I thought that was quite interesting when I first read it. I'm content with my own scraggly voice these days, although it took years before I could stand to listen to it.
I don't even have a falsetto but wish I could develop it for songs like "Runaway", "Crying", etc.
Larry Henley, who did the high voice in the Newbeats' songs, couldn't explain how he did it; it was just there, but may have indeed been related to a technique such as you describe.