Prince ordered to pay $2.95-million for missed concert

[HMG] – When that singular artist now known as Prince changed his name to a symbol in 1993, some people thought the new start might temper his ego. Not so much. A Judge has just ordered the purple one to pay almost $3-million in damages for ducking a concert.

In 2008, the 51-year old singer committed to perform a concert at Dublin’s 82,300 seat ‘Croke Park,’ the largest venue in Ireland. But he canceled without explanation just days before the show. 55,000 tickets had to be refunded and the promoters, MCD Productions, have been chasing Prince for repayment ever since.

And this is not about small change – the News says MCD had paid Prince half of his demanded $3-million fee in advance, and another $950,000 to book Croke Park.

The two sides reached an agreement on February 26 but Prince still hasn’t paid, so Judge Peter Kelly of Dublin’s High Court has now ordered the purple pain to pay MCD, $2.95-million to cover their losses, plus the legal costs they’ve endured trying to get him to settle.

And you get an idea just how co-operative the Purple one plans to be from his reaction to the suit,as reported to the court by his agent, Marc Geiger. When Geiger told Prince of the pain he was causing MCD, the reaction was merely;

He quoted Prince as replying, “Tell the cat to chill. We’ll work something out.”

But MCD’s chief lawyer, Maurice Collins has a weapon — He told the court his firm would issue a ‘European Enforcement Order’ if they still did not get paid. This could make it impossible for Prince to perform, or even sell albums anywhere in Europe until the debt is repaid.

With a net worth known to be in excess of $250-million this is loose change to the man. But few celebrities will do the right thing if avoiding it means extra publicity. Let’s hope Prince proves to be different…again.