Q 01/05

Clapton grew up believing that his mother was which relative?

A) His sister

B) His aunt

C) His cousin

D) His godmother

Answer · why

A) His sister

His sister, he was told: his mother was only 16 when he was born, so her own mother and stepfather raised him as their son. He was still a boy when he...

Q 02/05

Clapton's father, a soldier posted to England in the Second World War, came from which country?

A) Poland

B) New Zealand

C) Canada

D) Australia

Answer · why

C) Canada

Canada: Edward Fryer, who played piano in pubs while posted in England, went home before his son was born, and Clapton never met him. The absence runs...

Q 03/05

Which band did Clapton quit in 1965 just as the pop single 'For Your Love' became its first big hit?

A) The Bluesbreakers

B) Manfred Mann

C) The Animals

D) The Yardbirds

Answer · why

D) The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds had been a blues band, and Clapton, a purist, thought the single unacceptably commercial, so he walked out as it climbed the charts. The...

Q 04/05

How did Clapton get his famous nickname?

A) He was a notoriously slow learner on guitar

B) A pun on the slow handclap during string changes

C) A misheard shout of 'Showhand'

D) His unusually slow, wide vibrato

Answer · why

B) A pun on the slow handclap during string changes

A pun on the slow handclap during string changes: when a string snapped he stayed on stage to fit a new one, and the waiting crowd clapped slowly. His...

Q 05/05

Which session guitarist turned down the job of replacing Clapton in 1965 and suggested Jeff Beck instead?

A) Jimmy Page

B) Mick Taylor

C) Peter Green

D) Ritchie Blackmore

Answer · why

A) Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page passed the job to a friend he had known since his teens, then joined the same band himself a year later. When it fell apart in 1968 he rebu...