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From: dvw@hopd3.UUCP (D. V. Wilkerson)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Jacksons Victory Tour
Message-ID: <214@hopd3.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Oct-84 14:17:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: hopd3.214
Posted: Wed Oct  3 14:17:45 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Oct-84 03:33:19 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 40

Ok, how come no one out there will admit to going to see the Jacksons?
Embarassed?  I'll be brave and admit that I went on 9/29 in Philadelphia.
I'm the one who thinks that only football should be played in football
stadiums.  But my lovely mother said (after the Jacksons first visit to
Philly), "Well, I missed them this time, but if they ever come back, I'm
going to see them".  Three days later, the mayor announced that the Jacksons
would be back to make-up the Labor Day concert that was rained out and also
play an additional date (9/29).  Mother said, "I'm going to see Michael".
I said, "Mom, you'll never get tickets".  She said, "If I have to get up at
6:00 a. m. and wait in a line of 100 people, I'll get tickets".  She was
number 30 in line.  Got pretty good seats too (she told the guy selling tickets
that she was too old to climb up a lot of stairs; she got seats on the field).
The concert?  The opening was silly, their entrance was pretty good (rising
up from below the stage, backlighted, so that you could only see five shadows),
the projection on the screen was clear, and the sound was excellent!  There was little spontaneity, except when Michael
decided not to sing "Ben" after the band had already started playing:
"I've been singing this song a long time and I think we should do something
different".  Execellent suggestion.  They went right into "Human Nature"
instead.
No "Victory" songs were performed, although the "Torture" video was shown
around 7:30.  The concert started a little before 9:00.  About and hour and
fifteen minutes into the show, they said good night.  Lovely Mother (who,
BTW has been standing on her chair since the beginning of the show) said,
"Is that it?"  I said, "67,000 Philadelphians have paid at least $30 each to
see Michael Jackson, and he hasn't sung "Billie Jean" yet?  Are you kidding?"
4 minutes later, they returned.  Two songs later, Michael was attacked by
some special-effects "spiders", was levitated, and disappeared in a cloud of
white smoke.  He reappeared with Randy on the other side of the stage, and
they did "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and closed with "Shake Your Body", all
with generous portions of moonwalking.  Jermaine performed "Dynamite", "Tell Me
I'm Not Dreaming", and "Let's Get Serious" earlier in the show.
"Heartbreak Hotel" and "I'll Be There" were other crowd favorites.
They performed for about two hours (reportedly the longest of any show so far)
and ended with a great fireworks display.  Worth $30?  Yeah, I guess so, but
then I didn't buy the tickets :-).  (No, they did not do "Thriller", although
they did open with "Do You Wanna Be Starting Something".)

Diane Wilkerson
..!hopd3!dvw