Bands can now play Liechtenstein Visa Free!

[ambient]

1 hour ago, bode said:

The reason it's so difficult for you all is because the EU market is a protection racket, they don't want foreigners earning money in their closed market.

The UK ended FoM, ending it was one of the linchpins of Brexit. What many failed to grasp was that we weren’t just ending it for EU citizens, we were ending it for ourselves too. We could have opted to remain part of the SM - a Norway style agreement - that would have solved the problem with NI, it would have solved the problems that exporters are facing. We chose not to though. 

The UK was offered visa-free travel for creative industry workers, we would have had to reciprocate though, so we said no. This is despite the fact that the creative industries employs 3.2 million people, or 10% of the country’s workforce, and contributed some £111 billion to the economy in 2018 (source ONS).

[Dad3353]

1 minute ago, bode said:

Yes because we don't need a quarter of a million Romanian street musicians. See my earlier point. The country agreed and a Brexit debate is super boring.

How to get a perfectly decent topic locked, Lesson One ... 

[bode]

I may have mentioned the war once, but I think I got away with it.

[Dad3353]

13 minutes ago, bode said:

I may have mentioned the war once, but I think I got away with it.

Maybe, but be aware that you're on very, very thin ice. 

[Lozz196]

22 minutes ago, bode said:

I may have mentioned the war once, but I think I got away with it.

How would you like your war, I mean your soup?

[Doctor J]

11 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Maybe, but be aware that you're on very, very thin ice. 

You might say that doesn't... bode well for the new poster 🤔

 

 

 

 

I'm so sorry, so very sorry!

[mike257]

7 hours ago, bode said:

I know a guy who owns a record label, he says this whole visas for musicians saga is massively overblown. He can't understand why the radio keeps making it a news feature..for political gain obviously. American musicians never played in Europe due to them not being in the EU. 🙄

Anyway, he knows a girl who issues them, it takes the click of a button to sort it out. A nice earner for her though!

As a tour manager, who actually has to arrange these things for the artists and crew in the touring party, and has to manage the budget for making the whole thing happen, I'd be inclined to disagree. 

Whilst we don't need visas or permits for EVERY country within the EU, there's a fair few we do, and some come with stringent requirements, fees, and lengthy processing times, as well as interview visits to embassies, usually in London, for all applicants (which incurs travel costs and a day's pay for each person required to make the trip). Countries that don't require a visa still place a limit on the number of days you can work in said country per year. This might not affect you if you tour Europe once a year but if, like many crew or session players, you work with multiple artists and hop from one tour to another, you might find yourself in hot water when you realise you've used up all your days in one of the countries on the schedule. 

On top of visas and permits, there's now tax complications in each territory as we're no longer part of reciprocal schemes. There's carnets for your equipment which big tours crossing all of Europe would have had professionally arranged, but smaller DIY/low budget tours would do without and just not drive through the couple of territories which required them when we were members. They're now needed everywhere in Europe.

I'll do my best not to delve in to the political aspects of a clusterfck that one third of the electorate voted for, as politics isn't my business.  Touring, however, is my bread and butter, and it's been made more challenging, more expensive, more difficult to drop personnel in at short notice if needed, and generally more of a pain in the balls in many ways by our new status as a third country. 

[ambient]

Apparently, from what I’ve just been told, UK based artists, unless they’re using an EU based trucking company to move their gear about can only make three European stops. Then they have to return back to the UK.

So less work for an already struggling UK music industry, and another B####t bonus for our European friends.

Edited June 23, 2021 by ambient

[ezbass]

17 minutes ago, ambient said:

Apparently, from what I’ve just been told, UK based artists, unless they’re using an EU based trucking company to move their gear about can only make three European stops. Then they have to return back to the UK.

So less work for an already struggling UK music industry, and another B####t bonus for our European friends.

Now if this had been football, you know the current bunch of losers would've sorted a better deal. Cultural philistines, every single one of them!

[ambient]

7 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Now if this had been football, you know the current bunch of losers would've sorted a better deal. Cultural philistines, every single one of them!

Definitely. 
Though surely they’re aware of the economic damage too?

[Supernaut]

On 12/06/2021 at 13:08, Hellzero said:

Funny to moan now when you knew that Brexit meant being a foreigner (alien, if you prefer) everywhere with all the paper(work) hassle it implies... It's not political, it's a simple fact.

But, but, we're for immigration when it gives us doctors, nurses, carers, hospitality staff... we didn't vote Brexit just because of immigration - honest! 

[mike257]

9 hours ago, ambient said:

Apparently, from what I’ve just been told, UK based artists, unless they’re using an EU based trucking company to move their gear about can only make three European stops. Then they have to return back to the UK.

So less work for an already struggling UK music industry, and another B####t bonus for our European friends.

Yep. A lot of the specialist event trucking companies are having to set up sister operations on the mainland, employing European drivers, and doing a handover once a load gets across there. 

The whole thing is just a mess.