Freddie Causes Agent Nightmare

Jamaican reggae star Freddie McGregor has caused a blazing row between Austrian agent Georg Leitner and U.K. agent Dave Bettridge. He skipped his August 24 appearance at Wiesen Jazz Festival and used part of the deposit money to buy flights for his show at London’s Jazz Café a few days later.

According to Bettridge, McGregor didn’t make the Vienna show because Caribbean flights were grounded due to the hurricanes in the area at the time. The argument looks to hinge on whether he had permission to use part of the euro 4,145 deposit money to buy flights.

Bettridge, who has his own company called Synergy Artistes, claims he has a copy of a written permission to use the money. Walter Laurer, who works with Leitner at GLP, denies that such permission was ever given and is demanding his company’s money be refunded.

"The contract says the artist must reimburse the flight costs immediately in the event of cancellation," Laurer told Pollstar.

The weather around Jamaica had cleared by the time McGregor and his entourage needed to fly to London to do the Jazz Café, so he switched the tickets that Bettridge had bought using deposits from all of the promoters involved in what was originally a five-day European run.

The issue has already caused Bettridge to fall out with McGregor, who has switched his representation to Eddie Brown at the U.K.’s Pride Music.

But Leitner is insisting the deal was done with Synergy and what has since happened between Bettridge and McGregor has nothing to do with it.