Jonny Bongo has said seeing Liverpool venue Camp and Furnace advertise its own Bongo's Bingo events was the "most offensive thing" he has ever seen, as the row over who has the right to stage the famous events rages on.
At the High Court on Friday, Jonny Bongo, whose real name is Jonathan Lacey, said the Baltic Triangle venue Camp had "nothing" to do with developing the brand.
Court proceedings have been ongoing since Monday, with Camp demanding exclusive rights to hold Bongo's Bingo on Merseyside, and also asking for a share of profit from Shua Ltd - the firm run by Mr Lacey and his colleague, Joshua Burke.
Shua remains adamant that Mr Lacey and Mr Burke “conceived and designed” the brand.
The row centres around the fact that the pair initially launched the now-famous nights while the latter was an employee at Camp.
Mr Burke left the firm in 2015 to take the event 'on the road', and it's now become a huge success at major venues across the 海角视频 – being played as far afield as Dubai and Australia.
On Friday, Mr Lacey gave evidence at the Business and Property Courts in Manchester, where he said Camp played "no part at all" in creating or developing the concept.
He told the court: "Promoting the night, they may have shared something on their Facebook page, but developing the concept 100% had nothing to do with Camp and Furnace. The shows put on there have been developed by myself behind the scenes working on the shows.
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"I accept they provided the in-house system, but there was nothing brought in especially. They provided what any other venue would provide: a space to do the show."
The complex legal hearing began on Monday, when BusinessLive revealed Camp had made 12 separate demands of Shua.
That included asking for a share of profit from Shua Ltd's Bongo's Bingo events away from the region – an agreement it says was made back in June 2015. Also among the demands were for Camp to have exclusivity to events on Merseyside.
Despite that, both groups hosted various Bongo's Bingo nights throughout August, with Shua's held at a venue called CONTENT, also in the Baltic Triangle. More are planned for both firms throughout October and November.
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During Friday's court hearing, the fifth day so far, Mr Lacey said he came up with all of the concepts, the jokes, the prizes and the activities for Bongo's Bingo.
Much of that, he said, was inspired by his previous weekly events known as Jonny Bongo's Monday Night quiz held at the Shipping Forecast in Ropewalks.
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He told the court how the quiz and bingo events had been very similar.
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The quiz night, he said, had been a variation on traditional pub quizzes - for example a bonus round involving "eating hot, spicy chicken wings to a 'grand national', where people would get on each others' backs and have a race around the pub".
Prizes would involve custom-made t-shirts with topical, newsy prints, bottles of Lambrini and breakfast cereals.
He said: "It was chaotic but still really good fun and lighthearted."
For both the bingo and quiz events, Mr Lacey said every single aspect - from the stage announcements to the questions asked, to the music, to characters involved in the show such as "Sweaty Betty and Slutty Sue" - was controlled and developed by him.
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Despite everything about the events getting bigger including attendance numbers and prize values, he added: "No one at Camp or outside Camp had any input whatsoever apart from me - not even Josh (Burke)."
Mr Lacey said the apostrophe in Bongo's Bingo was "very important", adding: "It shows ownership, association of me, Jonny.
"It's very simple - it's my bingo, something that I share with Josh.
"But if someone asked me who owns the brand I would say it's mine. It's got my name on it. It's unfortunate we have had to come here and go through this whole process. I wish earlier on, people could have seen how simple this all is."
Mr Lacey was also asked about events in May, when the over who has the right to stage the events.
That came when Camp advertised events set to take place in August – also claiming on social media the Greenland Street venue and its staff "invented, developed and financed" the brand - and had "always owned it".
Mr Lacey told the court: "I remember the day so well. We woke up to the fact that Camp had put up adverts for tickets for Bongo's Bingo. It was a bit of a frenzy, that moment. I received so many messages from people asking me 'what's going on? What is this?'
"It was one of the most offensive things I've ever read. To tell me they've invented something I've invented, and that they own my name. I think the public felt the same as how I felt.
"There was a lot of confusion. People take ticket sales very seriously. We usually send out a newsletter to subscribers letting them know when tickets are going on sale, giving them a bit of advance warning.
"[The Camp adverts] went out without warning. People hadn't received emails from us, so our personal emails were inundated with people asking if these were real. They weren't sure. [Camp] had used a logo that didn't look quite right, and it just looked a bit of a scam.”
Statements then appeared online posted by both Shua Ltd and Mr Lacey, the court heard, and that was followed by "thousands" of angry social media posts directed at Camp.
Mr Lacey was asked if he had intended to "crush Camp and Furnace" due to feeling "angry and insulted", to which he replied: "I didn't want to crush them, I wanted to stop them putting on these shows. Not to create a social media storm.
"I've been going under the name of Jonny Bongo for years. I didn't need to cause a storm. I've been doing this for years, the public know who made this brand."
He said the support received was "overwhelming", adding: "It really meant a lot. I wasn't encouraging people [to send angry messages to Camp]. I did not make any reference or plead people to do that. I have always been very serious about going down that road. I'd rather take the higher ground and say nothing."
Later in May, Shua for Bongo's Bingo events.
In court on Friday, Mr Lacey was asked by Neil Berragan QC whether he "acknowledged" that Camp is "the home of Bongo's Bingo".
He responded: "I would say if it was football, it would be the home stadium. It was the first ever venue we've done - but Liverpool is more the home as opposed to Camp and Furnace.
"Scousers are very proud that if they ever heard Bongo's Bingo being held anywhere away from here they would say it started in Liverpool, not it started in Camp and Furnace."
The hearing was expected to have concluded by Friday, but was adjourned after running out of time for Mr Lacey's colleague, Mr Burke, to give evidence.
It will resume in November.
Due to an injunction, Camp will need to make an application to the court to hold further events in December and during the Christmas period.
All other current scheduled Bongo's Bingo nights hosted at both Camp and CONTENT will remain unaffected by the delay in court proceedings.
The case continues.