Michael has always been a very sweet, humble person, since the first time they met 20 years ago, however he noticed that during these reharsals, he looked even more humble than usual, to the point that he actually felt Michael was incredibly insecure this time around, he saw him very vulnerable and everyone automatically tried to make him feel ok, everyone wanted to bring the spark in him that old Michael Jackson had. According to this person a combination of the 2005 trial and the long absence from the spotlight made Michael feel very insecure.
Of course those things affected him very much..You could see that the moment he left the court..A part of him went, It was painful to watch..Thank God he had kids because I just don't know what would have happened...Hmm I can only base my personal opinion on the film and to me he wasn't being over humble but on the other side it felt at times people were energising him more than they needed too.
-Michael did not get along at all with Randy Phillips. Everyone knew it, even Phillips knew it. Phillips had a very arrogant way of dealing with Michael, he was terrified that Michael would not get ready for the shows and AEG would lose a lot of money. According to this person, Phillips made it clear to several people that these concerts had to happen, no matter what, because he "had to personally convince everyone at AEG that this was a good deal" therefore his job was at risk if anything went wrong. On many occasions Phillips would go to Michael's house with Ortega and Travis Payne whenever Michael would not show up. At times they would come back with him, at times no. The official explanations to the crew was "Michael is not feeling well today," "Michael reharsed at home" or "Michael is reharsing with his vocal coach."
At first the crew believed it, but after a few weeks everyone started realizing something was up because even though Ortega and Payne would say everything was fine, it was obvious that they were very frustrated and nervous, and there were several heated discussions between Ortega, Phillips and Payne, but what exactly was being discussed was not clear since they always ade sure they would be far enough for anyone to hear. During these conversations one of them would always be on a cellphone, and then the would pass it aroud to themselves. This person believes they were talking to Michael.
Yup, the only moment michael is in contact with randy on film that I can see is when he is watching the rehersals and randy sits behind him in another row.Now obviously you can't base much on this but just by looking at it, you can see their is a non existent relationship to behonest.Randy knows michael is sitting there, mj prob knows randy came in , well he leans over to speak to mj and person next to him..Mj seems to ignore what he is saying unless it is not directed to him..Then he completely ingnore him and gets up to wave...
The way phillips talks about mj being late, not showing up on time..you can hear in his voice the actual anger..I personally believe phillips is covering up ALOT..and when he says 'okay' (as he does some many times) it is like he is trying to convince the people he is talking to that he is telling the truth..Seem's SOO FAKE!
-Michael, and this is shown in the movie, did not want to wear the ear monitors. As this person told me, "look at any footage from Michael in concerts in the past, and you will never find him wearing ear monitors, he did not like them, did not need them." According to him, Ortega got upset at one time at Michael, and in front of everyone told him "you have to undrstand that here you do not have an option, you have to wear them, this is going to be a closed arena, not an open stadium, and the sound is different." He said his tone was very nasty and everyone was shocked, especially since Michael looked very upset, but mostly hurt, by it.
Interestingly, yesterday Karen Faye wrote on her facebook that Michael always complained to her that he did not like ear monitors, and asked her to tell Ortega. According to her, she did and Ortega told her "well, he has to wear them!"
Hold on , What are ear monitors because doesn't michael ALWAYS wear them..Just look at wanna be starting something performances..Am I getting the two things mixed up..But if they are different to what he had in his ears when performing 'stlys' then ok..Because if you watch that clip, you can feel the tension..Sure michael is smiling but i bet his face is different when his back was turned..He and Kenny are on completely different wave lenghts in this clip and you can imagine before they have argued about the idea of wearing ear phones..And i can imagine kenny shouting becuse many times in the film i was shocked by kenny's tone to michael..He was sarcastic, unfriednly and seemed to say things as if he had just had a major argument beforehand off camera and now the cameras are on , he has to tone down the anger.Look at that whole stlys clip, you would never think kenny had worked on previous tours with him.Things had changed imo who knows why but people were definately GETTING FED UP AND ANGRY !..Michael was, Kenny was..You can see it many times in the film.But the truth to the anger is not in the film it happened at another time of the day...It is not just because michael is a perfectionsit and is getting a bit jumpy, suer that is a reason but there is much more bubbling underneath sufrace i think...Look at the moments Kenny is directing michael when there is no laughter, there is tension, separation and animosity almost...It seems as if there were either rushing so much because they were behind in schedule, conflict in michael turning up to rehersals, but the word pressure should be written across their faces!..You just feel they were against the clock.
-This is very interesting. According to this person, there was absolutely no way the concert was going to be ready for opening night on July 13th, and everyone kenw it. He asked me the following "when you saw the movie, you do realize right that they had to show the best scenes, the best performances, right ?" I said "yes, of course" to which he replied "so do you realize that what you have seen, most of it came from June 24th, 23rd and 22nd ? Based on what you saw, did it feel as if everything was going to be ready in 2 weeks ?" He said that Michael did not have his clothes ready, and that there was "pathetic" @#$%$ing around from different stylists that were trying to come up with ideas. But nothing was ready, no clothes, not even for the dancers. Michael wanted Michael Bush, but Travis Payne brought in that Zaldy guy, and AEG was behind Zaldy, rather than Michael Bush.
The opening number for the concert was only done on the computer, just like we saw in the movie. It was never reharsed, and the robot that Michael would have come out from was not ever ready. Also the closing of the show was just a concept.
He also confirmed that they never had a full reharsal. In other words, they never practiced the whole concert, it would always be a few songs on several days, but it was never put all together, therefore they were laso very concerned that once everything was gonna put together, it would take much longer that the 2 hours orgnally planned. This was going to be a huge problem for AEG and the O2 arena, because of an agreement they had with time. Also, Michael did not want to have long shows, for obvious reasons.
Also, they never reharsed with implementing the videos for Smooth, Thriller and Earth as we saw in the movie, those were edited in the movie, but they never reharsed using them, and it was still unclear how they would be used with the songs, especially Smooth Criminal.
I was always surprised they started with showing dates but then stopped and NEVER showed what dates the rehersals songs were on...Why? Maybe because people would figure out how far behind they were...Also so many rehersals were done at night..I mean it is PITCH BLACK when he performs jam, you get the impression it is soo late at night..Noone hardly there, dark, late..It unsettled me..Many things looked unprepeared..Regardless of them finishing new video bits for thriller, sc etc...not of it was implemented into the performances..And maybe there was no dress rehersals for a reson???
-For the most part, Michael looked well, however this person did unfortunately confirm to me that there were days that something was "wrong" and everybody knew it. He worked with Michael in the past and Michael never wore sunglasses while reharsing the dark like that, especially since Michael in the past would always want to see how the lights looked and for that reason did not like using shades. But he said "don't expect them to talk about it on tv of course, same with me, I won't and I can't." He said that at first everybody thought Michael was just eccentric and stuff, especially the dancers, they were just excited to see him, but he said for those who knew him for many years, including him, started realizing alarming signs.
However, he said, this just shows how vulnerable Michael was and he does not like how people associate this behavior with something negative. He said "he went through so much poor thing, I perfectly understand why this was happening." Oh and btw, he said that some of the crew members started checking TMZ with their IPHONES to find out whether or not Michael had seen Dr. Klein during the day. It would usually warn them on what to expect when he showed up.
Yup again he wore glasees ALOT.Even when they fell off he put them back on immediately..Although that was nothing new..But the eyes are the portal to the soul..I felt he wore them much more than I expected, in songs i never thought he would..Just represents the distance he felt from people and those who he should have been closer too.hmmm v sad imo..
-Michael had fun when performing, it appeared as if it was what he needed, however off stage Michael did no look happy, he rarely interacted with the crew, other than Karen Faye and at times with Michael Bush. According to this person, Michael stayed as far as he could from Ortega, Payne and Phillips off stage, because he always felt he was being chased by them to do more, perform more and give more. He said that the crew in general felt Ortega was being too demanding, especially when it was obvious nothing was ready on time. But they mostly felt Ortega was being pressured by Phillips, and that it was Phillips who was just going crazy because was in a position of losing everything with these shows.
Again i personally believe this..There was a void..Not a michael jackson freedom to his laugher and happiness..Something was missing..Sure people cracked his funny bone but it just seemd so unnatural.You can get the impression he performed and then left..totally separating himself from the others..You see it in the film!..Like the bit where he is showing keyboard player how to do twymmf..They don't interact like they talk alot..Mj seems to be going through the motions and telling others how it is meant to be rather than them already knowing..Maybe because alot of people had changed since hostory tour? So it was like doing it all over again..At times michael's face looked so unenthusiastic and as if he was saying goodbye or as if he knew he wouldn't make it to london.I thought that but never imagined it until i saw the film..There was just certain moments.
-The day after the news came out that some fans claimed Michael told them he did not want to do 50 concerts, everyone was instructed not to talk to anybody from the media, not to let in anyone who was not authorized to attend reahrsals, especially fans. When Michael came in that day, the atmosphere was tense and he did not look happy at all. Before working that day, Phillips and Ortega met with Michael and, interestingly, with his bodyguards. They spoke for about 20 minutes, but once again this person could not hear what was being said. However everyone had the feeling Michael indeed did not want to do 50 shows and believed Michael did talk to those fans.
hmm yup..I mean look these 'follower fan's..Why would they make it up..to gain what? I think maybe some don't want to believe it..Why make dancers NOT saying anything to press? Why all positive?
He also says he personally felt Michael sometimes did not show up because he knew things were moving slowly and sort of felt disappointed. He was a perfectionist, and when things were obviosuly not going in the right direction, he would get frustrated and sort of lose interest, instead of becoming upset at someone. Yet they made him believe it was him, that things were moving slowly because of him. But this person told me that Michael had nothing to do with all the technical stuff, like lightings, fireworks etc, therefore it was not his fault, but he was the easy target.
Michael did say ' that's why we reherase'..I didn't hear him say that when mistakes were made on dangerous rehersal..So it is like not only is he having to 'train' all those around him...He is also having to get himself togehter and see that all stage costuumes, ideas are finialised..So much presssure..He was SCAPEGOAT!!!!..''oo michael always lloses interest or dispondant.'' lets blame him..pssh
According to him, if the concerts were not goint to be ready, it would have been easier for AEG to blame it on Michael, than blame themsleves and their lack of timing skills.
So one theory is aeg always knew they were never going to be ready? Ok that is for the investigae thread but stranger things have happened
The interation between kenny and michael upset me the most..Here is a partnership that has been goign on for years..But you can tell in their voices , something had changed for whatever reason...The distance was there between michael and alot of people you see him talking too.It was like everyone was careful in what they said to him ( again for whatever reason)
