Richard Clapton is an icon of the Australian music industry and one of the mainstays that helped lay the foundation for a burgeoning local music scene in the 1970s.
After 50 years in the business, he’s still as busy as ever, performing live shows all around the country. In January, he ventures south from his Sydney base to perform Victorian shows at Bird’s Basement in Melbourne and Archies Creek. With a bulging back catalogue, Clapton can be expected to spring surprises during his live shows.
“I’ve released 22 albums, and 18 of those albums were studio albums of new material,” Clapton says.
“Several years ago, a promoter asked me if I was interested in doing a songs-by-request show.
“He sent out a questionnaire to his database and asked them all what they wanted to hear me play and a list of their favourite songs of mine.
“So that helps with putting together my set list, though I will always play the radio hits as that’s what my fans want to hear.
“I’ve released 260-plus songs, and I’ve worked out that it would take me 1.9 days to play everything I’ve ever written and released!
“And at my age, I still prefer the long shows, more than two hours, but the venues these days are asking for shorter sets that are around 75 minutes — but I can’t play my songs in 75 minutes.”
Clapton rose out of a vibrant and fertile period in Australian music history in the 1970s. It saw an explosion of Aussie music upon the scene like never before — one that we may never see again.
“It was a wonderful community, and the support that artists had back in those days, from all sections of the media, was unlike anything we have today,” Clapton says.
“If I had a gig at some city or town, I would call a radio station or walk into a radio station and ask if I could plug my gig and play a song, and they would always say, ‘Sure, here’s 15 minutes for you’.
“They did that for all the bands, not just me.
“So, we had this whole integrated community, a network where everything was interactive.
“Nowadays, artists are struggling because it’s not like that any more, as now the focus is on social media, but that’s not enough to promote a show.”
Clapton’s most recent album was 2021’s covers release, Music Is Love (1966-1970), which topped the Australian chart, the highest position of any of his albums.
“It was surprising, as I don’t really do covers,” Clapton says.
“It’s an album of San Francisco hippy anthems, and the album sold out its initial copies in two days!
“The late Michael Gudinski mentioned to me that my album could be like Jimmy Barnes’ covers of soul classics, Soul Deep, so he got behind it.
“Everyone from media to fans have all raved about my album, complimenting me on picking all the right songs and how my homage is done in the best way possible to those original artists and their songs.
“These songs are part of my musical DNA, and it’s great to have a record of where I came from.”
Richard Clapton plays Bird’s Basement, Melbourne, on Friday, January 26 and Saturday, January 27 and Archies Creek on Sunday, January 28. Support for his January 26 show comes from yours truly. More info on Richard: https://www.richardclapton.com/
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Behind the song — Sweet Child O’ Mine (1988)
As one of the most famous rock songs of the past 40 years, Sweet Child O’ Mine continues to solidify its musical legacy in the continuing evolution of music history. The instantly recognizable guitar riff that kicks off the song has gone on to become one of the most influential guitar riffs of all time.
I have interviewed Guns ’n’ Roses guitarist Slash on several occasions, and during one of those meetings, I asked Slash how the song came to be written.
“Guns ’n’ Roses were sitting around in this house we were living in at the time,” he told me in 2004.
“And I began noodling around on the guitar, and that intro riff came out of that.
“As I was playing it, Izzy [Stradlin] started playing some chords behind it, then Axl [Rose] heard it and all of a sudden was inspired to write the whole lyrics, which had to do topically with his then-girlfriend [Erin Everly].
“So, the song was written pretty much all there on the spot.
“Before we went in to record it, we worked up the song in pre-production and rehearsal just to make sure we knew what we had to do to play to get the thing properly.
“In the studio, we had it down by the third take.
“And for the longest time, I hated it because Guns ’n’ Roses was such a flat-out hard rock band that I just hated ballads.
“It’s really ironic now because it’s become one of the band’s most popular songs.
“But it wasn’t until years later that I actually started appreciating the song for what it is and enjoyed playing it.”
Fun fact
A recent study conducted by Heidelberg University in Germany found that surgeons who listened to AC/DC while operating were more accurate and efficient. Surgeons who listened to Highway To Hell and T.N.T. saw the time needed to make a precision cut drop from 236 seconds to 139, and they also performed around five per cent better on tests of accuracy.