“We won’t stop looking”: Rock and roll band Airbourne scour nation for thieves who swiped precious guitars
Rock and roll band Airbourne have issued a pointed message for heartless thieves who ransacked their music gear and made off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of instruments.
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The frontman of a famous Aussie rock and roll band that became the target of a brazen robbery has issued an ultimatum to the thieves who swiped his late father’s guitars in a massive warehouse raid.
Thieves broke into Airbourne’s Fairfield-based storage unit on Sunday night, with a guitar that once belonged to the late father of the band’s frontman and drummer, brothers Joel and Ryan O’Keeffe, among the stolen items worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaking to the Herald Sun, lead singer Joel O’Keeffe warned the offenders that they had a 24-hour grace period to hand in the collection of guitars and music gear to Melbourne’s most iconic rock venue before further action was taken against them.
“To the two individuals who couldn’t help themselves and went into our locker, James Young from Cherry Bar has given you a 24-hour deal to go into Cherry Bar and hand them all back, no questions asked,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of people looking for these guitars … we’ve also got private detectives on hold to get them involved.
“We are going to do everything we can to find them and we won’t stop looking.”
CCTV footage of the robbery showed two men wearing light coloured jumpers breaking into the storage unit before loading a trolley up with up to eight instruments, including guitars, bass and a mandolin that also belonged to the pair’s father.
It is understood the “cavalier” offenders raided about 45 other storage units in the facility over the course of one-and-a-half hours.
Mr O’Keeffe said the heartless offenders had robbed them of instruments that helped him feel closer to his father, who died in 2014.
“I would rather just get my dad’s one back. I play it on the beach and in the morning when I go home (to Warrnambool) and I feel a bit closer to him,” he said.
“It’s a therapeutic thing really.”
As the band this week returned to the studio to finish their next record without the instruments, Mr O’Keeffe thanked those involved in the Melbourne music scene for helping hunt down the stolen instruments.
“There’s so many good people in this city,” he said.
“The silent majority of good people in this city stand up and are really coming to bat in a situation like this.”
In a statement posted on social media, the band said a “handsome reward” was on offer for anyone who helped track down the stolen gear.
“From pawn shops to Facebook marketplace, conversations in bars or wherever, we are offering a handsome reward for any information that leads us to finding Dad’s old Guitar and any of the others,” it said.
The stolen instruments included a mini Maton and mandolin that belonged to the brothers’ father, a 1976 Gibson black beauty from the brand’s Les Paul collection, a 1963 Gretsch Duo Jet guitar, a Gretsch acoustic guitar, a Gretsch signature series electric guitar and a Takamine acoustic bass.
One of the instruments is more than 60 years old.
Airbourne first formed in Warrnambool in western Victoria in 2003 and currently includes the O’Keeffe brothers, as well as bass guitarist Justin Street and Brett Tyrrell on rhythm guitar and backing vocals.
Their 2007 debut album, Runnin’ Wild, reached the top 30 on the ARIA albums chart, before their second album, No Guts. No Glory., peaked in the chart’s top 20, as well as the top 40 in the United Kingdom and appeared on the Billboard 200.
They released their most recent album, Boenshaker, in 2019.
Originally published as “We won’t stop looking”: Rock and roll band Airbourne scour nation for thieves who swiped precious guitars
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