A generation was discovering an alien language with which they instinctively felt at home.

That cultural
leap – which began with conversations in record shops, coffee bars and art schools, and eventually
swept the world – is one of the key stories of the last century and is always worth re-examining, as Philip
Norman does in this biography of one of the movement’s pioneers.

Clapton was not alone in this among young British blues musicians but he was certainly a figurehead. He
moved on to join Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in Cream, the trio that established the template for all
forms of heavy rock, and thence to a solo career that, at its height, earned him six Grammy awards in a
single year and a record-breaking run of 24 nights at the Royal Albert Hall.