How a fictional band became the beating heart of Kitty Brookstone’s Fame & Fortune Mysteries.
Somewhere in the mid-eighties, a band called Silk Purse had a very good year. Their frontman, Ron Ashcroft, wore velvet jackets and smiled like a man surprised by his own luck. His younger brother Julian handled the keyboards and most of the musical thinking. Their cousin Martin played bass with the quiet competence of someone who knows where the bodies are buried. Pete Lawson, a schoolmate recruited mainly because he owned a van, played drums. And for a while, it worked.
Their single Gold in the Gutter spent six weeks in the Top Ten. Two albums followed: one earnest, one expensive. Then came the usual unravelling. Fame suited some of them more than others. Creative differences turned out to mean everything except music. By the early nineties, Silk Purse had folded without fanfare. No dramatic split. Just a slow, quiet dispersal into ordinary life.
The Song That Wouldn’t Leave
Decades passed. Ron drifted through nostalgia circuits and daytime television. Julian retreated into production work and the satisfaction of being right. Martin remained elusive. Pete looked vindicated.
And yet Gold in the Gutter kept playing. At weddings. At funerals. In supermarket car parks. A song about aspiration and disappointment, written before its author understood either, had aged better than anyone expected.
When Kitty Brookstone began writing the Fame & Fortune Mysteries, she needed a protagonist with a past. Not a dark past or a dramatic one, but the kind that accumulates when the world pays attention to you for a while and then, slowly, stops. Ron Ashcroft was that man. Famous enough to be recognised. Forgotten enough to be underestimated. The perfect accidental detective.
Meet the Band
Ron Ashcroft — lead vocals. The face, the voice, the velvet trench coat. Sincere, baffled by fame, forever associated with a song he wrote before he knew what it meant.
Julian Ashcroft — keyboards. Younger brother. Serious musician. Architectural brain. Still quietly convinced the band worked because of him, and not entirely wrong.
Martin Reed — bass. Cousin, glue guy, calm centre. Knows where the bodies are buried. Turns up when needed.
Pete “Piper” Lawson — drums. Schoolmate, van-owner, practical survivor. The one who always knew this wouldn’t end well and packed accordingly.
Leo Fontaine — guitar. Late arrival, continental flair, not family. Stylish, talented, faintly divisive, and absolutely the one people still argue about.
The Reunion
After months of speculation, Silk Purse have announced a limited UK reunion tour this autumn. The original line-up together on stage for the first time in over thirty years.
Ron has been characteristically modest about the whole thing. The band stress this is a celebration, not a comeback. Julian has called it “the right moment.” Pete, presumably, has already packed the van.
But in the world of the Fame & Fortune Mysteries, reunions have a way of going sideways. And when old bandmates gather, the secrets they’ve been keeping don’t always stay quiet.
Listen
You can hear Gold in the Gutter on Spotify. We recommend listening to it at moderate volume in a car park for maximum authenticity.
From the Archive
A Killer Comeback, the first Fame & Fortune Mystery by Kitty Brookstone, follows Ron Ashcroft and his wife Eva as they navigate murder, media, and the lingering chaos of celebrity life. Find out more about Kitty Brookstone and her books.