Eric Clapton

Genres:	Action & Adventure • Blues • Comedy • Country & Bluegrass • Documentaries • Drama • Holiday & Seasonal • Music & Radio • Music Magazines • Music Videos & Concerts • Musicals & The Arts • Other Magazines • Pop / Rock • R&B / Soul • Soundtracks • Television
Descriptive "tags":	classic rock • blues • rock • blues rock • guitar
Decades Active:	1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Artist Compilations:	Elton John & Kiki Dee (with Eric Clapton) • Elton John (with Eric Clapton)
Links online:	BBC Music • Fan Page • MusicMoz • MySpace • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

Eric Patrick Clapp, 30 March 1945, Ripley, Surrey, England. The world’s premier living rock guitarist will be forever grateful to his grandparents, for they gave him his first guitar. The young Eric was raised by his grandparents Rose and Jack Clapp when his natural mother could not face bringing up an illegitimate child at the age of 16. He received a £14 acoustic guitar for his fourteenth birthday, then proceeded to copy the great blues guitarists note for note. His first band was the Roosters, a local R&B group that included Tom McGuinness, a future member of Manfred Mann, and latterly part of the Blues Band. Clapton stayed for eight months until he and McGuinness left to join Casey Jones And The Engineers. This brief sojourn ended in 1963 when Clapton was sought out by the Yardbirds, an aspiring R&B band, who needed a replacement for their guitarist Tony Topham. The reputation swiftly established by the Yardbirds was largely centred on...

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