STEWART COPELAND

quote:

"In Rome on the morning of June 28th, we left the van for 15 minutes to grab an espresso before the drive north, and in that brief window some UNFATHOMABLY CALLOUS BASTARDS jimmied the lock and stole ALL OUR FUCKING GUITARS. These guitars are probably now either in an Italian pawn shop or somewhere online - if YOU can FIND any of them, we will give you free entry to all our shows forever, signed copies of everything we ever release, lifelong gratitude, and MONEY if that's what you want. We can not search Roman music shops personally, as we are now in Poland.



If YOU are an Italian Head, or feel up to a research challenge, we'd really appreciate your help. The two most important guitars are unique and easily identifiable.



Here's an album of our beloved friends, with notes on distinguishing characteristics.



These are the main two:



JORDAN's BURNS:





A Burns Marvin, Greenburst colour, with scroll headstock and three distinctively white Seyour Duncan pickups. One of the scratchplates had been removed, and the tremolo unit bolted down. Wound around the headstock was a black and white checkered shoelace bought by Jordan's sister Grace in Camden Market, but the shoelace has probably been removed. Those WHITE PICKUPS should give the game away though, plus it's probably the only Burns in Italy.



VAUGHN's JAZZ BASS:



Black fretless Fender Jazz bass with the scratchplate removed altogether, and a 2-Euro-Cent coin jammed into a hole on the front of the instrument. That coin was wedged in tight and aint going anywhere. Probably the only black fretless Fender Jazz bass with such a coin so wedged.



And then there are the backup instruments:



5-String Washburn Bass, light wood colour, with black Fender Jazz-style pickups recently inserted. This bass actually belongs to Stan Dudley, the original HHS bass player, and bore us through our first couple of hundred gigs.



And then there's a Fender Stratocaster, Roadhouse series, Tobacco-burst colour and tortoise-shell scratchplate. Bought by Jordan for his father-in-law and loaned as a backup guitar for this tour. There's nothing unique about it - it looks exactly like this one:


and you can see it in the bottom right here:



We're gonna try to pull some stills from videos but for now, GO FORTH AND HUNT FOR JORDAN'S BURNS and VAUGHN'S JAZZ BASS. If there's anything we can do to make such a task more worth your while, do let us know. We will also be scouring the internet every day, obviously.



They also stole a suitcase containing all our HHS T-Shirts - silver logo on black T-Shirts. So if you see someone wearing one of those, you might want to challenge him her to PROVE HIM/HERSELF with a TRIVIA DUEL - if they fail, go ahead and march them down to the copshop.



THANKS, and see you all soon,



Jordan & Vaughn & Max"

I sure hope they get them back

I wish you will recover your work´s tools.
Very good luck!

some people are pure evil.

good luck and vengence.

Noooooo, toooo bad !
We should search on www.mercatinomusicale.it, that's the main place to sell stuff around here...I don't know music stores in Rome, but I guess they would try and sell them separately and privately...

I hope you nail them. That would make my day

This is so wrong on so many levels.

absolute wankers, i hope they get their gear back.

i remember in the melee after a gig of mine someone tried to walk out with my trace amp and i'm not ashamed to recall that they were stopped and my amp retrieved with some brio and arse-kicking.

Motherfuckers.

This makes me so freaking mad. There are few things more reprehensible than stealing a musician's instrument.
My distance from Rome limits my ability to be of much help, but I'll do what I can by keeping my eye on the internet.

We're sending good thoughts your way. They will not get away with this.

Some people are truly horrible shits.

Wow.

Rotten way to see the great pictures though. Bet they never thought that's what they'd be using them for.

Book'em, Danno. Anybody, please.

[quote="Horacio"]I wish you will recover your work´s tools[/quote]

I hope so too. I also hope that those who took them get a similar arse kicking to the ones who attempted to steal Smax's amp.

Ohhhhh noooo. That really sucks. Any news as to whether they got any leads on them?

This sounds like a professional job. Sounds like the band was followed, then the scumbags waited for an opportunity. I mean, how many spontaneous amateur thieves can haul off that much cargo so fast? Which probably means they also know how to get rid of the goods pretty fast, too. If they know what they have, and it sounds like they do, I hate to say it but the axes will probably be parted out. I've been checking eBay a lot, but nada.
I would hope that the instruments were insured, but that's no real solace if there's any sentimental value attached. I also hope that whatever happens to the guitars, that they get taken care of. I'd hate if they were taken by some crackhead who trades them in for a twenty-rock, then the dealer makes a coffee table out of them or something. My gut tells me the axes are still not very far from where they were taken from.
If anyone has any news on this, please share. Then I can stop spending energy sending voodoo curses and crotch fleas to the perpetrators.
That is all.