Last December local garage rock'n'roll band Ratso supported Jack White of The White Stripes in a packed Auckland Town Hall.
Before finishing a blistering concert with their biggest hit, 'Seven Nation Army', Jack White told the audience: “This show is dedicated to our good friend John Baker' - the lead singer of Ratso - "who took The White Stripes on tour here 25 years ago.”
Jack White was a little ahead of himself. Because that 25th anniversary is actually this weekend: November 2025.
The story of how The White Stripes came to have their international debut in Japan and New Zealand - thanks to John Baker and friends - and then explode worldwide, is the stuff of local legend.
But it demands retelling - because at it heart it's about how persistent, plucky, passionate people at the bottom of the world can help change culture.
John Baker, it is fair to say, is obsessed with garage rock n roll. He's long been both its promoter and its archivist in New Zealand, back to earlier days of DIY rock and roll,
Baker first heard the then-little-known White Stripes on a cassette tape at a party in Melbourne. He then hunted them down in the United States through cold calling, until they agreed to come to New Zealand.
This was the duo's first time outside of the United States, playing gigs in Japan and Aotearoa in small venues all because Baker and a backer, friend Amber Easby - who lent the airfare money - believed in them.
RNZ Culture 101 cohost Mark Amery was lucky enough to be at one of those gigs - at Bar Bodega in Wellington. Like everybody else there that night he came out an instant fan.
The story goes that Meg and Jack White had never had anyone look after them on the road before. Such was their New Zealand experience that they invited Baker to continue as tour manager as they went on to become one of the biggest bands on the planet.
John Baker joined Mark Amery in the RNZ studio 25 years to the day The White Stripes landed. An RNZ 10th anniversary documentary is online here.
