Mick and Drew’s Fugitive Life: The Novel Behind The Song
A gig in Rockhampton ends in handcuffs. After a fan passes them a bag of marijuana, Mick and Drew—the characters at the heart of Robert Forster's debut novel Songwriters on the Run—are arrested. Their troubles deepen when they discover their manager has racked up debt on their credit card and that their touring car is stolen. Placed in a low-security private prison, the pair eventually escape and flee to Melbourne, determined to track down their manager.
“The fugitive lifestyle reminded me of touring as a musician,” Forster said.
The novel is set in 1991, a pre-social media era where characters rely entirely on personal networks for information. A subplot follows a Hollywood figure named Ruth, who hears Mick and Drew’s music and travels to Melbourne in search of them.
Forster, 68, is a founding member of the band The Go-Betweens. The book, published by Penguin Random House, expands on a 2009 song of the same name. He wrote it over nine years. Rather than simply retelling the song’s events, the novel explores why the characters end up in jail and where they go after escaping.