Rod Gets In A Stew

Rod Stewart’s reportedly lacklustre performance in Malta may well have been due to backstage squabbles that could have led to the event being canceled.

There are conflicting reports about what actually happened, with Karl Borg, who put the production together, telling Times Of Malta that the show only went on because he dipped into his own pockets to pay some of the contractors.

Roy Steer of RS & Partners, which promoted the Aug. 3 show at the Fosos site at Floriana, says the stories about financial problems all boiled down to the sort of rumours that get spread “when you step on people’s toes.”

Still the rumours persist and the various stories continue to attract plenty of comment on the newspapers’ online pages.

“There were financial problems behind the concert, there still are and it seems that Mr. Steer is unable to foot the bill,” commented one of the many unnamed contractors being quoted by the island’s media.

The papers seem to have accepted that “nobody can get to the truth behind the concert,” but – whatever did or didn’t happen behind the scenes – the show left many of Rod’s fans disappointed with the way the event was organised.

Many concertgoers who’d bought tickets for “the Silver Standing areas” complained about the long queues that resulted in them missing the start of the show.

The papers acknowledge that many of Stewart’s fans enjoyed his performance, although others were reportedly disappointed to see him looking at his watch about one hour through the show.

“The crowd felt the singer was distant from them, as if something was going wrong back stage, throughout the performance,” the Times Of Malta put it.