The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Musician faces deportation
A LEGENDARY American session musician who worked with David Bowie and Pink Floyd as well as creating music for countless movies is battling deportation from Scotland.
Percussionist Steve Forman has been passing on his skills to dozens of students at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow — without costing UK taxpayers “a dime”.
But immigration rules mean he has been ordered out of the country — because his salary is not high enough.
Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour onTuesday pleaded with the government to let Steve, 68, stay, saying it would be a “tragic loss” if he was forced out.
Steve, who has lived in Scotland for six years and does not claim benefits of any kind, has been teaching music students at the conservatoire for four years.
He has played on albums by Pink Floyd, David Bowie, John Lennon and Fleetwood Mac.
Screen credits include creating the opening sounds to blockbuster ET, as well as Last of the Mohicans and Pretty Woman.
Steve, originally from Los Angeles, needed to renew his work visa this year but was told by the UK Home Office that his academic salary was not high enough and he needed to be earning in excess of £31,000 a year.
Steve is now awaiting the outcome of an appeal. If this fails, as seems likely, he will have to leave the country within seven days.
To make matters worse, Steve has been suspended from his post at t he conservatoire — which has produced DavidTennant, James McAvoy, Tom Conti and Robert Carlyle — because he does not have a work permit. This left 45 music students without a teacher for their rhythm theory course.
Students have started a petition to try to prevent Steve being deported, getting 700 signatures in 24 hours.
Steve said: “Glasgow is heaven for me. I’m contributing. I’m not going to cost you a dime. I’ll pay for my own funeral. I just want to keep working.”