Promoters MCD are suing Prince Rogers Nelson and his agents for €1.7m, to cover losses arising from the cancellation of a concert, planned for Croke Park, on June 16 2008.

But the Commercial court was informed today that the controversial star will not in fact appear at the trial in Dublin’s High Court, despite having been earlier listed as a witness. Prince will instead furnish a written statement to be read out later in proceedings. MCD boss Denis Desmond was in court for the hearing.

This morning, Counsel for MCD Michael Collins, gave Mr Justice Peter Kelly details of emails exchanged between Denis Desmond of MCD and Tony Goldring of the William Morris Agency. Goldring is the agent who represents the star. The emails show that the dates and terms of the concert were confirmed on February 26, 2008, including an artist’s guaranteed fee of $3 million.

It was also revealed in evidence that Desmond had asked Goldring about rumours of a cancellation as early as April, but that he had been assured that Prince had no intention of cancelling the show.

On May 26, Denis Desmond expressed concern, again by email, that no production matters had yet been decided on, but Goldring told him not to worry, adding that the performer had recently put together a big show in Coachella in only 10 days.

MCD was eventually informed on June 6, just ten days before the show, that Prince wished to cancel the concert. The court was told that the artist had given “no reason of substance” as to why he would not perform. Hot Press understands that approximately 55,000 tickets had been sold for the show, our of a capacity of 62,000, leaving a legion of Prince fans from all over Europe disappointed. The gig would have been likely to have sold out over the ten remaining days.

William Morris later returned the $1.5m deposit they had received from MCD, but DenisDesmond says MCD could not recoup its extensive financial losses via an insurance claim because of the fact that the concert had been cancelled on ‘a whim’.

The case is likely to run over a number of days.