Tuesday, June 2 ~ Up-Beat not Beat-Up
** NEW BBC Radio Scotland's The Radio Café - Panel Discussion Hosted by Janice Forsyth **
Here's a wrap-up our discussion of the recent "international incident". Then it's only rock and roll... and I like it.
Immigration rules threaten to destroy Britain's arts reputation ~ The Times (of London)
May be time for a rewrite
of
Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree"
Group W bench scene:
"What were you arrested for, kid?"'
And I said, 'Tangoing.' And they all moved
away from me on the bench
there..."
Should you be in the neighbourhood of London, England - tomorrow night, enjoy Cabaret Without Borders. It happens on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - 6:00pm - 9:25pm at The Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES This is a night of music and poetry organized by Manifesto Club, the folks who launched the Visiting Artists and Academics Petition - which you can visit by clicking on the peace-flame:
And, for an overview, you can download and read the report: "UK Arts and Culture: Cancelled by Order of the Home Office"
"The International Music Council has a membership of national music councils and international music organisations with activities in 150 countries. It has formal associate relations with, and is based in, UNESCO in Paris. The Council objects to the actions of the British government, and the counter-productive policies upon which they are based, with regard to Alison Crowe and her band and other like cases. The International Music Council urges that the relevant laws and regulations are reviewed and amended in order to freely admit artists to the UK for short term stays for the purpose of performances or exhibition of their work." ~ Dr. Richard Letts, President, International Music Council (Petition signatory 6126)
Copy of motion lodged with Scottish Parliament;
— That the Parliament notes with grave
concern the ramifications of the Home
Office’s new immigration controls on non-EU
artists who require a sponsor to allow them
to enter the United Kingdom, as highlighted
by the treatment of Canadian singer Allison
Crowe and several band members who were held
for 11 hours in Gatwick Airport before being
barred from entering the UK to tour and
visit friends in the north west Highlands;
considers that Ms Crowe was treated as
little better than a terrorist after
enduring an 11-hour ordeal where she was
locked up, questioned, had her fingerprints
taken, her passport stamped “barred from
entry” and was then deported; contends that
this is no way to treat a legitimate and
repeat visitor to the UK; urges the Home
Office to rethink this draconian policy
before it harms cultural links to Scotland
and the wider UK; notes that Ms Crowe is
allowed to perform in Germany, Austria and
the Czech Republic and will do so;
furthermore notes the German authorities’
reported reaction to the situation that they
were horrified at the British treatment and
that Allison would be welcomed to perform in
Germany, and asserts that visitors to
Scotland during the Year of Homecoming
deserve a civilised and warm welcome.
Scottish MPs Condemn Treatment of Allison Crowe Band: European Tour Rocks On
Allison Crowe and her Canadian bandmates, (guitarist Billie Woods and percussionist Laurent Boucher, reunited with their British-passport-carrying bassist Dave Baird), have now performed two sensational concerts in Germany - in the cities of Aachen and Munich. Following a national holiday weekend the tour carries on now to Frankfurt, Berlin, Prague and Vienna.
In the UK, where the Canadian musicians
were barred from entry last month,
national debate over new
anti-terrorist/illegal immigration laws
that target artists and academics
visiting from non-EU countries continues
to build. Concern is reflected in
coverage from the northern tip of the
British Isles, via such journals as
The Northern Times and The
Aberdeen Press & Journal, to the
southern region, and such London-based
newspapers as The Telegraph and
The Observer/Guardian.
The Scotsman reports that: "John Thurso, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, added: 'The rule itself is an affront to the great British tradition of welcoming overseas artists and another example of this government's unyielding zeal for mindless regulation.” Thurso told Scotland's national newspaper: "Security is important, but throwing international performers into a lock-up and being rude to them should be no part of it."
On the English
front, the issue was among the most
discussed in this weekend's
Observer/Guardian newspaper, in the
wake of Henry Porter's column titled
“Britain is not radical enough. That is
why we're in trouble”, in which Porter
says:
“We
fondly think of ourselves as hospitable
and open to new influences. But on the
evidence of new laws that ban artists,
musicians and academics from visiting
Britain without certificates of
sponsorship, we are not. When a
Newfoundland-based singer Allison Crowe
and two of her band members, Billie
Woods and Laurent Boucher, arrived at
Gatwick to tour Britain they were
arrested, held in cells, photographed
and fingerprinted and had their
passports stamped 'Barred from Entry'
before being returned to Canada. This
shocking and disgraceful treatment -
designed to exclude illegal immigrants
and terrorists - seems fundamentally
unBritish. The English National Opera
and Southbank have both had problems
bringing in foreign performers because
of the stringent requirement for non-EU
citizens to provide biometrics and
photographs and submit to controls over
their day-to-day activity while here.
Is this Britain? If
so, the rational half of our brain has
been overwhelmed by 'suspicion and
parochialism', in the words of the
staunchly sensible Manifesto Club, which
has started a petition against the laws
brought in by immigration minister Phil
Woolas.”
The 'Visiting
Artists and Academics Petition' ~ found
@
http://www.petitiononline.com/MCvisit/petition.html
~ was launched earlier this year by the
UK civil liberties group, the Manifesto
Club, with the endorsement of: renowned
sculptor Antony Gormley; director of the
National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne;
the artistic director of the Royal
National Theatre Nicholas Hytner and
dozens more concerned artists and
educators.
Allison
Crowe and her Canadian bandmates are
simply among the most recent visitors to
learn about the new rules. Others
include Russian pianist, Grigory Sokolov,
the world's greatest living classical
pianist in the view of many critics,
whose concerts have been cancelled after
18 years of him performing in the UK.
Canadian journalist Leah McLaren
recounts a 30 hour detention and
deportation ordeal in her Globe and Mail
column of May 16, 2009: "CRUEL
BRITANNIA: God may save the Queen, but
what about the rest of us?"
Our approach to
music is very much grassroots,
community-oriented. We've learned that
many people in this segment of the UK's
cultural industries were neither
consulted nor informed of the
"Certificate of Sponsorship" laws. Of
those that were, there's a range of
opinion.
If
there is any silver lining to our
experience, it's the hope that we can,
in some small measure, contribute to
there being greater awareness, even
reform, and, at least, some greater
measure of reason and good judgement
applied in the application of any rules.
Canada, it's clear, is not immune to
today's culture of fear and aggression
which envelopes “security” issues. Nor
is our American neighbour.
Allison Crowe and her fellow musicians
are not terrorists nor are they illegal
immigrants. They love people, and make
music for them. From hereon, reports
will be, once again, about rock and roll
– circling back to the wisdom of George
Harrison: “I don't like to be political.
I like to be polite.”
