unique said:

He's a lawyer.

1p1p1i3 said:

When will they stop suing Prince, already?!

Mars23 said:

andrewm7 said:

yep you make a good point.

...and folks don't do signatures in email. generally. shoot there is even a rukus about notaries no longer doing computerized notarizations...cuz it causes problems. it's unreliable way of of signing anything important.

lezama said:

Wow now there's somebody that talks like an attorney or at least knows something about the law. great points, lezama.

Vendetta1 said:

sounds like one. out of touch with reality. could make a great friend for prince

Rorywan said:

Rather strangely, concert promoters are responsible for concert promotion.

Mars23 said:

Prince cancelled concert on whim, claims promoter

MUSIC PROMOTER Denis Desmond has told the Commercial Court he has never been given a reason why a concert by pop superstar Prince at Croke Park in the summer of 2008 was cancelled.

It seemed to have been done “on a whim”, he added.

Mr Desmond was giving evidence in the action by his company, MCD Productions, against the singer and his alleged agents for €1.7 million damages over the cancellation of the June 16th, 2008, concert.

The case opened yesterday before Mr Justice Peter Kelly who was told Prince would not be giving evidence in the case.

Paul Sreenan SC, for the artist, said Prince and his personal assistant Ruth Arzate had supplied witness statements but would not be giving evidence.

The action is against Price Rogers Nelson and his alleged agents, William Morris Endeavour Entertainment LLC (WMEE), Beverly Hills, California. WMEE was joined by MCD to the case after Prince alleged it had no authority to bind him to the concert but they have rejected those claims.

WMEE, one of the world’s largest entertainment managements companies, pleads its servants or agents engaged in negotiations with MCD regarding a concert to be performed by Prince in Dublin and acted at all times as agents for Prince under an agreement of August 2005, with express authority to negotiate on Prince’s behalf for the purpose of securing bookings.

On February 26th, 2008, WMEE claims it entered into a contract with MCD for Prince to perform at Croke Park on June 16th, 2008, for “an artists’ guaranteed fee of three million dollars”. MCD transferred $1.5 million, half the agreed fee, to an account of William Morris, it is pleaded.

WMEE also admits, that about June 6th, 2008, MCD was notified by it that Prince wished to cancel the concert. WMEE alleges Prince refused to travel to Dublin and gave “no reason of substance” to it for the cancellation.

WMEE claims the decision to cancel was outside its control and it had returned $1.5 million to MCD. The company denies negligence, breach of duty or misrepresentation.

Mr Desmond told Maurice Collins SC, for MCD, that he had had previous dealings with WMEE and had a good relationship with it. He had entered into negotiations with WMEE in 2007 and early 2008 to bring Prince to Ireland.

The artist had played 21 concerts in London in 2007 and while efforts to bring him to Ireland did not work out, he later confirmed Prince for Croke Park in June 2008. The concert would not have been announced and tickets would not have gone on sale had he not received WMEE’s confirmation in February 2008.

He said “rumblings” about the concert being cancelled came very late and only arose because his production staff could not get any information from Prince’s production staff.

There was no indication before June 6th, 2008, that the concert would be cancelled, but his side knew something was up when, three weeks before the show, the required production information was not forthcoming.

Promoters could take out cancellation insurance and dates could be rescheduled in the event of a performer being genuinely ill but, in this case, there was no reason given for the cancellation, he said.

Asked if he now knew why the concert was cancelled, he said he did not, it seemed to be “on a whim”.

There was damaging media speculation at the time that MCD had cancelled due to poor ticket sales but that was not the case as more than 55,000 tickets had been sold, he said. Prince had also been told he could earn $500,000 extra for the show on the basis of ticket sales, Mr Desmond added.

As the date drew closer and concerns arose, MCD also offered to provide lighting and production services and the artist was told he would simply have “to arrive with his band”.

unique said:

Well the Main news here last night doesn't agree with you i'm afraid. His defense have stated that he was contracted to play the gig and that it was confirmed. They said that Prince contacted his agent on June 6th to tell them that he wanted to cancel (note the wording). He did not give a reason of any substance. William Morris then contacted MCD to tell them that their client had decided to cancel the gig. MCD had not any insurance in place for a situation like this (impossible to get commercial insurance against the whim of a performer rather than insurable circumstances). The defense said they "would do their best" to protect prince's interests but he had refused to provide them with a written verification of the events.

Sounds like this might cost P a few $. Which is good for all of us, he will have to play a few more gigs to make up. just not in ireland anytime soon.

I'm sorry, but I really don't believe that prince would allow such a gross misrepresentation of himself - don't forget, this is the man who went around slapping cease and desist orders on people for posting his image and music online within hours of them being uploaded, threatend to sue YouTube, managed to brow-beat the owners of Housequake into closing, etc, etc. How long was it between the announcement of the concerts and prince saying that he wasn't going to be playing the concert. You'd better believe that if these agencies were announcing a concert in his name, that he hadn't agreed to, he'd have been onto his lawyers faster than you can say "Where's my $77, you thieving pikey bitch?!".

I agree with the Colm with regards to how 'official' the concert was - if tickets are up for sale on TicketMaster, then in my opinion you can pretty much assume that the concert is official.

Questions: What was the seating capacity for the concert at Croke Park and how many tickets were actually sold?

Gav said:

God, thats witty. Sorry was that sarcasm? it didn't work. To make my point clearer for you:
Prince is notoriously protective about his image (e.g bye bye HQ)

So who supplied THE CONCERT PROMOTER with all the official material to promote the gig? And why was it allowed to air. Obviously William Morris and P were fully aware of the situation. Every piece of promo material is passed under his purple nose. Again a perfect example is the removal of the HQ logo on his programme at the o2. So we are to believe he did not veto 30 & 60 second TV spots and a poster campaign? I think not.

MrsGoodnight said:

Yes you are correct.

MrsGoodnight said:

http://prince.org/msg/12/...p=241&pg=9
82000

MrsGoodnight said:

The Colm thanks you.
55,000 of the 66,000 tickets were sold. With a week of most likely intense promotion to go before showtime, I reckon they would have sold a couple more thousand.
The concerts were announced 2 and a half months before the concert date.
The promoters were not using his name or image or anything Prince related without permission. They were given the go ahead by Prince's Management Agency, William Morris. If there was ever a breakdown in communication it was between Prince and his people.

Tremolina said:

Lotus2unfld said:

Don't have to be sollicers or lawyers to know that said it further up in reply quoters who is taking Prince and his fans for

i think he may have had concussion that week from knocking his head between bria's boobs

Rorywan said:

The booking agents (in this case WMEE)

Rorywan said:

Who told you that ? It's simply untrue. Do you have any evidence to back this up ?

Rorywan said:

Actually that wasn't realised until I told his PA myself. It got past P first time around because his art director was in charge - it didn't go "under his purple nose" at all.

Rorywan said:

No he didn't - I was heavily involved in all this madness (remember my tons of posts warning people about cancellation that many (including yourself) rubbished and can categorically say that the TV spots and posters were commissioned and produced without Prince's personal involvement.

Rorywan said:

"Dunce" - What an absolute childish response when someone merely answered your question.

Here's the latest...

Court hears of Prince concert booking
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 12:50
The Commercial Court has been hearing details of dinner dates with the pop superstar Prince in a legal action over a cancelled concert.

An executive with the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME), which acted for the singer, has described how the popstar never mentioned cancelling the Croke Park concert during two dinner dates he had with him in 2008.

The executive was giving evidence in the second day of an action by promoters MCD for €1.7m in compensation against Prince and his agents.

Prince, whose full name is Prince Rogers Nelson, claims the agents had no authority to confirm the concert.

Keith Sarkisian was asked by Mr Justice Peter Kelly about the atmosphere at one of the dinners, which took place a short time after tickets went on sale for the Croke Park concert.

Mr Sarkisian said there was no indication from the singer that there was any problem with the plans.

At the second dinner in the singer's home he said the opportunity to discuss the concerts did not arise, as the singer left the room after dinner and his security guard returned to thank him and tell him the dinner was over.

Asked by his counsel if he asked him to return to discuss matters, Mr Sarkisian said: 'You don't tell Prince to come back'.

Mr Sarkisian outlined a number of emails to Prince's personal assistant Ruth Arzate during which he says the Dublin concert was clearly confirmed.

As they started to have difficulty getting a final say on other European dates he was advised by Ms Arzate to send a note to Prince.

He said he had to be careful how to write the note and normally took direction from Ms Arzate who would 'interpret' for them.

He said he was told not to try to force an answer from the artist as it would probably make him do the opposite.

However he said at no stage in the process was it mentioned that Dublin would be cancelled and he was sending regular updates on tickets sales to Prince's personal assistant.

The first time he was definitively told that Prince would not be going to Dublin was at a meeting on 3 June.

He said at this meeting Prince was agitated when presented with his options on canceling the concert and said 'you guys got me into this'.

He was also willing to speak to Denis Desmond and said: 'tell him he'll have to chill'.


During cross-examination by counsel for MCD, Mr Sarkisian said at all times they acted as agents for Prince.

Asked if he was still the singer's agent he said: 'technically yes'.

It was put to him that Prince's name was still on WME's website and he replied: 'well I think Elvis is still on our website'.

However he said at all times WME acted on Prince's behalf and with his consent and everyone understood this both before and after tickets for the Dublin gig went on sale.
[Edited 2/24/10 5:10am]

At the second dinner in the singer's home he said the opportunity to discuss the concerts did not arise, as the singer left the room after dinner and his security guard returned to thank him and tell him the dinner was over.

Asked by his counsel if he asked him to return to discuss matters, Mr Sarkisian said: 'You don't tell Prince to come back'.

Hilarious!


http://www.ticketmaster.i...ist/990438
[Edited 2/24/10 5:16am]
[Edited 2/24/10 5:16am]

Gav said:

haha, let it go Gav.. let it go..

Rorywan said:

I'll take that as an apology - thanks

By the way - I thought you had me on ignore ?

Gav said:

Don't. "ignore" doesn't work on threads.
ta ta now.

eireboy34 said:

Hey eireboy, thanks!

colm said:

Thats brilliant reading!

I suppose the main point to be taken from all this is that prince knew nearly 60k of his fans had bought tickets to this gig and he did not act. Why did he not say no when the concert was first announced? He was obviously considering it if not, why the delay?
[Edited 2/24/10 5:57am]

Rorywan said:

the "news media" would never be wrong, as they've never been wrong before, have they?

if you read the rest of the news reports, it seems to confirm what i said, such as the quote "you got me into this"

it might not cost prince at all, it may cost william morris agency, and then it's up to them to pursue it with prince

prince can make $3m or $4m with one gig in one night, so i doubt he'll be losing too much sleep over it. jehova is on his side, not some bloody orangemobilephone men. prince's god is better than theirs

colm said:

dear prince, don't ever release any bootlegs. don't put anything good on your official website, and don't make it free, or else there will be trouble

unique said:

This was not the news media, it was an interview with Princes defence lawyers. That is what they said. Which is strange is it not? I didn't think they would be allowed to comment like that in the middle of a court case?

[Edited 2/24/10 6:49am]