24
Jun
2009
The Daily Dust
Here’s an article about the campaign from The Daily Dust
Hi. Welcome to the Stay up Late Campaign run by Heavy Load,the UK's only punk band made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities. Lots of people come to our gigs, but they cannot stay out late to watch us. They have to go home early because their staff finish work at 10pm. Heavy Load are fed up with this! We think people with a learning disability have the right to stay up late and have some fun!
23
Jun
2009
Rock The Boat - 8th July, Proud, Camden
Rock The Boat and Stay Up Late!
…and it’s free beer for the first hour!
19
Jun
2009
Stay Up Late at Glastonbury
or why not Stay Up all night long!
Heavy Load will be performing at Club Dada at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
19
Jun
2009
Stay Up Late Wales launch - 21st June
Mencap Cymru and Heavy Load launched their Stay Up Late Campaign in Wales on Sunday 21st June to close the Undod Festival, and to start the celebrations for Learning Disability Week.
Thanks to everyone who came along and organised the event. It was a great night and it sounds like there are some exciting ideas in Wales about how the campaign can move forward and make some real changes.
Diolch yn fawr iawn
Cymru am byth!
14
Jun
2009
3 Reasons Why by Claire Webber
3 Reasons why Learning-Disabled People Should Stay out Later
They have fun too
The fact that people with learning disabilities are forced to go home early from many live music venues, as well as recreational experiences in general is purely a result of their staff going home early. This has nothing to do with the issue that learning-disabled people want to go home early; rather, they want to actively participate in many different forms of entertainment at all hours. They should not have to be stifled in cultural gains solely because their staff has to go home early; they are entitled to a night out as well. Additionally, the fact that Heavy Load contains members that also have learning disabilities is telling, in the fact that their members stay out late in order to entertain and benefit the cause. It is obvious that there is nothing preventing this aside from the different staff that works with learning-disabled people. Therefore, it should be noted that at least once in a while, people with learning disabilities enjoy taking time off to relax and stay out later to enjoy music or other sources of entertainment.
To prove that others can do the same
Once so many people with learning disabilities are able to petition the right to stay out later, more and more will join the rally for this cause. After the inclusion of one learning-disabled person, more will be encouraged to get their staff to stay out later at least once a month. One reason for the early nights could be related to the fact that many staff feel their patrons will not be able to handle a late night. As soon as it is obvious that staying out later does not negatively affect their well-being, it should therefore be concluded that some staff members should stay out later to allow learning-disabled people to do the same.
Promote their cause
Many citizens are not aware of the trials and tribulations that people with learning disabilities undergo throughout their life and causes such as these assist in relaying the message to others. For example, if you happen to work with a learning-disabled person, you may not understand their need for a type of “freedom” in which they are allowed to stay out late, or do what they want to do. Causes such as these help to relaying this message of freedom to people who otherwise would not understand the reasoning for this type of benefit. Heavy Load has spent a lot of time and money investing into this particular cause, and once more people begin to recognize this effort and change their ways, it will be a domino effect, leading to even more people staying out later.
This post was contributed by Claire Webber, who writes about the online best colleges. She welcomes your feedback at Claire.Webber1223 at gmail.com
Claire Webber writes for the blog www.bestcollegesonline.com
19
May
2009
Club Marmalade - 31st May - Punk Rock special
Club Marmalade, Wokingham, Surrey, England are having a punk rock special.
Pogo your way down there from 7pm ’til late!
www.clubmarmalade.org.uk
30
Apr
2009
Top 40 update
Some might say this was a total disaster as we didn’t even get near the Top 100 but we had loads of fun trying.
Thanks to all of you who took part we know loads of you tried your best and told your mates and we will try again at some point.
Next time we’ll try and pick a week when multi-national platinum selling superstars aren’t also releasing their new songs!
30
Apr
2009
Sheffield Half Marathon
Lucy, Heavy Load volunteer and Brighton Uni student, runs the Sheffield Half-Marathon in aid of the campaign. Hats off to Lucy and her mates!
31
Mar
2009
DVD out now
Heavy Load the movie was released on DVD (region 2) on 30th March and features the birth of the campaign and plenty of Stay Up Late action.
You can buy a copy for £10 through the Heavy Load online shop - www.heavyload.org
13
Mar
2009
Top 40 Campaign - Help Required!
We are trying to get the Stay Up Late song (backed with ‘We love George Michael’) into the charts. We understand that if we succeed the song will have to be played on Radio 1 which will be a fantastic way of further spreading word of the campaign!
The fun starts on Monday 16th March and there’s a Facebook site to coordinate our efforts. The songs will be available on all the usual download sites and cost as little as 79 pence.
We need at least 5 times as many people as we know to download it in order to make this work, so please tell everyone you know - mates, family, neighbours, work colleagues… Let’s make it happen!
We’ll post up further information next week and updates as the week progresses.
Links to all things Heavy Load
Forthcoming Stay up Late events.
Email us with your events and we'll add them to the list.