[The Soup Nazi]

I could have started this thing on The Political Thread, but who's gonna catch it there. Zero guarantees it's gonna be seen here either, but what else can I do.

On June 30, I received the following message from the excellent Sensory Leakage label (check their Zener_08 tape by Alison Cotton - I bleedin' love her and The Left Outsides!) via Bandcamp:

Thanks to the endless frustrating fuck-up that is Brexit, with heavy heart, as of 1 July, I will no longer be able to accept physical orders from the EU – hopefully temporarily. Punitive new VAT and customs and handling charge regulations are coming into effect.

My conscience won't allow the label's EU supporters slapped with potentially ridiculous charges for buying a tape from me. Hope you understand.

Hopefully, Bandcamp will be able to implement something that deals with this problem for artists and labels, and do it soon, but for now, we are where we are. Options are being considered. And by all means drop me a line via the Sensory Leakage contact page if you want to pick up the thread of this...

All physical orders from non-EU countries will be taken processed as normal.

Huge thanks for your time and support.

And on June 29 (updated July 1), Discogs put this up on its blog:

Updated: Everything You Need to Know About Upcoming UK and EU VAT Changes on Discogs

This looks SERIOUSLY disastrous. And I shouldn't even really care as far as my own purchases go (not that I have any goddamn money). Or should I? I don't think! But hey, all that sweet sweet ₤ now goes to the NHS, right...?

[_tunic_]

Brexit is not only fucking with the music orders. It's blocking all imports & exports between Europe and England. I happened to watch this episode of Panorama on BBC a few days ago, about the current status of Brexit after six months. Two examples that I recall:

1. a fisherman in England who used to export a lot to mainland Europe e.g. France, has now to do so much paperwork before anything can be shipped (I think he said 38 forms per order, might be more even) that he is now finding new markets in Asia and basically stopped shipping to mainland Europe.

2. A transportation company in England that transports stages and equipment for concerts, first opened a second site in the Netherlands so that they could continue to do their business in Europe. But then they were told that their British drivers need a European driving license, so they decided to send every driver to Ireland to get their driving permit there.

I can't rewatch the episode on the BBC site, but perhaps you can somehow fake that you're British

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

1. a fisherman in England who used to export a lot to mainland Europe e.g. France, has now to do so much paperwork before anything can be shipped (I think he said 38 forms per order, might be more even) that he is now finding new markets in Asia and basically stopped shipping to mainland Europe.

But hey, "Brussels' red tape" - Brexit was going to kill that problem...

[Diesel]

I bought a pedal from Thomann in Germany and after the new VAT and customs charges were applied I ended up having to pay almost an extra £100 to the delivery driver at my front door, in cash. A couple of months prior to these new laws there were no charges at all when buying a drum kit from the same place. Thus I'll not be getting any more gear imported from the EU until or if ever it goes back to the way it was pre Brexit. The UK is now considered a rest of the world destination in terms of delivery logistics even though we're obviously in Europe...

This song perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on brexiteers

[_tunic_]

The Brexit will be completely disastrous for the music industry in the UK, it makes touring the European mainland practically impossible, and vice versa as well. So says this Pitchfork article, and note the many links to other articles:
The Brexit Touring Crisis: What’s Happened and What’s Next for UK Musicians?



And as the following page mentions, it's not only touring that's become practically impossible, but also recording or working together with artists from UK and European artists: https://letthemusicmove.org/anonymou...sm-case-study/


You can sign the petition here: https://letthemusicmove.org/


Just think about it, collabs like this will become impossible unless anything changes soon! Andy Moor and Thurston Moore - live at Sonic Lyon

[The Soup Nazi]

I wonder what saxophonist, Brexit supporter and Covid-19 denying conspiracy theorist Evan Parker will think and do now.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing...mic-and-brexit

Also, "What would Morrissey do?" takes a whole new meaning now, huh.