Strange Brew

Subtitled: Eric Clapton & the British Blues Boom.

This book was inspired by an idea to un-cover the last corner of Eric Clapton's career. Specifically the time period between 1965 and 1970. It is done in a day by day, year by year format detailing performance dates, recording dates and press interviews and releases.

It is fascinating to trace the history as it unfolds. The author, Christopher Hjort, has done a lot of research and pieced it together with his own assumptions when evidence was not available. By this I mean some things documented are placed in likely order based on events before or after.

A lot of players wander through this history but it is mainly focused on Eric, Peter Green and Mick Taylor and the various groups they were in. But it's not just the history, the photographs are impressive as well. The book opens with a shot of Eric Clapton crouched beside two Marshall stacks with an original 'burst. I don't know enough about Clapton's early career to say if it's the "Beano" burst but I have read comments in interviews with him that he could never find another that suited him, and therefore never replaced it.

This book is just a great read for fans of the players and the period.