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March 07th, 2010
There's a universal sentence that says: "Shit happens..." There's something that that sentence doesn't say, and is the fact that sometimes shit happens, but when it comes, you can find yourself covered in a mountain of shit. That was what happened to us yesterday, March 6th, 4th day in our first European tour.
We have spent about three days getting used to all what means touring. When you go up in the bus you are also getting up in a wheel that moves faster than you are used to, and believe me that it's really hard to get on it at the same speed that the people around here does. But we did, finally we feel like we are moving at the same speed that the crew of the tour. We were really happy about that and we went bed with UK in our minds. Just a quick stop to check passports, a ferry trip, and then go back to bed until Birmingham.
But chance was there to fuck us up and a stupid woman (referred later on as "The stupid") in charge of deciding if we went on UK or not, decided by herself that we needed some visas to play in England. Of course, you don't have a reason to know laws and I will explain you how it IS. The law says that if you are a professional band, that you live of your band, and you are being paid for playing on any venue on the UK you MUST carry a visa (when you are not from European Union). Some of us are Andorrans so we had to demonstrate that we have other jobs, and that we are not really professionals, in a way of "payment" basis. We were carrying all that proves that demonstrate that we are not "professionals" since we all work in other jobs. But anyway, The stupid decided not letting us to get on the country, because she is so incompetent that she didn't want to check the laws.
So at 5 a.m. we were stuck and the bus had to leave because the fact of loosing the supporting band for one or two gigs is acceptable, but not loosing the headliner. I can't explain you how much frustration we felt on that moment. Our faces only showed sadness and we were all really fucked up. So the situation was as next: At the Border Control in UK, at 5 of a sunday morning. No chances of speaking with any embassy, or any person due to the early hour. But anyway we started looking for options.
First, we called the Andorran Police so that they gave us the phone number of the person in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Andorra, Mr Jeroni Estopinan (that he was already helping us asking to the uk embassy if we needed those visas earlier on the preparation of the tour), and same with Mr Joan Sans, the guy in charge of the Ministry of Culture in Andorra. They both woke up early in the morning and started making calls to UK embassy. We can't really count how many calls we did but they were A LOT. After 4 hour waiting, the people in charge on the border control of UK changed and the new people were called from London to remind them how laws are. At 4 a.m. we were treated like incompetents that didn't do their homework, but at 8 a.m. the right questions were made:
Are you professionals?
Are you being paid for playing?
Do you have any other jobs at home?
How much time do you need to make those questions? 2 minutes with answers. That's all. Well, The Stupid fucked us up and then we didn't have a transport to Birmingham and barely time to get on time to the soundcheck in the venue.
So once in the UK, with permission to play, we took the ferry and we moved to Dover at 11. At 11.15 we were on the train station in Dover taking tickets. We asked the woman in there "How is the fastest way to get to Birmingham?". So she sold us tickets to London, and then from London to Birmingham. At 11.45 we took the train to London, that took up to one hour to arrive and then, we had to change from station (Euston Station). Running, running, running by all means. We got to the station and at 15:03 we were on Birmingham. We took a taxi. Do you know when some people that are not used to go on big cities arrive for the first time to a big one? They arrive with a bunch of baggage looking everywhere, speaking in high volume to each other... those were us! We got on that taxi, like morons with a million baggage and when everything was up in the taxi the guy asked us where to go, and he started laughing. The place was only 10 minutes away. We went off the taxi and arrived to the venue at 15.30.
This has been a crazy experience in which we have felt in anger in the beginning, and then supported and protected by some cool people that is devoted to their jobs, at any time, and any hour.
We want to thank Mr. Jeroni and Mr. Joan because of their help and the UK embassy in London for their support. Of course we want NOT TO THANK to The Stupid Woman in charge of deciding if any people gets to the UK or not. You are an ass but it's not us that have to live with your own existence every day...
In the end, we played the show and kick ass!! This one is dedicated to all of you there in Andorra that are supporting us on this.
KEEP ROCKING EVEN MORE WHEN THINGS GET FUCKED
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