Every year in the run-up to the big SXSW rock festival in Austin, Texas, there are reports of bands being turned back at the US border, usually for no good reasons. This year a band called Soviet Soviet seems to have had a particularly bad time of it.
Soviet Soviet hail from the small town of Pesaro, Italy, that hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism. They arrived, armed with the correct visa and a letter of introduction from the SXSW organization and from their American record label, which explained that they would be performing a series of concerts for promotional purposes only and would not be receiving any form of payment for those shows. Basically, they did everything right.
But that did not stop the American border authorities from grilling the three band members for about 4 hours, before announcing their decision to deny the band admission and to deport them back to Italy, for reasons no-one still quite understands. The band were then frisked, handcuffed, had their cellphones confiscated, and were taken to jail in a police car, where they spent the night like common criminals.
And Americans wonder why most of the world hates them...
But that did not stop the American border authorities from grilling the three band members for about 4 hours, before announcing their decision to deny the band admission and to deport them back to Italy, for reasons no-one still quite understands. The band were then frisked, handcuffed, had their cellphones confiscated, and were taken to jail in a police car, where they spent the night like common criminals.
And Americans wonder why most of the world hates them...
No comments:
Post a Comment