Skinnyfish label’s stolen gear recovered, three arrested

Most of the $60,000 worth of gear stolen from the Darwin offices of Skinnyfish Music, was recovered last night by Northern Territory Police after a tip-off from a member of the public.

Among the recovered items was Gurrumul Yunupingu’s favourite guitar, a Martin HD-28 given to him by the guitar company. The singer songwriter’s producer and collaborator Michael Hohnen said it had been “more than a guitar” to him.

Also stolen were two bass guitars, keyboards, laptops and numerous guitars and cases. Some of the gear belonged to other Skinnyfish acts as Tiwi Islands’-based seven piece B2M.

Strike Force Trident has arrested three males, aged 17, 19 and 24, after early morning raids on properties in Zuccoli and Driver.

Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Jordan told the NT News, “With the amount of property stolen there was either a truck used or there was multiple entries to the property.

“We still establishing the motives behind the theft.

“However, I would suspect with the amount of property stolen and the equipment they’ve stolen, they were either going to pass it on to people who have an interest with music or keep it for themselves for their own music.”

Skinnyfish posted on Facebook: “Thank you to the dedicated NT Police who did a fantastic job and a special thank you to an eagled eyed band member who alerted us to some music gear being offered for sale around town.

“We have been overwhelmed with support and offers in the past ten days, it is such a striking reminder of the sense of community up here. Thank you all.”

Hohnen told the NT News he felt “relieved” most of the gear was back.

“It’s disrupted our whole life for the last 10 days because we’ve been trying to figure out how to rebuild and how to refocus,” he said.

Aside from reuniting Gurrumul with his guitar (“he’ll be less cranky now”), B2M managed to borrow enough equipment to get to Taiwan this week for two weeks of shows.