Michael Jackson History tour live in Seoul, Korea

Michael Jackson performed in Seoul (at the Chamsil Olympic Stadium), the capital of South Korea on October 13, 1996, on the Asian leg of his History World Tour. This was a great concerts and it was very eventful. We are going to review the concert and look closely at some of the cool parts of the show! Today we’ll look at the show from “Scream” through to “The way you make me feel”, as I’m going to divide this review into three parts, as this was such a long show, which would later be reduced for the latter part of the tour.

First Michael Jackson History Tour commercial release

This concert is unique on the History tour because it was the only show on the tour that was COMMERCIALLY released. An official VHS was released in South Korea and it was also broadcast locally. The official release was very hard to get. The only other official commercial release was the earlier “Dangerous Tour in Bucharest” and no other Michael Jackson live concerts were released. The VHS literally had no behind the scene features or anything in addition to the actual recorded broadcast version. It did have song titles between the songs and at the beginning of the songs. It’s a pity that more of the tour wasn’t released but I am glad that the first leg was released, as in my opinion this was the superior leg of the tour.

History release VHS sound quality

The VHS official release DID have HI-FI STEREO sound. This was amazing because this is the best sound to a Michael Jackson concert that you were ever going to get. The History tour in Munich was broadcast in HI DEFINITION but if you remember, very very few people had Hi Def televisions and recording equipment in 1996 – 1997. We recorded all the concerts live on Mini Disc (now extinct!). The Munich show sound quality was very good but the Seoul concerts official release’s sound quality was amazing. In fact it transformed the concert. The musical layers that are usually not heard or are not available (say on youtube) are clear. For example, Brad Buxer plays the Keyboards on “The way you make me feel”, he plays the Rhodes and it is a prominent part of the song. This transforms the experience.

Jennifer Batten didn’t perform at this concert

You might think to yourself “Jennifer Batten looks different”, during this concert! That’s because under the massive white wig and the funny face painting and mask that is guitarist Greg Howe. I don’t know the reason why she didn’t attend, maybe she was ill, maybe she was busy in Japan (she is a successful artist in her own right there). Jennifer was Michael’s guitarist, basically from day 1 and became famous for her playing as well as massive white wig during “Beat it”, “working day and night” solo, as well as later on the History tour for her solo’s during “D.S” and “They don’t care about us”. Consequently, the guitars sound very different in this concert. I think that he did a very good job indeed. Nobody can replace the amazing Jennifer Batten but I have to say, he was very VERY good.

Michael seemed preoccupied

This concert was quite eventful and full of quite a few mistakes, especially dance wise. In fact Michael was obviously preoccupied and you can see if you look closely he was not focusing at the beginning of the show.

Scream

The director missed the explosive entrance but Michael always know’s how to open a show. If you notice, not only does Michael seem preoccupied, his side moonwalks look very slow, almost like he is finding it hard or the floor isn’t polished properly (which does vary from show to show) BUT he forgot to remove silver scarf, from the “spaceman” costume. He first removes his breast plate, then turns and removes his helmet, then turns and throws his helmets, then his scarf and then starts with “Scream!”. This time it remains on.

They Don’t care about us

During the interlude between “Scream” and “They Don’t care about us”, Michael performs a military cadence with his troops/dancers. During this concert he clearly missed the first beat. In fact he looks furious that he missed it. Any dancer knows that this can happen but it really looks like he is thinking about something else and totally preoccupied. He also stops marching toward the end of the cadence waiting for the end (which was unusual), as well as doesn’t give his “1,2,3,4″ … he seems unsure this time. He also attempts to start the first move early as well, before correcting himself and marching on, unfortunately, starting off on the wrong leg which means that he missed the down beat for the actual start of the song, which means he had to correct his mistake again. He is clearly furious at this point. He goes very red indeed and his face shows it. This is very unusual for Michael Jackson, he never usually makes mistakes like this. It’s unfortunate that this was the ONLY officially broadcast show of the tour!

After this point, he is back on form. I always find it odd that during the interlude of “They don’t care about is” into “History” the director NEVER shows the flags of the local countries – it would make sense to show what is actually happening on stage once in a while . “In the closet” was performed as normal (note the “Dangerous” choreography in the background – Michael actually danced this in Moscow on the tour, but that’s for another article) and you can see him throw his scarf away (with his gloves). I like this because instead of handing them to Michael Bush his costume designer he just throws them on the floor for him to pick up … this always makes me laugh, but it’s all part of the show! (the backing dancer should not be staring at Michael at this point, he should be looking into the crowd and waiting for his cue musically not visually from Michael, it is distracting… see video)

Wanna be staring something

Michael was back on form from this point. I would say that vocally, he was not – his voice was weak and strained on this particular concert which is why it’s odd that this was the only one commercially released (although it is a small territory). Great dancing on the second part of this song! THE SNAPS! When they are chanting you will hear the “CLAPS”, very loud. I don’t know why they dropped this for later shows, as I think it is integral to the song, a pity. A really solid performance.

Stranger in Moscow

Beautiful performance – musically amazing. I think that during these early parts of the show they really had this song perfect. More lower sounds, different keyboard sounds … amazing an beautiful and better than the original if you ask me (and Molly Meldrum). Well done Brad Buxer and band!

Smooth Criminal

There was a slight delay in the large white sheet coming up for this song (although, it did come up, in Moscow during the tour, it didn’t at all!), you can also see that the song has much more dancers than the second leg of the tour as well as an additional vocalist. I think that this is a good thing and that the show suffered later because of the cuts. A very solid performance as usual! (I do wish they’d have stuck with TACO or one of the dancers to come out with the dynamite, just before the lean – I think that using the backing singer is a nit to slow and just less exciting than using a dancer (see Bucharest concert!)

You are not alone

Great performance. I’m always impressed with the far east and the fans. They are very respectful, so whenever they bring a girl up on stage, they don’t attack Michael or go crazy. This particular girl is very calm. When Wayne comes to get her she just calmly walks off – unlike Europe!

The way you make me feel

Great performance with Michael and the girl. Michael play’s around and follows the girl off stage, which is quite funny when you think about it! I think its such a pity that Michael dropped this from his set on the second leg of the tour. This is a classic performance and a standard! As I said earlier in the post, you can really hear the sounds and Brad Buxer in this version – musically it was great!

We will continue with our look at the History Tour in Korea tomorrow!

By Anthony King (c)

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Related articles

MICHAEL JACKSON HISTORY TOUR LIVE IN SEOUL, KOREA Part 2
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MICHAEL JACKSON AND FRIENDS 1999 CHARITY CONCERTS
MICHAEL JACKSON’S HISTORY WORLD TOUR 1996
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DANGEROUS WORLD TOUR 1992
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