Editing Eric Clapton (section)

==Early life==
Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in [[Ripley, Surrey]], England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton (1929–1999) and Edward Walter Fryer (1920–1985), a 25-year-old soldier from [[Montreal]], Quebec.<ref>Harry Shapiro (1992) ''Eric Clapton: Lost in the Blues'' pg. 29. Guinness, 1992</ref> Fryer was drafted to war before Clapton's birth and then returned to Canada. Clapton grew up believing that his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, Patricia's stepfather, were his parents, and that his mother was actually his older sister. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that Clapton's real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Rose's first husband, Eric Clapton's maternal grandfather).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna21196319|title=Ladies and gentlemen, Eric Clapton|work=TODAY.com|date=8 October 2007 |access-date=22 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003191356/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21196319/ns/today-books/|archive-date=3 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany,<ref name=CND>{{cite book|author=Vinita|title=Profiles in Popular Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obs89cWwqZoC&pg=PA71|year=2005|publisher=Sura Books|isbn=978-81-7478-638-8|page=71|access-date=30 August 2016|archive-date=10 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810043552/https://books.google.com/books?id=obs89cWwqZoC&pg=PA71|url-status=live}}</ref> leaving Eric with his grandparents in Surrey.<ref name=GUI/>

Clapton received an acoustic [[Hoyer Guitars|Hoyer guitar]], made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest.<ref name=GUI>Bob Gulla (2008) [https://books.google.com/books?id=DL3I9qQWdeAC&q=eric+clapton+hoyer&pg=PA40 Guitar Gods: The 25 Players Who Made Rock History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505173934/https://books.google.com/books?id=DL3I9qQWdeAC&q=eric+clapton+hoyer&pg=PA40 |date=5 May 2023 }} pgs. 40–41. Retrieved 29 December 2010</ref> Two years later he picked it up again and started playing consistently.<ref name=GUI/> He was influenced by [[blues music]] from an early age, and practised long hours learning the [[chord (music)|chords]] of blues music by playing along to the records.<ref name=clap/> He preserved his practice sessions using his portable [[Grundig]] reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he was satisfied.<ref name=clap>Clapton, Eric (2007) ''Eric Clapton: The Autobiography'', pg. 22. Century, 2007</ref><ref name=thomp/>

In 1961, after leaving [[Hollyfield School]] in [[Surbiton]], he studied at the [[Kingston College of Art]] but was expelled at the end of the academic year because his focus had remained on music rather than art. His guitar playing was sufficiently advanced that, by the age of 16, he was getting noticed.<ref name=thomp/> Around this time, he began [[busking]] around [[Kingston upon Thames|Kingston]], [[Richmond, London|Richmond]], and the [[West End of London|West End]].<ref>Welch, Chris (1994) [http://www.cream2005.com/theband_ericclapton.lasso Extract] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918215814/http://www.cream2005.com/theband_ericclapton.lasso |date=18 September 2012 }}</ref>
In 1962, he started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast [[Dave Brock]] in pubs around Surrey.<ref name=thomp>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Dave |date=2006 |title=Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm |location=London |publisher=Virgin Books |pages=31–32 |author-link=Dave Thompson (author)}}</ref> When he was 17, he joined his first band, an early British [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] group, the Roosters, whose other guitarist was [[Tom McGuinness (musician)|Tom McGuinness]]. He stayed with them from January until August 1963.<ref name=":1"/> In October of that year, he performed a seven-gig stint with [[Brian Cassar|Casey Jones and the Engineers]].<ref name=":1" />