Terrorising the BeautifulGirls

Thu 2nd Nov, 2006 in Features

Recently, the beautiful girls had to cancel their US tour because border guards in Minneapolis turned two of the members away. Mat McHugh, front man of the beautiful girls, took time out from recording their new album to talk about these devastating events.

“What happened was that the boarder guards just went way over the top and charged Matty Woo, our tour manager, with importing illegal aliens into the country with intent to commit illegal activities and giving false information to boarder guards.”

As if that wasn’t enough, the guards went further by threatening to charge Matty with two felonies and said he had to either confess to those crimes and declare he would not return to the US for ten years and leave right away, or he could take it to court but would have to sit in a cell for up to four months until the trial.

Mat sighed deep with frustration, “These new anti-terrorism laws mean they can just lock you down, and they try to break a confession out of you before trial, because no one wants to sit in a gaol cell in North Dakota for four months. It’s just crazy.”

The band’s tour of the US which had been planned and booked months in advance at a huge number of venues across America had to be cancelled. Fans were disappointed everywhere.

Other bands going on tour should make sure their paperwork is in order. “The thing is Americans at this stage don’t want anyone in their country that isn’t American.”

In terms of career, Matt is determined that in no way he will let it affect him or the band. “We’re going back! The only hurdle is for Matty Woo, our tour manager, and that sucks for him, but he’ll tour manage us for everywhere else. Bruce, our drummer, is banned for a year, but by the time our new album is done and we’re ready to go back (to the US) it’ll be nearing that time anyway.’

‘There are too many people that are dear to us in America to throw in the towel and not go back.’

He admits that it has affected his music but he’s determined that the new album isn’t going to be overtly political.

‘We were getting a little bit more politicised anyway, but I think that getting stopped at the border and being made to recognise that the American Government is a pack of arses isn’t anything new, I mean, we knew that anyway, it just reinforced the fact, but its disappointing to have your viewpoint re-affirmed by shit like that.”

“Our songs have always had some kind of social commentary in them but I mean I’m not going to write every song about how fucked the American government is, am I?

“Everything you do you carry around with you, your life experiences go into your art, and your art is a commentary on how you feel about things.”

But that’s all in the past and the boys have got a lot more to look forward to in the future, like a festival with loads of surf at this years Pyramid Festival.

“I’ve never been to Phillip Island and I’ve never played at the Pyramid, the location is great, and it’s got a bunch of great acts on too.” He’s got his heart set on it for a number of reasons both the music and the surf “There are great waves there and none of the band have actually been there, believe it or not, we’ve been everywhere in the whole country but never to Phillip Island.”

“This year I’m really looking forward to New Years, because it’s about washing away the bad stuff from the year before and looking forward to the good stuff which the next one is gonna bring. It’s a time for renewing the energies and reassessing what you wanna do with your life.”

You can catch the beautiful girls both on stage and at the beach this New Year at the Pyramid Rock Festival and hopefully, wash away your bad experiences too.