Series Synopsis

Tour the world, do your homework, say goodbye. For the Sweethearts, letting go is the hardest lesson of all.

This thirty-piece schoolgirl band from Geelong is enjoying its strongest and most successful line-up in the band’s twenty-two year history. But they are about to be torn apart by their own rule: when a member graduates from high school, she leaves the band. A third of the girls are set to graduate, and with their bi-annual European tour looming, the Sweethearts face a daunting choice.

Do they risk performing with a new line-up at Europe’s prestigious festivals? If they can’t perform at an international standard, they’ll never be invited to play the festivals again.

Do they break their longstanding rule and keep the graduates on? The younger members would be denied their chance to shine and this could breed tensions.

The band fails to find enough new members and the graduates are allowed to stay on for the tour. Sure enough, tensions build.

When the band is hit by three sudden departures, they struggle to present a united front. With pressure from schoolwork, part time jobs, and a hectic schedule of gigs, their preparation for Europe is rocky. They fail to promote their main fundraising gig and only a last minute publicity effort saves the day.

Their European tour is a mammoth schedule of thirteen gigs in sixteen days. The girls are awestruck by their own sudden popularity and the respect they receive from famous musicians.

As Sweethearts are awarded a headline spot at Porretta Soul Festival, the band is beset by injuries, exhaustion and the ultimate setback: lead vocalist Chloe loses her voice. There’s panic, but the younger vocalists seize their chance to shine and the gig is a sensation.

Just as backing singer Janeva gets a long awaited break to sing lead at the final show, Chloe recovers her voice. The tensions finally settle and the last gig is a triumph. Amid tearful goodbyes, musical director Ross announces the possibility of a US tour. As one dream ends, a new one begins.

20 All the while, the band learns the powerful messages and history behind soul music. Their tour path mirrors the Great Migration, where 6 million African Americans moved from the south to the north, bringing the sounds of slave songs, early jazz and gospel, which evolved into blues, rock, funk, hip hop, R&B and soul.

Their time in Memphis goes from strength to strength: performing on live TV, receiving the keys to the city and a surprise visit from Larry Dodson for the their fist gig. After their next gig at an empty bar, they impress a packed BB Kings and are overwhelmed by the crowd’s response. But the rescheduled Stax Concert is an embarrassment when no one tells the girls onstage which song is cut.

Their one gig in Nashville leaves the venue and a record producer asking for their return. When they arrive in Milwaukee for Summerfest, they dedicate the gig to Ross. Maddi plays badly and the most experienced players freak out. There’s no energy and no one’s sure how to fix it. With the gig teetering on disaster, Janeva rouses a quick change of songs and they transform the show into a triumph, earning a standing ovation and future festival offers in the process.

Maddi undergoes an inspirational renewal when she plays Louis Armstrong’s old Chicago jazz club. Emotion spills over at the last gig of the tour. For the older girls it’s their last ever gig. They commiserate and then celebrate their incredible feat in making the first Sweethearts tour of America a blazing success. They salute Ross and the extraordinary impact that he, and music, have had on their lives.

Six months after the U.S.A tour, Ross dies from throat cancer. Hundreds of people attend his memorial service, reflecting the many the lives he touched. It was Ross himself who said he couldn’t do what the Sweethearts do – that they are great musicians, great performers and they are changed as people through the power of music.