Young@Heart

Young @ Heart are a group of pensioners known for unpredictable covers of hits and obscurities from the rock back catalogue. The band has toured extensively, as one member drily notes, ‘from continent to continent, till I became incontinent’. Their cover of The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ even received airplay on American radio.

As a documentary, ‘Young@Heart’ is perfectly adequate – interviews with very personable characters interspersed with concert footage and more intimate moments of tragedy, sickness, even death. But director Stephen Walker can’t disguise the fact that Young@Heart are a novelty act, and a pretty dreadful one. Through covers of Sonic Youth, Talking Heads and The Clash, the music is never more than limp karaoke – by which token the filmmakers’ and even audiences’ interest in the band begins to feel more than a little patronising. Sure, these ‘zesty’, ‘lively’ old folks are enjoying themselves. The question is why on earth we should be expected to watch.