A month after the failure of the initial effort by Waterford-born music entrepreneur Mr Vince Power to reverse his Mean Fiddler operation into its AIM-listed offshoot meanfiddler.com, he has resurrected the deal with the backing of Bass Brewers.

Meanfiddler.com announced yesterday it going ahead with the £33.5 million sterling (€53 million) acquisition of Mean Fiddler through the issue of 48.9 million shares. This is, in effect, a reverse takeover - as Mean Fiddler will have a controlling stake in its listed dotcom offshoot after the share issue.

Last month, the initial deal collapsed after meanfiddler.com failed to raise £5 million to £8 million in a share placing. This was a crucial element of the deal, and at the time Mr Power blamed investors' lack of knowledge of the live music industry.

However, one of the biggest players in the British beer market, Bass Brewers, has come to Mr Power's rescue and put up the bulk of the £5 million in the placing, to end up with a 8.75 per cent stake in meanfiddler.com. The dotcom offshoot will be renamed Mean Fiddler Holdings and trading in the restructured company will begin later this month.