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Manila, Philippines ("Jackson 5 Love Jive" Concerts)
Dates confirmed in promotional posters (Images 9 and 10)
Vic Jose, Motown Label Manager, “ABS-CBN News” (July 7, 2009) (archived)
An autographed photo of Michael Jackson is among the prized possessions of radio dzMM anchor Vic Jose.
The photo dated February 19, 1976 speaks of Michael's early fascination with world-renowned Filipino hospitality: "I've been to a lot of countries all over the world. But I've never in my life seen people so nice as the people in Manila. I actually don't believe how kind everyone is. I thank you for your kindness and making our records hits. You are a champ." Signed, Michael Jackson.
The photo, another one signed by the Jackson 5, and original vinyl records of their hits, are part of Vic's collection of memorabilia collected during his stint as Motown Label Manager in the Philippines. Until now, the items have been safely tucked away for more than 30 years.
But asked if he would be willing to part with these mementos by putting them on auction or on e-bay, "Depends on the price, maybe for half a million dollars to begin with," he says.
Perhaps, it is the memory of his personal encounters with Michael on their first visit here during the Martial Law years that best explains his easy readiness to part with these rarities.
A store of memories
During the Martial law years, Vic said that radio was predominantly dedicated to music and the arts, and it was very difficult for artists of color to break in because audiences were what he called a "mental colony" and preferred white artists. "They didn't know black artists until we, in Motown in Manila, promoted "One Day In Your Life."
It was then that Manila had its first taste of Michael Jackson, and Vic became professionally and personally acquainted with the performer.
"I was with him everyday, treated him to sapin-sapin. He asked me where I lived and I took him and his brothers to my place in Manila. He had adobo." A photo of Michael and younger brother Randy with Vic's sisters are now part of Vic's personal memorabilia.
Tasked with promotions, artists and their repertoire, Vic became a constant presence for the singer on the Jackson 5's eight-day visit to Manila to promote their songs during Valentine shows at the newly-built Folk Arts Theater and the Araneta Coliseum.
"I was driving, and as soon as he saw the horse accent on the Sarao jeep, he said: ‘Stop, I want that.’ I cut the jeep, and offered to buy it for P75, a lot of money back then. He unhinged it and gave it to me." Vic recounts the 17-year old Michael embraced the horse. Since then he says, it has found a home in Neverland.
The monster hit
Back then, "One Day In Your Life" was a monster hit in Manila.
"We asked the agent to include the song 'One Day In Your Life' in the repertoire because that's what the Philippines wanted." Vic remembers. But Michael could not be prevailed upon, refusing to sing it, saying it wasn't in the charts.
"They were staying at the Manila Hilton," Vic recalls, "I woke him up and he said, ‘Hey, VJ what's going on?’" Vic says, he had shown Michael a list of songs for the performance including "One Day in Your Life" and asked him to sing it for the Filipino audience since Filipinos could relate to the song. After the first performance at the Folk Arts Theater, the show didn't do well and people were frustrated. Persistent, Vic convinced Michael to sing by producing the musical arrangement in a matter of hours. Michael rehearsed it and they were back in business.
Insomnia
Looking back, Vic says, even at the cusp of Michael's adulthood and his solo musical career, it may have been possible that the singer's hyperactive lifestyle would eventually take its toll on him. "During that time he couldn’t sleep. He was saying: could we do the rehearsals earlier?"
...Michael, his work and memory
Like many, Vic chooses to remember good things about Michael: "He was kind to his brothers. He was a happy boy, and fun to be with. He didn't understand Tagalog but when we laughed, he laughed, too, then asked what was funny. When we told him, he said, ‘See, I told you it was funny.’ That's how he is," Vic says. "I want to remember him the way he was at the Folk Arts Theater, the way I listen to his records, the way he says, ‘I like your adobo, please buy me that Sarao’. I want to remember him as a happy person. He really loved to dance and his voice is terrific--one note higher than a falsetto when he sings."
Convinced even then that Michael was a total performer, today, Vic believes Michael's work will outlast him. "Michael dances, sings, composes. I think his music, his memory will be bigger than Elvis Presley and the Beatles."
Ces Rodriguez, writer for Billboard Magazine, “I’m Looking at the Boy-Man in Manila” article (July 10, 2009) (archived)
At the ungodly hour of 6.30 a.m., I found myself at the airport as part of the company’s welcome committee. I was also tasked to record personal greetings I would later have to duplicate and send off to all of the radio stations to promote the upcoming concerts.
There’s a photo, lost forever, of me shoving a tape recorder to Michael’s face and ensuring he read the right hellos from an index card I had prepared. I hated that photo. I looked exactly like the time of day. And so did Michael.
Like many others who recall the man behind the music, Michael never seemed to speak or mingle offstage. He was lanky, retiring and looked grayish and frail. I thought that he was simply struggling through the weirdness of adolescence. Not to mention the fact that in 1976, the Jackson 5 were, heartbreakingly, has-beens. It was four years before Michael would release his breakthrough solo album, Off the Wall.
In the meantime, he was adrift with his lost bros in the Philippines.
…In 1976, I don’t recall him laughing or having much of a conversation with anyone. He always seemed hunched in a corner somewhere during his downtime.
He had been nursing a cold so someone recommended salabat, the ginger tea. He agreed and it was the only thing he required backstage – along with cheese sandwiches. Which seemed to be the only thing he ate.
Philippines Daily Express, February 12, 1976 press conference (“last night”) (Source in images)
The Jackson 5 currently in Manila is not the original group that most fans know. One of the originals, Jermaine, is reportedly sick and young Randy is pinch-hitting for him so that the group can live up to its billing as the Jackson Five.
This was learned last night at a press conference at the Manila Hilton where the group fielded questions with aplomb that comes from along experience with the press conference game.
Papa Joseph Jackson. who also acts as the popular soul group’s manager and who sat in on the conference, volunteered the answers in a few instances when the questions tended to become a bit tricky, such as when Michael was asked whether he or any of his brothers had any experience with drugs. Papa’s answer? An unqualified NO.
Otherwise the quintet, who needed little assistance, were unfazed even by less than intelligent questions. To the question directed to Michael whether there was any truth to the rumor that he had died from an overdose of drugs, Michael responded with a straight face, “As you can very well see, I’m here. What do you think?”
The Jackson 5 declares that it doesn’t foresee the possibility that the group will split up and go their separate careers like the Beatles did — even if Jermaine isn't with them here which might have been what fueled the speculation.
They will, however, leave Motown, the recording outfit that launched their career, in the very near future. Their contract with Motown expires next month and the Jackson Five has seen it fit to transfer to Epic, with the exception of the absent Jermaine, who according to Michael hasn‘t yet made up his mind.
The fact that Jermaine is married to the daughter of Berry Gordy. Jr., president of Motown, might have contributed to his dilemma.
Although the group has always sung songs composed for them by others with only the demands of their singing personality imposing changes in the orchestral arrangements and interpretations, they disclosed during the conference that they have started composing their own songs and will probably come out with an album of their compositions.
It was Muhammad Ali’s accounts of the Philippines, according to the Jackson Five, that made them want to come and perform in the Philippines. The Jackson Five are friends of Ali.
As for that report that they will do a movie here, Michael said they only heard about it a while before, but he graciously conceded that they will study the possibility.
The Jackson Five will give their first performance at Folk Arts Theater at 7:30 tonight.
Two more performances at the FAT are scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday, with three subsequent performances slated at the Araneta Coliseum for Feb. 13, 14, and l5.
Liza Ilarde, editor-in-chief of Philippine magazines, The Fash Pack
They had a Michael Jackson sound-alike contest and he was there to crown the winner. Apparently, Michael looked very uncomfortable with the idea of having to select one winner and when the time came, he raised BOTH finalists' hands! Isn't that a very Michael thing to do??
...Michael sang a ballad that day: "Ben".
Various Philippine fans, Philstar
vicONGASis: Some of us older guys were fortunate to see Michael when he appeared with the Jackson 5 in the noontime show Student Canteen. I was about six or seven years old at the time. One lucky Filipino was able to give Michael a warm hug when he won the MJ of the Philippines contest: Bobby Dulay. How I wish someone had the business sense to keep in storage a copy of MJ’s first ever appearance in RP.
howlindave: The winner of the Student Canteen search for Michael Jackson of the Philippines, which MJ personally picked was Bobby Montojo. Hope I got his name right. He did a rocky billy song of Michael’s.
angiep: I worked at the Manila Hilton in 1976 and the Jackson 5 stayed there when they had concerts in the Philippines. They were nice boys, naughty at times but nothing bad. Their father, Papa Joe was also a nice man. They gave pictures and autographs to all of us.
Baby A. Gil, author, Philstar
Marlon, Jackie, Tito, Michael and Randy came with their Dad, whom everybody called Papa Joe. No burly bodyguards kept the fans away and the boys were nice to everybody. Michael was 17, tall and thin in his body fitting knit shirt. He was very shy and seemed to be hiding under his huge Afro. He even found time to visit Laguna and Pagsanjan to have something new to write about and submit to his teacher back home.
Blues & Soul (April 13, 1976)
The Jackson Five are internationally successful in the true sense of the term. The sensational vocal aggregation recently returned from one of the most enthusiastically received concert engagements in their entire careers. From the moment they landed in the capitol city of the Philippines, Manila, thousands of fans greeted The Jackson Five and accorded them a heroes welcome (even though their arrival was at the early hour of 5:55am).
Several lovely Filipino airline hostesses and Vicor Music Distributors (promoters of music and concerts in the Philippines), placed the traditional leis around the necks of Michael Jackson and his brothers, Tito, Marlon, Jackie, Randy, their father-manager, Joseph Jackson and their entourage.
Even an "unscheduled" earthquake couldn't keep folks from throughout the Philippines from attending The Jackson Five's Love Jive Concerts. A few hours before the first of their six concerts was to begin, an earthquake shook the Capitol City of Manila.
The quake registered five points on the Richter Scale. The concert, however, went on that evening and thousands of hopeful fans were turned away from the gate that night as the house was sold-out and no more tickets were available.
All six of their concerts were S.R.O. (standing room only), and over 150,000 people viewed their performances. The Filipino people dig ballads and each night lead-singer, Michael Jackson mesmerized the audience with hits like "Ben:, "One Day in Your Life", "Happy", and "Never Can Say Goodbye". The packed houses seemed to become totally breathless when Mike sang and continuously saluted him with thunderous standing ovations.
The J5 are so popular in the Philippines that several multi-millionaire motion picture producers in Manila approached them about doing a movie in their beautiful country. "If the script is well-written and things can be worked out, I would love for the group to do a film in the Philippines", said their father-manager, Joseph Jackson.
...Following their return from Manila, the Jacksons rested up for a few days, then played an exciting game of basketball for charity against a team composed of several of Hollywood's brightest and biggest black stars, such as Marvin Gaye, Tony King, and Don Cornelius, host of the top-rated television music program, "Soul Train".
Chris Cadman, author, “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
The Jacksons appeared on a TV show called [Student Canteen] in February 1976 as part of the promotion for their Manila concert shows. The show was presented by Eddie Llarde, Bobby Ledesma and Coney Reyes, who introduced Michael singing Ben and a sound-alike contest. When it came to choosing a winner he diplomatically raised both participants’ hands.