Swedish deejay Eric Prydz, whose fear of flying had forced him to cancel a show in Malta last September, was brought over by catamaran so that he could perform a live set at Sky Club yesterday.

"I'm really happy to finally be here. I hope everyone comes to the show so that we'll have a great party," he told The Sunday Times shortly after he arrived.

No money was charged at the door for the party so whoever paid to see him the last time round could finally get their money's worth.

Mr Prydz had cancelled his Gianpula gig at the last minute, after he suffered from a panic attack before his flight.

The party had already started by the time local organisers were told he would not show up for safety reasons, but they chose not to tell thousands of his fans who attended.

Ice Music Medium had promised to do everything they could to make it up to the angry Maltese clubbers. They did this by organising two free events, the first of which featured a live set by another international deejay, Mark Knight, and the second being yesterday's free party which was headlined by Mr Prydz.

The elusive and much in-demand house and techno deejay travelled for three days by train, car and boat to be here.

Mr Prydz said that during the road-trip he had come up with some new material which was performed exclusively yesterday.

When asked about last year's no-show he said: "I was sadder than anyone that I didn't make it. But now I'm really happy because Malta is such a lovely island. And the weather is definitely much better than in London!"

Mr Prydz's phobia is well-known to his fans and colleagues. Up to three years ago he had never even boarded a plane. He takes prescribed anti-anxiety pills to help his condition and has also attended flight courses to overcome his fear - but sometimes even this is not enough to calm him down.

In fact, he recently cancelled an entire Australian tour, after promising his fans they would finally get to see him in their country.

In an interview before the cancellation, Mr Prydz had spoken about his difficulties and pledged to overcome them:

"It's been a massive problem for me... but I didn't want to wake up, lying on my bed as an 80-year old man, and be looking back on my life and know that I had the opportunity to travel the world and see all of these amazing places; but I didn't, because I didn't want to face my fears. So I decided that I needed to deal with this."

Eric Prydz is best known for his tracks Call On Me, Proper Education (Eric Prydz vs Pink Floyd) and his worldwide dance hit Pjanooo.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com