Belle and Sebastian left their pyjama-clad drummer in a North Dakota Walmart

Music
16 Aug 17

The Scottish band were temporarily drummer-less before their Minnesota gig, after leaving Richard Colburn hundred of miles away in his pyjamas at a North Dakota Walmart.

The group, who are on their US tour, had stopped at the superstore in Dickinson, North Dakota.

"I was coming out of the Walmart, and he [Colburn] was coming into the Walmart, and he was waving very happily, in a good mood," frontman Stuart Murdoch explain on Minnesota radio station, The Current.

"And that was the last time we saw him."

Murdoch says the band has gotten "blasé" about their system for making sure everybody is aboard their tour bus. Nobody was awake to notice Colburn was missing, and they pulled out of the car park without him, leaving the drummer stranded with only a credit card.

After four hours it became clear nobody was coming back for him, so Colburn checked into a hotel and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, the band took to Twitter to find him.

Shit, we left Richard in North Dakota. Anyone want to be a hero and get him to St Paul, Minnesota somehow. The gig hangs in the balance..?

— stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 15, 2017

Murdoch told the Current fans tweeted back offering to collect Colburn and possibly drive him to St. Paul, Minnesota in time for their gig. Eventually they got the drummer in a car to Bismarck, and on a plane to Minneapolis.

Thanks for your help folks. We have Richard on a plane now, so everything is ok. He's in his pyjamas, sitting with a mimosa ??

— stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 15, 2017

The frontman pointed out how challenging it can be to keep track of everyone, especially when the band used to be bigger. "With the string players, it was like 12, 13 of us. And it's like herding cats. So it's maybe not surprising that something like this happened," he said.

Now that Colburn has been returned to them, the band can laugh about it.

A Drummer Wasting
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Drummer
The State I Am In (North Dakota)

Oh how we laugh...

— belle & sebastian (@bellesglasgow) August 16, 2017

But that doesn't mean they haven't still made some extra precautions.