Guthrie Govan gear stolen in Rome

['Ash' J. Williams]

http://www.myspace.com/guthriegovaneroticcakes/blog/545042663

It may help them to copy/paste this.

[Dmoney]

this seems to be increasing.
like tour vans/bands are getting targeted. I'm going on tour in feb and im a bit worried

['Ash' J. Williams]

And this have been very well planned, obviously, as the entire van was emptied in little time... even the 4x12 big-sized things with flycase are gone.
So yeah touring van are prime targets...  :shock:

[Dmoney]

its happened to a few bands I now in gothenburg.
when i was in italy on tour, the other bands van got broke into and they had their passports stolen (they're from the US) and half of all the money they made from merch and shows. That was in Florence. middle of the day while they were walking about.

[HTH AMPS]

That really sucks, its tough enough for musicians to make a living these days without scum lifting your gear, NOT cool.

 :x

[bucketshred]

Gear being stolen sucks buuuuuuutttt...

...surely bands should be taking more precautions to look after their merch/money/gear/passports? I know of touring bands where they take it in turns to sit with the van for a while whilst the others explore (or they take money/passports with them) and have at least one member of the band sleep in the van at night.

Paddy

[gordiji]

i agree, someone should be sleeping in the van if it's not in a lock up.the agent we used to use had bands that wouldn't
go to liverpool because of robbery risk.
poor gutherie though,theft of a tradesmans tools was always below the belt in my book. 

[richard]

Let's hope whoever they try to sell it to has more honour than these scumbags.

[Matt77]

i agree, someone should be sleeping in the van if it's not in a lock up.the agent we used to use had bands that wouldn't
go to liverpool because of robbery risk.
poor gutherie though,theft of a tradesmans tools was always below the belt in my book. 

The irony being that they all go to manchester where statistically they have a much higher chance of being robbed :?

[Dmoney]

Gear being stolen sucks buuuuuuutttt...

...surely bands should be taking more precautions to look after their merch/money/gear/passports? I know of touring bands where they take it in turns to sit with the van for a while whilst the others explore (or they take money/passports with them) and have at least one member of the band sleep in the van at night.

Paddy

Yeah. It's common sense. Keep your passport on you. I guess if you're concerned about getting mugged you might not want to carry a lot of money, you might think it's safer to hide it in the van I dunno. depends on the individual and the situation. When it happened while I was on tour, the Americans van was parked on a busy road, middle of the day, outside a bank. It didn't contain any equipment, just sleeping bags and some bags with personal stuff in. Their van was also full of windows. It was obviously a Belgian rental van. Our van was a banged up old posty van with only windows in the front. We left it in close to the others but it was fine.

I've slept in the van a bunch of times but it's not always appropriate.

Sounds like people are just targeting bands. If they were able to open the van and take flightcased cabs they must have known what they were getting.

If bands stay at my house I always suggest they bring in anything they wouldn't want to risk getting stolen. When im on tour I take my guitar into where im staying. Depends on what risk you want to take. I remember the first time I playing in the Netherlands our drummer left all his drum stuff in full view claiming there was no crime on the mainland....?

[Telerocker]

I live in Holland and this sounds like a fairytale.

[Dmoney]

That particular event happened in Hengelo. We didn't get robbed but some kids made fun of us. I cried slagroom for days.

[Telerocker]

Slagroom mmmm! Anyway, gear isn't safe in the van in Holland. At least not in cities.

[Nadz1lla]

This kind of thing sucks! Musicians have to rely on touring (unless they are multi-platinum artists) to earn any money from their creation, and people are targeting their means to even do that. It's despicable.

When I finally get around to affording a van for the band, I'm turning it into a touring hybrid. Going to have a semi-high roof and a false floor a few feet deep so we can put all the gear under there and sleep / live on top of it. I would be refusing to leave the van unattended when on tour, and will sleep with a baseball bat at all times inside. It just seems like the comforts of an actual hotel room aren't worth the risk.

[Alex]

You must never leave stuff in a car/van visibly! That is what thieves look for. Even just a backpack on a backseat is "worth" braking into a car.