The Scottish band flew from North Dakota to Minnesota without Richard Colburn, and took to Twitter to try and get him to their next gig

Scottish band Belle and Sebastian found themselves without their drummer Richard Colburn at a gig in St Paul, Minnesota, after they left him over 500 miles away in his pyjamas in a North Dakota Walmart.

The band, who are currently on tour in the US, had stopped at the supermarket in Dickinson. “I was coming out of the Walmart, and [Colburn] was coming into the Walmart,” frontman Stuart Murdoch told Minnesotan radio station the Current. “He was waving very happily, in a good mood. And that was the last time that we saw him.”

Murdoch said the band had become “blasé” with their system for checking onto the bus, and therefore accidentally left without Colburn, who was dressed only in pyjamas and didn’t have a phone or passport with him. “He had a credit card, but he still sat in Walmart for four hours. He was probably thinking somebody was going to notice, but the trouble is everybody went to bed.” Colburn checked into a hotel, while the band took to Twitter to try and find him, and get him to their next gig.

stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) 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..😳

Murdoch told the Current: “Lots of kind people tweeted me back, saying, ‘I’m in Fargo, maybe I could get there,’ ‘I’m in Bismarck, you know, maybe we could work something out.’ I even had a friend who was driving down from Winnipeg on the way to the show here. So currently we have him in a car driving to Bismarck.”

stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) 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 😉🍸

Murdoch added: “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.” The band have now taken extra tour bus precautions: