So, does anyone know, specifically, what happened with Chaoswave?

booB

booB

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Mar 25, 2003
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They posted a series of blogs on their MySpace page, but they're in Italian and I can't read them. I was just wondering what the hell happened... as it stands now, based on the number of touring musicians who are getting turned away by customs, it seems like our government is unfairly targeting artists and making it harder for them to get in the country.

Hopefully they can try again sometime soon... I'm dying to see them perform.
 
http://www.freetranslation.com/

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=8313669&blogID=389371727

Hello to all here Raphael From a room d' hotel to Chicago... how much you will read subsequently potra' to seem incredible but and' absolutely true:

The mine 4 you connect (Garrison, Giorgia, Fabio and Mark) did not succeed to enter in the States, were stopped at the customs and sent again at home.

It is had read well. ... were sent again at home for problems with the visa (problems that had alone them and not the other given groups than all had the visa from "tusista")! They were detained for 4 hours to the customs where of the crazy policemen they began to exchange them perhaps for terrorists and absolutely they arrived to aim arms against of them!
I do not know for what miracle I is succeeded to pass the control and is here hour to write. ... I is not alone but with 3 friends that there lived this experience.
To the return in Europe I Mark itself and' heard badly and and' been operated to London some now after l' landing. The next live of 16 and of 17 obviously we are returned to given to define itself, provvedero' to the more' soon to inform personally the groups and the local dell' happened.
Garrison and Fabio succeeded to return house, Giorgia tornera' tomorrow and Mark we hope you return within the prox week.
Useless to say that still I do not succeed to understand what it is happened and all of the organizers are mortified and are talking about to organize something in future with the Chaoswave here in the States... we will see!

Speaking with the mine you connect in Italy I was convinced and to get ahead this blog and to replenish it of the tricked "Raffow' s Style" that much piacciono to all... has not sense to depress itself given than would not change nothing. ... therefore yourselves aggiornero' on everything what light' in my permanence to chicago.
Here us and' wireless wherever but there is not internet point osi' we gained a microportatile to hold us in contact with the world.
I am surviving to an epic troiaio of dimensions. ...
I am legend! !!!!!
 
ick... that was why I didn't use babelfish to translate the blogs... it still remains unreadable, except that we know they were kept out by customs, which we already knew.

I'm hoping someone in the know can shed some light... Giorgia maybe?
 
My guess. Is they didn't have a work visa, they let it slip that they'd be getting some form of payment in return for their performance, the customs agents said 'no you can't come in.'
 
Unfortunately, part of the band were turned away at customs and
that's all that needs to be said....please do not continue to pry,
ask questions, etc., as continuing to shed light on the matter would
not be helping anything. There were two signs posted at the front
door announcing the last minute line-up change (with a brief message
from us) so we're sorry if people didn't see them. Hopefully, we can
get the band back over here at some point as we were most certainly
as disappointed as anyone over this!

Between the chaos ensuing over this and the last minute cancellation
of The Autumn Offering, we were left scrambling to find some way to fill
the time. Fortunately, Sacred Dawn was able to step up and do a great
job, which we are very appreciate of!

Thanks to all for understanding,
Chris, Rob & John
 
Chris, this isn't really about your festival. Your festival is just another drop in the pond of this regular occurence. It happened at ProgPower, and happens fairly regular for tours, and not just in the metal area. I don't think that people are wanting to get information like 'chaoswave's drummer has a record for the molestation of bicyles.' But are more interested in if this is an issue of bands getting denied for no good reason, or if customs are doing a standard job and musicians are getting turned back for the same reasons that anybody wanting to visit the country would be.

Most of the issues I've seen are a result of being turned back because the promoter or band was unwilling to do things legally. And they tried to get through illegally, to illegally work in the United States, and thus were turned back. The problem is that the law sucks. Bands get partially funded to come to the U.S. but rarely recoup those full costs. So the law basically requires them (or a promoter) to increases the total losses (thus should be on promoter/management/label's shoulders.. not the bands) for that band by having them pay to get a work visa, to do work that is a net loss.

Effectively saying 'you want to come to America to lose $2k? That will cost you $1k'

Now partly this law makes sense, as some musicians do profit in the US and as any person working in the US, needs a US work visa (I do think its a stupid law that you need a license to work in a country). But there needs to be developed a process so that musicians/artists can more easily perform in the US.

If this was a case, seperate from this, well likely its due to another stupid law. But if it was, then the above won't apply to this specific case. But it will continue to apply to other cases.

For example, at ProgPower we -barely- had PrimalFear last year, and Freak Kitchen the year before. Wasn't it Turisas who had some issues this year? EdGuy had issues this year and had to cancel shows. Its happening all the time, and I recommend that people write to their representatives asking them to change the legislation to make it easier for musicians and artists to share what they have to offer.
 
Precisely what Cheiron said. I wasn't asking in order to stir up shit... I was asking because it seems to be a common occurrence that bands are getting turned away at the border, and it's affecting a lot of the tours/shows I care about, such as Powerfest and ProgPower. I was also concerned about Chaoswave, because I know they had a lot of money invested in their trip, and I was hoping the government didn't screw them out of TOO much of it.

Sorry if I offended anyone by asking. This will be my final word on the matter.
 
Hi Boob, and thanks for asking... I hope you managed to buy the Chaoswave CD at the merch stand, and that you are enjoying it!

Here's what happened to Chaoswave, and why we could not make it to the fest: some people from the band were sent from passport control to customs, where their names were googled and the officers found out that we were supposed to play the festival. We did not have work visas, since we never would had made it in time to get those. We knew about the risk, but took the chance anyway as we know many European bands do it the same way. Some of the officers at first tried to help us out, but their supervisor was very strict, and ordered us on the first plane to London. Bad luck, we really were really looking forward to kicking your asses!
As much as we're sorry that we could not play the fest, we are also grateful that we were sent back, as Marco, our bass player, had a heart attack when we landed in London again. The paramedics at the airport gave him nitro-glycerine and aspirin straight away, then rushed him to the hospital, where they identified his condition and transferred him to another hospital, where he underwent angioplasty. He's fine now, but we were lucky that it did not happen in the States, or on the plane, or on stage… He's still in London because he can't travel, but he was dismissed from the hospital and he seems to be recovering pretty fast.

Rob, Chris and John have been great in spite of the shitty situation: Raphael and the friends that were travelling with us were treated like kings, and CRJ really did all they could to ease things up for them, even though they had a shitload of other more important things to take care of.

Thanks all for your concern, we hope we'll be able to prove our worth over there in the future!
 
Wow talk about having bad luck. Sorry to hear about Marco but at least he's doing better. You guys were one of the bands I was really looking forward to see, your cd is great and hopefully you guys get to play in '09!
Good luck!
 
Jeez that blows. Sorry to hear about Marco. I hope he fully recovers.

And yeah I don't blame you. Work visas take forever and cost a lot.

But if they are googling now ... bands are screwed. =/
 
hey Giorgia, thanks a lot for the post, we're really happy to hear
Marco is doing better!! things happen for a reason and i'm quite
sure your return will be an even better one! ;)

boB...no sweat, dude, everyone deserved an explanation...this
certainly was a new thing for us to deal with and we've just been
trying to keep things under the radar a bit and didn't want this
to turn into a huge flame on the situation...
 
Nah no flame. Though there is a fairly big group out there that is targetting this as a huge issue. It happens with everything from major orchestras to small town folk.

Another issue is that temporary work visas for muscians are either for those teaching something unique, performing something cultural (i.e. trad folk), individually exceptional, or are major enough to be in magazines and to be making lots of money (i.e. very few metal bands).

There isn't a specific and reasonable process for smaller touring bands. And there needs to be.
 
It's really not a matter of bands being singled out - it's just the nature of the immigration process. Visas have long been a requirement in many countries, whether they be visitor/tourist visas or work permits etc. The process is profession agnostic - it's just that entertainers have higher profiles and therefore web searches can be done to find out whether or not the correct procedure has been followed, or not, and, as they say, loose lips...

:erk:
 
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