Clapton needs surgery

Eric Clapton has pulled out of an event celebrating the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame because he needs to have his gallstones removed.

Isn't the idea of pop stars playing a gig celebrating a rock museum the wrong way round?

Eric Clapton's got a shooter

Well, yes, Eric Clapton does love his guns, but you've got to understand: he only loves them because they're talking points:

"I'm not really that gregarious," the 63-year-old musician told the Art Newspaper. "And shooting with groups of people up and down the country has taught me a lot about how to get on with my fellow human beings."

I think he means that he enjoys other shooters' company and bonding over a shared love of using deadly weapons as playthings, and not that he can now force people to have a lovely conversation with him by ramming a sawn-off into their faces and insisting they "chat, NOW, and CHAT NICELY if you value your face."

Regarding his recent fixation with guns and game, Clapton explained, "It is following the same pattern as when I collected guitars -- I get obsessed, then engulfed and finally narrow the collection down."

It's not clear from the interview if he takes the same approach with the "fellow human beings".

Police are said to be considering reopening an investigation into claims Clapton was associated with a 1974 gun-homicide of a sheriff.