Clayson has written for a wide range of publications, including The Guardian, Record Collector, Ink, Mojo, Mediaeval World, Folk Roots, Guitar, Hello!, Drummer, Rock 'N' Reel, The Sunday Times, Rhythm, The Independent, Ugly Things and, as a teenager, the Schoolkids 0z. He has also scripted and appeared as a commentator on various radio and television broadcasts.Clayson's compositions have been recorded by many musicians, including Dave Berry (in whose backing group Clayson played keyboards in the mid 1980s), Stairway, Jane Relf, The Electronic Males and Joy Tobing, winner of Indonesian Idol. He has also worked with the Portsmouth Sinfonia, Wreckless Eric, Twinkle, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, Mungo Jerry and Screaming Lord Sutch among others.

Now best known as a pop historian, Clayson has written around thirty books. Best sellers include Backbeat (Number 13 in Sunday Times list {18 April 1994}, Number six in Sunday Telegraph paperback list {8 May 1994}), subsequently made into a major film; Beat Merchants (Number nine in Mojo chart, December 1996), and an authorised biography of The Yardbirds (Number One in Mojo chart, December 2002). Among other subjects of Clayson's work are Edgard Varèse, Led Zeppelin, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, individual members of The Beatles (later published as a four-book box-set), Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Yoko Ono, Keith Richards and death discs (focus of a BBC Radio Two programme, scripted and presented by the author, 19 November 1996).