Hands up who's surprised by this news? No, me neither. Snoop Dogg has been denied a visa to enter the UK because of that incident in which he was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and affray at Heathrow last year. When I first heard he was planning a UK tour, I thought they must have worked pretty hard to get him a visa, but as it turns out, they hadn't yet. Snoop, by comparison, doesn't seem to have been expecting it - his spokeswoman describes him as "mystified" by the decision.
The spokeswoman went on to say that the shows - joint headline gigs, you'll remember, with (P) Diddy - will go ahead as planned, sans Snoop, in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Nottingham, but that the hip hop star hopes to resolve the issue before all the dates have been played by Diddy alone. She's quoted as saying: "Snoop and his team are hoping the British government will reconsider this decision, especially as he has toured here before and sees the UK as being the highlight of the tour. He has asked how he can help rectify the situation and would happily talk to and give assurances to officials".