Michael Jackson

Sports Arena
Los Angeles, CA
January 26, 1989
KeithM Master via JEMS and Isodus

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-939 Stereo Microphone > Sony Walkman D6

JEMS 2018 Transfer: master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback >
Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 > iZotope RX6 and Ozone 8 mastering > Audacity
> FLAC

01 Intro
02 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
03 Heartbreak Hotel
04 Another Part Of Me
05 Human Nature
06 Smooth Criminal
07 I Just Can't Stop Loving You
08 She's Out Of My Life
09 Jackson 5 Medley
10 Rock With You
11 Thriller Intro
12 Thriller
13 Bad Groove Interlude
14 Workin' Day and Night
15 Beat It
16 Interlude
17 Billie Jean
18 Bad Intro
19 Bad
20 The Way You Make Me Feel
21 Man In The Mirror

Runtime: 2:10:05

Introduction To The KeithM Masters

JEMS is pleased to present the outstanding work of KeithM, best known for his U2
master recordings circa 1987.

KeithM recorded hundreds of concerts in, around and beyond Southern California
starting in the early �80s, using a Sony ECM-939 stereo microphone and Walkman D6.
Most of his recordings range from very good to excellent and offer a striking
balance in that they capture the extraordinary excitement of the crowd, but little
up-close chatter or talking.

While U2 was KeithM�s primary band, he recorded many other artists, especially
those who played the San Diego area. On occasion for major concerts, KeithM would
drive up to Los Angeles, as is the case with this audience master recording of
Michael Jackson.

This show is the second to last of the Bad tour, the fourth night of five. Audience
tapes of the tour are relatively scarce, and there are fewer still known master
recordings, making this somewhat special.

KeithM taped at the LA Sports Arena many times before and knew what he was doing.
The first 45 mins of the show sounds very nice, though it should be said that this
recording is an exception compared to most KeithM masters in that there is a lot of
crowd noise and yelling near the microphone. That may explain why the sound shifts
after 45 minutes, when KeithM seems to change his spot in the venue or his
microphone position. The sound quality is still good, though not quite as sharp as
when the recording began.

Through mastering I have attempted make the show sound as consistent as possible.
Changes or not, this is better than most circulating MJ audience recordings and a
very entertaining listen. Samples provided.

For help in completing the torrent, we turned to Isodus, who has posted some of the
better Jackson audio on DIME. He agreed to prep the show on JEMS behalf and add his
expert opinion in the notes.

I�d like to express my personal gratitude to KeithM for loaning us his precious
master tapes and allowing us to share his work. He enjoys reading your comments so
please keep them coming. Special thanks to Isodus for handling the final production
and posting.

BK for JEMS

Isodus Notes:

This is show 122 out of 123 of the Bad Tour, which started in September 1987 and
ended the day after this show. The tour was originally supposed to end on Christmas
1988 in Tokyo, but as Michael fell ill in November 1988 he had to cancel a handful
of L.A. dates that month and reschedule them to January 1989. Greg Phillinganes was
replaced as the musical director for these January 1989 shows because of a prior
commitment he had to go on tour with Eric Clapton and Phil Collins the same month.

Because of Greg not being in these shows, there are some minor musical changes. A
notable change is the band playing the song Another Part Of Me in a lower key.
However, there's a common misconception that MJ started performing the lower key
version of Another Part Of Me in the 1989 LA shows, when in fact he actually began
performing it at some point during the December 1988 Tokyo gigs when Greg was still
in the band. You can hear the lower key version of the song in the amateur video of
the 12/26 Tokyo Dome show, yet in the 12/9 Tokyo Dome Lounis recording the band is
still playing it in the normal key.

This is the third time that a recording of a Los Angeles 1989 show has come out.
There's an excellent sounding recording of the January 27 show that came out in
2009, and another show that's misdated as being from November 1988 but it's
actually one of the January 1989 shows, though the sound on that one is horrid and
unlistenable. One interesting thing to note is that in all three shows Berry Gordy
is in the audience and MJ introduces him before the J5 Medley.

The performance is about the same as the 1/27 show, not up there with the summer
1988 shows which were the peak of the tour in terms of quality of the performance.
MJ's voice is a little rough here and there, especially during the first half of
the show where he sounds like he's out of breath on quite a few lines.