Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Venom guitarist Rage (also known as Stuart Dixon) was asked in a recent interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of Rock Interview Series if the groundbreaking British black metal band has any plans to tour the United States in support of its most recent studio album, “Into Oblivion,” which was released on May 1 via Noise/BMG, as per Blabbermouth.
We were talking about that. The problem that we’ve got with the States, and it’s getting a little worse, is we need to get visas and stuff like that. And they’re really expensive. I think it works out between seven and nine grand. And that’s just for the three members of the band. Obviously what’s happening in the world, fuel prices are going up and stuff like that. And then even with the visas, you’re not guaranteed to get in. I mean, I know, I think Cradle [Of Filth] had to delay their tour, and there’s been a few bands from Europe that have just not been able to… I know there was a festival, and I think about the 20 bands couldn’t make it over ’cause they just can’t get the visas. The red tape to try and get over, it’s just… And it’s all about rock and roll. We just wanna come over and put a rock and roll show on and have a good time with fans and new people who [get] into the music and just express love over with music. And it’s made to be so difficult. Like, ‘Oh, you want to work here?’ I say, ‘No, we just wanna come over and play music. It’s not work.’ And it’s just so difficult.
I think it used to be easier for the American bands to come over [to Europe]. And I think even those [European tours] — I think Forbidden’s just canceled a European tour, and know Anthrax canceled it. And one of the major problems is America’s so fucking big that you need a tour bus. And you’re looking at — it used to be a thousand dollars a day for a tour bus, which is a lot of money, [and now] you’ll not get a tour bus for that price. That’s why I think a lot of the underground bands, they’re the ones out going and touring, ’cause they’ll jump in a little fricking RV and they’ll just go over and just bash, bash, bash, bash, bash. And I think that’s great because they’re sort of keeping the heavy metal legacy still alive, while the sort of bigger bands can’t get over there. But if we get an invite — we’re like vampires; we need to be invited. We can’t come over your threshold without an invitation.
I mean, we keep getting offers and stuff like that, and then once you talk about visas and stuff like that, promoters go, ‘Oh, oh.’ And we’re not gonna risk going over on a tourist visa. But we spoke to BMG, and there is ways around that with yearly working visas and stuff like that and make it more feasible. But it’s just a shame, because British bands love… I mean, during the ’70s and all that, ’60s and ’70s, the British invasion, you used to just come across. Every week you had a British band. This week it’s Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, [Deep] Purple’s coming over. And that just hasn’t happened. And it’s upsetting as well, because we see Venom as a global band. We’re not just a British band who plays for British people or British band that just plays for European people. We’ve got Canada, South America, places like that. I just wish it was 30 years ago, and then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, ’cause we’d be on a world tour.
It started getting expensive about 10 [years ago], I remember last time we got the visas, and you’re sitting in the American embassy in London for half a day. You don’t just go in and say, ‘What do you want?’ You go, ‘Can I have a visa?’ You do, like, three interviews, and you’ve gotta get through every one of those interviews or you get refused. And then you hand your passport over, you pay your money, and then you’ve gotta wait for that to come back with your visa in. So it’s not just a turn up and get a stamp in your visa. It’s a long, old process, and it started to get probably harder about 10 years ago.
