Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. An industry, that Winwood, openly exposes as greedy and uncaring so long as someone is making money (and usually it's not the musicians themselves). But name dropping aside it’s part rock biography by a man who has seen a lot and part a record of his own downfall and battle with addiction, and he’s very honest about that. Winwood draws on his decades of interviewing bands in dressing rooms and tour buses - not to mention his own bracingly described drug hell - to examine why the industry attracts so many people vulnerable to addiction and mental health problems. Even though we're all familiar with the history of the Lostprophets lead singer (I refuse to mention him by name), it's still very, very hard to read that particular bit.

The book has opened up a much-needed debate about the nature of the music industry as an insatiable meat grinder for creative souls with an instinct for self-destruction. Anyone with any interest in the real stories behind the music they love should devour this; but they should brace themselves for some difficult stories.Whether it's because of drug abuse in the rock community, or mental health woes allowed to go unchecked by an uncaring industry, self-destruction isn't cool in 2022. he draws on his decades of interviewing bands in dressing rooms and tour buses - not to mention his own bracingly described drug hell - to examine why the industry attracts so many people vulnerable to addiction and mental health problems, and what happens to them once they are plugged into its dysfunctional amps. Of pushing on beyond that need for a break, of reliance on drink, drugs and the rock and roll atmosphere that was so cool for the time but is now explored in this revisionist period as a problematic cause of a great many deaths. Also not sure about his assertion that Brian Warner's (aka Marilyn Manson) career is over post allegations of abuse from multiple women. Despite those horrors, Winwood appears hopeful, and it is the credit of great writing that a reader does not feel that same despair and fear so brutally explained by Winwood's personalised account.

It needed someone to take a second read through the book as parts (especially in the first half) were chaotic and a little difficult to follow. Much more than a touchline reporter, Winwood also tells the tale of his own mental-health collapse following the shocking death of his father. It was billed as tackling and exposing the failures of the industry to deal with addiction and mental health problems.Finished the book feeling very strongly that Lennon was right about the men in suits who take the bulk of the money generated from the sales of the music made by creative but naive people. This discovery is the prism through which Ian examines a music industry that tolerates self-destructive behaviour and possesses an atmosphere far from conducive to good mental health – it’s hard to imagine, for instance, that the extremes of Ian’s behaviour wouldn’t have been more noticeable if he’d worked in another field. A very personalised take and view on the industry, unfortunately covering so much of the loss that comes with the inevitable highs of making it, especially in light of the recent loss to Taylor Hawkins to a drugs overdose (not covered).

It blends this with a genuine insight into mental health issues that can plague any of us, regardless of ages, sex or perceived success. Home to William Golding, Sylvia Plath, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sally Rooney, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Max Porter, Ingrid Persaud, Anna Burns and Rachel Cusk, among many others, Faber is proud to publish some of the greatest novelists from the early twentieth century to today.On top of this the record companies do not come off well, depicted as using the musicians as commodities, making money out of tel gem and not looking out for their mental health - once in motion tours do not get cancelled if some of the band is struggling! It is like a government health warning but would help you enter with your eyes open and ready to protect yourself.

He watched, delighted, from various degrees of proximity, as they rose in popularity – sold-out shows, platinum albums, a very real chance of breaking America – then looked on aghast as things started to go wrong. Overall, a great book that held a mirror up to my own unfair assumptions of musicians and entertainers in general. Winwood is excoriatingly honest in his appraisal of both the artists and himself, in this visceral examination of art, drugs, mental health and music.

Bodies: Life and Death in Music is as harsh and unremitting a piece as it is deeply moving and warm.