Australian music historian, broadcaster, author and longtime Billboard Australia editor Glenn A. Baker has died, with the news confirmed by his friend and longtime collaborator Stuart Coupe. Baker’s influence on Australian music extended across journalism, broadcasting, artist management, publishing and music preservation for more than five decades.
by Paul Cashmere
Glenn A. Baker, one of Australia’s most recognisable music journalists and historians, has died aged 74. His death was confirmed on Friday by author and broadcaster Stuart Coupe, a longtime friend and collaborator who announced the news in a post on Facebook. A cause of death has not been disclosed.
Baker occupied a unique place in Australian music culture. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, he became one of the country’s foremost authorities on rock and popular music, combining encyclopaedic knowledge with an enthusiasm that reached audiences through newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television and public appearances. His work helped document Australia’s music history while also introducing generations of fans to artists and recordings from around the world.
He was equally comfortable interviewing international stars, writing definitive liner notes, appearing on television to discuss music history or championing Australian artists behind the scenes. His contribution extended well beyond journalism, influencing the local industry as a band manager, record label founder, concert promoter and adviser to the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Born in Sydney on 28 July 1952, Baker spent his early childhood in Coogee before his family relocated to Canberra. Following the tragic drowning of his younger brother and the subsequent separation of his parents, he moved frequently throughout New South Wales, attending 12 schools in 10 years.
Music became the constant in an otherwise unsettled childhood. Baker often credited one defining moment with shaping his future. As a 12-year-old watching television news in 1964, he saw The Beatles arrive at Sydney’s Mascot Airport during their Australian tour. The event sparked a lifelong fascination with popular music that ultimately became his profession.
His first significant role within the music industry came while working for the Department of the Media, where he contributed research to the project that led to the establishment of youth radio station 2JJ. Around the same time he entered artist management, guiding the retro rock group Fanis through a transformation into Ol’ 55.
Under Baker’s management, Ol’ 55 became one of Australia’s most successful acts of the late 1970s. He recruited future television personalities Frankie J. Holden and Wilbur Wilde into the lineup, helped shape the band’s distinctive image and co-wrote songs including the Australian Christmas classic “(I Want A) Rockin’ Christmas”. The group achieved major chart success with Take It Greasy and hit singles including “On The Prowl” and “Looking For An Echo”.
He later managed Punkz before reshaping the group into Cheek, who found national chart success with “So Much In Love”.
In 1979 Baker co-founded Raven Records alongside Kevin Mueller and Peter Shillito. The independent label earned an international reputation for its carefully researched reissues, anthologies and retrospective collections, preserving countless recordings that may otherwise have disappeared from public view.
Baker’s journalism career became equally influential. He served as Australian editor of Billboard for more than two decades while writing for more than 200 publications worldwide. He authored at least 16 books on music and travel, while also producing liner notes and historical essays for hundreds of album releases.
His reputation for extraordinary recall earned international recognition during the mid 1980s when he won the BBC’s “Rock Brain of the Universe” competition three consecutive times, cementing a title that followed him throughout his career.
Australian audiences also came to know Baker through radio and television. Beginning with music trivia programs on 2JJ before joining the Triple M network, he later became a familiar face on programs including Countdown, The Midday Show, Good Morning Australia, The Today Show, Mornings with Kerri-Anne and 20 to 1. For more than 20 years, his distinctive voice also welcomed travellers through Qantas in-flight audio programming.
Away from music, Baker developed a second distinguished career as a travel writer. Having visited more than 100 countries, he won the inaugural Australian Society of Travel Writers Travel Writer of the Year award in 1995 before receiving the honour again in 2000.
His contribution to Australian music extended into industry recognition through years of service on the ARIA Hall of Fame advisory committee. He inducted artists including Billy Thorpe, Australian Crawl, The Masters Apprentices and Max Merritt into the Hall of Fame, helping celebrate the careers of some of Australia’s most significant performers.
Baker remained active well into his seventies. In late 2024 he auctioned the vast personal archive he had spent decades assembling, comprising around 80,000 records, CDs and music memorabilia. Rather than viewing the collection as possessions, he described them as companions that he hoped would continue to inspire future generations of music lovers.
His career also survived significant personal challenges. Following major open-heart surgery in 2009, Baker returned to work with characteristic optimism, quoting The Beatles lyric, “I’ve got to admit it’s getting better.”
Glenn A. Baker leaves behind an extraordinary body of work that helped define how Australian popular music has been documented, preserved and celebrated. Through his books, broadcasts, recordings, archive and advocacy, generations of Australian music fans gained a deeper understanding of the artists and recordings that shaped the nation’s soundtrack. He is survived by his family.
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