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John Robb to call on government to pressure US over musician visas
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 16 June 2011
Music journalist and Goldblade frontman John Robb will next week meet with Culture Minister Ed Vaizey alongside Labour MP Kerry McCarthy to call on the government to pressure the US to sort out its ever-complex visa system, which he reckons is constraining the ability of British musicians to travel and work in America.
Says Robb: “The special relationship between the UK and the USA has been the backbone of international post-war pop culture. The shared influences, pool of creativity and flow of ideas have been crucial to what is one of the biggest industries in the world. But that flow is currently being hampered by the expensive and unworkable US visa situation for British bands. And it’s a situation that is getting worse”.
Expanding on the problem, Robb continues: “In the past few years the American visa situation has tightened up and become far more expensive til we have a situation where getting a British group into America can cost up to £2700, and that’s not counting travel and accommodation expenses for bands outside London who have to travel for the eight o’clock in the morning London American Embassy interview. The forms that have to be filled in are very difficult to understand and lots of the money has to be spent on an American agency processing the forms. There have been endless examples of British bands, some very high profile, having to reschedule or cancel tours in the last year. And if a visa application fails, they don’t get any of the money back”.
He adds that things are much simpler the other way round: “American bands find it far cheaper and easier to travel and work in UK. What we need is a fairer and friendlier system that will break down the barriers, and let us do what we want to do, which is play music”.
Robb says his lobbying efforts are being supported by the Musicians’ Union, Association Of Independent Music and the Association Of British Orchestras, and that he has taken input from UK Music, UKTI and the Traffic Control Group in preparing for the meeting.
McCarthy, who joined John Robb on his politically-focused Question Time panel at last month’s The Great Escape, adds: “Since I first raised this issue in Parliament in March, I was surprised by the responses from right across the UK music industry. They confirmed that this is a real difficulty for musicians and that it is becoming more and more critical. We hope the government will speak up on behalf of British musicians to encourage USCIS [the US Citizenship and Immigration Services] and the US Embassy to address this issue.”