Local Aussie Band Left Stranded In London After Robbery

Our homegrown Aussie bands have had a spate of bad luck overseas recently. Don’t get us wrong, we’re still dominating the charts Stateside, but some of our local bands just seem to keep running into trouble abroad.

Last month, we reported on the saga surrounding Melbourne duo Friendships, one half of whom ended up badly injured in hospital after taking an accidental tumble off a roof. The duo were in New York as part of CMJ.

While member Misha Grace escaped with “just a broken humerus”, Grace’s bandmate Nic Brown explained to Tone Deaf how a combination of being in America and not having health insurance led to quite a few headaches.

Now, Melbourne outfit Closure In Moscow are the latest Australian band to have tragedy befall them overseas. The group are currently in the UK and recently played a highly successful show in merry old London.

“Played a sold out show in London tonight,” the band wrote on Facebook – good on ’em. “Also got rolled and got all our passports, clothes, laptops and some personal equipment stolen. Oh the highs n lows of being a band. Fuck.” Oh.

Responding to a concerned fan, the band wrote that they’re “alright” but admittedly “a little bit shattered”. As readers no doubt know, it’s hard enough making your way overseas in a band to then have your things stolen.

“Long story short, we played the Garage in London,” guitarist and vocalist Mansur Zennelli told Tone Deaf. “Sold out, which was amazing, crowd was absolutely ridiculous, great energy.”

“Finished up only to find that the side-window of the van was busted open and all our valuables taken along with our passports,” Manny continued, adding Closure In Moscow to the long list of bands to experience van break-ins.

“Spoke to the police who were great, filed a report and now we are outside of the Australian consulate waiting for it to open so we can hopefully get some emergency passports so we can continue the tour.”

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Back in September, we reported on a device that could stop thieves from stealing bands’ gear, which is becoming an increasingly common problem for Australian bands abroad and sadly, at home as well.

GPS trackers by companies like Dewalt and Spy Tec can be placed in an equipment case, trailer, car, or van and allow a musician to pinpoint precisely where their van and/or equipment have gone.

These systems not only alert users to when their van has been broken into, but also leads police directly to the stolen property. Such technology has already allowed Texas musician to get his gear back following a recent robbery.

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