Shackleton Denied Us Visa

 
Music

The UK born, Berlin based dubstep & techno pioneer Shackleton has joined a shame-faced club that includes Boy George, M.I.A., Cat Stevens, and that bloke from The View –  he's had to cancel two forthcoming North American shows after being denied a work visa. The DJ/producer was scheduled to play a Bunker party at The Wick in New York on Friday, May 30th, then set to follow that with an appearance at Detroit's Movement Festival, with both gigs now pulled after a visa was denied at the last minute. The reasons for his application being turned down are unclear, with Shackleton releasing the following statement:

"Dear promoters and event organisers,

As you may already know, my planned tour of the USA has fallen through. The reason for this is that my visa application was turned down.

Please be assured that Surefire agency and myself have made every effort to make a successful application and that we are really disappointed not only for ourselves but also, and even more so, for the promoters who have planned events for me and for the people who had possibly been planning to attend the shows.

To go into the details of the visa process would be long and laborious and so I will spare you that. Suffice to say that despite having all the necessary documentation in place long before any authority deemed it worthy to take any notice and despite our general willingness to jump through ever increasing bureaucratic hoops and our readiness to throw ridiculous amounts of money at the sham process to ensure its successful outcome, the authorities have been kind enough to let us know just a couple of days ago that the whole thing has been a waste of time and effort due to some spurious claim of certain criteria not being met.

Once again, I can only express how disappointed I am on behalf of all the people who have made efforts on my behalf. I would like to say that I will make another application in the future but I am convinced that that would only be met with some other trumped up reason why I can not play in the USA.

Many thanks for your understanding

Shack"

Fans are speculating that Shackleton may have been denied entry simply because he once released a track called 'Hamas Rule'. Whilst this seems ridiculous, stranger things have happened at the gates of America, and the nation is notoriously paranoid of terrorism. M.I.A., now a regular figure Stateside, was previously denied a visa, because her lyrics were deemed to be supporting Sri Lankan 'terrorist' group Tamil Tigers, and in that context – crazy as it appears to anyone outside the USA bubble –  'Hamas Rule' might well have been all it took to get Shackleton barred.