Facebook Marketplace is an incredible pocket of the internet. Any given day you’ll find yourself scrolling through all sorts of crap on there that people want to get rid of; a real trash and treasure situation. This week, something curious appeared amongst the online trading post: an ARIA Award won by The Cruel Sea in 1994, which was stolen and (jokingly?) held at ransom.
The story goes that this particular pointy boy — which possibly hasn’t seen Tex Perkins‘ mantlepiece in nearly 30 years — was allegedly stolen from the band on the evening of the awards following a fracas between Tex and a boozed-up punter after they attacked photographer (and Tex’s partner) Kristyna Higgins, who also won an award that night.
And now the pointed award has found itself on Facebook Marketplace going for a starting price of $1 (or whatever offered amount) some 27 years later.
Per a story run in a newspaper at the time (which also comes with the Marketplace sale) the people who nicked the award — and named themselves ‘Tex Will Not Answer Our Demands’ — sent a ransom note to Triple J with a list of demands to be met before the shiny award would be returned.
“We have an ARIA award — we pinched it right for the common good,” the note read.
“That sterling band The Cruel Sea, or Schindler’s Sea as we prefer to know them now, turned their heads for a second and we nicked it. Ask them.”
Apparently, the seller has been offered up to $1000 for the lost award and claims he found it “in the bin” not long after he found the newspaper clipping.
So I guess if you’re after a piece of Australian music history and you’ve got a few bucks left over from what your grandparents gave you in your Christmas card this year, you could get your very own ARIA award at a real steal here.
I dunno about you but I wanna buy it just to give it back to Tex Perkins and try to restore the balance of the universe as much as possible.
