Private investor sues city concert promoter
Lawsuit seeks compensation for $700,000
Even though Cheri Nichol is a longtime fan of the blues, she didn’t think she’d be singing them.
But her dealings with a Calgary concert promoter have left the local entrepreneur and management consultant now seeking to reclaim more than $700,000 in investment and expenses by suing him for fraud.
“This was a dream I had,” said Nichol, a 51-year-old single mother of one, “and it became a nightmare.”
In a claim filed May 4 in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Nichol is suing Bryan Taylor of Concerts North, Concerts North Ltd., Keystone Music, Keystone Entertainment, Keystone Entertainment Group Ltd. and a pair of numbered companies for monies she’d invested in his promotion companies and expenses she paid in relation to Calgary shows by artists including the Sheepdogs, Doobie Brothers, Johnny Winter, Los Lobos and Leon Russell.
In the statement of claim, Nichol, who first met Taylor while volunteering to help at some of his other concerts, alleges that Taylor misrepresented the amount of money made by the shows they put on together, in some cases claiming losses when information provided to Nichol by Ticketmaster indicated that the concerts had made substantial sums of money.
She also claims that a contract Taylor’s companies had with the local Century Casino during their time working together had been terminated after Taylor did not pay the Beach Boys, as well as failed to release monies to the casino collected for shows by Big Sugar and Rodney Carrington.
While Nichol doubts she’ll see any of the money she claims is owed to her — she says she has been advised that after not filing a defence in the allotted time, Taylor has now attempted to claim bankruptcy, while listing Nichol as a creditor — she’s hoping that going public with her suit will bring more people forward.
“How does anybody think they can take people’s money like that?” said Nichol.
Taylor has a long, somewhat turbulent history of concert promoting in Calgary, including a Van Morrison show in 2010 scheduled for Fort Calgary which was moved to the Jubilee Auditorium because of poor ticket sales. The move also meant that legendary musician Levon Helm from the Band — who passed away this year — was dropped from the bill, resulting in an angry letter to the media from Helm’s representative.
The promoter was also on both ends of lawsuits after the cancellation of an Aerosmith and ZZ Top Western Canadian tour in 2009, and in the wake of his failed Blues and Roots Festival at McMahon Stadium in 2004, benefit concerts were held to pay production staff who were owed money from the poorly attended event, which featured artists such as David Byrne and Cake.
Calls to Taylor for comment were not returned.