Regan Anderson of SFP Events in legal battle with CCR frontman John Fogerty

A Townsville event manager has broken his silence over a costly legal dispute with representatives of legendary CCR swamp rocker John Fogerty.

Legendary CCR swamp rocker John Fogerty, right, and Townsville event manager Regan Anderson of SFP Events and NQ Licensed Events (inset image).

A Townsville event manager has broken his silence over a costly legal dispute with representatives of legendary CCR swamp rocker John Fogerty.

Regan Anderson said the breakdown in the relationship with the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman’s representatives before Country Fest Queensland near Mackay in March was “absolutely gutting”.

“Thousands of hours had gone into that event getting it up to where it was to one of the most exciting things to come for a little place down in North Queensland and to have such a superstar coming and for it to all fall apart through no fault of our own when all we required was a signed contract from the booking agent within a set date … it was absolutely heartbreaking,” he said.

The owner of SFP Events, which operates NQ Licensed Events in Townsville, said he was still battling to recover a US$700,000 ($1,071,567) deposit from Little Swamp II, the commercial entity used by Mr Fogerty, and Creative Artists Agency, a powerful California-based talent agency.

In the most recent court decision in June, the Supreme Court in Brisbane referred applicant SFP Events and respondents Little Swamp and CAA to arbitration in the United States.

Regan Anderson (right), owner of SFP Events, which operates NQ Licensed Events in Townsville. Picture: Supplied

Mr Anderson said he was confident the matter would be resolved during the arbitration process, saying his legal team was “100 per cent positive it will never end up here back in the Supreme Court”.

He said the stressful contracts dispute centred around alleged delays in receiving a signed contract and confirmation of Fogerty’s appearance at the festival and the subsequent inability of organisers to obtain insurance in a timely fashion.

“Given that we could not get commitment from Mr Fogerty to attend, with the Festival only a number of months away, we needed to make the decision to withdraw our offer to Mr Fogerty and to find another headline act,” he said.

“We, of course, offered refunds to all those who no longer wished to attend due to Mr Fogerty not headlining, and we made a significant number of refunds.”

US singer-songwriter John Fogerty, former front man for the band, performs at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles in May 8. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

Mr Anderson said once it was confirmed that Fogerty was no longer performing, “we were able to obtain event insurance to proceed with the festival”.

“It was only after this point, and knowing the offer was off the table, that Mr Fogerty sought to re-enliven the deal and provided us with a signed agreement,” he claimed.

“By that time, we had already made alternate arrangements for the festival.”

In a social media post on February 28, Fogerty said he was “blindsided” by the cancelled appearance.

“It was posted that I would not be appearing due to unforeseen circumstances,” he said.

“Well, I can tell you, my friends, I was not the reason for the ‘unforeseen circumstances.

“I was ready to come down there and excited to celebrate getting my songs back with all of you.”

Mr Anderson reiterated that SFP had not lost the case, which is ongoing, “and is confident that it will be found that there was no binding agreement and its deposit will be refunded”.

He said the $700,000 hole in his finances and impacted the live music and festival scene in North Queensland.

“I own Day Trip Music Festival, so I’m not doing Day Trip in Townsville this year … we’ve also been offered a multitude of events and music events that we were generally saying yes to … (but) we haven’t been able to take any of them.”

An Australian-based lawyer for Little Swamp said she had no comment.

According to the Supreme Court decision delivered in Brisbane on June 21, CAA submitted that contractual arrangements were concluded by January 29 for a number of reasons, including that a contract had been sent to Mr Anderson for “execution and he did in fact execute it”.

“An offer therefore had been made by CAA which Mr Anderson accepted on behalf of SFP.”

Justice Rebecca Treston said SFP submitted there was no binding contract entered into between the parties.

Originally published as Regan Anderson of SFP Events in legal battle with CCR frontman John Fogerty