10 Rock Artists Who Got Banned From Certain Countries
Fans from these countries were robbed of the chance to see their favourite bands live.
Is there anything more rock 'n' roll than getting banned from an entire country?
Getting thrown out of a club or a bar is one thing, to be barred from a town or city is pretty extreme, but a whole country? That's on another level.
Depending on where you are in the world, certain places have different reasons for not allowing people in. Some will keep people out based on their religious or political views; mostly the ones that don't chime with the views of said country. Other countries have laws that prohibit entry to people with criminal records, which is why Martha Stewart was banned from the UK for a certain time.
Yes, that really did happen.
Of course, there are other, more complicated reasons why some of these bands were kept out of certain places. Whether they rubbed the government up the wrong way or fell foul of some new law, they too were kept from entertaining a certain demographic of their fanbase in person.
Just for the record, this is a list of bands who were banned from performing in certain nations, not ones whose music was prohibited from going on sale.
That's a story for another time.
10. Trigger Cut - The UK
Let's begin with something recent caused by that word we all know and love - Brexit!
Trigger Cut are a punk rock group from Germany who attempted to enter the United Kingdom for a seven-date tour in April 2023. All was going to plan, they arrived at passport control in Calais, but were denied entry into the country by those at the gate.
That's not very punk rock.
It's not entirely clear why this happened, but it may have had something to do with the musicians' status as part-time performers. Since they had other jobs outside of music, they breached the small print of their chosen entry route, and were thus turned away.
All this because one of them was a landscape gardener.
Again, not very punk.
The group's guitarist Ralph Schaarschmidt took to Facebook to express his displeasure with the whole debacle.
He said he felt "degraded" by the entire experience and stated that he and his bandmates had driven 1,750km to get from their home in Stuttgart to the French port.
Brexit has made life a nightmare for so many people trying to come in and out of the UK - part-time rockers included.