Richard Clapton
Encyclopedia
Richard Clapton is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sydney, New South Wales. His solo top 20 hits on the Kent Music Report
Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" (1975) and "I Am an Island" (1982). His top 20 albums on the related Albums Chart are Goodbye Tiger (1977), Hearts on the Nightline (1979), The Great Escape (1982), and The Very Best of Richard Clapton (1982). As a producer
he worked on the second INXS
album, Underneath the Colours
(1981). In 1983, he briefly joined The Party Boys
for a tour of eastern Australia and the live album, Greatest Hits (Of Other People)
(1983) before resuming his solo career.
Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane described Clapton as "one of the most important Australian songwriters of the 1970s". On 12 October 1999, Clapton was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association
(ARIA) Hall of Fame
. As from May 2010, he is writing an autobiography, expected for release later in the year.
, he described himself as being 50-something. An article in Who magazine (1996) gives his birth year as 1951, while Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
(1999) has 1949. Clapton's mother was a night nurse at a Sydney hospital and his Australian-Chinese father was a surgeon—they had a volatile relationship and divorced when Clapton was two years old. During his childhood, Clapton had no contact with his father and lived with his mother who had mental health problems. She would periodically place him in care until she committed suicide when he was aged ten. Clapton met his father at her funeral and was subsequently enrolled in a Sydney boarding school, Trinity Grammar, at Summer Hill
. As an adolescent he listened to the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan
, and was given his first electric guitar by a school friend's father. He cites Richard Wherrett
—his house master and English teacher at Trinity who later became a prominent theatre director—as an early mentor.
In 1965, Clapton formed Darktown Strutters with Ross Andreasen, Mick Bradley, Will Fowler, Dennis Hunter, Ross Lamonde and Ian Peepman. He left school in his final year without completing his mathematics examination. He played guitar while training as a commercial artist in the 1960s. He raised enough money to board ship in 1967 to London where he played with three locals in a pre-punk group, followed by a group with four North Americans who were raided by the police for marijuana importing. Clapton changed his birth name, using the last names of two of his heroes Keith Richards
and Eric Clapton
. His visa had expired and he moved to Germany, where he played in a band titled Bitch and worked solo in folk clubs and on streets busking. Clapton, as guitarist and vocalist, was a member of Sopwith Camel (not the United States band of same name
), with Burghard Rausch on drums and Michael Günther on bass guitar (both members of krautrock
group Agitation Free
). Clapton emerged in the early 1970s as a singer-songwriter in the "troubadour" style of Neil Young
and Jackson Browne
.
. His debut single, "Last Train to Marseilles", was released in October. Clapton was backed by Red McKelvie
(guitar, ex-The Flying Circus
), Kenny Kitching (pedal steel), John Capek
(piano, ex-Carson (see Broderick Smith)) and John Bois (bass guitar) and Tony Bolton (drums), both from Country Radio (see Greg Quill
). At the end of the year he briefly joined a jazz-rock
group, Sun
, for six weeks into early 1973—he replaced their previous singer Renée Geyer
.
Clapton's debut LP album
, Prussian Blue appeared in November—it included "Last Train to Marseilles" from a year earlier—and was produced by Richard Batchens
(Blackfeather
, Sherbet
). Two more singles were issued, "All the Prodigal Children" in October and "I Wanna Be a Survivor" in July 1974. On "Hardly Know Myself" and "I Wanna Be a Survivor" Clapton was backed by The La De Das
, with other tracks variously featuring McKelvie, Glenn Cardier (guitar), Russell Dunlop
(drums), Mike Perjanik
(organ), Trevor Wilson and Mike Lawler (bass guitar) and Ian Bloxham (percussion). According to rock historian Noel McGrath, the album suffered from lack of radio exposure—Australian commercial pop radio was overtaken by a local version of the Drake-Chenault
"More Music" format—with a drastically restricted play list shutting out many Australian performers. Due to Clapton's solid grass-roots support, Prussian Blue sold steadily by word of mouth and four years later it was still selling 200-500 copies per week. Critics praised his album which contained songs written while in Europe and Festival kept him on their books.
Singles Chart in March. According to Clapton:
The song was written about Clapton's visits to a street near his home to watch girls walking past—it was seen as a paean
to prostitutes by the record label, radio commentators and the prostitutes themselves. The album, Girls on the Avenue, also produced by Batchens appeared in April; for touring and session work, he formed the Richard Clapton Band with John Carr on guitar, Ken Firth on bass guitar, Ace Follington on drums, McKelvie on guitar, and Tony Slavich on keyboards. The album cover depicted Clapton with three women—one was a prostitute. Other tracks dealt with similar themes to his debut album. A second single, "Down the Road", was released in June but did not chart.
Clapton moved to Melbourne to write new material for his third album, Main Street Jive released in July 1976, again produced by Batchens. He contributed six tracks to the film soundtrack for Highway One (1976). The soundtrack included the single "Capricorn Dancer", which reached No. 40 in early 1977 and remains a concert staple. Other contributors to the soundtrack, produced and engineered by Batchens, were The Dingoes
, Bilgola Bop Band, Skyhooks and Ol' 55
with one track each. Clapton toured Europe at the end of 1976 with his band including Slavich, Michael Hegerty (bass guitar, ex-Stars
), Kirk Lorange (lead guitar) and Jim Penson (drums, ex-Blackfeather).
His backing band for Goodybe Tiger was: Hegerty, Lorange, Gunther Gorman (guitar), Diane McLennan (backing vocals), Cleis Pearce (viola, ex-MacKenzie Theory) and Greg Sheehan (drums, ex-Blackfeather, MacKenzie Theory). Additional musicians included Tony Ansell (keyboards), Tony Buchanan (saxophone) and Penson. Australian rock music historian, Chris Spencer, cites the album as one of his favourites, "[It] represents one of the pinnacles of Australian rock music. Clapton, essentially a singer-songwriter, working within the security of numerous band line-ups, wrote his best lyrics on this album. He never reached the same heights again, particularly with his melodies, visions and observations of urban Australia".
During 1978 Clapton toured nationally with Ansell, Hegerty, Lorange, McLennan and Sheehan. Late in the year he travelled to Los Angeles to record his fifth studio album Hearts on the Nightline. Released in April 1979, it was produced by Dallas Smith for the Interfusion label on Festival. The album peaked at No. 17 but failed to attract international attention, Clapton supported its release with a 75-date national tour. He returned to Sydney in 1980 to record his next album, Dark Spaces.
). It peaked in the top 30 and was dedicated to Durant who had died of cancer in May, before its release. Members of Stars, and various artists including Clapton, performed at the Andrew Durant Memorial Concert in August, which was released as a live double-album in February 1981. In May, Clapton produced the third single, "The Loved One
", for New Wave
band, INXS
, which was recorded at Studios 301 in Sydney. It was a cover of a 1966 song by The Loved Ones
and peaked in the Top 20. In July–August, he produced their second album Underneath the Colours
, which reached the Top 20 after its October release.
In 1982 he signed with WEA and the Mark Opitz
-produced The Great Escape had contributions from members of Cold Chisel
and INXS. The album, which peaked at No. 8 in March, spawned three singles. The hard-rocking "I Am an Island", with Cold Chisel's Ian Moss
on guitar and Jimmy Barnes
on backing vocals, reached the top 20. Two other singles, "Spellbound" (April) and "The Best Years of Our Lives" (September) did not chart in the top 50. In May, WEA released his compilation, The Very Best of Richard Clapton, which reached No. 18 with The Great Escape still in the top 20.
In 1983, Clapton joined The Party Boys
, taking over lead vocals from James Reyne
(Australian Crawl
), the live album Greatest Hits (Of Other People)
and a single, "I Fought the Law
"—a cover of the Sonny Curtis
song—resulted from an extensive tour of the east coast of Australia. Clapton left the band to re-focus on his solo career and handed over vocals to Shirley Strachan (ex-Skyhooks).
In September 1984, Clapton released Solidarity on Mushroom Records
which was produced by Opitz, Ricky Fataar
, Tim Kramer and Moffatt. For the album he used Graham Bidstrup
on drums (ex-The Angels
, The Party Boys), James Black on keyboards (ex-Mondo Rock
), Kevin Borich
on guitar (ex-La De Das, The Party Boys), Fataar on drums, Allan Mansfield on keyboards (Dragon), Graham Thompson on bass guitar (ex-Stars), and backing vocals from Mary Bradfield, Venetta Fields
and Mark Williams
. Clapton and Borich released the duet single, "Spirit of Sydney" in 1986.
Clapton rejoined WEA in 1987 for his next album, Glory Road, released in October, and its three singles, which were produced by Jon Farriss
of INXS as a return favour for the production of Underneath the Colours. A live album, The Best Years of Our Lives was recorded on 16 April 1989 and released in September. His band were Hegerty, Lorange, Moffatt on guitar, Jeff Bartolomei on keyboards, Ben Butler on guitar, and Steve Sowerby on drums. The album peaked in the top 30 on the Australian Recording Industry Association
(ARIA) Albums Chart
.
/Columbia Records
for the release of Distant Thunder in May 1993. The album spawned four singles and was produced by Clapton, it charted in the top 40 but no single reached the top 50 on ARIA's Singles Chart. His second album for Sony, Angeltown appeared in May 1996 with a single, "Dixieland" in March—neither appeared in their respective top 50 charts. In September 1999, Clapton released a compilation album, "Definitive Anthology", which peaked in the top 30. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame
on 12 October.
Clapton spent four years writing and recording the album, Diamond Mine, at his home studio, a process he described as the most creatively liberating experience of his recording career. It was released in May 2004—eight years after his previous studio album—but did not chart. On his 2006 album, Rewired, also recorded in the home studio, Clapton provided "unplugged" acoustic
versions of his early songs.
Clapton had appeared on Countdown—an Australian pop music show on national broadcaster, ABC-TV
—during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He toured with other artists in the Countdown Spectacular
2 concert series in Australia between late-August and early-September 2007. He sang three of his songs, including the crowd favourite, "Girls on the Avenue".
In 2008, on Australia Day
(26 January) Clapton appeared in a performance held at Parliament House, Canberra
. To celebrate 35 years of recording, Clapton held a one off concert at the Sydney State Theatre
on 28 June. The event was sold out in days and featured a line-up of Australian musicians who had played with him including Jon Farriss from INXS. The performance was recorded for Live at the State Theatre released in October.
Clapton decided to showcase his pivotal 1977 album Goodbye Tiger at the same venue in September 2009. The first concert sold out in less than an hour and a second was added. The entire album was performed as well as an eclectic mix of old and new songs played in the second set. On the second night Clapton and band were joined by Moss (Cold Chisel) who played a rendition of "I Am an Island". Clapton inducted one of his favourite bands, The Dingoes
into the ARIA Hall Of Fame on 29 August. Clapton's portrait by Alexander McKenzie was a finalist in the 2009
Archibald Prize
. In October 2010, Goodbye Tiger was listed at No. 15 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums
.
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" (1975) and "I Am an Island" (1982). His top 20 albums on the related Albums Chart are Goodbye Tiger (1977), Hearts on the Nightline (1979), The Great Escape (1982), and The Very Best of Richard Clapton (1982). As a producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
he worked on the second INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
album, Underneath the Colours
Underneath the Colours
Underneath the Colours is Australian rock group INXS' second album. It was released in Australia in 1981. It was with this album that Michael Hutchence's songwriting started to mature and the band started to find a unique sound. Included were political songs and their very first ballad...
(1981). In 1983, he briefly joined The Party Boys
The Party Boys
The Party Boys was an Australian rock band with floating membership that existed from 1982 until 1992. Initially established by Mondo Rock bass player Paul Christie as a part-time venture for professional musicians with downtime from other projects, the group has boasted members from acts such as...
for a tour of eastern Australia and the live album, Greatest Hits (Of Other People)
Greatest Hits (of Other People)
Greatest Hits is the second album by Australian rock band The Party Boys. It was recorded live during a tour in 1983.-Track listing:#I'm a Rocker#I Fought the Law#Highway Chile#Runaway#Sweet Emotion#Sugar Shack#Stealer...
(1983) before resuming his solo career.
Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane described Clapton as "one of the most important Australian songwriters of the 1970s". On 12 October 1999, Clapton was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
(ARIA) Hall of Fame
ARIA Hall of Fame
Since 1988 the Australian Recording Industry Association has inducted artists into its ARIA Hall of Fame. While most have been recognised at the annual ARIA Music Awards, in 2005 ARIA sought to create a separate standalone "ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame" event as only one or two acts could be inducted...
. As from May 2010, he is writing an autobiography, expected for release later in the year.
Early years
Richard Clapton's year of birth is elusive: in a 2002 interview with a Melbourne newspaper, The AgeThe Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, he described himself as being 50-something. An article in Who magazine (1996) gives his birth year as 1951, while Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop or Rock and Pop by Australian music journalist Ian McFarlane is a guide to Australian popular music from the 1950s to the late 1990s...
(1999) has 1949. Clapton's mother was a night nurse at a Sydney hospital and his Australian-Chinese father was a surgeon—they had a volatile relationship and divorced when Clapton was two years old. During his childhood, Clapton had no contact with his father and lived with his mother who had mental health problems. She would periodically place him in care until she committed suicide when he was aged ten. Clapton met his father at her funeral and was subsequently enrolled in a Sydney boarding school, Trinity Grammar, at Summer Hill
Summer Hill, New South Wales
Summer Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Summer Hill is located 8 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Ashfield....
. As an adolescent he listened to the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and was given his first electric guitar by a school friend's father. He cites Richard Wherrett
Richard Wherrett
Richard Bruce Wherrett AM was an influential and successful Australian theatrical director, whose career spanned 40 years.Richard Wherrett was born in 1940...
—his house master and English teacher at Trinity who later became a prominent theatre director—as an early mentor.
In 1965, Clapton formed Darktown Strutters with Ross Andreasen, Mick Bradley, Will Fowler, Dennis Hunter, Ross Lamonde and Ian Peepman. He left school in his final year without completing his mathematics examination. He played guitar while training as a commercial artist in the 1960s. He raised enough money to board ship in 1967 to London where he played with three locals in a pre-punk group, followed by a group with four North Americans who were raided by the police for marijuana importing. Clapton changed his birth name, using the last names of two of his heroes Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. His visa had expired and he moved to Germany, where he played in a band titled Bitch and worked solo in folk clubs and on streets busking. Clapton, as guitarist and vocalist, was a member of Sopwith Camel (not the United States band of same name
Sopwith Camel (band)
Sopwith Camel was a rock music band associated with the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene of the late 1960s.-Career:The band formed in late 1965 and their line-up consisted of vocalist and saxophone player Peter Kraemer, guitarists Terry MacNeil and William "Truckaway" Sievers, bassist Martin...
), with Burghard Rausch on drums and Michael Günther on bass guitar (both members of krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
group Agitation Free
Agitation Free
Agitation Free was a German experimental krautrock band. The band was formed in 1967 with Michael "Fame" Günther , Lutz "Lüül" Ulbrich , Lutz Ludwig Kramer and Christopher Franke . They were initially called Agitation, a name they chose at random from a dictionary...
). Clapton emerged in the early 1970s as a singer-songwriter in the "troubadour" style of Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
and Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
.
Debut album: Prussian Blue
In 1972, Clapton returned to Australia and signed a publishing deal with Essex Music and a recording deal with Infinity Records, a subsidiary of Festival RecordsFestival Records (Australia)
Festival Records was an Australian music recording and publishing company which was founded in Sydney in 1952 and operated until 2005....
. His debut single, "Last Train to Marseilles", was released in October. Clapton was backed by Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie is a New Zealand singer-songwriter-instrumentalist and session musician who has been described as "Australasia's greatest pop guitarist"....
(guitar, ex-The Flying Circus
The Flying Circus (band)
The Flying Circus was a pioneering Australian country rock band who had a number of pop hits in Australia from 1968 to 1971 and then re-located to Canada from 1971 to 1974 where they also achieved a degree of success.-Beginnings:...
), Kenny Kitching (pedal steel), John Capek
John Capek
-Biography:John Capek was born in Prague, Czech Republic, the son of a concert pianist and his wife, a survivor of Auschwitz. Capek moved with his family to Melbourne, Australia at the age of three.-Career:...
(piano, ex-Carson (see Broderick Smith)) and John Bois (bass guitar) and Tony Bolton (drums), both from Country Radio (see Greg Quill
Greg Quill
Greg Quill is an Australian-born musician, singer, songwriter and journalist who has been resident in Toronto, Canada since the late 1970s, where he is an entertainment columnist and long-serving staff member of the Toronto Star newspaper.-Biography:...
). At the end of the year he briefly joined a jazz-rock
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
group, Sun
Sun 1972
Originally from Wollongong, a town on the South Coast of NSW Keith Shadwick, Gary Norwell, Henry Correy, Ian Smith and blues guitarist Allan Vander Linden formed a blues band called King Biscuit which play the universities and nightclub circuit in Sydney in 1968-71...
, for six weeks into early 1973—he replaced their previous singer Renée Geyer
Renée Geyer
Renée Rebecca Geyer is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" in the 1970s and...
.
Clapton's debut LP album
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, Prussian Blue appeared in November—it included "Last Train to Marseilles" from a year earlier—and was produced by Richard Batchens
Richard Batchens
Richard Batchens is an Australian record producer and recording engineer. He was the main in-house producer for the Australian recording company Festival Records in the early-mid 1970s and was one of the most prominent and successful producers of the era....
(Blackfeather
Blackfeather
Blackfeather was an Australian rock group in the 1970s. The group had many members and went through two major incarnations - the earlier heavy rock version of the group, which recorded the album At The Mountains of Madness and the hit single "Seasons of Change", and the later piano-based lineup...
, Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
). Two more singles were issued, "All the Prodigal Children" in October and "I Wanna Be a Survivor" in July 1974. On "Hardly Know Myself" and "I Wanna Be a Survivor" Clapton was backed by The La De Das
The La De Das
The La De Das were a leading New Zealand rock band of the 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in New Zealand in 1963 , they enjoyed considerable success in both New Zealand and Australia until their split in 1975....
, with other tracks variously featuring McKelvie, Glenn Cardier (guitar), Russell Dunlop
Russell Dunlop
Russell Dunlop was a prominent Australian musician, singer, composer and record producer-engineer, best known for his partnership with Bruce Brown and their co-production of notable 1980s albums and singles by Australian performers including Mental As Anything, The Reels and...
(drums), Mike Perjanik
Mike Perjanik
Mike Perjanik is a New Zealand-born musician, record producer, composer, arranger and bandleader who became well known in Australia from the late 1960s for his work on pop and rock recordings, and as a composer, arranger, bandleader and producer of music for film, television and advertising.-New...
(organ), Trevor Wilson and Mike Lawler (bass guitar) and Ian Bloxham (percussion). According to rock historian Noel McGrath, the album suffered from lack of radio exposure—Australian commercial pop radio was overtaken by a local version of the Drake-Chenault
Drake-Chenault
Drake-Chenault Enterprises was a radio syndication company that specialized in automation on FM radio stations. The company was founded in the late-1960s by radio programmer and deejay Bill Drake , and his business partner, Lester Eugene Chenault...
"More Music" format—with a drastically restricted play list shutting out many Australian performers. Due to Clapton's solid grass-roots support, Prussian Blue sold steadily by word of mouth and four years later it was still selling 200-500 copies per week. Critics praised his album which contained songs written while in Europe and Festival kept him on their books.
Girls on the Avenue
Clapton's commercial breakthrough came with his single, "Girls on the Avenue", issued in January 1975. Although Festival had little faith in the song—initially releasing it as the B-side of "Travelling Down the Castlereagh"—it was picked up by radio and became a major hit, reaching the No. 4 spot on the Australian Kent Music ReportKent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
Singles Chart in March. According to Clapton:
"Not only did I not feel that Girls On The Avenue was the perfect song, but Festival Records rejected that song six times. They'd say to me, 'What's the chorus, is it 'Don't you slip' or 'Friday night ...'?' I don't know! Why does a song have to have a hook or a chorus? You either like the song or you don't!"
The song was written about Clapton's visits to a street near his home to watch girls walking past—it was seen as a paean
Paean
A paean is a song or lyric poem expressing triumph or thanksgiving. In classical antiquity, it is usually performed by a chorus, but some examples seem intended for an individual voice...
to prostitutes by the record label, radio commentators and the prostitutes themselves. The album, Girls on the Avenue, also produced by Batchens appeared in April; for touring and session work, he formed the Richard Clapton Band with John Carr on guitar, Ken Firth on bass guitar, Ace Follington on drums, McKelvie on guitar, and Tony Slavich on keyboards. The album cover depicted Clapton with three women—one was a prostitute. Other tracks dealt with similar themes to his debut album. A second single, "Down the Road", was released in June but did not chart.
Clapton moved to Melbourne to write new material for his third album, Main Street Jive released in July 1976, again produced by Batchens. He contributed six tracks to the film soundtrack for Highway One (1976). The soundtrack included the single "Capricorn Dancer", which reached No. 40 in early 1977 and remains a concert staple. Other contributors to the soundtrack, produced and engineered by Batchens, were The Dingoes
The Dingoes
The Dingoes are an Australian country rock band initially active from 1973 to 1979, formed in Melbourne they relocated to the United States from 1976. Most stable line-up was John Bois on bass guitar, John Lee on drums, Broderick Smith on vocals and harmonica, Chris Stockley on guitar and Kerryn...
, Bilgola Bop Band, Skyhooks and Ol' 55
Ol' 55
Ol' 55 was an Australian band specialising in retro, 1950s-era Rock 'n' Roll. They formed as Fanis in 1972 in Sutherland, Sydney, New South Wales . Drummer Geoff Plummer was working with Glenn A. Baker at the NSW Department of Media and invited Baker to hear his part-time band, including Pat...
with one track each. Clapton toured Europe at the end of 1976 with his band including Slavich, Michael Hegerty (bass guitar, ex-Stars
Stars (Australian band)
-Other appearances:-Members:*Glyn Dowding – drums *Malcolm Eastick – guitar, vocals *Mick Pealing – vocals *Graham Thompson – bass guitar *Andrew Durant – guitar...
), Kirk Lorange (lead guitar) and Jim Penson (drums, ex-Blackfeather).
Goodbye Tiger
Clapton's fourth studio album, Goodbye Tiger, was released in August 1977 and was acclaimed by McFarlane as "his most celebrated work, an album full of rich, melodic and accessible rock with a distinctly Australian flavour. It established Clapton's reputation as one of the most important Australian songwriters of the 1970s.". It reached No. 11 on the albums chart in November 1977. Goodbye Tiger was the final album Clapton recorded for Infinity Records and produced by Batchens. Many Clapton fans regard the melancholic record as his masterpiece: it included two of his enduring songs, the anthemic "Deep Water", which reached No. 43 in November and "Down in the Lucky Country" released in January 1978.His backing band for Goodybe Tiger was: Hegerty, Lorange, Gunther Gorman (guitar), Diane McLennan (backing vocals), Cleis Pearce (viola, ex-MacKenzie Theory) and Greg Sheehan (drums, ex-Blackfeather, MacKenzie Theory). Additional musicians included Tony Ansell (keyboards), Tony Buchanan (saxophone) and Penson. Australian rock music historian, Chris Spencer, cites the album as one of his favourites, "[It] represents one of the pinnacles of Australian rock music. Clapton, essentially a singer-songwriter, working within the security of numerous band line-ups, wrote his best lyrics on this album. He never reached the same heights again, particularly with his melodies, visions and observations of urban Australia".
During 1978 Clapton toured nationally with Ansell, Hegerty, Lorange, McLennan and Sheehan. Late in the year he travelled to Los Angeles to record his fifth studio album Hearts on the Nightline. Released in April 1979, it was produced by Dallas Smith for the Interfusion label on Festival. The album peaked at No. 17 but failed to attract international attention, Clapton supported its release with a 75-date national tour. He returned to Sydney in 1980 to record his next album, Dark Spaces.
1980s
The 1980s saw Clapton consolidate his career in the music industry, working with other artists and as a record producer. His next album, Dark Spaces appeared in July 1980, which he produced. His session musicians included Ansell, Andrew Durant on rhythm guitar (Stars), Clive Harrison on bass guitar (ex-Kush, Avalanche), Mark Moffatt on lead guitar and Kerry Jacobsen on drums (DragonDragon (band)
Dragon is a popular New Zealand rock band, they were formed in Auckland, New Zealand in January 1972 and relocated to Sydney, Australia in May 1975. They were previously led by singer Marc Hunter and are currently led by his brother bass player Todd Hunter...
). It peaked in the top 30 and was dedicated to Durant who had died of cancer in May, before its release. Members of Stars, and various artists including Clapton, performed at the Andrew Durant Memorial Concert in August, which was released as a live double-album in February 1981. In May, Clapton produced the third single, "The Loved One
The Loved One (song)
"The Loved One" is a song by Australian R&B, rock band The Loved Ones and was released in May 1966 as the debut single ahead of their extended play, Blueberry Hill, which appeared in December. The song also featured on their debut Long Play album, Magic Box, in October 1967...
", for New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band, INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
, which was recorded at Studios 301 in Sydney. It was a cover of a 1966 song by The Loved Ones
The Loved Ones
The Loved Ones were an Australian rock band formed in 1965 in Melbourne following the British Invasion. The line-up of Gavin Anderson on drums, Ian Clyne on organ and piano, Gerry Humphrys on vocals and harmonica, Rob Lovett on guitar, and Kim Lynch on bass guitar recorded their early hits...
and peaked in the Top 20. In July–August, he produced their second album Underneath the Colours
Underneath the Colours
Underneath the Colours is Australian rock group INXS' second album. It was released in Australia in 1981. It was with this album that Michael Hutchence's songwriting started to mature and the band started to find a unique sound. Included were political songs and their very first ballad...
, which reached the Top 20 after its October release.
In 1982 he signed with WEA and the Mark Opitz
Mark Opitz
Mark Opitz, started his career with ABC TV in Sydney in the 1970’s and has since gone on to work with many of the great Australian musicians that have graced both the Australian and international music charts for the past 25 years....
-produced The Great Escape had contributions from members of Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel
Cold Chisel is a rock band that originated in Adelaide, Australia. It is one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge sales that continue to this day, although its success and acclaim was almost completely restricted to...
and INXS. The album, which peaked at No. 8 in March, spawned three singles. The hard-rocking "I Am an Island", with Cold Chisel's Ian Moss
Ian Moss
Ian Moss is an Australian rock musician, best known as the guitarist and occasional singer of Cold Chisel. In that group's initial ten year career, Moss recorded eight albums, three of which were No. 1 national hits. His solo career began with a No. 1 album and single and five ARIA Awards...
on guitar and Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...
on backing vocals, reached the top 20. Two other singles, "Spellbound" (April) and "The Best Years of Our Lives" (September) did not chart in the top 50. In May, WEA released his compilation, The Very Best of Richard Clapton, which reached No. 18 with The Great Escape still in the top 20.
In 1983, Clapton joined The Party Boys
The Party Boys
The Party Boys was an Australian rock band with floating membership that existed from 1982 until 1992. Initially established by Mondo Rock bass player Paul Christie as a part-time venture for professional musicians with downtime from other projects, the group has boasted members from acts such as...
, taking over lead vocals from James Reyne
James Reyne
James Reyne is an Australian rock musician and singer/songwriter both as a member of the iconic 1980s band Australian Crawl and solo work.. He is a successful singer/ songwriter and prolific artist...
(Australian Crawl
Australian Crawl
Australian Crawl were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne , Brad Robinson , Paul Williams , Simon Binks and David Reyne in 1978. David Reyne soon left and was replaced by Bill McDonough...
), the live album Greatest Hits (Of Other People)
Greatest Hits (of Other People)
Greatest Hits is the second album by Australian rock band The Party Boys. It was recorded live during a tour in 1983.-Track listing:#I'm a Rocker#I Fought the Law#Highway Chile#Runaway#Sweet Emotion#Sugar Shack#Stealer...
and a single, "I Fought the Law
I Fought the Law
"I Fought the Law" is a song written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets and became popularized by a cover by the Bobby Fuller Four, which went on to become a top-ten hit for the band in 1966 and was also recorded by The Clash in 1979...
"—a cover of the Sonny Curtis
Sonny Curtis
Sonny Curtis is an American singer and songwriter. Most of his work falls into the Pop and Country genres. He was a teenage pal and band member with Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas...
song—resulted from an extensive tour of the east coast of Australia. Clapton left the band to re-focus on his solo career and handed over vocals to Shirley Strachan (ex-Skyhooks).
In September 1984, Clapton released Solidarity on Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
which was produced by Opitz, Ricky Fataar
Ricky Fataar
Ricky Fataar is a South African multi-instrumentalist of Malay descent, who has performed as both a drummer, and a guitarist. He gained fame as an actor in the comedic television movie, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a spoof on the actual history of The Beatles, and for his performance as a...
, Tim Kramer and Moffatt. For the album he used Graham Bidstrup
Graham Bidstrup
Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup is an Australian musician, songwriter, music producer and artist manager. He has been a member of The Angels, The Party Boys and Gang Gajang. He has managed Jimmy Little, Nathan Cavaleri and Diana Ah Naid. He is part of the management team for the Jimmy Little Foundation.-The...
on drums (ex-The Angels
The Angels (Australian band)
The Angels are a hard rock band that formed in Adelaide, Australia in 1970. The band later relocated from Adelaide to Sydney and enjoyed huge local success until well into the 1990s. For the purposes of international release, their records were released under the names Angel City and later The...
, The Party Boys), James Black on keyboards (ex-Mondo Rock
Mondo Rock
Mondo Rock is a rock band from Melbourne, Australia, most prominent in the early 1980s. The band was formed in late 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Ross Wilson.-Early years: 1976–1979:...
), Kevin Borich
Kevin Borich
Kevin Nicholas Borich is a New Zealand-born Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter...
on guitar (ex-La De Das, The Party Boys), Fataar on drums, Allan Mansfield on keyboards (Dragon), Graham Thompson on bass guitar (ex-Stars), and backing vocals from Mary Bradfield, Venetta Fields
Venetta Fields
Venetta Fields is an American singer best known as session musician for leading rock and pop acts of the 1970s including Pink Floyd, Barbra Streisand, Steely Dan and the Rolling Stones...
and Mark Williams
Mark Williams (singer)
Mark Williams is a New Zealand-born pop/soul singer with Recording Industry Association of New Zealand number one hit singles, "Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life" and a cover of Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" before he relocated to Australia later that year. His single,...
. Clapton and Borich released the duet single, "Spirit of Sydney" in 1986.
Clapton rejoined WEA in 1987 for his next album, Glory Road, released in October, and its three singles, which were produced by Jon Farriss
Jon Farriss
Jon Farriss is the drummer for the Australian rock band INXS.-Biography:...
of INXS as a return favour for the production of Underneath the Colours. A live album, The Best Years of Our Lives was recorded on 16 April 1989 and released in September. His band were Hegerty, Lorange, Moffatt on guitar, Jeff Bartolomei on keyboards, Ben Butler on guitar, and Steve Sowerby on drums. The album peaked in the top 30 on the Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
(ARIA) Albums Chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
.
Later years
Clapton was without a recording contract for four years from 1989 and had a few changes of his management until he signed with Sony MusicSony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
/Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
for the release of Distant Thunder in May 1993. The album spawned four singles and was produced by Clapton, it charted in the top 40 but no single reached the top 50 on ARIA's Singles Chart. His second album for Sony, Angeltown appeared in May 1996 with a single, "Dixieland" in March—neither appeared in their respective top 50 charts. In September 1999, Clapton released a compilation album, "Definitive Anthology", which peaked in the top 30. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame
ARIA Hall of Fame
Since 1988 the Australian Recording Industry Association has inducted artists into its ARIA Hall of Fame. While most have been recognised at the annual ARIA Music Awards, in 2005 ARIA sought to create a separate standalone "ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame" event as only one or two acts could be inducted...
on 12 October.
Clapton spent four years writing and recording the album, Diamond Mine, at his home studio, a process he described as the most creatively liberating experience of his recording career. It was released in May 2004—eight years after his previous studio album—but did not chart. On his 2006 album, Rewired, also recorded in the home studio, Clapton provided "unplugged" acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
versions of his early songs.
Clapton had appeared on Countdown—an Australian pop music show on national broadcaster, ABC-TV
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
—during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He toured with other artists in the Countdown Spectacular
Countdown Spectacular
The Countdown Spectacular is a series of concerts reviving the nostalgia of the Australian music television series Countdown.-Countdown Spectacular:...
2 concert series in Australia between late-August and early-September 2007. He sang three of his songs, including the crowd favourite, "Girls on the Avenue".
In 2008, on Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
(26 January) Clapton appeared in a performance held at Parliament House, Canberra
Parliament House, Canberra
Parliament House is the meeting facility of the Parliament of Australia located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and opened on 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia...
. To celebrate 35 years of recording, Clapton held a one off concert at the Sydney State Theatre
State Theatre (Sydney)
The State Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre, located in Market Street, in the city centre of Sydney, Australia.The Sydney Film Festival is hosted there for two weeks each June, and has been there since 1974.-Description and history:...
on 28 June. The event was sold out in days and featured a line-up of Australian musicians who had played with him including Jon Farriss from INXS. The performance was recorded for Live at the State Theatre released in October.
Clapton decided to showcase his pivotal 1977 album Goodbye Tiger at the same venue in September 2009. The first concert sold out in less than an hour and a second was added. The entire album was performed as well as an eclectic mix of old and new songs played in the second set. On the second night Clapton and band were joined by Moss (Cold Chisel) who played a rendition of "I Am an Island". Clapton inducted one of his favourite bands, The Dingoes
The Dingoes
The Dingoes are an Australian country rock band initially active from 1973 to 1979, formed in Melbourne they relocated to the United States from 1976. Most stable line-up was John Bois on bass guitar, John Lee on drums, Broderick Smith on vocals and harmonica, Chris Stockley on guitar and Kerryn...
into the ARIA Hall Of Fame on 29 August. Clapton's portrait by Alexander McKenzie was a finalist in the 2009
Archibald Prize 2009 finalists
Below is a list of finalists for the 2009 Archibald Prize ;* Anthony Bennett - self-portrait in the bathroom discussing beauty, bukowski and brett whiteley with my ex, now a stripper, who likes to dress as wonder woman...
Archibald Prize
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
. In October 2010, Goodbye Tiger was listed at No. 15 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums
100 Best Australian Albums
100 Best Australian Albums is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was published on 25 October 2010 by Hardie Grant Books...
.
Personal life
Clapton's mother was a nurse who died when he was ten, his father was a doctor who died in 2004. Clapton has pterygiums and his eye surgeon recommended he wear dark glasses. Clapton met Susie (aged 41 in May 1996), a fashion model, in the mid-1980s, they married and have twin daughters, Saskia and Montana (aged 18 in January 2009). As from May 2010 he is writing an autobiography, expected for release later in the year.Studio albums
| Year | Title | Chart peak positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
|||
| 1973 | Prussian Blue
|
— | |
| 1975 | Girls on the Avenue
|
33 | |
| 1976 | Main Street Jive
|
64 | |
| 1977 | Goodbye Tiger
|
11 | |
| 1979 | Hearts on the Nightline
|
17 | |
| 1980 | Dark Spaces
|
23 | |
| 1982 | The Great Escape
Warner Music Group Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies... (600106) Mark Opitz Mark Opitz, started his career with ABC TV in Sydney in the 1970’s and has since gone on to work with many of the great Australian musicians that have graced both the Australian and international music charts for the past 25 years.... |
8 | |
| 1984 | Solidarity
Mushroom Records Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros... (RML 53137) Ricky Fataar Ricky Fataar is a South African multi-instrumentalist of Malay descent, who has performed as both a drummer, and a guitarist. He gained fame as an actor in the comedic television movie, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a spoof on the actual history of The Beatles, and for his performance as a... , Tim Kramer |
27 | |
| 1987 | Glory Road
Jon Farriss Jon Farriss is the drummer for the Australian rock band INXS.-Biography:... |
28 | |
| 1993 | Distant Thunder
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... (473531) |
37 | |
| 1996 | Angeltown
Johnny Diesel Johnny Diesel is an Australian musician, who has released material as leader of Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, under his birth name, or by the epithet Diesel... |
89 | |
| 2004 | Diamond Mine
Warner Music Group Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies... |
90 | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||
Compilation albums
| Year | Title | Chart peak positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
|||
| 1978 | Past Hits and Previews
|
42 | |
| 1982 | The Very Best of Richard Clapton
|
18 | |
| 1999 | The Definitive Anthology
Warner Music Group Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies... (3984294362) |
28 | |
| 2004 | The Definitive Collection
|
— | |
| 2006 | Rewired
|
— | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||
Live albums
| Year | Title | Chart peak positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
|||
| 1989 | The Best Years of Our Lives
|
23 | |
| 2001 | Up and Down The Glory Road
|
— | |
| 2008 | Live at the State Theatre
|
— | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||
Soundtrack albums
| Year | Title | Chart peak positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
|||
| 1976 | Highway One
|
— | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||