[Dixielandjazz] Ban on Musicians

[Marek Boym]

Hello John,
Edinburgh had enough good bans of its own in those days - The
Advocates of Jazz (led by Mike Hart), Swing '84 (heard them at that
year's Edinburgh Jazz Festiva, and they were wonderful), The
Barchelors of Jazz, etc.  Had they wanted to have a jazz band at that
festival they could have easily provided one of their own.
Cheers,
Marekl
On 28/04/2008, John McClernan <mcclernan1 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hi Pat,
> I wanted to take a band to England in 1984. I had made some contacts while I
> was there in 1983 and I calculated we would have at the very least enough
> performances in various shires to cover our travel and lodging expenses,
> except for tourist-type travel on our own. Another band member had a contact
> in Coventry and another at Ronnie Scott's. So that would have also helped
> our finances. Well, we tried every avenue we could to get a work permit, but
> the union would not allow it unless we could guarantee in writing an equal
> number of gigs in the states for a UK band, AND we had to find a UK band
> that would agree to do it.
>
> Bottom line? We went any way, played all the gigs except anything in or near
> London (no Ronnie Scott's of course) and didn't tell the union. At
> immigration we said the instruments were for family parties around the
> kitchen table. Most everyone came on a separate flight, on separate days
> (not by design), so they didn't see a band arrive together. We had a great
> time, many memorable moments and were very well received. Would like to go
> back and do it again sometime, but all my (our) contacts are gone. Wouldn't
> know where to start to plan another tour like that.
>
> I did go over last summer with my family, but that was for a tour of
> Scotland and to see the Fringe Festival and the Military Tattoo in
> Edinburgh. A good OKOM band could make a decent killing at the Festival,
> playing on the street. Some of the entertainment I saw was good, others were
> quite lame. Too many mimes, too many people pretending to be statues, etc. A
> boy of about 13 or 14 years old was playing trumpet, by himself, and reading
> out of a book on a music stand. He didn't play well and didn't read well,
> but his bucket was filling up with coins and bills, as we watched in
> amazement. I asked for a request - Hello Dolly. He looked in the index of
> the book and then shook his head and said he didn't know it.
>
> Cheers,
> John
> -------
> "Never look at the trombones.
> It only encourages them."
>   ~ Richard Strauss
>
>
>
> On Apr 27, 2008, at 12:12 PM, pj.ladd wrote:
>
> The ban was indeed an idiocy of the Musicians' Union,>>
>
> Presumably this was the same sort of reasoning which allowed us to have
> visiting band leaders but not their bands.  Although this no doubt did
> provide employment for British musicians it meant that we didnt hear the
> great sidesmen which were often as much a feature of the big bands as the
> leader.
>
> I remember also being unable to place an order for `Downbeat` unless I could
> prove I was a professional musician. Presumably to preserve  the UK`s
> extremely limited foreign trading reserves.
>
> Cheers
>
> Pat
>
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