Very bummed out to find out today that the Pretty Things have cancelled their upcoming 6 week tour of the US...they were to perform in SF on 3/23....have to wonder if they encountered visa problems like so many other bands have in the past year...NSA has made it very difficult for many tourists/bands to enter the USA because of minor infractions in the past...couple of months ago I chatted with an elderly couple from the UK at a local SF restaurant..I wondered why SF wasn't swamped by the Brits taking advantage of the weak dollar..their story was a real eye opener...a year old parking ticket from a past visit to the US was enough to postpone their visa until paid up in advance..forget about prior criminal convictions...if your name is listed in a database for skipping out on hotel charges or anything that might be reported to a collection agency in the US...be prepared...comments most welcome...the problem with the PT may have nothing to do with this but it has/will be a problem for many visitors entering the USA from what I hear.....peter
It's sad news for lots of fans who have never seen the PT for sure...I have seen them several times in SF...the PT opened for the Kinks, Led Zeppelin in the 70's...played Bimbos's in SF several years ago..one thing is for sure...lots of UK bands headed for the US have had their tours cancelled at the last minute in the past year...Visa problems have been mentioned often...ask Hugh Cornwell...it must be very embarassing for these acts & maybe down right inexcusable for their managers/agents not to be prepared for these roadblocks...I would have thought that someone..from the 1000's of readers of this message board would have an opinion or inside track to what's going on with this...interesting.....peter
Website for the club in Detroit where I was hoping to see them says "cancelled due to illness". They're offering full refunds with no mention that the show will ever be rescheduled.
They showed a gig from last year in Bonn; the transmission lasted for about an hour, it started too early, so I missed the first minutes! They played a lot of their hits and a few tracks from S.F. Sorrow. A surprise for me was their version of "I Can't Be Satisfied" with Dick "Little Boy Blue"Taylor on bottleneck guitar. I am sorry, I cannot post this here,but I will send a dvd to anybody who's interested and who might put it on Gigasize etc...