Failed Derek Block agency 'owed creditors £1m'

Derek Block Artistes Agency Ltd has gone into liquidation, owing almost £1 million to creditors.

The creditors listed for the company, which was dissolved earlier this year, include HM Revenue and Customs – for VAT, PAYE and National Insurance contributions – the bank Svenska Handelsbanken and unnamed “trade and expense creditors”.

The total amount owing is listed in the company’s estimated statement of affairs as £931,212, with the VAT bill alone standing at £326,493. The company owed £110,384 to trade and expense creditors.

Events promoter Block liquidated a previous company, Derek Block International Concerts Limited, in 1994. This earlier company owed £1.4 million to creditors, including the Royal Opera House, Ticketmaster and the Mail on Sunday.

Asher Miller, of David Rubin and Partners LLP, was nominated to liquidate Derek Block Artistes Agency Ltd after it was resolved to wind up the company voluntarily, according to the official documentation.

A month after Derek Block Artistes Agency Ltd was wound up, Block filed a notice in the London Gazette stating that he planned to continue part or all of the business under a new name – Derek Block Concert Promotions Ltd.

The notice regarding the reuse of a prohibited name, written by Block, states: “I give notice that it is my intention to act in one or more of the ways specified in section 216(3) of the Insolvency Act 1986, in connection with, or for the purposes of, the carrying on of the whole or substantially the whole of the business of the above-named insolvent company under the name of Derek Block Concert Promotions Limited.”

Block was unavailable for comment as The Stage went to press.