A contractor, tasked with the organisation of Rod Stewart’s sell-out concert on Tuesday, said he had to fork out his own money to ensure the show went ahead.

Karl Borg yesterday confirmed to timesofmalta.com that a financial dispute with the concert promoter had threatened to cancel the show altogether and that workers on the Granaries in Floriana had refused to go ahead because they were not paid on time as promised.

Mr Borg later refused to elaborate on how much he had to pay and for what permits.

Sources close to the ground on Tuesday said a sound check had been cancelled, and lighting, vision and sound subcontractors were instructed not to switch on the power until payment was received from concert promoter Roy Steer.

When contacted before the concert, however, Mr Steer had flatly denied any problems of the sort, boiling them down to rumours that spread “when you step on people’s toes”.

But Where’s Everybody, responsible for the event’s PR, confirmed there were payment issues that had, somehow, been ironed out before the concert. Yesterday, it disassociated itself from the show’s organisation in a statement.

Criticism flowed in to timesofmalta.com on the concert, which attracted a substantial crowd to listen to the legendary singer’s popular hits. But many complained that he looked at his watch and were disappointed by what they described as an abrupt and half-hearted encore.

Prices of drinks, the poor-quality sound, the stage set-up and the overall organisation also came under heavy fire.