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Behind the Scenes (Music)

Bill Wolfer, keyboardist, “Invincible” magazine (November 2014) (mirror) (archived mirror)

Bill Wolfer: In 1981, my friend Jonathan Moffett told me that the Jacksons were auditioning for a keyboard player, and I jumped at the chance, and got the gig. We rehearsed for six weeks, starting in a rehearsal hall in the valley, moving to a large soundstage in Hollywood for the final dress rehearsals. The rehearsals were fun, and six weeks was quite a luxury–it gave us plenty of time to get comfortable with the songs, and gave us all an opportunity to get to know each other. Michael and his brothers had a good work ethic, they knew what they wanted, but it never felt pressured or tense–it was always a very relaxed atmosphere.

Of course, I knew of them from their early days as the Jackson Five, and I was a fan of that era as well as the Destiny and Triumph albums. But I really had no idea how popular they were, especially Michael. I was quite unprepared when 6,000 fans were waiting for us at the airport in Memphis for the first gig. We literally had to run through the airport, chased by screaming fans into waiting limos. It was like something out of It’s a Hard Day’s Night! The next three months we worked our way across the country, playing large arenas in all the major cities, including two nights in New York at Madison Square Garden. The tour ended with three nights at the Los Angeles Forum, and the end-of-tour party on the last night was packed with celebrities, including Quincy Jones, Steven Spielberg, Stevie Wonder, Magic Johnson, Prince and others.

“Invincible”: On the Triumph Tour, you have adapted songs from "Destiny", "Triumph" and Off The Wall". Each of these albums had a particular sound. How difficult was the adaptation of these musical studio works for the stage ?

Wolfer: It was easier for most of the musicians than it was for me. The bass player is going to play the bass part, the drummer the drum part, and so forth, but those albums had so many synth and keyboard overdubs that it was impossible to incorporate all of them, even with both Randy and I playing keyboards. And Randy wasn’t always playing, he did choreography with the brothers, or played congas at times. We had to pick the important parts to emphasize, plus I had to cover any string parts. It kept me busy! My keyboard setup was in a "U" shape with five instruments. On my left was a Fender Rhodes piano with a Mini-moog on top of it. In the center was a Yamaha CP-70 electric-acoustic piano with a Prophet-5 synth on top, and on my right was the giant Yamaha CS-80.

“Invincible”: How were born live versions of the songs like "Lovely One" or "Working Day And Night" ?

Wolfer: Well, with an act like The Jacksons, the main thing is to sound as close to the record as possible, that’s what the fans expect. At the same time, there are lots of ways to incorporate a few twists, or surprises, or ways to extend a song. On "Lovely One," it was just a matter of getting that groove happening, and then there was a break added, and a breakdown to just drums and vocals, with call and response between Michael and the brothers. "Working Day and Night" has extended breakdowns to feature solos from Tito’s guitar and Randy’s congas, and culminates with a magic trick that involved Michael disappearing and then re-appearing on another part of the stage, with a costume change, and a deafeningly-loud pyrotechnic explosion. Michael loved that explosion, and always asked the pyro technician to make it louder. I do believe that we violated the fire codes every night with that thing.

“Invincible”: Who gave the instructions, guidelines, ideas in order to adapt songs for the stage?

Wolfer: It was a collaboration, but of course the brothers were in charge. The musicians were responsible for learning the songs from the records, and then we’d rehearse them. Once, Jackie asked me to play an obscure synth part on one of the songs, I don’t remember which one. I told him that if I did that part, I wouldn’t be able to play the main part. Jackie insisted I play it. When we were rehearsing it, Michael stopped the band and asked me why I wasn’t playing the main keyboard part. I told him that Jackie wanted me to play this other part. Michael told his brothers, "We need a meeting." They left to another room, and when they came back, Michael told me to go back to playing the main part. And that was always how it went, anytime there was a disagreement between them. They would always go discuss it in private, so they represented a united front. I respected that.

Jonathan “Sugarfoot” Moffett, drummer, The MJCast, Episode 061 (July 21, 2017)

But my favorite [tour]—when we did the "Triumph Tour" in '81 and the "Victory", but I would have to say the "Triumph Tour" of "The Jacksons" tour is my absolute favorite, because the way the stage was designed, with automatic pods that—I should say remote control pods, the lighting pods that would move like robotics and scissor arms, and I was on risers most of the tours, the second two tours I was on risers. I had a riser and they had 10k lights. I don't know [if] you know what those are—super movie-set lights, like ten thousand kilowatts—whatever it is, and it was underneath my riser, underneath the horns' riser, underneath the keyboard player's riser, and it'd shoot right into the audience and their faces are blinded by all—[laughs] Not that I can take pleasure in blinding the audience out, but—[laughs] Send 'em to the eye doctor and stuff like that. Personally, I'm not like that but—

MJCast (Q): They would leave with the sunburn.

Moffett: Yes, indeed. A tan at least, you know [laughs] But they wouldn't do that the whole show, it would be on occasionally on certain songs—they come on for a little bit, then they turn off, but to me that was the magnitude that Michael always talked about—bigger than life in the magnitude of having a lighting I had never seen my life, that big, and utilize them in that fashion in order to create the silhouettes that they wanted to have while it was on stage, was extraordinary to me with a person of a production mind and designer's mind. And our risers move front and forward and backwards and those three separate robotic pods and scissor arms with lights all over them, they would work like three independent robots, moving up and down and the pod panels with different directions independently. It was something like out of "Transformers", something out of Spielberg movie or one of those kind of movies, you know. It was just incredible production, they'd advanced in production over the other two tours "Victory" was the two of magnitude. It was phenomenal, stage—I can't remember the dimensions—240 feet by something else, 90 feet deep 240 feet across, something like that, we had 80-something trucks... The magnitude was phenomenal... That's the first time we start doing stadiums, and all those stadiums and the magnitude of that would be what it is. Costumes were amazing too, and once again, the show was amazing as well, but I think on that tour for me, the songs were a little bit too fast, and that's what they wanted—the brothers wanted—but I always thought they were too fast, so I like the tempo and the pace of the songs we did in the first three tours. It was more relaxed and comfortable. The only thing about the "Victory Tour" was the tempos and pace of the songs were a little bit fast for me. And even in the "Triumph Tour", it got a bit fast. In that live album, I thought they were too fast and I used to mention it, but they said that's how they wanted it, so... But out of the "Destiny" and "Off the Wall / Destiny" tours were more sensible tempos, but I like "Victory", because of the magnitude. It was on a scale that had never been done before, and the audience that we played to—we sold out six nights at Dodger Stadium in a few hours, and we did six full sellouts in dynasty, which was unheard of at the time, and it was a great tour, great tour. I just wish they had gone over Europe like they had intended, but so big they said they couldn't make money. To ship it over there would cost exorbitant amounts of money, and they couldn't make money on it, 'cause the venues in Europe aren't as big as the ones here, and to fit that down, they would have to scale it down, and they didn't want to compromise the production value of the show, so we wound up not going to Europe with it so... But of the tours that I did with the brothers, I'd say "Triumph" was it…

I'm kin to the lighting design of the '81 tour. Maybe because I like "Transformers" movies and all that stuff and the sci-fi stuff. It was like sci-fi stage, to me, and "Victory" had some of that too, but for some reason I just liked the concepts that they had on the "Triumph Tour", with being a smaller stage, but having that kind of dynamic.

"Black Beat" magazine (February 1984)

During their [“Triumph”] tour, the group's hour/plus set included a video, footage from their national debut on the "Ed Sullivan Show", Michael's onstage disappearing act, and thousands of dollars' worth of dramatic lighting. At the time, few black acts had presented such a visual set. Needless to say, those elements, coupled with The Jacksons' spellbinding showmanship, made the tour a huge success. But those were the most visible alterations of the Jacksons show. Another major addition was an expanded rhythm section which came together in the late seventies during the group's Las Vegas supper club days. Prior to that, the Jacksons used to perform unusually tight versions of their highly orchestrated records with the four-man section consisting of Tito, Jermaine, and two cousins on drums and piano. Today, their backing unit includes two keyboardists and full rhythm and horn sections.

But what about this year's ["Victory"] tour? Well, thanks to the Jacksons' (particularly Michael's) penchant for the element of surprise, any real details of the tour remain shrouded in mystery...

...You can also look forward to an array of special effects and lighting techniques that will rival most of what's already been done onstage. "It's great when you have the money to properly implement ideas, and they definitely have that", said one technician who worked on the group's last tour. "Michael is a real stickler for accuracy; if it looked like something wasn't going to come off right, we'd hear about it later. Whatever they've got up their sleeves for this ["Victory"] tour, it should be hot."

Lynn Goldsmith, photographer, “US Weekly” magazine (July 1984)

"Michael is enthusiastic, hardworking, and innocent at the same time", says Lynn Goldsmith, a photographer hired to take pictures on their 1981 tour. "He's very professional in approaching his work, unlike many other musicians I've photographed on the road. He places a lot of importance on the people he deals with, makes them feel they have his undivided attention", she adds. "It's one of his most endearing, inspiring qualities."

..."I think Michael had a dream that with his talent he'd be able to reach across the barriers that separate people", says photographer Lynn Goldsmith. "He's worked very hard, disciplined himself, and never stops pushing to achieve the goals he set for himself a long time ago. The fact that he's black and has achieved such universal appeal just attests to his uniqueness. Michael says it's magic, but the only magic is that he's one of the few human beings who knows what he wants and works very hard to get there."