Storm McInnes is the singer in the Perth-based band ‘Stormtroopers’, whose music appeals to right-wing youths. After a bloody incident in the audience during one concert, the other three band members decide that it’s time for a change, much to the dismay and resistance of Storm, who is unwilling to risk the success that has been achieved under the name of ‘Stormtroopers’. Still, she gives it a reluctant try.
So, how does a band change its image and clientele?
Kathryn Lansdown runs the agency ‘Self Image’, which, as the name suggests, works with people who want to project a different image, and in spite of the fact that this agency has not yet worked with rock musicians, the band decide to seek advice there.
The first encounter between Storm and Kathryn does not make for a good cooperation: Storm produces her ‘best’ behaviour as a wild and promiscuous rocker in the face of the prim-and-proper businesswoman, and Kathryn is soon to see her work cut out for her.
The two of them have a hard time working together, but they go about it, sometimes gritting their teeth. All they seem to have in common is the love for the music of the sixties.
Under the new name ‘Stormclouds’ (Cloud is Storm’s brother, and the drummer of the band), they get the chance to stand in for another band, who cannot fulfil their contract in Harare, Zimbabwe. The relaxed atmosphere there makes it difficult to perpetuate more than one image: Storm’s wildness, Kathryn’s aloofness, and Kenny’s (the bass player) relationship with Storm.
Watch images change in a nicely written novel, with good editing, and with lots of quotations from (mostly British) songs of the sixties! Seven, perhaps eight, out of ten. If you like the author’s style, you should also check out the short stories ‘Perfect Strangers‘ and ‘Unnatural Selection‘ — hanky warning for the latter!
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Thanks