Eric Clapton
 Eric
Patrick Clapp was born in Ripley, Surrey (UK) on March 30, 1945 and raised
to believe his maternal grandparents - Rose and Jack Clapp - were
actually his mother and father, that his uncle was his brother, and
that his mother, Patricia, was his sister.
Patricia had become pregnant with Eric at the age of 16 to a
visiting Canadian soldier during WWII. Eric finally learned the truth
aged nine, but his grandparents' remained his legal guardians until he
was 18.
He
was educated at St Bede's Secondary Modern, and was given his first
guitar on his 14th birthday by his grandparents. In 1963, after playing guitar in a number of
unsuccessful local bands, Clapton was asked to join R&B group The
Yardbirds who had just taken over The Rolling
Stones' residency at
the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, Surrey.
With his playing ability and his suitably
sharp dressing style, Clapton became the bands focal point and was
given the nickname "slowhand" by the groups manager Giorgio Gomelsky.
But by March 1965, opposing The
Yardbirds shift from R&B to pop,
Clapton had left the band.
After a brief spell with John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers, he set off in a large American car with a group of
musicians known variously as The Glands and The Greek Loon Band with
the intention to play their way around the world.
By the time they reached Athens, the band
had splintered with some members returning home to England. Clapton
persevered for a while, filling in with a Greek club band, before a
blackmail attempt from the club owner (who wanted Eric to stay in
Greece) saw Clapton leave the country without his clothes or his new
Marshal amp, and in November he was back with the Bluesbreakers.
By July 1966, Clapton had his own new band
rehearsed, signed to a record label and ready to gig. The new
three-piece group were called Cream . . . but at the close of 1968 he
broke up the band, explaining that musically they had gone as far as
they could go. Clapton and Ginger Baker then teamed up with Steve
Winwood to form a new group, eventually named Blind
Faith, who made
their debut on June 7th 1969 in a free concert in London's Hyde Park
before an audience of 36,000.
Once again Clapton rapidly lost interest,
and by the end of the decade Blind Faith
were gone and he was
concentrating on a series of cameo appearances with John
Lennon,
Delaney and Bonnie, George Harrison and Rita Coolidge. He recorded his
first solo album, Eric Clapton in March 1970, concurrently
playing live shows with his new backing band, performing as Derek and
the Dominoes. The album Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs was
credited to Derek & The Dominoes, and Clapton refused to have his name
on the sleeve in an attempt to escape his guitar-hero image.
As Clapton's drug dependency worsened, he
retired to his Surrey home and stayed a virtual recluse for much of
the early 70s. It was Pete Townshend of The Who who enticed Clapton
back on stage after his heroin addiction, organizing an all-star
comeback concert for him at London's Rainbow Theatre in January
1973. The concert was recorded and released as Eric Clapton's
Rainbow Concert, with Steve Winwood, Ron Wood, Jim Capaldi and
others all making guest appearances, but despite these efforts,
Clapton retreated once again and began electro-acupuncture treatment
for his drug addiction.
By 1974 he was ready for a return, and
recorded 461 Ocean Boulevard in Miami, USA. The first fruit of
his comeback was a rock/reggae version of Bob
Marley's I Shot The
Sheriff which topped the US charts and reached Number 3 in the UK,
and for the next six years Clapton continued to record and tour the
world (having put together an awesome - and large - backing band).
The 80s began with a series of unfortunate
incidents when, in 1981, Clapton was hospitalized in the US for
bleeding ulcers (causing the cancellation of a 60-date tour). A month
later he was hospitalized again, this time with injuries sustained in
a car accident. For the remainder of the 80s, Clapton primarily
busied himself with cameo appearances at charity events (such as the
Prince's Trust Rock Gala and benefit gigs for the ARMS charity) and
movie and TV soundtrack composition - His score for the UK TV series
Edge Of Darkness earned him an Ivor Novello award in 1986.
The new decade started terribly with
Clapton losing his driving license for speeding early in 1990. Later
that year, three members of his tour entourage (including his agent
and his tour manager) were killed in a helicopter crash in the US
which also took the life of guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. A year
later, Clapton's four-year-old son Conor climbed out of an open window
and plunged 700 feet to his death from the 53rd floor of an East 57th
Street apartment in New York.
His popularity and success continued
throughout the 90s, with a series of sell-out concerts, critically
acclaimed albums and soundtracks, and a string of awards (including,
in November 95, an OBE at Buckingham Palace). HISTORICAL
NOTE
Eric's biological father, Edward Walter Fryer, was given a
dishonorable discharge after going AWOL at the end of WWII and spent
his life as a traveling musician, marrying many times and latterly
living on a boat. He died of leukemia in 1985 without ever knowing his
son. |
