The day the Moonwalker met his match

WORLD Beat

Tributes have been pouring into every media outlet on the planet celebrating Michael Jackson's life and career, following the music icon's recent death. Like everyone else, I was shocked by the news, as Jackson was only 50 years old and on the cusp of another comeback.

The superstar accepts flowers from Jack.

Cast your mind back to August 1993, when 'Jacko Fever' hit Bangkok. The legendary King of Pop arrived on the Far Eastern leg of his Dangerous tour, along with two jumbo jets, a freighter, 168 speakers, more than 1,000 lights and 20 kilometres of cables. And a cast of what seemed like thousands.

Before the scheduled concerts at the National Stadium, images of the singer began to proliferate across the city. Parliament debated the event and several politicians expressed concerns that Jackson represented a cultural invasion that would dissipate local culture.

Undeterred, Jackson cast off his much-reported reclusive tendencies and started popping up all over the place. I was assigned to cover the event for the Japan Times and went on several wild goose chases - donating to charities, holding babies in bookstores and buying magazines that featured stories on, er, Michael Jackson.

At the time, I was working part-time as a consultant world music buyer at Tower Records Siam Square store. The store was closed for Jackson to do some music shopping and my son, Jack, was chosen to present a bouquet of flowers to the singer.

Now when stars go shopping, protocol will be involved. And, sure enough, security was set at 10 metres (store staff behind them), with personal assistants at five metres from Michael and his entourage of two children, plus young Jack.

Unbeknown to me, Jack had started passing posters, given to him by store staff, to Michael for him to autograph. He got very busy, even tugging the Great One's shirt to get his attention. After about 10 posters, Jackson uttered the ominous words: "Who is this kid's father?" and that, dear readers, is how I was summoned to account for a hyperactive five-year-old to the King of Pop.

We had a short chat and shook hands. Yes, he did have white skin and, no, I didn't see his face. He wore a black mask. I did notice that he moved very easily and gracefully, like the dancer he was.

Michael Jackson was never a favourite singer for me when I was a kid. His voice just never had the gravitas of the Southern soul singers. But what I did like, right from the first time I saw him on TV bopping with the Jackson 5, was his dancing. Like his mentor James Brown, he was the focus of the band, a whirling dervish who could sing.

Jackson signs autograph after autograph for the author’s enterprising son while in Bangkok.

In 1989, I interviewed Jeffrey Daniel in Tokyo while he was teaching the then top Japanese idol band, Shonen-tai how to dance "like Michael Jackson".

Daniel, who had several hits with the trio Shalamar (with Jody Watley and Howard Hewitt) in the early 1980s, was a pioneer of breakdancing in Los Angeles and brought the form to the UK and popularised it under his dancing moniker, 'Colonel Pop' ('body pop' was one of the first terms used for the new street dancing in LA).

The famous Jackson 'moonwalk' began, so Daniel told me, as the 'backslide' and it was the latter who showed Jackson the basic technique. Daniel says that the inspiration for the move was probably the great mime artists Marcel Marceau.

What impressed Daniel, who worked on the Bad music video and the Moonwalker movie, about Jackson's approach to dancing was that he was "the epitome of perfectionism. He won't go into the rehearsal studio until he's got everything down perfect."

That perfectionism was evident in Jackson's first show at the National Stadium. He danced his way through a 17-song set that included hits from his Thriller, Bad and Dangerous albums, as well as a medley of Jackson 5 hits such as ABC. Interestingly, the Dangerous album includes one track called Jam which would describe the state of traffic around Siam Square at the time. His dancing was outstanding, though, despite the heat and humidity.

When I first saw a video by the Korean megastar Rain, I was struck by how many of Jackson's moves had been absorbed K-Pop. Look at any video from a J-Pop or K-Pop boy band and you'll see his influence in the choreography. Indeed, you can also hear his influence in the music of a lot of male boy band/pop singers from Japan and Korea.

I did try to influence Jackson's musical direction when he came into Tower Records.

After my son had been busted for the poster signing scam, I got him to surreptitiously sneak in some African albums from Papa Wemba, Franco and Salif Keita into Jackson's carrier bags.

I knew it wouldn't dent his bill - he spent nearly US$7,000 (239,000 baht) on his visit - and I was hoping that he might try something different.

Maybe in his store of unreleased songs, there are some with an African tinge that came from his visit to Bangkok.

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