Synopsis

After rocking Australian pubs for 20 years, The Convicts, a Byron-based rock band, get a second bite at the cherry. As the opening act for a touring American pop group, they find new life in a rapidly changing rock industry.

Singer Dizzy Luccia battles his demons as the band endures the ups and downs of a hilarious and heartwarming rock & roll rollercoaster. Manager Bazza (ex-alcoholic, ex-junkie) guides them thru a never-ending road of Bohemian twists and challenges. Along the way, The Convicts encounter all that is good, bad and ugly in the seedy undergrowth of the rock industry.

After their precious instruments are stolen, Dizzy hits rock bottom. He decides that coping with the pain of his disastrous childhood and one extraordinary life-changing experience at age 18, is far too challenging. Checking into an outback country pub, Dizzy marches towards death on a steady diet of drugs and alcohol.

When an outlaw Parramatta bike club recovers their gear, bass player/best friend Jude tracks down Dizzy to intervene in his spiral. The singer is damaged and scattered, but his window to death has opened a portal of creativity that oozes with Dylanesque-brilliance.

Their next recording spawns a number of hits, paving the way for their first US tour, which is plagued with hiccups, failures and violence. A serious hand injury to guitarist Trev forces the band to cancel the rest of the tour and return to Australia in tatters.

Back home, Dizzy, profoundly impaired by his drug and alcohol abuse, does a complete turnaround, finding true love, sobriety, health and happiness. His amazing recovery is fueled by super-foods, a rigorous physical regime and an ancient Egyptian secret ingredient that reinvigorates his lean body and brilliant mind. Their next creative effort catapults The Convicts to the top of the US charts.

But there's a price to pay. Their black-hearted American record executive has a calculated axe to grind. The chip on his shoulder that blossomed when he was humiliated by The Convicts on that first Aussie support tour, has festered into a mountain of hatred. He will stop at nothing to bring hardship, failure and misery to these reckless, loveable rockers.

The Convicts is a white-knuckle rock & roll ride, full of massive swings of the pendulum that turn the band upside-down, sideways and right-side-up again. No one said it'd be easy. This is rock n roll. You pay to belong.