German duo Die Roten Punkte has been reunited with their musical instruments. They were left stranded on the opening night of their Edinburgh Fringe run at the weekend after British Airways lost their musical equipment.
The duo, consisting of brother and sister Otto and Astrid Rot, travelled with the airline from Winnipeg to Edinburgh but discovered on arrival that their set of custom-made drums and electric guitars had not made it onto their connecting flight from Toronto.
Drummer Astrid Rot contacted Toronto Airport’s duty manager Andy Joseph, who found the instruments and supervised them being put on a plane to London, but British Airways then told her they did not know whether they arrived at Heathrow Airport.
After getting their instruments back Astrid said: "It’s been such a relief to open our instruments cases so we can finally ROCK out! After they were lost the second time on the same trip to Edinburgh (once in Toronto and then again at Heathrow), we were so worried we’d never see them again. You can’t even buy Otto’s guitars anymore, they’ve been discontinued and my drums are all specially modified. We’ve been playing the same tiny instruments since we were kids.
"Otto usually sleeps with either his Flying Vee Wee or his Les Paul Pee Wee but since being reunited with our instruments he won’t let them out of his sight and is sleeping with BOTH guitars now. I was especially happy to see my 10 inch snare drum. Playing a rented 14 inch snare drum, it was really hard to get my legs around and still reach the kick drum pedal. I find I am much more comfortable with 10 inches, it fits me way better."
They added that British Airways has promised to pay for the replacement instruments they had to rent.
Otto & Astrid: Eurosmash! (Die Roten Punkte) is at Underbelly from Aug 3 - 27, with or without their instruments. Tickets here.
