Over the weekend, I did something I’ve never done before — and I’m giddy as a drunken man! — I paid $30.00USD to join the Eric Clapton fan club online.  Eric’s fan club is operated by Warner Brothers, his record company, and it looks like there are around 2,000 paid members of the community.


There are several levels of fan club participation. 

I chose the cheap as chips package.

Here’s what I get with my yearly membership:

Once you paid, you have immediate access to ECaccess.cc and you are greeted with this welcome message about the new site design — that is almost a year old!

The Eric Clapton fan club site is pretty dead.

Like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton does not participate in his own official fan club.   

There are not a lot of new community messages and the site feels old and outdated in design and content.

My feeling is this fan club will be open and free to join within two years.

You can watch videos, download wallpaper and Eric Clapton Avatars and you can upload your own Eric images:

The active fan community seem sad and disgruntled. 

There’s lots of complaining and not a lot of celebrating or critical analysis of Eric’s work:

The one worthy chit for joining are the discount codes for buying Clapton stuff and downloading your two free songs. 

It
seems in the USA the discount codes don’t get you good concert seats in
the way of tickets for live performances — the big sponsors and ticket
scalpers get those prime locations — but outside the USA, people say the special code can, indeed, help get seats “down front”
and that’s a good thing.

Would I spend another $30.00USD to stay in the Eric Clapton fan club for a second year?

No.

Am I glad I spent $30.00USD this year to get a taste of the insider Clapton community?

Yes.

19 Comments

  1. My eagle eyes spot at least one 7″ in the $55 club. Were I a bigger fan, I would surely go for that one 🙂

  3. Good point, David! A 7″, or a seven inch, is a 45RPM vinyl record that is exactly seven inches across and is meant to be played on a traditional record player at a speed of 45RPM. Most good record players can play 33RPM, 45RPM — and some can even play 78RPM!

  5. The faster a record plays, the less time it has for music. There are 33RPM 7″ records — those average about 7-8 minutes per side. Mostly, they are 45RPM and get 4 minutes or so per side. That’s why they are used for singles. 🙂
    12 inch records, on the other hand, are the standard for full length record releases — about 25-30 minutes per side.

  7. Did I ever become a paid member of a fan club? Ummm…yes, guilty as charged… 🙂
    I was a student at that point and became a paid member of a Bollywood actor’s fan club,…and enjoyed it! Did I renew it? Nope…
    I am slighty surprised seeing the Eric Clapton fan club site slightly dull and activity less….how are they going to draw membership then?

  8. This is the sixth year of the Clapton fan club. I think it’s just in a tired, but resting, state. There’s no new album or video available to discuss. It will probably pick up a bit when the tours start in the Spring.

  9. I have been a member of the Pearl Jam Ten Club — their fan club — for ten years now. (Ha!) Because of the length of my membership, I get the best seats when I order tickets through their service. 🙂 That’s a good fan club!

  10. Love that dedication, Gordon — to an outstanding and truly interesting band. Do you pay for your membership? Do you get more preferential tickets ordering over others in the club because you’ve been around so long?

  11. David,
    The 10 Club membership used to be about $15 per year and it has since gone up to $25 a year. That includes an annual 7″ and a newsletter that they publish approximately whenever they feel like it. 🙂 (That used to be more often)
    The longer you are a member, the better your tickets. The last time I got tickets to see Pearl Jam, I was about 12 rows back — I can just imagine I will be much closer next time! 🙂

  13. Do not waste money on the Crossroads Concert Movie in “select theatres”-horrible sound (theatre’s fault) but sloppy amateurish videography combined with terrible sound makes it a big waste of money!

    1. Hi chuck!

      Thanks for the recommendation against the new Crossroads movie. Is that the new version that was shot live in June in Chicago? If so, I heard it was terrible hot — I wonder if the heat somehow messed up the equipment?

  14. Better than the Crossroads movie movie will be the new Eric Clapton signed, limited edition book to raise money for Crossraods called “Six Strings” – in his own words it covers his 50 years with 300 instruments – and comes in two editions Deluxe and Collector in January, 2013. The Deluxe is sold out (if sold out check eBay). I am looking forward to this latest from the man himself and hopefully seeing him tour in the US in 2013 as dates are slowly coming out – yeah!

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