Eric Clapton (CBE) is an English blues-rock guitarist and singer-songwriter, and one of the most influential musicians of all time.

Born 30^th March 1945, Clapton received his first acoustic guitar on his thirteenth birthday and spent much of his late teens busking around Richmond, Kingston and the West End of London. However, in October 1963 he got his big break when he joined the blues-influenced rock and roll band The Yardbirds. The group, now infamous for starting the careers of three of the world’s greatest guitarists – Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page (founder of Led Zeppelin) – pioneered several electronic guitar techniques, such as distortion, feedback and echo, and scored  a number of UK hits including For Your Love, Over Under Sideways Down and Heart Full of Soul.

Clapton left The Yardbirds in May 1965 to form Cream – the world’s first supergroup. They scored a number of UK and US hits, including I Feel Free, Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, Crossroads and Badge, before breaking up in November 1968. Clapton then formed the group Derek and the Dominoes which, while only releasing one album, will forever be remembered for the smash hit single Layla – often voted one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

Eric Clapton went solo in the early 1970s and scored a critical and commercial hit with his 1974 album 461 Ocean Boulevard. It’s notable for including the song I Shot the Sheriff – a cover of the then-unknown Bob Marley’s song and credited with bringing both Marley and reggae music as a whole into the mainstream – as well as the hit single Willie and the Hand Jive.

Since 1975 Clapton has released a further seventeen studio albums and scored hits with singles like Wonderful Tonight, I Can’t Stand It, My Father’s Eyes and Tears in Heaven. He was recently ranked fourth in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.