Bradford rock band New Model Army, devastated when a fire ripped through their studio last December, have been left heartbroken yet again after £15,000 of irreplaceable instruments were stolen from their van after a gig.

The band is now desperately trying to track down the instruments, including eight treasured guitars, some valued at £2,500 each, amps and keyboards, which were taken from a hotel car park in Bilston, near Wolverhampton.

The white Ford Transit van had been forced open after thieves disabled the alarm and punctured a tyre.

Members of the cult band have been left reeling after the theft, which comes only months after the studio fire in Thornton Road, on Christmas Eve, where many of the instruments collected during their 31-year history went up in smoke.

As if the burglary in the West Midlands was not bad enough, the band’s website was also hacked at the weekend by a protest group.

Joolz Denby, the partner of the band’s singer and songwriter Justin Sullivan, said that he was heartbroken because the guitars taken were no longer manufactured.

“Up to £15,000 worth of heritage has been taken including all the stuff saved from the fire,” she said.

“Everything they could carry away they did such as beautiful acoustic guitars worth £2,500 a piece.

“The thieves will not know the value of what they have got and we are terrified they are just going to chuck them out.

“Everybody is trawling eBay and we are doing absolutely everything possible to get these instruments back.

“People do not realise how musicians bond with their favourite guitars, which are more precious to them than anything else.”

Miss Denby said that she believed the thieves had punctured the van’s tyre to stop the band chasing whoever took their gear.

“They only discovered the theft last Sunday lunchtime when they were heading to a music festival.

“They still managed to play at because other bands loaned them instruments.

She said: “I think the thieves knew that a big band was playing at Bilston and followed them afterwards and we hear this is happening more and more that bands are being followed.

“They just don’t realise the heartbreak they have caused because these instruments cannot be replaced.”

The band has appealed on its Facebook page for help in tracking the stolen instruments down.

West Midlands Police confirmed that the theft had been reported on Sunday and its officers were examining CCTV footage to see if the incident had been caught on camera.