I heard that on the news this morning. Well - it was bound to happen. And bound to happen again. I believe that the Halle is very popular in the USA. I always think of it for its rendition of the Welsh piece, Suo Gan, which was made popular as the running theme in the film, "Empire of the Sun".

Another folk connection: I know at least one folk agent in the USA who is booking more and more clients from the UK to Canadian festivals to avoid a lot of the visa issues. And I know of one Welsh group which had a tour booked for 2003 so applied for visas in 2002. They're still waiting to hear - and obviously cancelled the tour. They've been advised by another agent that there isn't anything they can do to move things along and that they probably won't even get an explanation.

And these UK visa proposals are going to drop us in it this side of the water too.

"The wounds of the world being bound up in red tape."

siân