Putting the Music Back into Michael Jackson Studies

While news of Michael Jackson's death sent shockwaves around the world, it was particularly keenly felt in London, the city that was to have been the site of his much-hyped, and rapidly sold out, " This Is It " comeback concert series. 1 For that reason, Jackson had been locally topical for some months, making London possibly the only place in the world where record stores were prepared (albeit for entirely the wrong reasons) for a sudden resurgence in sales of his music. Amongst the many tributes paid to the departed megastar in the days that followed, notably at the Glastonbury Festival and the Black Entertainment Television Awards, the reference hastily included within popular London-based soap EastEnders provided one of the most artful commemorations. 2 London was also no exception in witnessing the scenes of mass mourning and impromptu pilgrimages seen across the world in response to the news (stirring up memories, at least in Britain, of similar occurrences following the premature death of Princess Diana twelve years earlier). It also saw renewed interest in Thriller – Live, the stage show celebrating Jackson's music established in the UK three years earlier, which, in addition to various international tours, had found its present home at the West End's Lyric Theatre that January. Other local concerns included the question of whether refunds would be issued for the " This Is It " bookings – assurances from the major ticket-selling companies that the money would 1 The " This Is It " concerts were due to have taken place on 50 dates between July 2009 and March 2010. The opening nights of the series had previously been postponed, and its scope significantly expanded from the 10 dates originally planned. Footage of rehearsals for the concerts was posthumously included in the documentary film Michael Jackson's This Is It (dir. Kenny Ortega), released in cinemas across the world for a limited period in October 2009 and subsequently on DVD. 2 In a specially-written scene, the June 26 2009 installment of the show saw Denise Wicks (Diane Parish) discuss the news of Jackson's demise with her surrogate father Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker).