The members of 1980s new wave band A Flock Of Seagulls are fuming after having US$ 70,000 worth of equipment stolen, along with the van that was housing it, by a car thief while the band were on tour in California and frontman Mike Score has made an appeal to the robbers to return their ‘irreplaceable’ gear, as The Guardian reports.
Best known for their 1982 hit ‘I Ran (So Far Away)’, A Flock Of Seagulls were sleeping at their $99 a night motel room after playing a show in Bellflower California when their tour van was taken from the carpark in the early hours of the night. The vehicle was stocked with US$ 70K in equipment prepared for a final gig before the band were headed to Scotland to kickstart a European tour.
“If those guys who stole our van are out there, give us our stuff back and let us go on and be a band,” Score appealed to the thieves in a recent TV interview, and while surveillance footage has surfaced showing the van being pinched at 2am by a person with a an accomplice riding in a car, the crooks have yet to be identified and arrested.
“We think it was somebody who followed us from the club, knowing it was full of equipment,” says the formerly floppy-haired frontman. “[They took] our equipment, clothing, band gear, cellphones, everything [we] need when [we’re] on the road – all [our] good stuff, all [our] good clothes.”
While some of the equipment is replaceable – such as stolen keyboards, drums, and mics – among the stolen valuables were hand-built Washburn guitars, customised Fender Aerodyne Telecaster guitars, nearly $10,000 worth of “high-end stage clothes”.
Worst of all, also stolen was a collection of hard-drives containing the makings of new material for Mike Score’s solo album – his first in 18 years. While some of the new music is backed up at the studios it was recorded at, explains Score, a lot of it was recorded while on the road.
“When we had days off, we could set up a little studio and continue working,” Score tells LA Daily News. “We were pretty close to the end… It’s 18 months of work just basically thrown into the trash.” Also stolen was a collection of hard-drives containing the makings of new material for Mike Score’s solo album – his first in 18 years.
CNN reports that the stolen vehicle – a white 1999 Ford E-350 – has since been recovered, found in a park in Santa Fe Springs, but was completely bare of the missing music and equipment. “The van itself was found, but all the gear was taken. The van was empty,” Score told media. “The word, though, is out and we have lots of other band members scouring eBay and Craigslist for signs of the equipment,” he says.
“It gives you a sick feeling inside knowing that that equipment that you own and used to play shows and that you’ve been using for 20 years has just disappeared,” lead guitarist Joe Rodriguez told KABC of the theft.
Police are continuing their investigation into the missing equipment and the robbers who ran off (so far away) with the van and its contents. Investigators have searched the recovered vehicle for fingerprints and clues and surveying the security footage for leads but are ruling out the possibility of the band being specifically targeted.
“I’ve been working here almost two years; I’ve never had any car being broken into or any car being stolen,” said the hotel manager of the Dowry, California Comfort Inn were the theft occurred. “It’s very unexpected.”
Meanwhile A Flock Of Seagulls are currently in the UK and scheduled to play this Saturday at the 80s Rewind Festival in Perth, Scotland with hired gear. “When [thieves] steal stuff like [this], they steal from people that pay to see the shows because the band is unable to play the songs as people want to hear them,” Score said. “People who do this kind of thing will never have a real life; I think karma in the end will come around and take whatever they have got.”
