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The Beginning:Michael Jackson was in born August 29th, 1958 in Gary, Indiana (USA), as the seventhof nine children born to Joseph and Katherine Jackson. Katherine worked part-time ina local department store. Joseph was a steel-mill worker, but had always dreamed of having a musical career. Joseph and his band, The Falcons, frequently rehearsed inthe living-room of the four-room house on Jackson Street in Gary. As the childrengrew older, Joseph and Katherine became increasingly uneasy with the dangers of allowing their children to run the streets of Gary. They were very strict parents anddid not allow the kids to play with other neighbourhood kids. But they encouragedthem to be interested in music as a pastime. The four older boys (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon) began to imitate their father’s singing. Michael joined the group atthe age of five and then he had his first solo at a school program at the age of six.Even then, he possessed a voice that brought his teachers to tears. The Jackson 5performed in local clubs and shopping malls and talent shows. Eventually, they cameto the attention of Berry Gordy, the famous founder of the Motown “Sound“. Berryrecognised the groups potential and Michael Jackson became a professionalentertainer. He was nine years old. During their tenure with Motown Records, the Jackson 5 recorded and released the following albums:« 1970: Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5« 1970: ABC 24994dfm45eqr2e« 1970: Third Album« 1971: Maybe Tomorrow« 1972: Going Back To Indiana« 1972: Looking Through The Windows fq994d4245eqqr« 1972: Greatest Hits (Sampler)« 1973: Skywriter« 1974: Dancing Machine« 1974: Get It Together« 1975: Moving Violation« 1976: The Best of … (Sampler)« 1976: Joyful Jukebox Music« 1979: Jackson Five (Sampler)Michael Jackson at Motown Records:In addition to recording with his brothers, Michael recorded the following solo albumswith Motown Records:« 1972: Got To Be There

« 1972: Ben« 1973: Music And Me« 1975: Forever Michael The Jacksons:In 1976, the Jackson 5 left Motown Records, because, in Michael’s words, “We didn’tlike the way we were being recorded.“ Though 16-year-old Michael had met withBerry Gordy to request approval to write and produce their own music, Berry refusedto allow the Jacksons this freedom. Eventually, the brothers signed with EPICRecords. However, Jermaine remained with Motown. He was replaced by Michael’syoungest brother, Randy, both on stage and in the recording studio. The Jacksons’first two EPIC releases were produced by Gamble and Huff, except for two trackseach, which were written and produced by the Jacksons. They are:« 1976: Jacksons« 1977: Goin’ PlacesAll the tracks on these albums were written and produced by The Jacksons:« 1978: Destiny« 1980: Triumph« 1981: Live« 1984: Victory« 1989: 2300 Jackson StreetMichael Jackson at EPIC Records:In 1979, Michael started as the Scarecrow in „The Wiz“ with Diana Ross. During thefilming, he renewed his old acquaintanceship with Quincy Jones. Later, they would join forces to make musical history repeatedly. With Quincy as producer, Michaelrecorded:« 1979: Off The Wall« 1982: Thriller« 1987: BAD The collaboration between Michael and Quincy broke so many records, that it wouldbe too difficult to list them all. Suffice it to say that with Quincy, Michael rose to hispresent status as “The King of Pop“. Thriller is the best-selling album in the history of recorded music. It won an unheard-of seven Grammy Awards and many internationalawards and is still selling well over one million copies per year, 16 years after itsrelease. The latest figures we have seen list Thriller at over 50 million units soldworld-wide. The last figures of BAD were around 30 million, so the album Dangerousmust have recently beaten that! BAD has held the top two spot in world-wide salesfor several years. However, it’s our understanding that it has very recently been

surpassed by: Dangerous, released 1991, was Michael’s fourth solo release with EPICRecords, giving Michael Jackson the top three spots in world-wide sales in the historyof recorded music. Needless to say, that no other artist, male, female or group, hasconsistently maintained such a long-standing level of excellence. Then, in 1995, Michael released the sampler “HIStory“, which shows his story inmusic. It is sold as well as Dangerous or even better. In 1996, Michael started alsothe HIStory world tour. During that tour, on May 14th in 1997, he released the remix-album “Blood on the Dancefloor“ which contains four new songs. Some of thesesongs are also played on the HIStory world tour. The tour in 1992:On June 19th the scenery was transported from Los Angeles to Rotterdam with twoBoeing 747. In Rotterdam were 65 38t-trucks ready to bring the scenery to Munich. Ittook three days to put the components for the 77x27 metres scenery together. Alsowere 18 hours necessary to install the light and sound technic for all the specialeffects. After the concerts, they usually needed three days to deinstall the scenery.Including two video-screens, Michael Jackson used up so much current, so that theyhad to use two extra generators (with these, a town with a population of 30,000could be provided easily!).On June 27th, the tour began in Munich, Olympiastadium. Michael sang his songs inthe presence of 70,000 fans. At the end of the show, he left the stadium with the aidof a rocket belt, destination galaxy.During that tour, was the children-sex-matter. Michael paid $20 million hush-moneyto the parents of the boy. The HIStory world tour:It took as much pains as the Dangerous-tour in 1992. To install the scenery, thetechnical engineers needed four or five days. Because Michael didn’t want such longbreaks between two concerts, they used three sceneries which were looking all thesame. To transport the scenery which had a weight of 300t, it took two planes and 15trucks. The towers of the loud-speakers were about 12 metres wide and 20 metreshigh. They also needed at least 100 metres of cables. That sounds if that’s very big,but if you see that stage in reality, it does not look very big. There were also 700spotlight which took, with the phonetic systems, about 750,000 watt, that is enoughfor a city with 80,000 inhabitants for one evening. On the left and on the right of scene were installed two video-screens. The two other screens were in the middle of the scenery. These two could move together to one big screen. The tour began in September 1996 in Prag. In the EU, the tour started on May 10th inMonte Carlo. The last concert in Germany was on August 10th in Hockenheim at theHockenheimring, where the car races take place. On his 39th birthday, Michael gavea concert in Denmark. The last concert was in South Africa, in Johannesburg in theend of October. The tour took one and a half years and was the biggest tourgenerally.Family affairs:On May 16th in 1994, Michael married Lisa-Marie Presley, the daughter of “The Kingof Rock’n’Roll“ Elvis Presley, in La Vega, Dominican Republic. In August ’94, Michaeland Lisa went to Budapest where they gave toys, whose value was about $20,000, to

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