The best title ever – for a book is without a doubt Sex, Drugs and Coco Puffs by Chuck Klosterman, who for many is the epitome of what it means to be a music writer. While he certainly has an appreciation for two notes being put together and provides some interesting cultural analysis to his scribing, he doesn’t have Rupert Winchester’s dexterity of weaving bread out of nothing.

The bread and its buttered prose comes from a lifetime spent under the strap of a guitar, and it shows. Not only is Winchester capable of writing about music, he vividly elicits the very songs which he describes – in between the raucous bouts of drug taking of his protagonist, Will Piper.

As a narrator Piper is introspective, though not the sort to mince words, which is where the allusion to Klosterman ends. Neither Winchester nor his creations attempt to discern any greater meaning from the central thrust of the book, the story of an old rock band reuniting, beyond what they are – to play one last tour and make a shitload of money.

Piper is conscious of this, yet fights it the entire time, without ever giving any reason for his resistance beyond the fact that the band had previously squabbled and separated. It can make him hard to like at times, often appearing more than a little petulant. But then it’s back to drugs, sex and rock’n’roll.

Appealing for anyone who dreamed of living like Keith Richards or Steven Tyler.

Wild Blue Yonder is available as an eBook from all the usual places.