The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95859 Message #1868541
Posted By: Anne Lister
25-Oct-06 - 03:43 PM
Thread Name: UK folkies not welcome by US authorities?
Subject: RE: UK folkies not welcome in US?
Speaking for Les (who is, of course, well able to speak for himself) I think that the person who applied for his visa is well versed in applying for visas and almost certainly did allow plenty of time. He's been over to the US many, many times, with the right visas, qualifying each time for the "culturally unique" label. This time that seems to be the hurdle stopping his application, so you have to wonder what has changed to make someone who WAS unique no longer so. Grant and Hilary have also recently fallen foul of the same problem. There may be others we haven't heard of yet.
My own touring plans for the US have been decidedly slowed down by all of this stuff. I have always booked my own tours, so don't have an agent, and although in the past some kind US citizen has been prepared to be my sponsor for a visa, it seems these days everyone is understandably reluctant to put their head above the parapet if they're not actually the booking agent for my tour.
I understand that in the great casserole of show business and folk music I'm a very small piece of celery, but when many pop clones seem to cross and re-cross the Atlantic at will this whole business does make me somewhat fratchetty. I can at least cling on to the knowledge that at some point in my musical career I was considered to be culturally unique, and let that be some comfort.
Anne
sorry, just realised there's a lurking pun in that Marmite is the French word for casserole....probably why I chose that particular metaphor.