We appealed in this column yesterday for Vipco, the promoters of the Andrea Bocelli concert in Oxford, to come clean about their plans.

Within 24 hours they have done so -- well, more or less -- but it is hardly the news that the thousands of ticket holders were hoping for.

Promoter Mike Dandridge has admitted that there is now little prospect of the Italian opera star appearing at the Kassam Stadium.

The concert was originally planned for April 30, but was called off with just days to go. A new date -- July 10 -- was pencilled in, but that now seems unlikely.

Mr Dandridge tells us that "the whole thing has been a bit of a bloody mess". We would go further -- it has been a total bloody mess.

Many people had doubts about the ability of Mr Dandridge and his business partner Darren Ward to organise a concert of this magnitude when they blasted Oxford City Council for failing to co-operate with them.

It transpired that they had started selling tickets before getting a public entertainments licence or considering how they were going to get thousands of people to and from the Kassam Stadium, without causing huge traffic jams.

If the concert is abandoned, we will expect Mr Dandridge and Mr Ward to reimburse people with every penny they have paid them for concert tickets.

They should then depart from the concert organising scene forever.