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Lisa Robinson Interview / Studio 54 "Beatlemania" Party

Date of interview confirmed by Lisa Robinson in her Vanity Fair article, and the date of the Studio 54 “Beatlemania” party confirmed by Andy Warhol in his “Andy Warhol Diaries” (“Thursday, June 9, 1977”... "I talked everybody into going up to Studio 54 for the party for Beatlemania. Aerosmith [(Steven Tyler)] was there..."

Lisa Robinson, Vanity Fair

Interview with Michael by phone from Encino, California, June 9, 1977:

M.J. We just came back from Europe and we performed for the Queen of England in Scotland. We’d done it five years ago for her mother, but this time it was for her and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. They asked us and we were honored to do it. Afterwards she came backstage and she said, “Did you just come here to perform for [me]?” And we said, “Yes.” She said, “Where do you go next?” We said, “London.” She said, “Are you all brothers?” And we said, “Yes.” And she said our show was very enjoyable. Her husband was very interested—he must have spent five minutes asking us if our parents were musically inclined: what did they play, what did my mother play? My mother played the clarinet in a band, and my father was in a singing group called the Falcons—they were a local group. The Queen had her crown on and a pink dress with all these pearls and rubies and diamonds all over it. She wears a lot of jewelry. The producers and the people from the [Silver] Jubilee told us that [the Queen] did something at our show that they never saw her do—she actually clapped to the music and kept time and nodded her head in keeping the time. We were really happy to hear that; that’s really different and I was glad.

L.R. Did you have any time to sightsee?

M.J. Well, we’re usually in these cities so quick and out the next night—we do the concert and split. But I made time in London to see Big Ben, which I’ve seen before. I’ve seen the London Bridge and Whitechapel, where Jack the Ripper was cutting people up . . . it’s scary. In Scotland, I saw Loch Lomond—it’s very close to Loch Ness . . . We saw old castles. We didn’t see any changing of the guard this time, but we were with the guards and took some pictures. But the show in London was much wilder—I didn’t think we’d get out of that place. All through the show there were girls running up, one after another, onto the stage—poor children were being crushed and smashed. Two policemen got stabbed. The last time was even rougher, because there’s just something about the excitement in Europe . . . the teenyboppers and the excitement of Beatlemania. They called it “Jacksonmania.”