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Anamanaguchi: UK Tour, no more
9:21 PM on 03.14.2007, Analog Pidgin 27 comments

Anamanaguchi: UK Tour, no more photo
     Music

In an unfortunate turn for UK fans of New York's Anamanaguchi, the band was detained earlier this week at Glasgow airport. Why were they denied? Apparently, they were too good to be allowed into the country. Perhaps the Scots thought that Anamanaguchi would displace all of the domestic 8-bit rockers.  From the press release:

The immigration officer asked guitarist/programmer Peter Berkman for a phone number to call; he gave the number of Phil from the group Firebrand Boy, whose flat they were staying that night. The officer asked Phil two questions on the phone: "Are they getting paid for these shows?" to which Phil replied, "I don't even know if I'll break even, everything's out of pocket." And the second question, "Would you say they're pretty good at what they do?" to which friend and fan Phil replied "yes." The officer returned and told the band that since they were "pretty good at what they do" they had to be denied access to the UK.

 [Read on for details.]

I came across a checklist on the UK work permit site (direct .pdf link here), which helps to explain the situation somewhat:

Work permit rules

Anamanaguchi were indeed too good for their own good, so they had to offer up this apology:

We regret to say that we have to cancel the rest of our UK tour dates. We were denied access to the country for not having work permits. We were held in customs for about five hours, were detained in a windowless holding cell with Arabic newspapers, and were fingerprinted and photographed. After this, we were let out into the city of Glasgow on March 9th but were forced to return to leave on March 13th. We'll certainly be back because the little we got to see was truly awesome and incredible. We are very, very sad that we had to cut it short and we did everything in our power to stop it from happening (we almost called Ringo Starr, no joke). Thanks to everyone that helped make this possible and hope to see you in the UK soon.

Cancelled dates include:

March 12th: The Victoria Inn, Derby
March 14th: Camden Barfly, London
March 15th: Stealth, Nottingham
March 17th: Abort, Retry, Fail @ The Cellar, Oxford

Next page: More sucks 2bu stories




OrangeTimer's Avatar
OrangeTimer at 03/14/2007 22:27
I suck at what i do...

can i go to the UK now?
masterledz's Avatar
masterledz at 03/14/2007 22:34
You crazy Brits and your crazy immigration.
The U.S. would never let that sort of thing happen. :shock:
Your moms new boyfriend's Avatar
Your moms new boyfriend at 03/14/2007 22:54
Assholes! Why the hell do they have to fuck with an indie band? They have done nothing but entertain me and make me clap and say "yay!"
Diverse's Avatar
Diverse at 03/14/2007 22:57
Good. THE U.K. IS
Diverse's Avatar
Diverse at 03/14/2007 22:57
Good. THE U.K. IS
Diverse's Avatar
Diverse at 03/14/2007 22:57
Good. THE U.K. IS
Diverse's Avatar
Diverse at 03/14/2007 22:58
Good. THE U.K. IS ONLY A BIG BREEDING AREA FOR FAGGOTS!
SpencersGifts's Avatar
SpencersGifts at 03/14/2007 23:15
U funny brits u!
Always keepin the indie man down
GatsuTheBerserker's Avatar
GatsuTheBerserker at 03/15/2007 00:06
That's pathetic...
Kotua's Avatar
Kotua at 03/15/2007 00:21
Wow... I expected this sort of thing from the US, not the UK. Still pretty screwed up reason to deny entrance...
masterledz's Avatar
masterledz at 03/15/2007 00:25
@electro lemon

their mini-cd is available for download here
just "save links as"
Thanks go out to Analog Pidgin for writing the original article featuring this link.
DJDuffy 's Avatar
DJDuffy at 03/15/2007 00:52
Come on, it's sooo obvious: They just don't want the band to compete with the likes of Oasis, Coldplay or any other "Brit-rock" mainly because they would get rocked. Also with their cocks out.
Faraday's Avatar
Faraday at 03/15/2007 03:39
There's a law that keeps a limit on the number of bands in the UK at any point in time. And because they're "good at what they do" the talent level in the UK will overload and the whole world will be at stake.

What a bunch of balls though. I was hoping to see them eventually.
lowercaseluke's Avatar
lowercaseluke at 03/15/2007 05:54
So... Why didn't they just get a work permit?
Nintendork's Avatar
Nintendork at 03/15/2007 07:02
That is total bullshit!
The scots must be destroyed! Over the wall lads!
oYsterchet's Avatar
oYsterchet at 03/15/2007 07:32
This is not uncommon at all. There's all kinds of random things you need to do to get into another country. when i was in a small time local band and we wanted to play in canada. We had to get letters of invitation, hide merch in the cabs of our amps, tell them that we were playing for free, and in general make it off like we were not for profit. And that's just to get into canada.
PetiePalo's Avatar
PetiePalo at 03/15/2007 09:12
So if they sucked at whatever they did, even if it was suicide bombing, they'd be allowed. Silly UK.
Atrophis's Avatar
Atrophis at 03/15/2007 10:04
Never heard of this band but having had a little listen at that 8bitpeoples link posted above, they are pretty cool. Cant beat a bit 'o chip tune loving.

Oh and would you look at that, they were going to play in my hometown, Nottingham.

Will have to keep an eye out for them if they do manage to get back here. Ill pop along to support them.
phenrix's Avatar
phenrix at 03/15/2007 10:31
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


but seriously, that sucks.
omgitsruss's Avatar
omgitsruss at 03/15/2007 13:15
Sounds pretty frickin' reasonable to me. They could've been over here to do anything as far as customs were concerned.

Still, a shame I won't be able to see them now :(
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 03/16/2007 23:48
thats too bad, bureaucracy sucks.

Oh and thank you Destructoid for bringing this band to light for me, I love them now!
MIKEisONfire84's Avatar
MIKEisONfire84 at 03/19/2007 21:22
They need to use anamanaguchi music in modern games.Immediately.
Sava's Avatar
Sava at 03/25/2007 22:00
Stupid rules.
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