Glenn A Baker AM (b. 1952), rock music expert, won the BBC’s ‘Rock Brain of the Universe’ award three times in the mid-1980s. Baker had a sad and peripatetic childhood and left school at fifteen to help support his family; he was ‘galvanised’, he has said, by seeing the Beatles on television. In the mid-1970s he worked on a research project that resulted in the formation of 2JJ (later JJJ) and became the manager of the band that became Ol’ 55. In 1979 he co-established Raven Records. At about that time, he began his radio career, hosting a trivia program on 2JJ before proceeding to Triple M. Australian editor of Billboard magazine for 22 years, he has written seventeen books, hundreds of magazine articles and sleeve notes for more than 600 albums, has co-written film music and has appeared regularly on Australian television shows including The Today Show and Mornings with Kerri-Ann. Not only a music writer, he has written a great deal on travel. In 2001, for example, he released On the road to Damascus and other fabulous thoroughfares and Rock Australia: The 80s and 90s; in 2010 he simultaneously released Best of Baker: Music and Best of Baker: Travel. In 2018 he was said to own 80 000 records and about 30 000 CDs. Baker, who now lives in the Blue Mountains, says he’ll ‘keep on doing it’ as long as the Rolling Stones do.
Purchased 2018
© Gary Ede
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