Paul McCartney discovery refreshes search for 46-year-missing double bass

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’Both my friend’s double-bass and Paul McCartney’s bass guitar went undiscovered for decades. It has occured to me that my bass may have suffered the same fate and is still languishing somewhere,’ says Nic Worters, a UK orchestral double bass player whose instrument was stolen in 1978 and has yet to resurface. ’I did what I could at the time of the theft to bring it to everyone’s attention. I contacted all the double bass dealers, I wrote to every branch of the Musicians’ Union and I wrote to all the major orchestras.’

The bassist is now renewing his search following last year’s recovery of a colleague’s double bass (which was stolen the same year as Worters’) and this year’s recovery of McCartney’s Höfner violin bass, 52 years after its disappearance. 

Worters, who was principal bass of the London Mozart Players at the time of the theft had his double bass stolen from his car at Evangelist Road, Kentish Town, between around 11pm and 11.30pm on 11 April 1978. The bass was made by English maker Thomas Kennedy between 1830–40. It had a repairer’s pencil mark inside that read: ’Harvey Weston 7.7.77’. The bass had been bought privately from another player. 

The bass was taken after he took  a friend home after a concert. He went inside for a chat and stayed about half an hour, therefore the insurance company did not compensate for the theft as the instrument was only permitted to be left in an unattended vehicle for up to 20 minutes.

The bass was worth around £2,500 at the time and Worters had about £1,000 of the loan on the instrument still owing. It would likely be worth around £40,000 today.

Coincidentally, his colleague’s bass was also stolen in 1978 and was by the same maker and made at a very similar date. It was found last year having spent decades in a French cellar and only came to light after it had been found and taken to for restoration.

Worters subsequently left the London Mozart Players role in 1981 and went on to take positions in the Belgian National Opera (principal 1981–84) and the London Symphony Orchestra (sub-principal 1987–2015). Following  the theft he played on an Italian bass made by Pietro Pallotta. However it was ‘ just not the same’ Worters says, as his ‘wonderful Kennedy’.

’I am wondering if my stolen bass is in a cellar or an attic, largely forgotten about,’ says Worters. ’This was an important instrument to me and a very good double bass. It’s a heartless thing to steal a musician’s instrument, they are such personal things to the player.’

If you have any information about the stolen bass, please contact rita.fernandes@thestrad.com    

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