Heavy Load

Heavy Load are Sussex’s premier punk-covers-of-pop-hits outfit, their USP being that three of them have learning disabilities. Filmmaker Jerry Rothwell, believing that the group represented some kind of happiness missing from his life, followed them to gigs and during the recording of their first album.

The potential pitfalls in documenting Heavy Load are self-evident – how to celebrate a group who make what could be described as an enthusiastic racket without becoming patronising? Rothwell does a superb job outlining the personalities within the band, and how much they conform, ironically, to well-worn rock-musician clichés, particularly drummer Michael – a one-man emotional rollercoaster with solo-career aspirations. But he shies away from showing us the band in all its atonal glory, preferring brief clips of shows and sessions, urging us not to view Heavy Load as a novelty act but refusing to let us make that decision for ourselves.