it is even worse for UK and European musicians who want to come in.
They have to make a consulate appointment months in advance and it is 
several thousand dollars
per musician - unless you've got a substantial tour booked almost a 
year in advance, forget it...
that's why there's lots of promo meet and greet radio station visits..

a lot of bands take a gamble, especially on under the radar one-off 
gigs (rent your gear), but by and large,
you need specialised agencies (ie: Traffic Control) to help you 
through the paperwork. For a serious musician,
it is not worth the gamble.

This pretty much sidewinded some kimberley rew IPO plans i had.

The Musician's Union on both sides of the border was supposedly 
trying to rectify this, especially as it was no real
hassle for US musicians to travel into Canada (at the most, I think 
you put up a deposit on your gear if your paperwork is dodgy), but 
right now it is a mess with the Canadian AFM lobbying successfully to 
make it harder
for US musicians to come in to Canada in retaliation for the US 
grinding Canadian musicians.


Union view: read here: http://www.vma145.ca/news.htm#NOTICE


Promoter's nasty overview here: 
http://www.coolname.com/pipermail/maplepost-mirror/2002-April/008634.h 
tml

ayiee caramba!!


why can't we just all get along, people......



Ralph


Hey, my ebay garage sale continues!! Lots of weird and wonderful stuff:

http://cgi6.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=beatnik_guy









Dig that crazy Bongo Beat!
Visit my web site
Http://www.bongobeat.com