Allison Crowe Band: Triumphant in Europe, Unique in Canada

Allison Crowe and her traveling band – Billie Woods (guitar), Dave Baird (bass) and Laurent Boucher (percussion) – are back in Canada following a triumphant tour of continental Europe.

Playing to full-houses and multiple encores in Aachen, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Prague and Vienna was especially gratifying for the troupe – after a start in the UK that could have derailed less able and determined musicians.

Instead, an encounter with new anti-terrorist/illegal immigration rules has helped fuel the vibrant reform movement in the UK. With public and media support from stern to bow on the island of Great Britain, the news was featured by BBC Radio, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian/Observer, The Scotsman, The Northern Times, The Press & Journal, and many more outlets. The Times of London warned: “Immigration rules threaten to destroy Britain's arts reputation”.

Cultural events described as canceled or in jeopardy as a result of the new laws include: concerts by supreme Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov; African jazz band Les Amazones de Guinée; the English National Opera's production of Così Fan Tutte to be directed by Abbas Kiarostami, the great Iranian film-maker; and events involving a range of participants from Argentinian tango-dancers, to neuroscientists, university lecturers, Chinese artists and touring church choirs.

On June 3, the UK civil liberties group, Manifesto Club, hosted the first “Cabaret Without Borders” in London, England. Allison Crowe spoke to attendees of this packed event via telephone hook-up, minutes before her band's performance in Frankfurt. The Visiting Artists and Academics Petition was launched earlier this year by the Manifesto Club with the endorsement of dozens of the UK's most prominent artists and educators, including: sculptor Antony Gormley; director of the National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne; and the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner.

Home in Canada, the bicoastal musician and her transnational band, next devote the Summer to writing, playing and recording before Fall '09 Canadian tour dates, Winter 2009 “Tidings” concerts, and, a return to Europe in Spring 2010.

Crowe's success has been built quite differently to a pattern followed for decades by Canadian rock musicians. Rather than rely on grants or corporate support, (or multinational record labels that may themselves receive grants/subsidies), the exciting singer-songwriter who lives on, both, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, has connected directly with her audience, building a passionate international fan base for her music via internet videos and songs and peerless live performances.

Allison's Crowe's next CD/album will be her seventh release since the 2003 launch of her label, Rubenesque Records Ltd. It will be the first to showcase her quartet.


l - r: Billie Woods (guitar, bgs); Axel Dollheiser (road manager/driver); Allison Crowe (voice, piano, guitar); Dave Baird (bass, bgs); Laurent Boucher (percussion) - the Allison Crowe Band

Hallelujah for Freedom

Vocalist/pianist Allison Crowe and her Canadian band-mates, guitarist Billie Woods and percussionist Laurent Boucher, have been welcomed into Germany - their reception by Frankfurt's Federal Border Police being night-and-day to what was experienced at London's Gatwick airport just days earlier. (A fourth member of the quartet, bassist Dave Baird, is visiting family in Scotland.)

Crowe has performed in the UK each year since 2005, including heralded concerts and benefits from Brighton, England to Durness, Scotland and numerous communities between them. She performed famously at the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival in 2007 - on stage between the UK's Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and the Queen's Master of Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Her most recent UK concert performance happened on October 18, 2008. Just weeks after this last visit, unbeknownst to Crowe and her UK concert presenters, the government brought in new anti-terrorist and anti-illegal immigrant legislation. These new rules target artists and academics.

In what can seem a world gone mad with paranoia and xenophobia, when fear and anger are too present in our lives, let it be noted that people can and do still treat one other with respect and not just suspicion. Hallelujah.



Visiting Artists and Academics

View Current Signatures - Sign the Petition

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To: UK Parliament

The UK Home Office has introduced new bureaucratic procedures for organisations that wish to invite non-EU artists and academics to the UK. As professionals committed to the principles of internationalism and cultural exchange, we are dismayed by these new regulations - which will curb our invitations to non-EU artists and academics to visit the UK for talks, artist residencies, conferences and temporary exhibitions.

The system is costly to both the host organisation and to the visitor, and has already meant a number of cancelled exhibitions and concerts. All non-EU visitors now must apply for a visa in person, and supply biometric data, electronic fingerprint scans and a digital photograph. The Home Office’s 158-page guideline document also outlines new controls over visitors’ day-to-day activity: visitors must show that they have at least £800 pounds of personal savings, which have been held for at least three months prior to the date of their application; the host organisation must keep copies of the visitor’s passport and their UK Biometric Card, and a history of their contact details; and if the visitor does not turn up to their studio or place of work, or their whereabouts is unknown, the organisation is legally obliged to inform the UK Border Agency.

We, the undersigned, believe that these Home Office restrictions discriminate against our overseas colleagues on the grounds of their nationality and financial resources, and will be particularly detrimental to artists from developing countries, and those with low income. Such restrictions will damage the vital contribution made by global artists and scholars to cultural, intellectual and civic life in the UK.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The above petition is one of the cornerstones of a movement growing from within and without the UK. (Click on the links to view the petition and read the many comments which explain the real issues.)

In sharp contrast to the UK government's extremism is the approach seen in other parts of Europe.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, for example, spells out its policy this way:

"A work permit is not required of a foreign national whose execution of office does not exceed seven consecutive calendar days or a total of 30 days in a calendar year, and if he/she is: a performing artist, an educator, member of a university academic staff, a scientist or member of a research and development staff taking part in a scientific conference or meeting, a pupil or student under 26 years of age, a sportsman/sportswoman, a person procuring the supplies of goods or services in the Czech Republic or a person supplying such services or goods, or a person carrying out assembly works under a commercial agreement, or carrying out warranty and repair works."

In the UK, many are protesting. Many more people, however, have yet to even hear of the new rules that discriminate against artists and academics among others.

Not a single person working in association with either of the music venues where Allison Crowe's band was scheduled to perform this week - in Scotland and England (places Crowe loves and where she has performed numerous times since 2005) - had knowledge of the UK's Home Office's new process. Nor could they imagine that for non-EU acts (outside of those classified as "non-Visa naitonals" - Canadians and Australians), a Sponsor must be party to a process that involves collecting fingerprints and "biometric (retinal+) scans" (a controversial practice itself) etc. of musicians, scholars, tango-dancers, magicians and other similarly threatening visitors.

Instead, the awareness campaign happens when a Russian pianist cancels a visit after 18 years of performing in the UK - as was the case for Grigory Sokolov, described as the greatest classical pianist alive today - Top artists battle visa clampdown. It happens when a Canadian journalist is detained, interrogated and deported as happened recently to Leah McLaren - and was reported in national Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail: CRUEL BRITANNIA: God may save the Queen, but what about the rest of us? It happens when a nation's artists and educators team up to declare we need to End pernicious controls on artistic freedom.

And whatever rules a government - in Canada, America, the UK or elsewhere - chooses to put in place, whether they're right or wrong, it's due time to return reason and humanity to the process.

We look to our artists to reflect on life's truths and show them to us in unique light. Allison Crowe is a musician - here is how she says it:

working 'gainst the clampdown

Circumstances this week cause me to focus on a clampdown happening in the UK - where over-zealous immigration officers are applying jackboot tactics to enforce some commercially wrong-headed, culturally xenophobic, new policies.

And, here the story begins:

Top artists battle visa clampdown

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent

The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009

Antony Gormley is leading major arts figures in an attack on security controls which prevent star international performers from entering the UK

Leading figures from the art world, including Antony Gormley and Nicholas Hytner, have launched a campaign to reverse stringent visa controls which they claim are preventing top foreign musicians, actors and artists from visiting Britain.

They say that immigration laws introduced last year are restricting artistic freedom and have called on the Home Office to review them.

One example they give is that of the virtuoso Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov, who cancelled what was to be his second performance in this country at the Southbank Centre in London when he could not provide the documents required for his planned visit in April.

"This country has always been a hub, an airy place where people from all over the world could come and express themselves in art," said actress Janet Suzman, one of the signatories of a petition calling for the Home Office to look at the rules again. "This legislation stamps on all that with a clunking, hobnail boot."

The visa legislation has tightened up the requirements for all professionals travelling to Britain from outside the EU in order to perform or take part in an arts event. Artists must now not only show proof of their identity, including fingerprints, but also show they have an established sponsor happy to take full financial responsibility for them and to vouch for all their activities while on British soil. Small organisations must pay a fee of £400 to become an official "sponsor", while larger groups must pay £1,000.

"It can't really be what government wanted," said Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, "but what we have now is this totally unintended effect. We still have plenty of cultural exchanges with artists across the EU, and even within the Commonwealth, but the real excitement of the last decade has been the growing number of performers coming from other countries and developing direct relationships with smaller venues and companies. It is of huge benefit here, and one hopes it is of benefit to them too."

The petition is signed by prominent artists, including Antony Gormley, 2004 Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre Nicholas Hytner, Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, and the artistic director of London's Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly.

"I feel the wider arts community has no idea yet how badly this will affect their relationships with international artists," said Manick Govinda, of arts producer and promoter Artsadmin, who is spearheading the campaign to change the regulations. He argues that the new layers of bureaucracy pose real problems for non-western artists from the developing world. Kurdish Iraqi artists invited here by Adalet Garmiany, the director of ArtRole, have been told they must travel 900 miles to Beirut and stay for three weeks to apply for the correct documents.

"This effectively criminalises these artists," Govinda said. "If you invite a professional performer to this country, they are not going to expect you to want to know where they are going every day. It is the smaller arts venues and festivals that will be hit most, but all of them will find this very difficult."

Govinda added that, while previous immigration hurdles were never simple for visiting artists, they were at least surmountable. A letter of invitation was needed, along with a statement about the visitors' plans and an indication of how much they would receive in living expenses while on these shores.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "We want the United Kingdom to stay open and attractive for creative artists. But at the same time we are determined to deliver a system of border security which is among the most secure in the world.

"It is only right that those that benefit from the great cultural contribution migrants bring with them play their part through our system of sponsorship in ensuring that the system is not being abused.

"All migrants, not just artists, seeking to come to the UK to work or study, except for the most highly skilled, will require a certificate of sponsorship," he added.

Top artists battle visa clampdown

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Your letters

The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009

End pernicious controls on artistic freedom

As professionals committed to the principles of internationalism and cultural exchange, we are dismayed by new Home Office regulations which will curb our invitations to non-EU artists and academics to visit the UK. All non-EU visitors now must apply for a visa in person and supply biometric data, electronic fingerprint scans and a digital photograph.

The Home Office's 158-page document also outlines new controls over visitors' day-to-day activity: individuals must show that they have at least £800 of savings, which have been held for at least three months prior to the date of their application; the host organisation must keep copies of the visitor's passport and their UK biometric card, a history of their contact details; and if the visitor does not turn up to their studio or place of work, or their where-abouts are unknown, the organisation is legally obliged to inform the UK Border Agency.

We believe that these restrictions discriminate against our overseas colleagues on the grounds of their nationality and financial resources and will be particularly detrimental to artists from developing countries and those with low income. Such restrictions will damage the vital contribution made by global artists and scholars to cultural, intellectual and civic life in the UK.

Iwona Blazwick, director, Whitechapel Gallery; Antony Gormley, artist; Eddie Berg, artistic director, BFI Southbank; Sandy Nairne, director, National Portrait Gallery; David Lan, the Young Vic; John E McGrath, theatre director; Malcolm Purkey, artistic director and acting CEO, Market Theatre Foundation, South Africa; Nicholas Hytner, the Royal National Theatre; Nicolas Kent, Tricycle Theatre; Brett Rogers, director, the Photographers' Gallery; David Barrie, director, the Art Fund; Jeremy Deller, artist; and 49 others

End pernicious controls on artistic freedom