The Kiwi who brought the White Stripes to New Zealand

A quarter of a century ago, before the White Stripes became one of the biggest bands on the planet, they played a series of small shows in New Zealand.

That they did so was down to the tenacity of promoter and musician John Baker and a handful of fellow White Stripes admirers.

Baker, frontman of Auckland garage band Ratso, first heard the then-little-known US indie garage band on a cassette tape at a party in Melbourne. Captivated, he decided to hunt them down and see if he could persuade them to visit New Zealand.

Baker used old fashioned, pre-social media, detective work to track down White to a bar in the US, he told RNZ's Culture 101.

“The guy at the bar goes, ‘phone call for Jack White’, and he goes, ‘yeah, that's me’, he was playing pinball at the time, and I kind of crashed in, a quick elevator introduction and pitch, and said, 'do you want to come to New Zealand?'”

White agreed and resumed his game of pinball, Baker says.

“He kind of went, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, how the story goes, he hung up the phone, went back to playing pinball, and was asked, ‘who was that on the phone?’

“And he said, ‘I don't know, some guy from New Zealand’.”

Baker reckons White assumed it was a prank call.

“Especially with my Kiwi accent at the time.”

But visit they did. It was the duo’s first time playing outside of the United States, they played small venue gigs in Japan and Aotearoa all because Baker and a backer, his friend Amber Easby - who lent the airfare money for them to come - believed in them.

And while they were only playing small shows, they created a media buzz here, he says.

Radio station bFM got behind the band and former RNZ host Kim Hill even played ‘Apple Blossom’ on the Nine to Noon show.

“She's probably the first radio host outside student radio to play the White Stripes.”

Meg and Jack White had never had anyone look after them on the road before and after their New Zealand experience that they invited Baker to continue as their tour manager.

Baker spent much of the next few years touring the US and the world with the band as they got bigger and bigger.

“I always joke about, it was a rental car and I had a Fender Twin on my lap for most of the West Coast and then, you know, got into ridiculous things like helicopter rides and to go to shows and private jets.”

While the ascent of the band was fun, he says, once they reached the top, he realised it was time to step away as tour manager.

“When you're kind of the underdog and you're getting bigger and people are taking notice and it's exciting and then when you get to the top and everything's the same, everything's free, it just takes the challenge out of it kind of for me and I'm not really a money orientated person, it just kind of got flat.”

Baker remains in touch with both Jack and Meg who disbanded White Stripes in 2011, and says he sent them both a happy 25th anniversary message.

“I haven't heard from Meg yet, I'm not holding my breath there, but Jack sent me a nice little message back.”

Baker still recalls the moment he saw the band arrive in Auckland 25 years’ ago.

“I distinctly remember seeing them come through and he walked right past me going ‘da da dah da da da da da’ [humming The Beatles tune ‘From Me to You’] and straight outside to have a cigarette because they'd been on a 12-hour flight.”