Fundraising page launched after thieves steal £5,000 worth of equipment from multiple Sheffield bands
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Four bands share the studio at The Night Kitchen, in Shalesmoor, which was broken into at some point over the Easter bank holiday weekend in what appears to be a series of burglaries in a short time frame.
They are now nearly halfway to raising their target of £4,816 needed to help replace the stolen gear and get them back on their feet.
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Hide AdDave Pike, lead singer of one of the bands, said: “Terrance Martin, who organises and rents the space, he lost thousands of pounds worth of gear. It sits particularly bad at the moment because he spends all week working for the NHS doing IT and then he relaxes by making music and that’s been taken away from him by these people breaking in. It’s really heartbreaking.
“For us, this is a time when we can be writing music, putting music together, and getting ready to start playing gigs again when things open up.
“Without that equipment, there’s no way, even if lockdown ended tomorrow, that we’d be able to gig and play any shows and that means a massive loss of not just income but momentum – that’s a big thing for bands to be building up.
“But, the outpouring of support so far has been amazing and it’s only been a week since we put the fundraising page up.”
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Hide AdAbout 16 items were stolen from the studio, including various guitars, pedals, and other band equipment.
The estimated total loss is around £5,000 however this could be much higher as one of the amps – a Sovtek Tube Midget 50H – is extremely rare.
Recently, The Star also reported how Sheffield-based band, Northbourne, had thousands of pounds worth of equipment stolen from their studio at the Night Kitchen.
Dave added: “It's just a frustrating situation. Live DIY and underground music is such an important part of what makes Sheffield such a great city to me. It was already going to be an uphill struggle for venues, promoters and bands to recover after lockdown.
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Hide Ad“This break in and the others that have happened are just going to make it worse. It's why I'm so blown away by the support. The people of this city are great at pulling together.”