THE promoter behind the cancelled Olly Murs gig was yesterday tracked down to a Bournemouth hotel as questions mounted about why the event had to be called off.

Under-fire Stephen McManus told the Daily Echo he was unavailable for interview but would meet a journalist on Monday.

Stephen C Associates, which was organising the August 5 concert in King’s Park, went out of business on Wednesday, leaving thousands of fans disappointed.

The demise of the business also meant the cancellation of concerts in Exeter by Olly Murs and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO).

The Echo understands some creditors have unpaid bills from Upton House Music Festival, which the business ran in June.

It is not known whose demands for payment finally brought the company down.

Anthony Brown, the BSO’s head of marketing, said the orchestra would be £18,000-£25,000 poorer than expected from the cancellation of its concert at Exeter.

The orchestra, which requires payment in advance, had received the fee for its Upton performance and part-payment for Exeter.

“Prior to this week I had made a few phone calls to Stephen McManus to say ‘You’ve defaulted on your payment schedule’ and we would not be appearing if we didn’t have our money in the bank,” said Mr Brown.

He said the fee would have gone towards community and education work. “We will make that up across the year,” he said.

Fans who bought tickets through agencies have been urged to contact them. BH Live is contacting its customers to arrange refunds.

An official application to strike off Stephen C Associates was lodged in January and discontinued in March.

The official registrar applies to strike off a company if there is reason to believe it is no longer in business – for example, if it has not filed the documents it should have submitted, or if post to the registered address is returned undelivered.

Accounts filed earlier this year, for the 12 months ending January 2016, show Stephen C Associates made a loss of £212. It had assets of £123,518 and liabilities of £123,630.

* A 15-year-old girl who was left with severe learning disabilities after a childhood illness is among the thousands distraught at the cancellation of the Olly Murs concert.

Nicole Blake was due to go to the King’s Park event as a birthday present from grandmother Sonia Hurst.

Sonia paid £121 for their tickets.

Nicole, who goes to Bournemouth’s Linwood School, suffered the brain inflammation encephalitis when she was small, while her twin sister was unaffected.

“She’s such a lovely girl and they said she’d never even be able to walk or talk,” said Sonia.

Nicole defied those predictions but still has physical and learning disabilities.

Sonia said she was struggling to understand why the concert had been cancelled. “I’ve had her crying since we got the message,” she said.

“Trying to explain this to someone is hard at the best of times, but with someone who finds it a little more difficult, that’s something like this has gone into liquidation is very hard. At first she blamed me because she thought I cancelled it.”