The Music Of The Spheres

The Music Of The Spheres, by Allister Thompson

April, 2021  Independently Published

I recently went on another of my rock novel kicks and started trying to find a novel I’d come across the mention of years ago, something about a prog rock band. At the time I wasn’t into prog rock so didn’t look further into the book, the title of which now escapes me. But I’m into prog rock now, baby, so I went on a hunt for “novel about a prog rock band.” I never did manage to find the novel I’d come across the mention of years ago, but somehow I did manage to end up finding out about a writer named Allister Thompson and his recently-published rock novel The Music Of The Spheres, a sort of alternate-history rock novel (set in 1968) in which psychedelic rock bands are the vanguard of free speech in a corporate and drug-controlled world. 

Running to 270 pages, The Music Of The Spheres does a fine job of bringing to life this strange alternate 1968; Thompson sprinkles background material into the narrative instead of shoehorning in all of his world-building. But we learn that for one, the United States never existed in this timeline, with the Americas still a colony of the Empire. Also, despite being set in 1968, there’s an almost sci-fi vibe to the novel, with entire cities covered in domes and such advanced technology that compact discs have recently been introduced into the late 1960s music market. 

Despite this, the rockers of our real world still proliferate, though in alternate forms and with names that are jokes on their real-world counterparts. For example, psychedelic voyagers The Peuce Frank, with lead guitarist Bill Fillmour and acid casualty former lead singer Ned Barrett, is clearly intended to be Pink Floyd, just as jazzy psych voyagers The Flying Teapots are intended to be Gong. Better yet, we have meat-eating, right-winged Ned Loogeant and his band the Muttonchop Killers, known for their hatred of all things hippie – not to be confused, of course, with Ted Nuget and the Amboy Dukes. Thompson fills the novel with jokey fake band names that are plays on real-world bands, but occasionally will slip in reference to a real group – for example I caught references to The Pretty Things, Kaleidoscope, and Fairport Convention. 

The opening of The Music Of The Spheres is especially cool. Hero Simon Hastings (the novel is told in third-person, by the way, but we have a first-person opening by a narrator – a scholar telling us this story in the format of a novel – who will occasionally pop up in the narrative) is with his band the Spheres in New York, about to play a concert with the Muttonchop Killers and The Asparagus Stalks, “a group of white Hundu vegetarians who propounded their creed via the new hard rock genre, a style of music highlighted by an overpowering use of distortion.” 

Thompson slowly brings us into this world, in which all drugs have been legalized – at least, those that are not deemed to be addictive. It’s a sort of dystopia, with the Cartels running South America (again, the novel’s 1968 seems to be taken from future decades) and the corporations running the West, and the rock groups are allowed to exist so as to be heroes for the people. It’s a cool conceit, with these pyschedelic rockers nearly seen as superheroes by the downtrodden masses, their art welcomed by a drug-addled community. Visionaries who are given free reign to pursue their most crazed excesses – in other words, it’s a late ‘60s in which the whole space rock/prog rock thing was fully formed…and the more out-there musicians are the ones at the forefront. Time moves so fast in this world that even previous trendsetters “The Beach Bums” and whatever the fake Beatles name was (I forget) have been pushed aside by the burgeoning space rock scene. As for the Rolling Stones, they’re a Mick and Keith-lacking group called the Wylde Flowers which goes more for improvisation on drums, bass, and organ. 

Our hero is referred to as “Hastings” throughout, and I thought it was strange that we’d refer to our “hippie” hero by his last name. But then, Simon Hastings doesn’t come off much like a hippie…he’s in his early 30s and is a bit too posh and reserved. I mean, “hippie” is a pretty specific term, referring to a specific type of person, and not an accurate description of Simon Hastings. I just chalked this up as another of those alternate reality differences, as Hastings is called a “hippie” by all and sundry, including his dad when Hastings goes back to London to visit him. 

For me the main problem with The Music Of The Spheres is this cool world of free drugs and cosmos-soaring acid rockers isn’t as exploited as it could be; instead, we take a turn in the first quarter into a murder-conspiracy angle, and despite returning to the “rock novel” setup around page 150 Thompson still keeps focusing on the murder and the conspiracy. I just didn’t find this nearly as compelling as the world itself; the fifty-page opening sequence alone, in which Hastings and his band, the Hawkwind analogue The Spheres, take a variety of drugs in perparation for their upcoming gig, watching as the Muttonchop Killers get in a fistfight with the Asparagus Stalks (who just want to do a little group meditation). 

But then Guy Calvert, charismatic lead singer and poet of The Spheres (not to be confused with Robert Calvert of Hawkwind, of course), ODs on stage – a parallel of the climactic incident in the earlier rock novel Triple Platinum. And, as with that novel, we’ll find that there was more behind this death than just wanton drug use, though that’s what the cops chalk it up as. Thompson has it that the rock scene is so hated by straight society that cops rarely investigate claims of murder or foul play in the hippie world, thus the cops on the scene declare that Guy got what was coming to him, what with all his drug use, and there’s no “murder” to investigate. 

So the frustrating thing is…we don’t even get to see anything with the Spheres! The first pages build up this world, with Hastings and his group about to have their big gig, supporting their latest album…and Calvert dies almost as soon as the gig starts (though of course first he confirms that his mellotron is set up!), and next thing you know the band’s broken up and Hastings is on his way down to Colombia to track down the man he thinks murdered Guy – a Hispanic type who showed up with a lot of new drugs for the band to try, eagerly encouraging them and then watching from the wings as if waiting for something bad to happen to them. In other words, he was an assassin, psychedelic drugs his weapon of choice, and Hastings spends some pages finding out who he is and where he came from. 

As mentioned the novel takes place in a world that seems curiously modern, so this South America is run by the cartels (even the airlines!), and cocaine dust is funnelled into the air pumps for the domed city. I did really enjoy this “drugged-out future” scenario but don’t feel that it was sufficiently exploited, either; Hastings starts off the novel as a partaker of these weird drugs, but after Guy’s murder he abstains for the most part. But those opening 50 pages are cool, though – Hastings, for example, starts off the novel taking something called a “C-Enhancer,” a drug which allows him to feel the emotions of those around him. 

Actually, the first half of The Music Of The Spheres had me experiencing déjà vu. The psychedelic superhero protagonists, the wanton drug use, the alternate ‘60s setting, the general British vibe – finally I realized it reminded me of the obscure British comic Storming Heaven, which I reviewed here back in 2010. The Music Of The Spheres is similar in many regards to that comic, minus of course actual superhero stuff. I found the odd little touches the coolest, like a minor mention of a current craze in which London juveniles wear eerie blue lenses that cover their eyes, making them look like little aliens. 

The novel also picks up the vibe of another book I reviewed here: namely, The Psychedelic Spy. Hastings hooks up with a cartel operative in Colombia who gives him a special pistol, which reminded me of the special gun used in that earlier novel. Not that Hastings becomes a spy. Instead, he heads back to London and here, near the midway point, the novel gets back into the “rock novel” vibe, with Hastings and his former bandmates putting together a new group, to be named Astronomy. Again they are essentially Hawkwind, and also Hastings’s American girlfriend Teresa plays keyboards. 

That’s right, girlfriend. For a novel about a drugged-out rocker, The Music Of The Spheres is G-rated in the sex department. Typical of a novel written today, there is zero exploitation of any female characters – the only characters who show any libido are the pricks in the Muttonchop Killers, and given the derision everyone treats them with, it’s clear these inclinations are to be seen with dismay. My Trash Senses were already tingling in the first few pages, in which Hastings thinks of his girlfriend, and we’re told he’s always been “a one-woman guy.” Sadly, the Sleaze-O-Meter stayed at one or below for the entirety of the novel; even when said girlfriend, Teresa, finally appears halfway through the book, she spends the majority of the novel ranting against the establishment and pushing Hastings to fight for socialism. 

We have some stuff with Astronomy touring around Europe – including an appearance of a pseudo-Can (twenty years ago I was obsessed with Can, but these days I can barely stand to listen to them). And Thompson actually describes the music (according to his bio, he himself was once in a prog band), so unlike a lot of the “rock novels” I’ve reviewed here we actually get an idea of what some of these songs sound like. I also loved how a mellotron was mentioned throughout the text. But gradually the “conspiracy” angle comes back, climaxing in a cool scene where Hastings uses that special sonic gun he was given in Colombia. The finale of the novel has Hastings finding out that someone is targeting the top “radicals” in the rock movement, Guy having been one of the victims and Hastings finding his own name on the target list. It all climaxes with Hastings infiltrating the fortress of a German pharma company that is the main psychedelic drug provider of the West – again, all like a spy novel. 

I haven’t mentioned yet, but The Music Of The Spheres is self-published. I have to say though, judging from the self-published books I’ve read over the years, the old saw about self-published books being poorly written should be dismissed these days. What I’m trying to say is, the novel is very well written, and Thompson keeps the narrative moving, though sometimes he summarizes events that I felt should have been dwelt more upon. My main contention was that the book panned out to be something different than what I expected – I still think the concept of a legion of drug-fueled psychedelic shaman-rockers acting as the “voice” of the collective masses is ripe for potential, so maybe Thompson could do another book in this world and remove the crime and conspiracy angles.