IKTPQ release statement after finally being freed and heading home

I Killed the Prom Queen issue statement regarding the horrible mess of this last weekend caused by an irresponsible promoter in Malaysia. But this begs the HUGE question – for countries like Malaysia and Indonesia – where it is VERY difficult and expensive to get work visas for touring bands, what are promoters to do? I know promoters in Indonesia who are willing to apply for work visas for touring bands but it almost costs 400 to 500 USD to apply PER member. That is an exorbitant amount of money to pay for a band that may only bring in a few hundred people – certainly not enough to cover the cost of these visa fees AND the band’s show fee (guarantee) AND their flights AND food/lodging, etc.

But this is STILL an issue that needs to be addressed…unfortunately, as many have stated on the IKTPQ comments section, it is the fault of the local governments that make things so difficult for local promoters.

But at the end of the day, NO promoter should put a band member’s future on the line in order to put on a show. I don’t know if the member of IKTPQ will have this prison stay on their permanent record – but that is NOT something that I would want because who knows how long I’ll be playing in a band. I don’t want my children to know that their dad went to jail because of something I had no control over.

Many MANY points to think over…

For now…read through their statement:

“No doubt most of you have been made aware in some form of IKTPQs drama over the past weekend. Various media have made ill-informed statements of the events so we wanted to both clarify from our side, and also apologise to the many Indonesian fans let down by our forced disappearance from the amazing Rock In Solo festival. As a culmination to an otherwise fantastic SEA tour, we’re just as disappointed as you all for failure to perform this date.

To keep it brief, we were put in jail Sat-Monday due to our promoters negligence in securing us the appropriate permissions to perform in Malaysia after he received an immigration warning but failed to tell us after we explicitly asked multiple times, all the while being aware of our upcoming consequence. And by jail we mean yes, standard, 3rd world condition Malaysian prison, huddled on a wet tile floor of a 5×10 cell with 35 other inmates. It was reported we were posted up in some cushy airport hotel but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Nevertheless this post isn’t a fish for sympathy, just a clarification.

As a band who has spent the majority of the last decade performing legally worldwide, we totally understand how to operate appropriately and were majorly let down on this occasion after quadruple checking that we were “safe” to perform in this territory with no backlash. Shocked and disappointed of being flat out lied to and having our lives put in such a predicament is an understatement, especially since the initial consensus would be incarcerated for 14 days minimal, and in all honesty we were led to assume that after that time we would turn into a forgotten statistic. Scary stuff.

But however abominable we found the conditions and treatment, such nuances pale in comparison to not only the heartbreaking worldwide events of this week and the millions of individuals living in these horror conditions for much much longer. So to spare the hundreds of outrageous details of the whole ordeal, save for those close to us wanting a detailed account, we are just grateful to be back home with our friends and family and eternally grateful to M. Anderson and the Australian Embassy for the quick diligence in securing our release in record time. A big apology/ thank you/ second apology of course has to go to our drum bro Adrian Horsman from In Trenches for filling in on these shows for us and living through the… “events”

(i will add a final light/strange note that having most of the investigators/ admin of the prison gleefully wanting “fan” photo’s and signatures on posters and wearing IKTPQ shirts was like something out of the twilight zone)

thanks for all the support, and again to the SEA fans of the other dates for making it a trip that won’t be forgotten anytime soon! Heres us upon release, happy to be un-handcuffed and flying home!

-Kev on behalf of a very relieved IKTPQ”