Clapton

“Clapton has stirred powerful emotions with his music; powerful and often overwhelming.”

From the Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers to a later career in film and television, for over fifty years Eric Clapton has been carving out a unique place in music history.

Brought up by his grandparents, as a child Clapton was a loner, moody and morose.

Music became his refuge, an outlet for expression, and it was the blues that truly spoke to him.

Given his first guitar at thirteen, the instrument became an extension of him; even in his groups there would be a constant feeling of being one man with his guitar versus the world.

Something of a chameleon in his youth, Clapton’s instinct for survival has seen him through a troubled childhood, drug addictions, alcoholism and glamorous affairs.

Drawing on insights, ideas, opinions and memories from those who know him, in Clapton: Edge of Darkness Christopher Sandford dispels the mythological aura and presents an unflinching account of the life of one of rock’s all-time greats.

Praise for Clapton: Edge of Darkness

‘A comprehensive and readable account of Clapton’s troubled life’ — Observer

‘Well-written, full of insight and spiced with telling little details’ — Q

‘A compulsive portrait of one of rock’s most enigmatic figures’ — Guitar Magazine

Christopher Sandford enjoyed careers in in public relations, cricket and music journalism and writing fiction before turning his hand to biographies. As a music journalist he wrote many features about Eric Clapton on both sides of the Atlantic, including a fiftieth birthday profile for Woman’s Journal.