I realize it's been a ridiculously long time since I posted here. However, I have come across something pertaining to San Fransisco band BRIDEZ while wandering my Myspace bulletins page. Apparently, someone at Heathrow Airport doesn't like them, because they were denied entry and banned from entering the UK for 10 years. Why? Be damned if I know, but I do know that if the British customs system is going to treat a touring band like that, then I'm never visiting Britain for any reason whatsoever.Below is their own words describing the situation. Oh, and check out their music on Myspace. I'm kind of digging it; it's good and noisy and playful. I hope they succeed, without having to go back to the UK ever again.
"For the last three days all members of BRIDEZ were detained at London Heathrow airport. At the UK border, Liza and Dinah were allowed into the country with little to no interrogation. Abe and Will, on the other hand, were interrogated at length for no apparent reason, searched and put in a waiting room. Liza and Dinah, already in the UK, were lured back to the immigration center on the grounds that we would be let out and sent on our way. Instead, all of our possessions and passports were confiscated, and we were forced to sit in a florescent lit room being watched through glass. In the time that followed, we were lied to, ignored, insulted, humiliated, and scared by the workers who were over indulgent in the power they had over us. Abe was unprofessionally and viciously told that he was "the stupidest person that they had ever met and they were going to do everything in their power to insure that BRIDEZ does not succeed in the UK." We sat in this waiting room for long drawn out hours, given no information, and mocked. Abe, Liza, and Dinah were taken to a "detention center" which was, essentially, a euphemism for prison. Liza and Dinah wore prison panties and watched softcore porn while Abe was alone in a room wearing XXL sweat pants staring at the ceiling. Will's immigration officer didn't feel like doing the paperwork that would place him in the detention center, so, instead, he spent 24 hours in the same waiting room that he was initially taken to after being denied entrance, sleeping on a bench, wrapped in a blanket, reading the Qoran (the only book there besides a Spanish Bible?) and scribbling satanic messages on a chalk board with a random girl from Texas who was also denied. They lied on several occassions, almost refusing to allow Liza and Dinah to retrieve their luggage, and repeatedly told Will that someone would be coming to remove him from the room when nobody actually was. There is too much that occured over the weekend to write here, but needless to say, it was the worst experience of all of our lives. We are all currently back in San Francisco, devastated at being denied the amazing opportunity to tour in the UK. At the moment, we all have 10 year bans from visiting the UK, which we will appeal. We'd like to thank everyone that booked shows for us in the UK, and wish that we were partying with you now. Sorry to anyone who wanted to see us, and sorry that its taken so long to contact you, but this is the first access weve had to the internet since we left Friday morning. TELL EVERYONE! Borders are bullshit and people with power are not to be trusted. All of our UK dates are cancelled, and we are depressed. Thanks for trying to help us, and maybe someday we will be back. Love, BRIDEZ"
Photo blatantly snagged from their myspace page.
