Rock ‘N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, Or, Bike Up The Strand

Set in the immediate prepunk era against a background of a major rock tour, the story follows the accidental rise to fame and fortune of a modem jazz musician on the breadline, Paul Graham.

We follow Paul on tour with the band Revelation and watch his bemused encounters with, and adventures in, the rock circus (as seen through the eyes of a sardonic but confused innocent).

The lure of money, relative security and fame conflicts with his feelings about himself as an artist, though his faith in himself as an artist is shaken as he is driven to more and more self=questioning.

A central part of the story is Paul’s developing relationship with the drummer of the band, Eddie Steele (a drug addict) whose earlier move from jazz to rock parallels his own.

Towards the close of the tour Paul is forced to make a choice, between continuing with Revelation (selling out) or going back to a very uncertain and precarious life as a jazz musician. An unexpected development removes this simple A or B choice and Paul has to take the future into his own hands.

The theme of the book is that which so often confronts young How to survive as an artist with the difficulties and temptations of a world dominated by big business.