Gerry Rafferty missing for six months

Gerry Rafferty, the singer behind the 1978 hit Baker Street, which features one of the most famous saxophone solos in musical history, has been missing for nearly six months after mysteriously disappearing from St Thomas's Hospital in London last August.

According to the Daily Mail, Rafferty was being treated for liver failure having battled alcoholism for many years. Before entering hospital, the 61-year-old Scottish singer had been staying at the Westbury Hotel but he had been asked to leave after rendering the room unusable.

Tony Williams, who formed Stealers Wheel with Rafferty in the 1970s, believes he might be on a 'suicide trip'. "It's absolutely tragic," he said. "If he has liver failure he obviously needs someone to look after him. If he is still alive, somebody must be caring for him.”

Rafferty came out of the Scottish folk scene in the late 1960s and often appeared on stage with Billy Connolly in the Humblebums. But he is best known for Baker Street, in which he sings of giving up “the booze and the one night stands”. It is understood he spent most of last year living out of a suitcase in various hotels, financed by the royalties from that song,  which are estimated at £80,000 a year.

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