awesome post t23
hey, when all this stuff happened in the uk i didnt even think about what it would mean for travelling djs..this is ganked from skrufff newsletter
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Hand Baggage Ban On UK FlightsBritish DJs carrying laptops and CDs overseas will have to risk
checking their music and equipment into aircrafts' holds from now on,
following this week's UK terror alert and subsequent ban on almost all items of
hand luggage.
The development was greeted with dismay by techno star Dave Clarke, who
fired an angry broadside against Tony Blair.
"It's great that the security services stopped a plot, but this hand
luggage ban is totally impractical and I have to say we are reaping the
rewards of Tony Blair's Foreign Policy," Dave told Skrufff (speaking
from Amsterdam's Schipol Airport).
"We are now in a situation where we cannot extricate ourselves
diplomatically, we should have never stood shoulder to shoulder in our allies'
imperialistic dreams. It was terrible what happened with 9/11 and we
mourn shoulder to shoulder with America but Afghanistan is worse off,
Iraq is descending into civil war, and the situation in Israel and Lebanon
is getting worse all the time."
"We have a good chancellor (Gordon Brown) but an incredibly naive
leader who seems to be led by his interpretation of God's will; he wanted
history to judge him, well he is history now," he stormed.
"I won't travel through airlines under such draconian measures," Dave
continued, "If the ban continues I will consider buying my own plane and
operating it privately and presenting HM government with a tax
reduction bill due to their ineptitude of cohesive foreign policy making," he
promised.
Dave estimated he saves seven to ten days a year by carrying his music
as hand luggage as he travels the world and said he'd switched only
after frequently having his hold baggage delayed. A much bigger risk DJs
will now have to face again is theft, which plagued the dance music
industry throughout the 90s as baggage handlers targeted record bags.
"I've not checked in tunes- either records or CDs- for over 10 years,
so the thought of my tunes not turning up the other end is quite a
worrying prospect, to put it mildly," Judge Jules told Skrufff.
"There are certain airports which are known amongst DJs as being black
holes for lost luggage. Madrid is a particularly bad example," he
added.
One such DJ is UK techno pioneer Jim Masters who three years ago lost
his records when flying out to Brazil.
"Some motherf**ker at Madrid airport stole ALL of my records - not just
took the box style, but the little sh*t carefully removed every record
from the bags, zipped them back up and put the bags back onto the
plane," Jim said, in a letter mailed to the media in 2003,
"As you can guess, I had quite a shock when I lifted my feather-light
bags up at Sao Paulo and found them empty."
With many DJs now also routinely carrying laptops, the theft risk
everywhere is likely to be dramatically higher, everywhere.
Airport Theft Links:
http://www.spanishpropertyco.com/caution.htm (Airport theft advice for
Spain)
http://www.roadandtravel.com/safetyandsecu...nveyerbelt.html ('Be
careful not to send anything through the gate security conveyer belt
until it's actually your turn to walk through . . .')
http://www.travel2russia.com/tips.htm (Russia: 'Airport theft is up and
bags do get lost and re-routed. Don't let either eventuality drag your
trip down. And don't check soft-sided luggage if you can help it.
Instead, take hard-sided luggage that has locks . . .')
scrobblerGroup: Moderator
*feels the lack of control*
