Skip to main content

The Jacksons' Victory Tour Memories


30 years ago tonight, my mother took some friends and me to see the King of Pop, Michael Jackson and the Jacksons at the Gator Bowl. It was the second (and final) time that I saw him perform with his brothers in person. The first time being the very first concert I ever attended at the Front Row in Cleveland back in the Iron Age.

The Victory tour was an Event. It could have been called the Thriller tour; but Mike was being charitable. The brothers were more than capable, but everyone was there to see "Billie Jean" performed live. Period. Even as Thriller fever was about to be Purple Eclipsed and Borne out of the USA, MJ was still turning everything to gold with "P.Y.T.," "Say, Say, Say," "State of Shock" & "We Are The World" which made the globe mental the next year.

Michael did not disappoint even though he looked tiny from our seats. This wasn't my first stadium concert. I had already seen the Beach Boys at old Cleveland Municipal. This show however was a spectacle with sword in the stone ridiculousness and laserbeams and glittering costumes to match. It was fun to hear the full-tilt hits from Thriller as well as the old Jackson 5 revue. The Jacksons always knew how to pull out the stops for performances.

Somewhere in my archive reside my tour program and yes a tour tee shirt. My Mom put up a lot of dough for the show, I remember. Now, I have an even greater appreciation for our evening on the town with the Jacksons. We had a grand time and I look back and realize that my mother was younger then than I am now. Sh'mon!

Thanks, Mom.

#TheJacksons
#MichaelJackson
#Victory
#GatorBowl
#Jacksonville

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Murderous Haircut of the Mayor of Bel Air - Book Review

“The Murderous Haircut of the Mayor of Bel Air” is a trippy new mystery novel from Phillip Mottaz. It captures the grit and gilt of the City of Angels with the flair of a contemporary Raymond Chandler. The brisk pace and wit are reminiscent of Douglas Adams’s entries in the detective game. Flourishes of  Fletch  and “Medium” also spring to mind. However, Mottaz has added a psychic/mutant/superhuman touch and his own comedic voice, structure and internal monologues to the proceedings that help the author announce his own style and the arrival of a literary heroine for a new generation. Hairstylist and budding private investigator, Danica Luman is the perfect character to convey the irony, angst and sarcasm needed to tell a 21st century L.A. crime story. Danica also represents anyone who thought it would be neat to get tangled up in a mystery and the darkly comic cautionary tale that follows. The genre is recognizable, but Mottaz offers a fresh take on the not-ready-for-prime-time-hard-b

Being There [Grammy Recap]

Hey Soul Mates, Check out your boy. Yes, I did look that damn suave at the Grammys last night. Look, the tickets very clearly said "black tie." What could be less rock and roll than black tie? Not wearing "black tie." Frankly, the hipsters and the club girls just looked silly. Maybe I'm getting sartorially conservative, but you must be clean for the Grammys. We arrived early in the afternoon. A beautifully mild afternoon in downtown L.A. and not a sign of the predicted rain. I wanted to experience the whole nine, so we got there in time for the "Pre-telecast" ceremony. This is where 97 of the 108 gramophone statuettes are awarded. It was much more entertaining and endearing than the actual broadcast. The winners were genuinely moved, were not limited in their speech time and came in all stripes. Now, very few of the acts I voted for won. But the day did start off with a bang as OK Go won best short form video for the treadmill hopping video for Here

Freebird, Fla.

Hey Soul Mates, the Rock Hall inductee class of '06 has been announced. Now, my high school mates (especially, Mike) can shut up about Jacksonville's own, Lynyrd Skynyrd making the Hall. Congrats to them. This is not my favorite group of Hall of Famers: Miles Davis, Black Sabbath, Blondie and the Sex Pistols. Of this batch, only Blondie was a contemporary presence for me. No disrespect to the fans of the other artists. Just not my cup of tea. I'm sure my buddy Mark though is still lamenting Chicago's absence from the Rock Hall. The induction ceremony should be interesting though, because a lot of country-rockers are going to come out of the woodwork to honor Skynyrd. Blondie, Sabbath and the Pistols are all relatively intact so their performances will be highly anticipated. I'm particularly anxious to hear what the Sex Pistols portion of the evening will entail. Who will induct them? Green Day? U2? That's sure to be the highlight of the night. That, and Ozzy