March 18, 2006

Suomen rock-sensuuri vuonna 1978

Tässä tiivistetysti koko tarina siitä, miksi Sex Pistols ei olisi voinut tulla Suomeen, vaikka se ei olisikaan hajonnut paria päivää ennen kuin keikan oli määrä tapahtua.

Suomi ylireagoi oikein hävettävän totaalisti! Pakko todeta tämä näin lähes 30 vuotta myöhemminkin.

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Helsinki, Finland Wednesday Jan 18 1978.

Early Jan 1978 Finland's biggest daily news paper ran an editorial about the dangers of letting the Sex Pistols play concerts in Finland. Nine different youth organisations also petioned the finnish Home Office, asking them not to grant the band work permitts.

After additional political pressure the Home Office agreed with the anti-Sex Pistols campaigners. When the band heard about this they offered to play Helsinki for free, which would mean that no work permits would be needed.

As a result the Home Office made the decision to ban the four members of the band from entering the country by declaring them ''unwanted visitors''.

This part of Finnish law had been reserved for known terrorists and members of organised crime syndicates up till then. It was the first, and probably the last, time it was used to stop a music concert.
The official reason was that three of the members had criminal records, including drug charges.

Kinda ridiculous really, since that applied to quite a few artists. Even after the news of the band splitting up in San Francisco the government still ordered extra police forces to guard the airport, in case the band tried to sneek in to the country.

There were rumours about how the split was just something made up by the band in order to fool the Finnish authorities.
The hall where the concert would have taken place was also guarded by the police.A second night in Finland on Thursday Jan 19 1978 was also planned.

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Scandinavia 1978 aborted tour.

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