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“Daily Mirror” Magazine Interview

“10 days before” their arrival in Britain (was February 3, 1979, so January 27) is simply not possible, since Michael was not in Los Angeles at the time. This was most likely in the month of their first gig in Germany, which occurs on January 22, 1979

“Daily Mirror” (February 1, 1979), from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro” (article summary/quotes)

Michael gave an interview to the Daily Mirror 10 days before the Jackson were due to arrive on British shores for a nationwide tour. The interview was conducted in Los Angeles and Michael was still glowing from his well-received performance in The Wiz, with critics saying he was the only positive thing to come out of the film.

“Reputations and gold discs galore don’t mean a thing when you face a challenge like this. The Wizard Of Oz movie is a piece of cinema history. As a kid the scarecrow was always my favourite character.”

Being on the film set was a whole new experience for Michael, and an exciting one. However, he couldn’t get used of all the sitting around waiting to be involved in the scenes.

“But the hardest thing about it was not the hard work and all the dancing on the film set, it was having to sit about for three hours every day for six months while they covered me with a mountain of makeup.”

Michael said he wanted to do more film work, but the group came first.

“We are really looking forward to coming back to Britain. British audiences are probably the most appreciative in the world. If you go down well on stage with them then you know it’s not because of who you are but because you’ve got your act together, right.”