With under a week to go before their flight out to SXSW – shows that coincide with the US release of debut long player Good News – Edinburgh based act Withered Hand have been confronted with some extremely ungood news: their visa has been turned down* delayed in bureacracy hell by US immigration officials.

Bad news…. I found out, with less than a week to go till my flight on Saturday, that my visa petition, which I had been assured by my Visa agency was a strong one, has been flagged by a US immigration official as requiring more evidence of my “extraordinary ability” and proof that I have achieved “significant recognition” and have either performed or will perform at “events that have a distinguished reputation”. er….. hang on… so being invited to perform at SXSW doesn’t count? Apparently I am one of a handful of musicians who landed on the wrong desk, or on the wrong day and encountered a very unhelpful interpretation of the regulations. (read more at Withered Hand’s blog)

Look, honestly, he’s not an agent of the Queen getting ready to come to try and reassert her sovereignty over your country, ‘k. We got over all that a long time ago.

It’s kind of nutso that an artist who’s got shows booked can end up having their visa turned bogged down for what seem like pretty spurious reasons (not a barb just aimed at the US: we can be just as dumbass about it for folk coming the other way across the Atlantic). There’s a petition over at thepetitionsite, which aims “to illustrate the international support of Withered Hand, demonstrating to the US immigration Withered Hand’s extraordinary skills and capabilities”. If that doesn’t work, Auntie Beeb have been following Withered Hand as part of an SXSW documentary they’re making: well, this is certainly going to make interesting viewing.

*Update: Withered Hand tweets: