This Damned Band

In this fantastic tale of 1970s musical excess and madness, guitarist Clive Stanley leads the hard-rocking English band Motherfather, who only flirt with devil worship—or so they think. After a possibly psychedelic but potentially genuinely demonic incident at Japan's Budokan arena, the band's lead groupie, the idealistic and mystical Summerflower, feels real darkness closing in. At an apparently haunted chateau in France where the band is recording and relationships are fraying, she takes action—and then things get really weird. Prolific Doctor Who writer Cornell fills the book with knowing detail from rock music lore; band manager "Mr. Browley" is clearly based on notorious Satanist (and Jimmy Page influence) Aleister Crowley, and there's in-joke gold in the book's bonus extras. Cornell and Parker have seemingly modeled Motherfather's members at least partly on musicians from The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Spinal Tap. The last two of those bands are most relevant to the story, which goes a bit over the top. But what band back then didn't?