| Author | Message | ||
  J5 Collector (j5_collector) 1-Arriviste Username: j5_collector Post Number: 4 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.190.127.252 |
I'd love to hear from anyone who ever attended an early Jackson 5 concert, from 1968-75. When and where did you attend one? How old were you? What was the experience like, what songs did they sing, what was memorable about the concert, etc. I'm looking forward to reading your memories of J5 concerts. | ||
LadyMystique (ladymystique) 1-Arriviste Username: ladymystique Post Number: 9 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 216.222.243.107 |
I didn't attend one, but my cousins (aged at the time 12-18) did...one of them told me that just being there was like being in a club because almost everyone there were their age. They sang many of their hits (my cousins attended almost every date in the east coast available!) and I think one of my cousins fainted when Jermaine was singing DADDY'S HOME. They still have their tour books, buttons, etc. of the concerts! | ||
Linda Di. (linda_di_fsg) 1-Arriviste Username: linda_di_fsg Post Number: 3 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 66.67.193.82 |
I saw the Jackson 5 in 1975 in Rochester, NY. I brought my stepdaughter, who was 14 at the time. She begged to go to the front of the general admission area and stupidly, we did. The crush of people was frightening and I still wonder how we made it out of there. The best was the Victory tour. The night before the tickets went on sale, a group of us spent the night on the steps of The House of Guitars, which is a music/record store that has a Ticketmaster (Ticketron at the time) outlet. It was not so much that we were big Jackson fans, it was just a crazy and fun thing to do. The concert itself was great. We tailgated in the parking lot of Rich Stadium in Buffalo before the show. It was more of an event than a concert. It was a lot of fun, friends, food, and music. Ya couldn't ask for much more! | ||
Linda Di. (linda_di_fsg) 1-Arriviste Username: linda_di_fsg Post Number: 4 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 66.67.193.82 |
I also saw their performance live at Motown 25. I attended the party afterward at the plaza across the street from the Pasadena Civic Center. I saw Michael up close. He had just gotten off the escalator and was surrounded by a group of women -- I believe they were relatives of his. All I can ever remember from the moment I saw him is how frightened he looked. His eyes said he wanted to be anywhere but where he was at that moment. And the women surrounding him seemed protective of him. I wonder if he even realized that about an hour or two earlier was the start of his unbelievable meteoric rise -- it was almost surreal. | ||
LadyMystique (ladymystique) 2-Debutant Username: ladymystique Post Number: 19 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 216.222.243.107 |
Hey I missed the VICTORY tour...they wanted too much for the tickets!  | ||
Arcadia (arcadia) 1-Arriviste Username: arcadia Post Number: 6 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 4.237.47.56 |
Yes. I saw them at the Michigan State Fair in 1970 (not sure of the exact date, but it was during the Labor Day holiday). I was 16 at the time. I also remember seeing Diana Ross walking hand-in-hand with her future husband, Robert Ellis Silberstein. The J-5 performed on a platform/stage. There were about three shows on a very hot September day (2, 5, 7 PM). My mother took us to the afternoon show and it was not that crowded. So we were able to get very close to the stage! I remember Michael Jackson actually STOPPING the show because we were screaming at the top of our lungs! We calmed down and he finished the song. He was dynamic even then. Yes, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon were there, but clearly, Michael was the star. The audience LOVED him! | ||
J5 Collector (j5_collector) 1-Arriviste Username: j5_collector Post Number: 6 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.190.127.252 |
Wow! Diana Ross walking around at the Michigan State Fair with her fiance??? I wonder if he was able to win her one of those giant teddy bears! | ||
Greg C. (greg_c) 1-Arriviste Username: greg_c Post Number: 2 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 165.247.46.24 |
Wow! I saw the Jackson 5ive everytime they'd come to Detroit. During that period they'd always play the Olympia Stadium on Grand River & McGraw. So odd, it's since been torn down. I recall seeing the Jackson 5ive at the Michigan State Fair in the Fall of 1971. I was a junior in high schiool. They'd played the Olympia that Summer in July and I was elated that they had swung back through the Detroit area again. Yvonne Fair was the warm-up act. Her act was kind of adult and raunchy (a lot of bumping and grinding) and she came across really bawdy, but the crowd loved her. The Jackson 5ive were immaculate. "Maybe Tomorrow" was the current album and the show was heavy on material from that release. I recall Jermaine doing "She's Good" and "I Found That Girl" and the girls were fainting and swooning all over the place. It was hilarious! Even then they had such showmanship. Marlon, Jackie, and Michael executed such precision in their routines, and Tito and Jermaine were doing their thing as well. I had never seen a young act so polished and professional and Mike worked that stage! I'm so glad I had the experience of seeing them perform in those days. | ||
J5 Collector (j5_collector) 1-Arriviste Username: j5_collector Post Number: 9 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.190.127.252 |
I saw the Jackson 5 perform at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines back in 1971. They did two shows back to back. Their dance moves were spectacular. The songs that stand out in my memory were Michael singing "Yesterday" and Jermaine singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Their opening act was The Commodores. The other thing I remember is that you could see Joe Jackson, standing in the wings, arms crossed and glaring the whole time. He looked so mean! My sister-in-law covered the concert for the local newspaper. She said the J5 were really hard to interview because they were so quiet, and that Joe seemed so scary, she couldn't wait to get out of there. | ||
LadyMystique (ladymystique) 2-Debutant Username: ladymystique Post Number: 24 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 216.222.243.117 |
If I had my daddy standing in the wings like that, I'd be polished and professional too! | ||
John Barry Sheffield (jaybs) 2-Debutant Username: jaybs Post Number: 12 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 195.92.168.178 |
I saw the Jackson Five first Tour to the UK at the then famous LIVERPOOL EMPIRE, all the major Motown Artists played the Empire! now sadly Arena have replaced it as a major concert venue. At the time I was five years older than Michael and he was just mind blowing as well as the rest of The Brothers. I then went onto work in Radio when I left school, and I remember speaking with Jemraine on his first Radio Promotional Tour as a solo artist. Then when I finished being a Radio DJ< I moved into Marketing - and we promoted the Michael Jackson Concert - Michael had filled Wembley Stadium, but our Concert was the last date at AINTREE RACECOURSE (famous course for The Grand National) in Liverpool with an attendance of 98,000 what an event and it took some planning. Motown has been my Life and still is! Regards John | ||
Weldon A. Mc Dougal III (weldon) 2-Debutant Username: weldon Post Number: 19 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.80.162.3 |
Hi J5 Collector, this is for you, I have seen so many J5 concerts, I can't remember them all, Here they are in Chicago at operation push, singing "I Want You Back" ENJOY!!!!  | ||
Weldon A. Mc Dougal III (weldon) 2-Debutant Username: weldon Post Number: 20 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.80.162.3 |
here's another, J5 Collector, here they are years leater, doing a show case at CBS records,  | ||
Phil (phil) 2-Debutant Username: phil Post Number: 18 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 212.129.36.193 |
Great pictures, Weldon ! And, don't you have some of Joe, "standing in the wings" ? :o) | ||
J5 Collector (j5_collector) 1-Arriviste Username: j5_collector Post Number: 10 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.190.127.252 |
Thanks so much for the photos, Weldon! I have that Chicago performance on video from the "Save the Children" film. They also performed "I Wanna Be Where You Are." Michael's solos always sounded better live with his brothers' backing vocals, IMHO. I've read (I think in Jet magazine) that a year earlier at the Operation PUSH concert in Chicago, the J5 did a duet with The Temptations performing "Get Ready." I'd love to have seen that! As I recall, in your book "The Michael Jackson Scrapbook," you have a photo of the J5 backstage with The Temptations from this time. There's also a photo of the Five with the event's organizer, Jesse Jackson. Great stuff! | ||
J5 Collector (j5_collector) 2-Debutant Username: j5_collector Post Number: 11 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.190.127.252 |
Here's a photo taken by a fan at a June 19, 1970, performance at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. I If you look closely, you can see Joe in the background, along with Bill Bray and fan club president Steve Manning. Joe looks pretty happy here.  | ||
dvdmike (dvdmike) 2-Debutant Username: dvdmike Post Number: 15 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.253.217.209 |
Three times. In 1968 at the old Regal Theatre on 47th & South Parkway (now King Drive), at the Black Expo at the International Ampitheater in Chicago in 1972, and in 1973 at West Side High School in Gary, Indiana. Don Cornelius was the MC and I believe The Commodores were the opening act. If you were a guy, your best bet was not to wear a new shirt or something that you really cared about, because those psycho-frenzied teenaged girls would just rip it off of you. Learned my lesson after the first time. Back in those days (the early '70s), $20.00 was a lot of money for a teenager like me to spend on a shirt. | ||
Dennis Coffey (dennis_coffey) 1-Arriviste Username: dennis_coffey Post Number: 2 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 152.163.252.166 |
Hello J5 Collector. I played guitar for the J5 in a concert in LA in about 1974. Their guitar player left the band during the rehearsal and the Motown contractor called me to back them up. The rehearsal was over so I had to play their entire show and read the charts right on the gig. It was a very interesting but enjoyable experience. | ||
LadyMystique (ladymystique) 3-Pundit Username: ladymystique Post Number: 62 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 216.222.243.117 |
dvdmike...I can imagine...one of my cousins that I mentioned broke her brand spanking new shoe heel at a J5 concert trying to catch her sister fainting after Jermaine sang. She wore skips after that! LOL Dennis...that has got to be interesting...I don't which is harder, remembering what you rehearsed or reading the charts! | ||
Don (don) 1-Arriviste Username: don Post Number: 10 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 68.77.36.51 |
I was supposed to have went to their Gary, In, concert that was aired on television on ABC or CBS? I missed Push's Black Expo and the Ampertheater shows unfortunately. | ||
Ritchie (ritchie) 2-Debutant Username: ritchie Post Number: 27 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 62.254.0.32 |
I saw the J5 on November 10th, 1972 at the circus in Manchester. Well, it was the local venue for the circus, and the boys played in what was at other times the ring! It was rather an odd experience, feeling like I was the oldest member of the audience (at the ripe old age of 18!) as the crowd was about 99% screaming, fainting teenyboppers. I do remember being a little disappointed that we could hear very little of the music - with a couple of thousand girls screeching in each ear, the music just didn't stand much of a chance... I also remember that they introduced (six-year-old?) Randy as "the new member" and that they looked good onstage, even if I had virtually no idea at all what sound they were making! In my diary, I wrote: "Well scrubbed and polished. Probably Motown's best asset these days." | ||
LadyMystique (ladymystique) 3-Pundit Username: ladymystique Post Number: 66 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 216.222.243.117 |
Yeah my cousins did mention that there were alot of screaming, but they were guilty of it also! In fact, they said that although they did see them, they were further back from the stage because the girls would be trying to pull them off of the stage! | ||
jrlo (jrlo) 1-Arriviste Username: jrlo Post Number: 9 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 24.130.218.105 |
I may have mentioned this story before, so if I sound like a broken record....sorry.LOL I saw the J-5 for the first time in 1973 or 74, when they were playing Madison Square Garden in NYC. The opening acts were MDLT Willis, a group of sisters who were "discovered" and managed by pappa joe. He had a unsucessful record label at the time (Ivory Tower). They were well...ok...most people went to the rest room and to get snacks while they were on. The main supporting act was the Ohio Players. I went with my mother, my sister and her husband then boyfriend. I was 13 or 14. I LOVED Michael and his brothers, My sister and her hubby/bf HATED the j-5, and only tagged along to see the Ohio Players. Their main song was Skin Tight...and the crowd loved them. All I wanted was to see Michael! FINALLY...the J-5 came out and was in such shock I just stood there with my mouth open...I didn't move..didn't speak...didn't dance...didn't run to the front like the other girls did. Of course when the show was over..my sister laughed at me!!! She ran into a friend from her college in the lobby..and he said..."MAN! The Ohio Players had it going on...the J5...well yeah they were CUTE.." My sister agreed and just laughed...I wanted to slap them both!! I saw the "Jacksons" years later when they had the victory tour. Again it was at the Garden. I was with coworkers..and no I didn't sit there with my mouth open. We had nose bleed seats(courtesy if my boss...somewhat since we had to STILL pay him for the tickets)...so it wouldn't have mattered if we got up!!! This time..when Jermaine did his solo, people got up to go to the bathroom...they wanted to see Michael! This was in 1984. Whew! Well those were my J5 concert memories. In my garage I think I still have my pictures and program from the first one! | ||
Lady Mystique (ladymystique) 4-Laureate Username: ladymystique Post Number: 92 Registered: 4-2004 Posted From: 216.222.243.117 |
jrlo...those were great memories! |
