We just completed a two-week tour of the U.K. – "The Roundabout Tour 2007." All was going smoothly until their one night stopover in Manchester, England.
(From the personal journal of Joseph – "drummist" of the Shapes):
We Shapes just got back to Brooklyn from a 2 week UK tour. It was fantastic! We met so many great people and places. All the shows went extremely well aside from the standard technical difficulties. Major dents were officially knocked. I can't wait to get back...
There was one semi-major crisis while we were there though... We decided to stay in Manchester for the night on our first travel day [4 Nov 2007]. Around 5:30 in the evening, we parked the VW 9-seater directly in front of a police museum – which was on a well-lit part of a fairly busy block on Newton Street – and went exploring for a couple hours. I returned to the van about two hours later to find that it had been broken into and we had been robbed - on day 3 of the tour. Damn. I definitely lost it for a moment right there in the street.
The thieves got Mark's suitcase with all his clothes, his wallet, I.D.s, credit cards, his guitar effects pedals, some important paperwork, his cell phone, electronics, etc… They got my cymbal bag with all my cymbals, sticks, tools, and my suitcase with all my clothes, my journal, some cash, electronics, etc... It was horrible – like $5000 gone in 20 seconds horrible. I did manage to keep my wallet and passport though. And the thieves must have been scared off, because they didn't take any of the guitars, pedal boards, or keyboards (whew.)
The night of, the local cops were terrible and wouldn't even respond to our calls at first. We were told to flag an officer down in the street and try to get him (or her) to help – this proved to be no easy task. After scouring the streets, alleys, and canals for a few hours in a desperate attempt to find any of our missing items, we did manage to get a report filed and the necessary info for the hired (rental) van company's insurance. Then, 2 days after it happened, and after finally accepting the fact that it was all gone forever, we were at a hostel in Edinburgh checking our band email account and discovered that we had received a ransom note from a man named Colin Blaney - a fairly well-known Manchester criminal-turned-author and TV writer - as google confirmed – and also, as we would only later find out, a heroin addict. He said in the email that he knew the 3 hoods who got us and that he could get us our things back – with the exception of my T-shirts - for 300 pounds (for the thieves) and the story (for himself) – and simply out of the kindness of his heart, because he felt sorry for us (??!). He left his address and phone number, so I called him and asked how the transaction should take place. The guy sounded straight enough and he said he would even bring the loot to one of our shows or ship it to us Cash On Delivery. After the lack of response we got from the police earlier, I thought it might be worth a try - 300 pounds being a drop in the bucket compared to what it would cost to replace my gear alone. But, a few in the crew didn't like that idea, so after several days and a few heated discussions, we decided to attempt to involve the cops. We forwarded them all the info and they set-up a 'sting operation' that Saturday [11 Nov] (? at the Dale Car Park in Manchester) while we were hours away in Camden, London to play at Barfly. Mr. Blaney actually showed up to meet a cop acting as our UK tour manager, Billy. He didn't have our stuff on him and he was immediately arrested and held for many hours of questioning.
Good thing he was a heroin addict! After spending a long night in police custody, he apparently started fiending and singing like a bird. So, apparently, somehow they found my cymbals - but Mr. Blaney said as soon as the guys saw or heard about him being arrested, they most likely threw our clothes and bags into the river. So, it looks like I still need to come up with a whole new wardrobe... F.
* Thanks to Colin Blaney for putting yourself in that position and making this a story worth telling. I'll definitely plug your book, my f(r)iend. And big thanks also to the Manchester police for taking us seriously and doing what you could. Redemption granted.
~ jrrrr.
For some entertaining live footage from the scene of the incident... visit us on youtube here: www.youtube.com/theshapes
