The Big Wheel

Bruce Thomas was a member of "Elvis Costello and the Attractions" from 1978-1987, playing at a time when the group's reputation was very high. Throughout the excesses of money, drugs, alcohol and touring, Thomas attempted to keep a perspective on himself and on the purpose of it all. The result is a description of a world which began to make no sense to him, except from the bottom of a glass. Thomas has a true comic gift and this telescoped version of the group's touring life brings home, more than almost all books about pop, the dilemma of having enormous amounts of money, but nothing to spend it on that's any good for you. The book also reveals the author's gradual estrangement from the world in which he grew up.