British rock band Sports Team was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight on Monday once they had stopped for espresso in California on the primary day of their US tour.
The band — consisting of frontman Alex Rice, guitarists Rob Knaggs and Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood, and keyboardist Ben Mack — touched down in California forward of their first gig in Sacramento on Tuesday.
But after stopping at a Starbucks in Vallejo — practically an hour away from their present — at 9 a.m., the band’s van was ransacked by a bunch of armed males.
“Just been robbed at gun level 10 minutes into the US tour,” the London-based rockers wrote in an Instagram put up Tuesday.
The band’s tour supervisor bravely confronted one of many robbers, who in flip pulled “out a gun,” based on footage of the ordeal that was filmed from contained in the fuel station
“Man runs in saying some guys are smashing right into a van,” they continued, alongside video footage of the theft. “Ran out to attempt to cease it and discover masked guys ransacking the van.”
The “Here’s the Thing” hitmakers stated that native police suggested them to “submit a police report on-line” as they handled the materialistic losses and a smashed passenger window.
The band claimed the brazen thieves stole their laptops, in-ear displays, cameras, and different private objects, Rice informed Sky News.
Sports Team’s devices have been protected and was capable of carry out on the Goldfield Trading Post in Sacramento Tuesday evening.
“They can take our Nintendo Switches however they’ll by no means take our capability to play rock songs about motorways,” they quipped.
“In all seriousness fairly stunning how resigned everybody appeared to be to it. ‘It occurs.’”
Recounting the incident hours later, the band’s drummer stated everybody “ran out, shouting.”
“Somebody opened the door and was like, does anyone have a white Sprinter van? Because you’re being robbed proper now,” Greenwood informed BBC News.
“Lauren, our tour supervisor, was barely forward of me, and someone else ran previous us in the other way, and stated, ‘Careful, he’s holding one thing.’”
“I actually thought I used to be about to observe somebody get shot, as a result of it took some time for our tour supervisor to understand. In the video, you’ll be able to hear me screaming at her to get down.”
Known for his or her songs “M5,” “The Drop,” and “Here’s the Thing,” Sports Band have been nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2020 — an annual award ceremony that honors one of the best music albums from the UK and Ireland.
The band’s debut album, “Deep Down Happy,” shot to the second spot on the UK Albums Chart, serving as a springboard for his or her 2022 album “Gulp!” which reached the highest three within the charts.