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Interview with Heavy Load

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by Jamie Heatly
The band The band Heavy Load, the eponymous band of Jerry Rothwell’s latest feature documentary, have been living it up on the press junkets surrounding the release of the film in cinemas in the UK. They did, however, find a short amount of time to catch up with Jamie Heatly from DFG. Be warned: for those used to more traditional documentary film interviews, what follows is definitely rock n roll. Sorry, punk. No, pop…

DFG: What was it like for all of you to be filmed over such a long period of time? How did you find the whole process?
Mick: Mixed [they laugh]. I think it was fantastic, I mean Jerry’s such a nice bloke to have around so it was easy in that sense.
Paul: It was a huge novelty, wasn’t it? It was great for attention seeking. You know, you’re in a café with cameras all around you, and there’s somebody with a microphone on a boom! But after a while… It’d be like, “Right, can you stop the van because we’re going to do a shot”, and then “can you just drive up that road you’ve just come down, and then go off into the distance…”.
Mick: He’s got his own schedule and we’ve got ours, and they don’t always match.
Paul: [laughs] It took us about 12 hours to drive to Durham once!
Mick: But I know Michael, [to drummer Michel White] you certainly enjoyed having a film crew around didn’t you?
Michael: Yes.
Mick: Probably the most out of all of us.

DFG: What did you, Michael, enjoy most about the whole filming process?
Michael: Well actually I find it easy. And also, being a five-piece band it’s really, really great and really, really great music. And it’s great to have all those songs, and I would like to say thank you to Jimmy for organizing that band!
Mick: Yeah nice one Jim [laughs]. Not sure we ever thanked you for that!
Simon: And me too Michael, I sing!

DFG: What did you all think of the finished film?
Simon: I’ve got my ex-girl on it. Nicole’s on it.
Mick: Yeah she’s on it.
Simon: I’m a bit upset about Nicole now… now I’ve dumped her.
Paul: I’ve always said it’s a great memory. It’s like having the best home movie you could have, but I think were so close to it, it’s hard to see it how other people see it.
Mick: But I mean whatever it is, it’s a fantastic record of what we’ve done, and for any band to have that is amazing. And it’s also pushed us to try new things, and pushed the boundaries about who will listen to us – like when we played the Beachcomb, Paul’s local pub, and then we tried Wychwood Festival – and we’re just pushing it a bit further and further, and it’s because of the film that we’re doing that really. It gives us that impetus.
DFG: So do you think that the film spurred you on to take action, where otherwise such actions would just have remained dreams, for example the impressive ‘Stay Up Late’ campaign?
Mick: Yeah definitely.
Paul: I think we had the seed of the idea for Stay Up Late for a long time, but I remember one day thinking, “blimey, this is going to be a great platform, and also a great thing for Jerry to film”. The film gave us the impetus to push it as far as we could, and now its gone farther than we could have thought; with people getting involved and it’s become quite a movement.

DFG: So how is the campaign going? Have you made much progress with it?
Paul: Mencap are on board now, and we’ve just found out the campaign’s been short-listed for an award.
Mick: We played up in Durham last Thursday, and they completely embraced the whole Stay Up Late thing. They produced their own Stay Up Late merchanise, to push to their punters, to get that message out to people that if you are going out to a gig or to a club you shouldn’t have your carer saying, “drink up, it’s time to go home”, that’s not what normal living is about. Having a social life and being out late is. To see that Durham crowd, they’re called the ‘Crocodile Crew’, they’ve really, totally embraced it. It’s been great.
Simon: My house don’t like it, all being stuck at home. Half-past nine o’clock they’re going home!
Paul: The modern agenda is, like, people who need support should be able to say what support they need, when they need it. So, it fit’s in very well with all the Government directives, which are quite dry and boring in a sense, and I think the beauty of Stay Up Late, perhaps, is a very simple message.

DFG: How did you all find New York?
Simon: On a plane! On a plane!

DFG: Did you enjoy the experience?
Paul: We loved it, didn’t we?
Mick: It was fantastic, yeah.
Paul: (to Michael) You got a bit fed up with me trying to get everybody to walk everywhere, didn’t you?
Michael: Yes I did! I don’t like long-distance walking. I don’t like that at all!
Mick: Could have taken the subway but Paul insisted on walking: “It’s only another two more blocks…”. But no, it was great – all the things that could have gone wrong and nothing did. It all just went really smoothly, and we just had the best time in the World. Staggering home, Michael, I remember…weren’t you lying in a shop doorway at some point?
Michael: I don’t think so!

DFG: Do you prefer playing to disability club crowds, or at more ‘mainstream’ events?
Mick: Well we had this discussion the other night. We want to carry on doing disability club nights, but, in a way, I think our audience at a mainstream place kind of ‘gets’ us more, you know? They understand what we’re about.
Paul: The thing is, where we’re from, Brighton, the crowds are very, I don’t know…cynical. They always fill up from the back-wall down to the stage, whereas the disability clubs always fill up from the stage backwards. So, what we’ve started doing is organizing our own gigs – with non-disabled bands, and us. That way you get the best of both worlds really, you get a really good mix, and you get really fantastic audiences.
Mick: Yeah, like tonight should be good, I think, because it’s going to be so mixed.

DFG: So, what can one expect on the newly released second album? New directions or more of the same?
Simon: Shut it!
Mick: Yeah, it’s called ‘Shut It’.
Paul: New directions? Erm…a bit more organ
Mick: More organ, yep.
Paul: And more swearing!
Michael: Especially this one here…Simon!
Simon: [proudly shouts out a few expletives]
Mick: All our own compositions. I think that was the biggest jump – to concentrate on a whole album of our own stuff. So we were writing stuff, and when we realized we didn’t have enough o fill an album with we did songs like ‘Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’! [laughs]
Paul: When words fail you, you see?
Mick: But no, we’re really happy that it’s worked out and came out well, and it looks really nice. Lester Magoogan, who did the artwork, is fantastic.
Michael: What I would like. What I would really, really like is to just push it forward. Because actually I would like to just be a professional band: Heavy Load, a professional band. And actually I wouldn’t mind if I can ask Paul if he could have the professional band instead of the learning disabilities band, a disabled band. If we change all that then we could be a professional band, easy.
Paul: We’re sort of semi-professional because we do get paid for gigs…we just don’t get paid enough.
Michael: Yeah, I mean when we’ve finished with all the disabled, and the learning disabilities stuff, we could just be a professional band.
Mick: I think I like the idea of what Paul was saying, where we keep playing to mixed audiences, you know? I think that’s where we feel most comfortable.
DFG: Have you got any good Rock ‘n’ Roll tour stories?
Michael: Well we’re actually a punk band.
Simon: Pop band!
Michael: Punk band, punk songs, punk music. And it’s really great music, and we’re playing a gig tonight, and it’s Sham 69 as well, and that’ll be really, really great for me. I can be a rock star!
Paul: We did a gig in Dilston in Northumberland, three years ago now, and we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast. And when we checked out the landlady said that she’d never seen the rooms left in such a tidy condition!
Mick: [laughs] Very Rock ‘n’ Roll! There was the beautiful octopus, though, wasn’t there? The first time we played there, where Simon’s ex-girlfriend threw up, and Michael slipped up in it.
Michael: No I did not!
Mick: Didn’t you?
Michael: No! I walked round it.
Paul: And then fell over…
Michael: No! I walked round it, and then I just started sitting down…that was it.
Paul: Oh I see…
Simon: We was engaged years ago!
Paul: What, you and Nicole?
Simon: Louise!
Mick: Oh yeah, Louise.
Simon: Not any more!
Paul: When you get engaged, that’s when it all goes wrong isn’t it?
Simon: Hmm…I’ve been with Louise, Nicole…
Mick: June
Paul: Claire
Simon: Claire! [laughs]

DFG: That’s quite a list. OK, finally, what are your favourite songs of all time?
Simon: Shut Your Mouth, Shut it!
Mick: That’s a new one we’ve just written, called ‘Shut It’.
Paul: Green Onions (Booker T and the MG’s).
Michael: I’ve got three of Heavy Load’s songs: ‘I Fought the Law’ by the Clash, also ‘Batman’ I like, and also the other one I like is a punky one, which is Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’.
Mick: Oh, and Jim’s is ‘The Wanderer’ (Dion).
Heavy Load is released in the UK from Friday 3rd October. For more details, see www.heavyloadthemovie.com

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DFG Interview with Jerry Rothwell

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