstrates that a subject doesn’t have to be sympathetic to be interesting and incredibly watchable.The documentary opens with Bulger himself being attacked by a cane-wielding Baker, who tells the filmmaker: “I’m going to f***ing put you in hospital”.The footage is cinematic gold for Bulger, deftly setting the scene for his tale of a man whose nastiness seems to know no bounds, be it towards his fellow musicians or even his own son.The documentary details Baker’s life from a young boy who lost his father in Second World War to his early career as a jazz player in the 1960s to his eventual status as one of the most celebrated rock drummers of all time, as a member of Cream, Blind Faith and Traffic.His success, he explains to Bulger (when they are still on speaking terms), was due to the “perfect time” he possessed when it came to rhythm.The footage of Baker performing back then is exhilarating to watch, with his flaming red curls and beard, wild eyes and intense performing style.He looks like a man possessed, though what he was, in truth, was a drug addict; one who found that heroin allowed him to have “no fear” about what he could do musically.As another interviewee states: “Maybe you have to be a little mad to play the way he does.”At the height of his fame, Baker disappeared to Africa, to experience the kind of beats which initially inspired him to start drumming.He played with the extraordinarily talented Nigerian musician Fela — and the footage of them performing together is worth seeing this film for alone.But more than that, Bulger does an excellent job of getting Baker to narrate his own amazing life story — and to expose his vicious streak, both verbally and physically, while the cameras are rolling.Now a ravaged 73-year-old living in obscurity in South Africa with his fourth wife and her children, the drummer comes across as unswervingly selfish, bitter, and not a little sad.Especially affecting are the interviews with his children, including his son Kofi, whom Baker invited to try a line of cocaine when he was 15 and whom he treated abysmally.Kofi and he are no longer in contact and the younger man, who followed his father into a drumming career, concludes it would have been far better if Baker hadn’t bothered to have a family at all.For all that Baker is a musical icon that’s a pretty sorry verdict on a man’s life.