Australian Fiction
When asked what it is about fame and celebrity that draws people so desperately to it, the record producer and songwriter Kim Fowley replied, ‘Inadequacy … it’s over-compensation for a crummy life, and you decide to have a fantasy life’
So it is for Nicky Nova, a Bowie-obsessed young man growing up in Melbourne in the early 1980s. Nicky moves into a big, ramshackle share house in Lygon Street, Carlton, with a bunch of musician friends. He forms a band and dreams of becoming a world famous rock’n’roll star. But is the band as hell-bent on fame and fortune as their singer?
Loaded with pop culture references, Catch a Falling Star is part cautionary tale, part travelogue of a recent bygone era of skinny ties, leg-warmers and big hair. This is a post-punk story about friendship and betrayal, the impossible dreams of youth, and the compromises we must make in order to survive.
If you’ve ever put together a garage band and dreamed of bigger things; if you’ve lived through the bohemian grunge and fractious ego mix of the inner-suburban share house experience; if you have fond memories of the heady excesses of the 80s, you will love Catch a Falling Star.
