Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton was born on March 30, 1945 at his
grandparents' home in Ripley, Surrey, England. His mother was 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton
and his father was Edward Fryer, a 24-year-old Canadian soldier stationed in England. Before
Clapton was born, Fryer returned to his wife in Canada. Pat's
parents, Rose and Jack Clapp, cared for young Eric. Eventually,
Pat met another Canadian soldier, Frank McDonald. After their
marriage, they would move to Canada and Germany as McDonald
continued his military career. Clapton's grandparents never legally adopted
him, but remained his guardians until 1963.
Quiet and polite, Clapton was characterized as an above-average
student with an aptitude for art. From his earliest years in school,
he realized something was not quite right when he wrote his name
as "Eric Clapton" and his parents' names as "Mr. and Mrs. Clapp".
At the age of nine, Clapton's emotional world was shattered when
Pat returned to England with his six-year-old half brother for a visit.
He had been raised under the illusion that his grandparents were his
parents and that his mother was his older sister, ostensibly to
protect him from the truth. This singular event would change
Clapton's personality and create a loss of identity. He became
moody and distant and stopped applying himself at school.
Emotionally scarred by this event, Clapton failed the all-important
11 Plus Exams. He was sent to St. Bede's Secondary Modern
School, and two years later, entered the art branch of Holyfield
Road School. In 1961, Clapton began studying at the Kingston
College of Art on a one-year probation. He was expelled at the end
of that time for not submitting enough work. The reason was that
guitar playing and listening to the Blues dominated his waking
hours. Before turning to music as a career, he supported himself as
a laborer at building sites, working alongside his grandfather.
Clapton was raised in a musical household. His grandmother played
piano and his mother and uncle both enjoyed listening to the sounds
of the big bands. (It is interesting to note that his father often made
a living by playing piano.) By 1958, Rock and Roll had exploded
onto the world. Clapton began exploring its
roots in American Blues. The blues meshed perfectly with his
self-perception as an outsider and being "different" from other
people. As a teenager, he asked for a guitar. Finding it
difficult to play, Clapton put that fine guitar aside for a time. He
began playing again around the time he started college. Sometime in
1962, he asked for his grandparents' help in purchasing a 100
pound electric double cutaway Kay (a Gibson ES335 clone) after
hearing the electric blues of Freddie King, B.B. King, Muddy
Waters, Buddy Guy, and others.
In early 1963, Clapton joined his first band, The Roosters.
Following the band's demise, he spent one month in the
pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers. In October 1963,
Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith recruited him to become a
member of The Yardbirds because Clapton was the most talked
about player on the R&B pub circuit. It was with The Yardbirds
that Clapton made his first albums Five Live Yardbirds, Sonny Boy
Williamson and The Yardbirds, and the single, "Good Morning
Little Schoolgirl". During this time, he also earned his nickname,
"Slowhand", because whenever he would break a string on stage,
he would change it to the accompaniment of a "slow hand clap"
from the audience. His serious research into the American Blues
continued and when The Yardbirds began moving towards a more
commercial sound with the single "For Your Love", he quit the
band. His path in music was the blues.
In April 1965, John Mayall invited Clapton to join his band, John
Mayall's Bluesbreakers. During his tenure with this band, Clapton
established his reputation as a powerful blues guitarist. His time with the band was
turbulent and Clapton even left for a while to tour Greece with
friends, calling themselves jestfully, "The Glands". Upon his return in the winter of 1966, he was welcomed back into Mayall's band, and the album 'Blues Breakers with Eric
Clapton' was recorded. Also happening about that time was a session recording that brought Winwood and Clapton together, the EC & the Powerhouse recordings for Elektra Records in London.
In the spring of 1966, Eric teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to
form The Cream. Extensive touring in the U.S. and four groundbreaking albums
('Fresh Cream', 'Disraeli Gears', 'Wheels of Fire', and Goodbye Cream') brought the
band worldwide acclaim. While a member of The Cream, he enhanced
his reputation as a premier guitarist. The band crumbled
beneath the weight of the member's egos, constant arguing, and the incessant leveraging of Robert Stigwood's organisation (More on Stigwood and the organizastion in the Origins/Aftermath pages).
Following The Cream's break-up in the autumn of 1968, Clapton wandered for several months, then hung-out with fellow musicians, including Stevie WInwood, and finally co-founded Blind
Faith with Winwood,accepting
Baker, and Grech to make it a foursome. Disbanding after a whirlwind experience including one album, a euphoric free concert in London, a somewhat pleasant Scandinavian mini-tour, and a
grueling and demoralizing North American tour, Clapton tried to hide from his growing
fame by touring as a sideman with Delaney and Bonnie & Friends. A live
album from that tour was released in 1970. Clapton's self-titled
debut album was also released in that year. In the summer of 1970, Clapton
formed Derek and the Dominos with members from Delaney &
Bonnie's band. The Dominos would go on to record one of the greatest composition
rock albums, 'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'.
And the rest of his career would take several additional pages to complete, so we end the Clapton biog here! Check out other Clapton websites for post Blind Faith biog information.
Supplemental information:
Eric Clapton - Offical website (Whewwww)
Eric Clapton - Wikipedia page
Eric Clapton - Unoffical website
Where's Eric! - Clapton website links
VH1 Biog & Discog - Clapton
Clapton discographies
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Updated 23 May 2009