by Shona Husk
Welcome to Freo!
I’ve lived in Western Australia for 19 years. I moved with my hubby when he got posted to HMAS Stirling for his submarine training (a few months later he got posted back to Sydney on a training billet and I was left in WA…but that is a different story).
While I have worked in a lot of different offices around Perth, one of my favourite places to work was Fremantle. This was back in the days when there was Angus and Robertson AND Dymocks in the same mall, and I worked above the library. Sounds like heaven already? Then there was the Italian ice-creamery…
You know how I spent my lunch breaks, don’t you?
When not eating ice cream and browsing for books there was the new age shops, boutiques with funky shoes, pizza places and there may have been the occasional Friday drafting meeting (I was a civil designer) held at the pub over the road (nachos and bourbon!).
Fremantle has a certain vibe. It’s fun and friendly and there’s always something to see.
Fremantle (home of the Dockers for the football fans) is also known for nurturing its local musos.
There are pubs to play in, small venues galore. The Fly by Night has launched many an album (the old location was a real character building). Then there is the haunted Fremantle Arts Centre where lights and amps have been known to play up.
When choosing where the place my up and coming band, Selling the Sun, Fremantle was the place to be. Maybe they’ll outgrow it and move to L.A. when they get big…or maybe they’ll stay close to home. At the moment they are trying to get their second album written and working out where the rent is going to come from.
They might be one of the hottest up-and-coming bands in Australia, but the members of Selling the Sun have a lot to learn about life, love, sex, and each other.
Coming off a successful Australian tour and prestigious industry award nominations, Gemma Field’s life should be perfect. Instead her parents want her to get a real job, the second album isn’t coming together, and her best friend, Kirsten wants nothing to do with her.
Falling for her best friend was never going to make life easy. After an almost accidental drunken kiss almost six months ago, they aren’t even talking. Gemma can’t even talk about it with anyone – not her family, not her bandmates, not even the one person she used to share everything with. Instead she lives in a space of indecision and pain, and it’s affecting all aspects of her life, including the band.
Kirsten Vincent missed Gemma like crazy, but did she miss her as a friend or as something more? She’s confused and Gemma is hurt, and the consequences of a bad decision will affect more than their personal lives. Will another kiss, a sober kiss, a kiss with intent, do more damage, or could it be the start of something more?
Every band is desperate for that first big break – but what happens after that?
Ed Vincent, front man of Selling the Sun, has a really bad case of second album jitters. Nothing he writes measures up to the expectations placed on him after the success of the first album. The tensions between band members are rising and everything seems to be falling apart just as they get started. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be: not every band gets to write their name on the pages of history. But the band has always been Ed’s dream, and if Ed gives up, will he have any dreams left?
Chasing dreams is something that other people do. Olivia Doyle put her life on hold after a car accident killed her fiancé and nearly claimed her life. Now with a three-year-old son and a part-time job, she knows she is stuck in a rut, but has no idea how to climb out. Then she meets Ed.
He can’t have the distraction of a relationship, and she has no time for anything casual. On the surface, they’re in completely different places, but love has a way of finding middle ground.