His solo top 20 hits on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" (1975) and "I Am an Island" (1982).

He reached the top 20 on the related albums chart with Goodbye Tiger (1977), Hearts on the Nightline (1979), The Great Escape (1982) and The Very Best of Richard Clapton (1982).

In 1983, he briefly joined the Party Boys for a tour of eastern Australia and their live album, Greatest Hits (Of Other People) (1983), before resuming his solo career.

[3] Speculation over his age has varied: an article in Who magazine (1996) gives his birth year as 1951,[4] while Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999) has 1949.

[3] Clapton met his father at her funeral and was subsequently enrolled in a Sydney boarding school, Trinity Grammar, at Summer Hill.

[5] His visa had expired and he moved to Germany, where he played in a band, Bitch; he worked solo in folk clubs and on streets busking.

Clapton was backed by Red McKelvie on guitar (ex-the Flying Circus), Kenny Kitching on pedal steel, John Capek on piano (ex-Carson) with John Bois on bass guitar and Tony Bolton on 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 lead singer, Renée Geyer.

[1][9] Clapton's debut solo album, Prussian Blue, appeared in November 1973—it included "Last Train to Marseilles" from a year earlier—and was produced by Richard Batchens (Blackfeather, Sherbet).

On "Hardly Know Myself" and "I Wanna Be a Survivor" Clapton was backed by the La De Da's, with other tracks variously featuring McKelvie, Glenn Cardier on guitar, Russell Dunlop on drums, Mike Perjanik on organ, Trevor Wilson and Mike Lawler on bass guitar and Ian Bloxham on percussion.

Garry Raffaele of The Canberra Times observed, "[he] sounds as though he's involved with the real issues of our time—pollution, man's inhumanity to those who share Spaceship Earth with him, communication difficulties.

[14] Clapton moved to Melbourne to write new material for his third album, Main Street Jive, which released in July 1976, again produced by Batchens.

[1][14] Other contributors to the soundtrack, produced and engineered by Batchens, were the Dingoes, Bilgola Bop Band, Skyhooks and Ol' 55 with one track each.

[17] It 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.

Many Clapton fans regard the melancholic record as his masterpiece: it included two of his popular tracks, the anthem, "Deep Water", which reached No.

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.

[8][22][14] In 1982 Clapton signed with WEA and the Mark Opitz-produced, The Great Escape (March 1982), had contributions from members of Cold Chisel and INXS.

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.

[1][14] In 1983 Clapton joined the Party Boys, replacing James Reyne (Australian Crawl) on lead vocals, 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.

[1] In September 1984 he released his eighth studio album, Solidarity, on Mushroom Records which was produced by Opitz, Ricky Fataar, Tim Kramer and Moffatt.

[1][8] 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 Da's, 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.

[1] Clapton rejoined WEA in 1987 for his ninth 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.

"[25] At the Gimme Ted benefit concert on 9 March 2001 Clapton was backed by surviving members of INXS on four of his songs,[26] Clapton spent four years writing and recording his twelfth studio album, Diamond Mine, at his home studio, a process he described as the most creatively liberating experience of his recording career.

[23] On his 2006 album, Rewired, also recorded in the home studio, Clapton provided "unplugged" or acoustic versions of his early songs.

[29] The Australian's reviewer noted that Clapton "hasn't lost his touch as a songwriter" as the album "veers between the heady optimism of opening track 'Sunny Side Up' and the poignant autumnal reflection of the beautiful 'Blue Skies'" while Clapton is a "troubadour buffeted by uncertain winds and still searching for answers in songs such as the epic 'Vapour Trails' but pushing on regardless in the folksy 'Run Like a River'".

[29] In August 2014, a retrospective album titled Best Years 1974–2014: The 40th Anniversary Collection was released and peaked at number 36 on the ARIA Charts.

[30][31] Brooke Hunter of girl.com.au noticed, "Working with [Moffatt] in the U.S. has put a country – soul twang into [Clapton]'s band that spills out into classics like 'Deep Water", 'The Best Years of Our Lives", 'Goodbye Tiger' and so many other songs that have made [him] a national treasure.

"[30] In April 2021 Clapton released his 16th studio album, Music Is Love (1966–1970), which was preceded by the lead single, The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" (February 2021).

[32][33] All 15 tracks are cover versions of works from the late 1960s – his formative years – and were recorded with Terry Blamey as executive producer for Bloodllines/Mushroom Group labels.

For Oz Rock fans, there’s plenty of behind the scenes dirt and goss on big names..."[40] As of November 2018 Clapton's domestic partner is Meegan White.