I acquired On The Road With Michael! by Mark Bego forty years ago when it was first published, yet never bothered to read it. I certainly could have finished it over a weekend. Instead, I put it on my bookshelf, then packed it away into a box, only to rediscover it decades later.
Bego, who also wrote Julian Lennon! is a professional entertainment journalist and knows how to tell a good story. I raced through this book in three days. He told the story behind the organization–yet mainly disorganization–that went into the Jacksons’ 1984 Victory Tour. The mail-order ticket debacle was abandoned for in-person ticket sales, and then even while the tour was already on the road, some cities were cancelled, postponed and new ones announced with barely a week’s notice.
Bego attended the first thirty concerts of the tour, and he managed to make each concert report sound like a brand new story. Jackson fans would appreciate knowing how the show evolved, as songs were dropped and new ones introduced in their place. Onstage banter and rehearsed skits were abandoned as they didn’t seem to capture the interest of the audience or garner positive media coverage. I fully enjoyed the concert-by-concert commentary. Bego’s final concert was in Washington, D.C., just two stops before the tour headed to Toronto.
I attended the third Toronto show on October 7, 1984. I used to interview singers and groups for the Toronto Star from 1983-1988 and used my contacts with record company execs to secure two free tickets to the concert. I took my mother. They sold for the then exorbitant price of $40 each ($2.50 was added on to the $37.50 price as a service charge.)
Whitney Houston, who had yet to become an international superstar, was given a brief mention. She was introduced as “Dionne Warwick’s niece” who “demonstrated her vocal skills” at a post-concert party in New York City.
The book was filled with 64 pages of photos from the tour and from all the events leading up to it and the parties during. Forty years ago we could only expect black-and-white photos, and low-quality ones at that. If this book was published today no doubt they would be in full colour and in dazzling clarity.
