British rock band Sports Team was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight on Monday when they had stopped for coffee in California on the first 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 ahead of their first gig in Sacramento on Tuesday.
But after stopping at a Starbucks in Vallejo — nearly an hour away from their show — at 9 a.m., the band’s van was ransacked by a group of armed men.
“Just been robbed at gun point 10 minutes into the US tour,” the London-based rockers wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday.
The band’s tour manager bravely confronted one of the robbers, who in turn pulled “out a gun,” according to footage of the ordeal that was filmed from inside the gas station
“Man runs in saying some guys are smashing into a van,” they continued, alongside video footage of the robbery. “Ran out to try to stop it and find masked guys ransacking the van.”
The “Here’s the Thing” hitmakers said that local police advised them to “submit a police report online” as they dealt with the materialistic losses and a smashed passenger window.
The band claimed the brazen thieves stole their laptops, in-ear monitors, cameras, and other personal items, Rice told Sky News.
Sports Team’s instruments were safe and was able to perform at the Goldfield Trading Post in Sacramento Tuesday night.
“They can take our Nintendo Switches but they can never take our ability to play rock songs about motorways,” they quipped.
“In all seriousness pretty shocking how resigned everyone seemed to be to it. ‘It happens.’”
Recounting the incident hours later, the band’s drummer said everyone “ran out, shouting.”
“Somebody opened the door and was like, does anybody have a white Sprinter van? Because you’re being robbed right now,” Greenwood told BBC News.
“Lauren, our tour manager, was slightly ahead of me, and somebody else ran past us in the opposite direction, and said, ‘Careful, he’s holding something.’”
“I really thought I was about to watch someone get shot, because it took a while for our tour manager to realize. In the video, you can hear me screaming at her to get down.”
Known for their songs “M5,” “The Drop,” and “Here’s the Thing,” Sports Band were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2020 — an annual award ceremony that honors 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 their 2022 album “Gulp!” which reached the top three in the charts.
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