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Melbourne, Australia (HIStory World Tour)
"Herald Sun" (1996) (November 22, 1996 show)
A massive monolith of Michael Jackson dwarfed Melbourne's gardens yesterday after a statue of the pop star was unveiled at the Myer Music Bowl.
For a short time, Jackson floated on air as a massive crane hoisted the 10m steel and fiberglass structure into place on a grassy hill, facing the stage.
...
...Last night, before 60,000 fans at the MCG... his story, musically speaking, took its rightful place, center stage.
HIStory, delivered from a coliseum of lights, platforms, smoke machines, pyrotechnics, and scaffolding, is a stunning show that defies the imagination and strives the impossible.
It is HIStory from the outset, Jackson setting the record straight on anything and everything: "I'm tired of injustice... tired of the schemes", he growls, prowling the stage.
HIStory's crowning glory is its passionate recreation of seminal moments in Jackson's career, "Billie Jean", is the absolute highlight.
Jackson dresses for the occasion--slowly, deliberately putting on the Glove, the Hat, the Jacket like a reverse striptease. The beat kicks in, and the audience is immediately taken back to his classic performance on the 25th Motown Anniversary Special.
But HIStory is best explained when Jackson is hoisted above his fans in the rousing, inspired "Earth Song". Sometimes, he's just untouchable.
"Herald Sun" (November 25, 1996) (November 24, 1996 show)
Diehard Jackson fans are falling ill after a four-day footpath vigil to catch a glimpse of their idol.
Curled up in sleeping bags outside the Grand Hyatt hotel, the fans vow they won't move until Michael Jackson leaves Melbourne.
Not even regular blasts of tour bus diesel fumes can budge this tenacious bunch.
"Most of us are sick with coughs and runny noses," croaked 19-year-old Michelle Xiriha, her voice barely audible after days of screaming.
"We've all got colds but it's worth it just to catch a glimpse of him."
The young fans also cop plenty of verbal abuse from pedestrians and motorists.
But their persistence paid off yesterday, when a Jackson staff member handed out free tickets to last night's show at the MCG.
Jackson, who refuses to go outside on the day of a performance, was in his hotel suite watching videos and listening to music yesterday afternoon.
Despite rumors that 10,000 seats would be empty at last night's show, publicist Brett Huwa said all seats were sold by time the show began.
Meanwhile, Jackson's larger-than-life statue had a brush with the law on Saturday night [November 23, 1996] after appearing at the Myer Music Bov for the star's public reception.
Perched on the back of a truck on its way to Sydney, the statue driver was pulled over by traffic police on patrol in Pascoe Valley South.
Brunswick police yesterday confirmed the statue's 23-year-old driver was booked for disobeying a traffic sign in Coonans Rd. at 5:15pm.
Buzz photographer and reporter Sue Hedley recently went on assignment to the Michael Jackson gig at the oval office (A.K.A. MCG). "It was the best concert I've ever been to", Sue declared around The Buzz offices.
"I thought he put on a great performance. In one song, he kneeled down and cried, and I was close enough to feel that this was indeed genuine. This performer was putting everything on the line for his fans. The performance was just so emotional."
Missed the man himself flying in on a spaceship, but did get there in time to hear the crowd go nuts...
I approached the show openly... just enjoy the music; and considering his incredible backlog of tunes, for the twenty-five thousand people who were there, it was obviously the music that was important. And they loved him! Screams, screams, and even more of that accompanied his course through the potted history of Michael Jackson. Basically, Jackson went through a couple of tunes from The Jackson Five (with a moving moment where he shed some tears for his family... and then moved on through material from "Off the Wall", then into his early eighties tunes of "Beat It", and, of course, "Thriller". Each song was accompanied by a costume change from the video--this was live MTV. We got the red jacket with the zips, the padded white number, and, of course, the white glove... Jackson then moved on to his more recent work--"Black or White", and then some stuff from "HIStory". Now, this is where things got pretty problematic. Saving the world and defeating the soldier was Michael's plan when the massive army tank rolled in and Jackson encouraged him to put down his guns... Jackson then sang about the kids, brought about thirty out with him, and turned all the lights on us so we could acknowledge the person beside us...
...It was at times brilliant, and in terms of the dancing, the music, the stage sets and the lighting, it was absolutely engaging, and he had me grooving along with the rest of the crowd. Unfortunately, there was always something a little amiss. But I guess that the phenomena that is Michael Jackson--[article cut off]
