Stardust

by Ray Connolly

The year is 1963 and Jim Maclaine, star of That'll Be the Day has grown his hair, grown up and become a singer with a rock and roll band called the Stray Cats.

Performing to bored audiences in seedy clubs, they live on dreams of becoming as famous as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

A combination of luck, ruthlessness and a lot of hard hustling on the part of Mike Mennery, Jim's old fair-ground friend, makes the Stray Cats rock and roll superstars.But just when they have achieved their dream, it starts to go sour...

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Ray Connolly grew up in Lancashire, England. After graduating from the London School of Economics he began a career in journalism, and wrote a weekly interview column for the London Evening Standard, concentrating mainly on popular culture and music. Since then he has written for the Sunday Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Observer and the Daily Mail. Many of his interviews with members of the Beatles have been republished in his eBook, The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive.
His first novel, A Girl Who Came To Stay, was published in 1973. Several other novels followed, including Newsdeath, Sunday Morning, Shadows On A Wall and Kill For Love.
Working with producer David Puttnam he wrote the original screenplays for the films That’ll Be the Day and Stardust, and wrote and directed the feature length documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager.
He has also written for television, most notably the series Lytton’s Diary and Perfect Scoundrels, and the TV films Forever Young and Defrosting The Fridge, and worked with Sir George Martin on the documentary trilogy about music The Rhythm of Life.
For BBC radio he wrote Lost Fortnight, about Raymond Chandler in Hollywood, and Unimaginable, which concerned the twenty four hours around the death of John Lennon, whom he was due to see on the day the former Beatle was murdered.
In 2010 he adapted one strand of his novel Love Out Of Season as the radio play God Bless Our Love, while his novella about the Beatles, Sorry, Boys, You Failed The Audition, will be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
In 2011 he published his Christmas short story Let Nothing You Dismay as an eBook on Amazon. Others will soon follow.
Currently working on a screenplay for a movie about Dusty Springfield, he is married and lives in London.

Reviews

[Cosmic Dwellings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Connolly follows up the success of 'That'll be the Day' with a glittering rollercoaster ride through the ever-changing rock music scene of the sixties and seventies. The story's wayward anti-hero now has to finally grow-up and come to terms with an unbelievable amount of pressure - centre stage! Rich and Dark - a fine piece of political chocolate cake.

[Rob Wiltsher · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Hero to Zero.....a story for us all

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fame's a bitch!