Still miffed about Prince cancelling his Croke Park gig in summer 2008? So are MCD. Rightly so, considering the gig promoters are out of pocket to the tune of approximately €1.7million. This week the Commercial Court is hearing MCD's case against the 'Purple Rain' singer and his agents at William Morris Endeavour Entertainment.

Yesterday, the court heard from WMEE executive Keith Sarkisian, who said that Prince told him and a colleague that he would not play in Dublin just two weeks before the gig was scheduled to go ahead, giving "no reason of substance" for his decision. 55,000 tickets had already been sold for the concert at that point. Recalling the meeting in question, which took place on June 3rd 2008, Sarkisian quotes Prince as saying of MCD's Denis Desmond, "Tell the cat to chill, we'll figure it out". According to his testimony, the singer got agitated, saying "you guys got me into this mess. I’m going to have to fix it".

The Irish Times reports that Prince claims WMEE did not have the authority to bind him to perform in Dublin, while the agency says that they acted under an agreement made in August 2005, which gives them express authority to negotiate on the singer's behalf in order to securing bookings.

Earlier this week, the court heard details of emails between Desmond and WMEE's Tony Golding, in which Goldring confirms dates and terms of the performance, but made the agreement on the basis of a confirmation by the artist's staff. Unsurprisingly MCD were concerned when they had not received this confirmation with only two weeks to go until the gig. Meanwhile, counsel for MCD Michael Collins told Mr Justice Peter Kelly that it would be the court's responsibility to decide who was liable to compensate MCD - the artist or his agent.