*Espedair Street * is an amazing novel about the greatest fictional rock group of the seventies. Iain Banks is a fantastic novelist, and this is one of his most accessable.
Years ago I read a book called *Standing Room Only * by Eva Rice. It’s about a struggling pop-rock band on the brink of success. It’s probably not as much good as I remember it - I was a teenager working in a remainder bookshop, so I’m well-aquainted with mediocre hardbacks - and it’s very heavy on references to late-nineties brittish rock (Blur; Garbarge; Oasis), but if you happen accross it, it’s worth a read.
If you don’t mind teen fiction, there’s a couple of books about a teen pop band called 6X by Nina Malkin. The books are written in a diary format, jumping between each of the main characters. It’s not half as silly as it sounds, and includes lyrics to a song called “Hello Kitty freaks Me Out”
> Espedair Street is an amazing novel about the greatest fictional rock group of
> the seventies. Iain Banks is a fantastic novelist, and this is one of his most
> accessable.
Which is why I mentioned it in post #8. Banks is also a nice person. I wish I could talk with him more than once every ten years.
Ah, so you did, my apologies. I was just so excited to be able to recommend something other than a children’s book (although I did that too) that I leapt in without reading
Carl Hiaasen’s Basket Case, where the reporter protagonist gets involved in solving the mysterious death of the middle-aged lead singer of The Slut Puppies, a late 70’s band punk/metal band who seem to be a cross between the Ramones and Van Halen, while hindered at every turn by the late muso’s MTV nymphette slut wife, who’s just angling for another hit single. Rings painfully but hilariously true: the wrong bass player gets shot. Lyrics by Warren Zevon!