March Grumpy letter...

[Chrisklenox]

LOL. That's a long time to keep a grudge against a city for something that only a few people did. It could have happened in almost any city.

So the whole TRUCK was stolen?

Was anything ever recovered?

At least they did eventually come back, but yes, a long time indeed. Whole damn truck. Like the one on the back of the Ummagumma lp sleeve. If I remember correctly, they eventually recovered the van with some of the gear with the help of the FBI (NOPD supposedly shrugged), but several instruments were missing. Gilmour played a white Strat up until that point. As a replacement, he got the black Strat that he is most known for playing now.

Definitely could have happened anywhere, and boy does it ever. The recent Alan White thing is just crazy to me. People were squatting in the house while they were on vacation.

Another fun fact, the venue where Floyd played in New Orleans in 1970 was called The Warehouse. This was the place where the last Doors concert with Jim Morrison happened. Ray Davies also got shot here, Johnny Thunders was likely murdered, the guy from Blind Melon overdosed, Grateful Dead got busted… this place has a pretty checkered history with rock bands. A lot of people stay away in fairness to the Floyd. Haha

[pianozach]

I think every musician I know, and I know many, has had their gear stolen on the road one way or another. It’s rough out there. I have seen friends basically have to change occupations due to losing gear that was too expensive to replace. Laptops, synths, guitars, drums, cymbals… you name it. Sorry to hear it’s happened to Rick, and now Alan as well.

Fun fact: Pink Floyd’s entire truck, with all of their gear, was stolen right here in my home town in 1970. They eventually came back in 1994, but they skipped New Orleans on every tour up until that point.

LOL. That's a long time to keep a grudge against a city for something that only a few people did. It could have happened in almost any city.

So the whole TRUCK was stolen?

Was anything ever recovered?

[Chrisklenox]

I think every musician I know, and I know many, has had their gear stolen on the road one way or another. It’s rough out there. I have seen friends basically have to change occupations due to losing gear that was too expensive to replace. Laptops, synths, guitars, drums, cymbals… you name it. Sorry to hear it’s happened to Rick, and now Alan as well.

Fun fact: Pink Floyd’s entire truck, with all of their gear, was stolen right here in my home town in 1970. They eventually came back in 1994, but they skipped New Orleans on every tour up until that point.

[luvyesmusic]

When I was still in high school, I had my Fender Rhodes 88 stolen out of my car in broad daylight while I was in class.

Speaking of school days, 11 years ago school administrators in San Bernadino County, CA came back after summer recess to discover someone had stolen all their bleacher seats. Turns out that aluminum is valuable as scrap.

Three years before that, in 2008, some guy was arrested for stealing 40 sections of new aluminum bleachers from the Oregon State University softball field. In late 2007 police reported bleacher thefts at five parks in four days in Maryland.

Fourteen thousand dollars' worth of bleachers that represented a community park revitalization were gutted one night in Washington, D.C. Fifteen-by-27-foot bleacher sections were lifted from an Akron, Ohio, high school football stadium. The list goes on.

Parks operators throughout the country have been losing benches, tables and any number of steel facility components to theft.

Kind of off topic to a degree but this story from India just popped up in my phone. Gang of eight dismantle and stole 550 ton iron bridge in broad daylight.

Two government employees, and a local politician with five others, dressed in government uniforms, all arrested later. 60 foot, 555 ton bridge had been out of commission for years. They figured it would be lucrative scrap value. No one had had a clue, but a local called it in because they weren't following proper procedure, dismantling it.

[Chris2210]

Yeah back in the day you never heard of people stealing celestas. They weren’t that heavy, but rickets, TB and cholera in the thieving population (plus being sliced in two if you got caught), kept that sort of thing down.

Then the damn liberals came along with sanitation, vaccines and antibiotics for the lower classes, (not to mention no longer slicing people in two for any theft) and the world went to hell in a handcart. Tcchhhh. I mean, tcchhh, amIright?

[luvyesmusic]

When I was still in high school, I had my Fender Rhodes 88 stolen out of my car in broad daylight while I was in class.

Speaking of school days, 11 years ago school administrators in San Bernadino County, CA came back after summer recess to discover someone had stolen all their bleacher seats. Turns out that aluminum is valuable as scrap.

Three years before that, in 2008, some guy was arrested for stealing 40 sections of new aluminum bleachers from the Oregon State University softball field. In late 2007 police reported bleacher thefts at five parks in four days in Maryland.

Fourteen thousand dollars' worth of bleachers that represented a community park revitalization were gutted one night in Washington, D.C. Fifteen-by-27-foot bleacher sections were lifted from an Akron, Ohio, high school football stadium. The list goes on.

Parks operators throughout the country have been losing benches, tables and any number of steel facility components to theft.

Yup, anything and everything. Use to be a lot of copper lines.

Aluminum bleachers being stolen, and sold off is crazy. Washington d.c. believe had an Indian optician with his own store, last week, where like a group of six low lives stole thousands of dollars of frames. How are you going to unload that many expensive designer frames? More just killing time, scrapping the barrel, attacking a non-black businessman's buisness. I call it an actual hate crime.

[pianozach]

Anything, and everything now is stolen, broken and torched, including safety, the law, bail, prosecutions, the border, and faith in the common man.

Don't believe things will ever be the same. Zebras don't change stripes, nor will ever be tamed, as long as they are allowed to run free, no matter how much support you give them, or no matter how many times you lock them up, even after years of incarceration.

Vans are one of the easiest things to break into. The old school days of trust are over. Need to hire someone from the club, or have an extra guy on board, with even small tours.

When I was still in high school, I had my Fender Rhodes 88 stolen out of my car in broad daylight while I was in class.

Speaking of school days, 11 years ago school administrators in San Bernadino County, CA came back after summer recess to discover someone had stolen all their bleacher seats. Turns out that aluminum is valuable as scrap.

Three years before that, in 2008, some guy was arrested for stealing 40 sections of new aluminum bleachers from the Oregon State University softball field. In late 2007 police reported bleacher thefts at five parks in four days in Maryland.

Fourteen thousand dollars' worth of bleachers that represented a community park revitalization were gutted one night in Washington, D.C. Fifteen-by-27-foot bleacher sections were lifted from an Akron, Ohio, high school football stadium. The list goes on.

Parks operators throughout the country have been losing benches, tables and any number of steel facility components to theft.

[luvyesmusic]

Anything, and everything now is stolen, broken and torched, including safety, the law, bail, prosecutions, the border, and faith in the common man.

Don't believe things will ever be the same. Zebras don't change stripes, nor will ever be tamed, as long as they are allowed to run free, no matter how much support you give them, or no matter how many times you lock them up, even after years of incarceration.

Vans are one of the easiest things to break into. The old school days of trust are over. Need to hire someone from the club, or have an extra guy on board, with even small tours.

[Nelson]

It was a Birotron Serial Groups

[cybrkhatru]

That's absolutely terrible.

IMO he should definitely make that serial number known, in case it turns up somewhere!!!

[kkleinschmidt]

So sorry to hear this news but unfortunately musicians have been getting their gear taken for a very long time. I remember showing up to a show (can't remember who) at Bogart's in Cincinnati and the band walked out on stage and said their trailer with all of their stuff in it got taken earlier in the day and they were just coming back from filing a police report. The audience took it as well as can be expected and some of us even left them some cash to help out (this was back in the 80s before the internet became part of our lives).

Like Rick says the worst part about this is it probably won't be of any real good to anyone because of how unique it is. So sad....

[Imperatrix]

How utterly horrible. I hope the instrument is recovered with minimal/no damage to it, but of course it might not be likely that it will even be recovered at all. 😞.

[Gtkgasman]

Just got round to reading the grumpy ramblings for March. This below was a damn shame. Just a snagged a snippet below. Hope all who got to this show were still pleased as well as the rest of the dates he did in March in the US. Hope it doesn’t sour him for coming back. We saw him last leg in the northeast US and it was a great show.

This is Typical of the state of the world these days everywhere, no one has any respect for anyone anymore...we are about two shakes from anarchy if parents don’t get a clue and start raising people right again here in the US.

From the RW site:

Sadly, after we arrived at 2 in the morning at the hotel in El Cajon, when we came out in the morning, the blacked out windows had all been smashed and my keyboard stolen… this meant hasty rethinking the show for that night which I just performed on the piano.

I was really saddened by this happening as it's no good to anybody really as the serial number is unique to the instrument which is pretty rare anyway… whoever did this (there must have been at least two people as it weighs a lot) are down there with the lowest of the low in my view. There used to be a code amongst thieves where the tools of a man's trade were never take… but there seems to be a new breed of scum thief these days… I hope the police catch them and they are named and shamed.