Adds statement by Where's Everybody

The contractor tasked with the organisation of the Rod Stewart concert said today that a financial dispute had threatened to cancel the show altogether.

Concert organiser Karl Borg said that the go-ahead for the concert was only given at 4.30 p.m. Some workers did not turn up on the granaries yesterday afternoon and others downed tools after they were not paid on Monday by concert promoter Roy Steer.

"To ensure that the concert was held, I had to pay for the permits myself," Mr Borg said.

Mr Borg is a contractor who organises major concerts both locally and abroad.

Mr Steer when contacted yesterday had flatly denied any payment problems saying the issue was just a rumour he did not care about.

But Mr Borg insisted today that the workers had refused to go ahead with the concert because they were not paid on time as promised and Mr Steer could not be reached because he had switched off his mobile phone to spend the day on a private boat with Rod Stewart.

Replying to some of the criticism made by commenters on timesofmalta.com, Mr Borg said safety was of paramount importance and some barriers had to be removed at the end of the concert to ease the flow of people.

Referring to access to persons with disabilities, he said that a platform had been set up in the gold standing area for wheelchair-bound people, as was done in any other concert.

Mr Borg said safety precautionary measures included four ambulances on site, four medical points, two Civil Protection points and an operations room on a balcony at the Catholic Institute where officials could look out for anything that might happen.

He said that there was only one big screen at the concert because Rod Stewart’s technical officials had insisted that there should only be one big screen so as not to affect the stage show.

Mr Borg, said that while he did his utmost for yesterday’s show to be a success, he apologised for any mishaps there might have been, even if these were not the result of matters he was responsible for.

In the meantime, Where's Everybody said in a statement it was commissioned by the concert promoter to exclusively provide marketing and public relations. It provided no other services and had absolutely nothing to do with the financing, logistics and organisation of the concert itself.