Clapton’s axe fetches £25k

A GUITAR owned by rock legend Eric Clapton has sold for £25,000.

The acoustic he used for writing songs has a burn on the headstock – where he famously placed his lit cigarettes while playing.

Clapton sold the 1978 instrument in 1999 in New York to raise money for his rehabilitation centre.

Auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate estimated it at £10,000 and said buyers in the room in Corsham, Wilts, were “gasping each time the price went up”.