Cream drummer Ginger Baker is critically ill in hospital, his family have confirmed.
The 80-year-old musician found fame in the 1960s alongside Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce in the band Cream.
The act only performed together for three years, due to Baker’s volatile relationship with Bruce, but they remain one of the most influential bands of all time.
Their songs include I Feel Free, Strange Brew and Sunshine Of Your Love.
‘The Baker family are sad to announce that Ginger is critically ill in hospital.
‘Please keep him in your prayers tonight,’ the family shared on Twitter.
Baker, who turned 80, earlier in 2019, previously revealed in 2013 that years of heavy smoking had led to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
He was also suffering from chronic back pain from degenerative osteoarthritis.
In 2016 he underwent open-heart surgery.
After Cream split, he formed Blind Faith with Clapton before going on to front Ginger Baker’s Air Force.
His passion remained in African music – much of which can be heard in the four Cream albums produced – and he went on to live on the continent, working with Fela Kuti.
He also worked with the likes of Gary Moore, Hawkwind and Atomic Rooster.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Cream, and is also a member of the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame.
He reunited with Clapton and Bruce in 2005 for a series of Cream concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Madison Square Garden in New York.
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