Galbraith Press Conference TBA

There’s no news on when Stuart Galbraith will reschedule the press conference set to unveil his new relationship with AEG Live U.K., but it’s unlikely to be within seven days if Live Nation – his former employer – wants to dig its heels in.

The original October 3 press bash set up by The Outside Organisation, which also looks after AEG Live UK’s public relations, was scrapped when Live Nation got an injunction preventing Galbraith from appearing – apparently because he would be in breach of his LN contract.

About a dozen journalists from music trade and business publications were set to have one-on-one interviews with the former Live Nation UK managing director, but Outside was forced to pull them at less than 24 hours notice because it could no longer deliver the interviewee.

At press time there was no comment from The Outside Organisation managing director Penny McDonald or AEG Live Europe managing director Rob Hallett on the conference’s reschedule.

Live Nation’s injunction, which was granted by the High Court the day before the press conference was due, is believed to have stopped Galbraith from making any such appearance within at least five days of it being issued.

That would put both parties back in the High Court on October 9 at the earliest. After the first incident, any new press calls are unlikely until the matter is firmly resolved.

Apart from leaving AEG Live U.K. with egg on its face, it may cause more inconvenience as Galbraith’s former employer is sticking to the assertion that, by trying to work with AEG or anyone else soon after his late August dismissal from Live Nation, he’s breaching the restrictive covenant in his LN contract.

AEG and Galbraith were expected to announce a working arrangement, what McDonald referred to as a "new venture," rather than him just joining the company as a high-level employee.

He’s believed to have arranged to set up shop in space within Harvey Goldsmith’s central London offices, although that wasn’t possible to verify at press time.

However, his restrictive covenant is likely to preclude him from trying to work with Live Nation clients or poaching its staff, which he is believed to have done, according to the U.K.’s The Times.

A leading London lawyer told Pollstar that, on the face of it, Galbraith would appear to have a choice between sitting out the period of his restrictive covenant or trying to reach a compromise settlement with Live Nation.

The lawyer also said Galbraith or even AEG could – and probably would as a matter of course – also be looking at any possible breaches of contract on Live Nation’s side, although so far there’s been no suggestion of any.

Restrictive covenants are notoriously hard to enforce under English law but Live Nation appears to be taking it very seriously that one of its top U.K. execs was proverbially sleeping with the enemy.

It appears unlikely that LN will let him just walk without at least trying to make his working life more than a little difficult.

Coincidentally, the aborted press conference would have been held the same day as Live Nation’s Download Festival, an event Galbraith was highly instrumental in creating, won a gong at the BT Digital Music Awards.