Articles tagged: eric-clapton

American blues guitarist and singer Buddy Guy performs live playing a Fender Stratocaster guitar on the American Folk Blues Festival tour in London in October 1965

“In the flesh, he was earth-shattering. His style on every level was fantastic… playing with his teeth, his feet, and behind his head": When Buddy Guy rewrote the blues rulebook with a Strat and blew the collective minds of Clapton, Beck and Page

By Neil Crossley published

The inspirational playing of the last living American blues legend: "I was bringing it up to Eric and Jimmy – ‘Have you heard this stuff!?'"

Eric Clapton onstage at Live Aid 1985, playing his 'Blackie' Stratocaster

“Cool with a capital C”: Eric Clapton’s Marshall JCM800 that rocked 1.5 billion people at Live Aid is up for sale

By Jonathan Horsley published

So you need an amp to play guitar in a stadium for a watching TV audience of over a billion people? Well, something has just come in... All you need is a cobbled together Strat

English Blues and Rock musician Eric Clapton plays guitar as he performs onstage, San Francisco, California, August 1975

'The first thing you often hear on any blues record is a taster of what's to come': Here are 40 turnarounds to fire up your blues guitar playing

By Richard Barrett published

Never be short of blues turnaround ideas again with this huge tutorial guide, including tab and audio

Photo of Howlin' Wolf performing live on stage with guitarist Hubert Sumlin (1931-2011) behind

"He showed me some things that Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson had taught him – he knew those people": Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf and their legendary blues legacy

By Julian Piper published

"Mick Jagger walked up to Wolf and said; 'I hope you didn't mind that we cut Little Red Rooster?' Wolf just smiled and said: 'No, man… you guys have put me on the map!'"

CREAM 1967 Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce

“That was just the way it was at that point because Ahmet Ertegun was more or less in love with Eric. He thought Eric should be the frontman”: Cream and the trouble with Strange Brew

By Matt Frost published

The classic opener to Disraeli Gears was never a favourite of Cream's members, and this is why

John Lee Hooker performs on stage, London, circa 1996

John Lee Hooker: "Eric Clapton, John Mayall and all those other people over in England made the blues a big thing. In the States, people didn't want to know"

By Guitarist magazine published

Revisiting a classic 1996 interview: "It was our music originally, but it was those guys in England who made it big and then brought it back to the States"

Pete Townshend of The Who smashes a Fender Telecaster guitar into the speaker cab of his amplifier during a concert at the Oberrheinhalle, Offenburg, Germany, 17th April 1967. Singer Roger Daltrey is behind him on the left. Marshall amplifier heads are visible behind the speaker cabs and the guitar is fitted with a Fender Stratocaster neck

"I remember saying to Eric, 'I'm going to play him off the stage one day'. But what Eric did was even more peculiar, he said, 'Well, I'm going to pretend that I am Jimi Hendrix!'": Pete Townshend looks back in this classic 1990 guitar interview

By Guitarist magazine published

"The thing that really stunned Eric and me was the way he took what we did and made it better"

Cream

“I think that the whole band was kind of misunderstood by everybody, and it gave us a sort of an edge, you know": The story of Cream's Disraeli Gears

By Jamie Dickson published

How Baker, Bruce and Clapton transcended their (and their management's) very different ambitions for Cream to track a '60s masterpiece

Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes

“Brian May did an entire section, about a dozen guitar harmonies:” Mark Knopfler’s all-star Guitar Heroes charity single, Going Home, is released – but who played what?

By Jonathan Horsley published

Featuring over 50 A-list guitarists, the expanded Local Hero theme opens with Jeff Beck's final solo, has Joan Armatrading rocking on electric and May going harmony mad to raise money for teen cancer charities

Eric Clapton and Joe Bonamassa perform on stage at the Royal Albert Hall on May 4, 2009 in London, England

"For me it was either the beginning of the beginning or the beginning of the end": the night Eric Clapton guested with Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall and changed his career

By Rob Laing published

"I can never repay him for what he did because he came out and did something that turned my career around"