San Rensho 

I was at the bookstore today and LIFE (or LOOK) magazine has a special issue about John Lennon. Has a full page photo of him on an old rod brake English(?) bike. It would be nice to hang Lennon next to the classic photo of Albert Einstein riding a bicycle.

randya

Ringo on a Raleigh 16" RSW folder (I never get tired of reposting this picture)...

randya

I've seen other pictures of the Beatles on bikes taken somewhere in the Caribbean. Might be the photo shoot the Lennon picture came from...

Noah Scape

McCartney was in Rolling Stone a few weeks ago and there was a pic of him on a very funky single speed... I remember the bike looked like it had a story. Although it may have just been photographers prop.

luker

Eric Clapton is a real bikie!

nick burns

Maybe from when they were fiming Help?


One with Ringo & George


John & his uncle

mswantak

Yeah? I knew he was a fly fisherman and a scale-model builder, but I'd never heard he was into cycling -- and he's been my idol for the past 35 years. I thought I knew pretty much all anybody knows about him.

Y'know, it's not fair -- he's only been playing guitar five years longer than I have, but for some reason I don't sound like he did five years ago...

cudak888 

Ah, look at those Raleigh DL-1s...

-Kurt

lotek 

yah, IIRC Clapton has a nice Cinelli and a few other classic collectors.
The lead singer for supertramp is also reportedly very much into bikes.

I know I have a link to pics of claptons bikes somewhere. . .

well biked

Wow, there's one more thing I've learned on this forum. I've been an EC fan for decades, never knew he was into bicycling.

luker

I saw a picture of him and Ernesto once...he had a pair of custom Colnagos made for him, as I recall. He was a licensed racer when he was a teenager. And, don't feel too bad, he sounds better than just about everyone else (handful of extraordinary musicians exempted).

well biked

I have to admit, this talk of EC the bicyclist got me curious. I mean, I've considered him to the THE best for a very long time, I've seen him in concert many times, read a lot of biographical stuff, and I've never seen or heard anything about bicycles relating to him. So anyway, I did a search just now, and came up with the fact that Ginger Baker, the drummer from Cream, was indeed a racer as a youngster.....I don't doubt that EC has bikes, and I could definitely see him having fine Italian customs, among other things, because he seems to appreciate the best in everything. But are you sure he was a bike racer as teenager? Not trying to be a pain, but I'm genuinely curious. I've just never heard this-

luker

Well, I'm never sure of anything. Eric Clapton was featured in an article, I'm pretty sure that it was an 80's vintage Bicycling magazine article, and in that article I recall their discussing his high school racing experience. I suppose my overstimulated brain could have crossed up this article with something about Ginger Baker, but I was genuinely suprised to find that Ginger was a bike racer aspiring to pro status. Obviously much more than high school bike racing...I've been down the same internet paths that you have taken, and found zip (I did find corroboration about the magazine article, though, and Colnago delivering bicycles personally. I suppose I'd be tempted to deliver a bicycle personally as well, if I had one that Clapton wanted).

well biked

Thanks, luker, for following up on that. A couple of other things I found was that apparently there was some sort of notorious incident that had Ginger Baker riding a bicycle into a pub, and also that the Cream album "Disraeli Gears" was probably some kind of take-off on a British prime minister named Disraeli from the 1800's, and the term "derailleur gears." Interesting stuff.

Blue Order

Disraeli Gears was definitely a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli (British PM in the Victorian era) and derailleur gears. They were playing around with different names, including "Elephant Gerald," when they came up with Disraeli Gears.

mswantak

Any of you guys heard the Cream at Royal Albert Hall reunion CD? I imagine things sound a little different with Clapton not strung out on smack (to which I've always attributed the stupifying length of 'Spoonful') I think I'm going to have to break down and buy it. Now if Eric and Ginger would just Shanghai Steve Winwood for a Blind Faith reunion my second childhood would be just about complete.

Blue Order

I actually saw the performance on TV the other night. Just channel surfing, and there they were on a PBS pledge drive. It was OK, but it seemed like Clapton just didn't have the old brilliance on some of the solos-- his solo on Sunshine of Your Love was close, but not approaching the greatness of the studio version. Jack Bruce's bass wasn't turned up enough in the mix-- may have been the TV speakers, rather than the mix, though-- so it was harder to gauge his performance. And Ginger Baker's drumming was perfectly adequate, but again, not "great." The weight of 37 years is really showing, and of course, it was sad to see Jack Bruce not doing well (he's had a liver transplant, which was the reason that Clapton and Baker decided to do the reunion); he was sitting for much of the concert. Still, something I never thought I'd see.

mswantak

It takes a really extraordinary musician to prod Clapton into playing with the kind of gob-smacking brilliance he's capable of. After Cream broke up Duane Allman did it, and I don't think anyone else did until Stevie Ray Vaughan. He loves playing with B.B. King, but at 80, B.B.'s only a shade of his former self and doesn't even begin to challenge Clapton. I think he did a fabulous job as musical director on 'Concert for George', and the loving treatment he gave everything he played on was a real testament to his departed best friend, but except on rare occasions he plays more like a musicologist than a bluesman with his hair on fire. I suppose it can be forgiven; I'm grateful he's still around to listen to when so many of his contemporaries have bitten the dust. I'm not what I was 35 years ago, either.

Blue Order

Didn't Clapton once say of Jeff Beck, after the A.R.M.S. concert, that he was the finest musician he had ever seen? I know somebody said it, and I think it was Clapton, but I just can't remember now.

mswantak

Sounds like something he might say; he's always tended to be in awe of other musicians that he's every bit the equal of. He once referred to himself as 'the 57th greatest guitarist in the world'. While it's probably true that Beck is a more highly-trained guitarist than Clapton, comparing them is kind of apples and oranges. And anyway, for my money, Mark Knopfler plays rings around Beck.

Blue Order

Apples and oranges indeed. Sounds like Knopfler saw you and your money coming, though.

KeithA

Here's a link to a site that lists celebrity cyclists, among which is Eric Clapton. Says he owns a stable of Italian bikes.

https://www.bikebiz.co.uk/daily-news/article.php?id=4799

Im Fixed

Played in a mock band [ liverpool] 20 yrs ago I was George it was a job.

well biked

I last saw him live in '04, just after he did the guitar festival thing in Dallas. The first time I saw him live was in '78, with Muddy Waters on tour with him. I also saw him in '81, '88, '94, '98. The best show was the one in '94, the tour for the all blues album "From the Cradle." He would just close his eyes, kick his head back and leave the building on the solos. You could SEE the sound bending, I swear. The '04 show was excellent, too, with a nice mix of older rock and a lot of blues, too. He was energetic, much more so than when he was battling his demons, and man he can still bend the sound with those fingers, I'd say as good as ever.