Arthur Baker Cancels Australian Tour For Health Reasons

Legendary electro pioneer has pulled out of his upcoming Australian tour after aggravating a long term leg injury. Baker had been due to perform at the History of Breaks 3 events taking place across the continent.

"Arthur's doctor has advised him that the danger of travelling on a long plane flight with restricted sitting presents a possible risk to his long-term health, considering he is nearing the age of fifty," said local promoters Fuzzy in a statement.

"We wish to apologise on Arthur's behalf for the cancellation of this tour that he and his fans greatly anticipated."

The US superstar producer helped invent hip hop when he partnered Afrika Bambaataa to record Planet Rock also helping to transform New Order into one of the world's greatest dance acts along the way.

"They were very quiet and they didn't have any songs," Arthur told Skrufff recently, recalling his first recording sessions with the Manchester band.

"We went to my friend's studio in Brooklyn, stood around the synthesizers and keyboards and just looked at each other. We ended up writing Confusion and Thieves Like Us so we did quite well for two days of writing. I remember sitting in a room writing the lyrics of Confusion together and smoking a lot of spliff (marijuana)."

New Order's Peter Hook recalled the early 80s collaboration with equal fondness.

"We thought that Arthur Baker was going to be this technological genius creating these dance records and really he was just a punk let loose in a recording studio who didn't know what the f*cking hell he was doing - he was just pushing sliders up and down," he revealed.

"We were terrified of going over there to meet him but when we got there we realized he was just like us. We thought he was brilliant. And he thought we were. He's still a great friend, he's a great guy."

DJ Dexter from the Avalanches will be filling in for Arthur Baker on the Australian tour.
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