Bad (tour)

Bad World Tour

World tour by Michael Jackson
File:Bad World Tour 1988.jpg 1988 tour logo.
Location	Asia, Oceania, North America, Europe
Associated album	Bad
Start date	September 12, 1987
End date	January 27, 1989
Legs	2
No. of shows	123
Michael Jackson concert chronology

The Bad World Tour was the first solo concert tour by American recording artist Michael Jackson that visited Japan, Australia, the United States and Europe. Sponsored by Pepsi and spanning 16 months, the tour included 123 concerts to 4.4 million fans across 15 countries. When the tour concluded it grossed a total of $125 million, adding two new entries in the Guinness World Records for the largest grossing tour in history and the tour with the largest attended audience. In April 1989, the tour was nominated for "Tour of the Year 1988" at the inaugural International Rock Awards.

Overview

First leg (1987)

On June 29, 1987, Jackson's then-manager Frank DiLeo announced the singer's plan to embark on a solo world tour. Sponsored by Pepsi, the tour began in Japan, marking Jackson's first performances in the country since 1973 as part of The Jackson 5. The first nine scheduled concerts that began on September 12 sold out within hours, and five more were added due to high demand. Over 600 journalists, cameramen and fans waited for Jackson's arrival to the country at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. His pet chimpanzee Bubbles, who took a separate flight, was greeted by more than 300 people. A chartered jumbo jet was used to carry 22 truckloads of equipment, along with Jackson's entourage of 132 for the tour. The stage set used 700 lights, 100 speakers, 40 lasers, three mirrors and two 24-by-18 foot screens. Performers wore 70 costumes, four of which were attached with fiber optic lights.

While in Tokyo, Australian pop music critic Molly Meldrum conducted an exclusive interview Jackson and DiLeo that was featured on 60 Minutes in the United States. On September 18, Jackson was handed the Key to the City by Yasushi Oshima, the mayor of Osaka. He was accompanied by Bubbles, who was the first animal allowed inside the city's town hall. Jackson dedicated his Japanese concerts to Yoshioka Hagiwara, a five-year-old boy who was kidnapped and murdered, and gave £12,000 to the parents of Hagiwara. Attendance figures for the first 14 dates in Japan totalled a record-breaking 450,000. Crowds of 200,000 were what past performers could manage to draw for a single tour. Nippon Television was a co-sponsor with Pepsi for the Japanese dates.

In October 1987, scheduled shows in Perth and Adelaide in Australia were cancelled. A New Zealand leg was also scrapped. Kevin Jacobson, the tour's promoter, put it down to financial reasons with the original schedule having to cost $8 million to stage. Jackson performed five concerts in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia in November. While off stage, he spent time visiting sick children at their homes in the Sydney suburbs.

Second leg (1988–1989)

Jackson performing in Vienna, Austria in June 1988.

Rehearsals for the tour's second leg took place at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Florida from January 22 to February 18, 1988. On the last day of preparation, Jackson allowed 420 school pupils to watch him rehearse after the children made him a rap music video in his honour. The first performances were to begin in Atlanta, Georgia, yet Pepsi officials objected as the city was home to rival drinks company Coca-Cola. For both Atlanta shows, Jackson gave 100 tickets to the Children's Wish Foundation for terminally ill children. The first of three concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City in March served as a benefit to raise $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund. Jackson presented a check of $600,000 to the fund.

Jackson began his European tour in Rome at the Flaminio Stadium on May 23, 1988. Police and security guards rescued hundreds of fans from being crushed in the crowd of 30,000. Police reported 130 women fainted at the concert in Vienna on June 2. A scheduled performance in Lyon was cancelled after 16,000 of a planned 30,000 tickets were sold. On June 17, Jackson travelled to the town of Vevey to meet Oona O'Neill, the widow of comic actor Charlie Chaplin. "I have fulfilled by biggest childhood dream", said Jackson after the visit. The most successful of the European dates were those in London at Wembley Stadium. Ticket demand for the five July dates exceeded 1.5 million, enough to fill the 72,000 capacity venue 20 times. Jackson performed seven sold out shows, beating the previous record held by Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Genesis. More shows could have been added, but the venue had reached its quota for live performances. The third concert on July 16 was attended by Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles. On September 8, Jackson was entered into the Guinness World Records, the first of three times from the tour alone. The Wembley shows were attended by a record 504,000 people. Management also presented him with a special award. On July 30, NBC aired Michael Jackson Around the World, a 90-minute special documenting the singer on tour. On August 29, after a birthday performance in Leeds, Jackson donated $130,000 to Give For Life. The final European show was held in Liverpool on September 11, staged at Aintree Racecourse. 1,550 fans were reported injured among the crowd of 125,000.

In September 1988, Jackson toured the United States for the second time. On October 23, he donated $125,000, the net proceeds to first show in Detroit, to the city's Motown Museum. Three concerts in Tacoma, Washington were cancelled after Jackson came down with the flu. The tour was planned to end in Tokyo, but Jackson suffered from swollen vocal chords after the first of six concerts in Los Angeles in November. The remaining five were rescheduled for January 1989. During the December 11 show in Tokyo, nine-year old Ayana Takada was selected to receive a certificate by Jackson to commemorate the four millionth person to attend the tour.

Five performances in Los Angeles were held to conclude the tour on January 27, 1989. In 16 months, Jackson performed 123 concerts in 15 countries to an audience of 4.4 million for a total gross of $125 million. The American tour alone grossed a total of $20.3 million, the sixth largest of the year. Guinness World Records recognized the tour as the largest grossing in history and the tour to play to the most people ever. In April 1989, the tour was nominated for "Tour of the Year 1988" at the inaugural International Rock Awards. It lost to Amnesty International.

Set list

First leg (1987)

1. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
2. "Things I Do for You"
3. "Off the Wall"
4. "Human Nature"
5. "This Place Hotel"
6. "She's Out of My Life"
7. Jackson 5 Medley
   1. "I Want You Back"
   2. "The Love You Save"
   3. "I'll Be There"
8. "Rock with You"
9. "Lovely One"
10. "Bad Groove" Interlude
11. "Workin' Day and Night"
12. "Beat It"
13. "Billie Jean"
14. "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" featuring snippet of Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
15. "Thriller"
16. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" with Sheryl Crow
17. "Bad"

Second leg (1988-1989)

1. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
2. "This Place Hotel"
3. "Another Part of Me"
4. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" with Sheryl Crow
5. "She's Out of My Life"
6. Jackson 5 Medley
   1. "I Want You Back"
   2. "The Love You Save"
   3. "I'll Be There"
7. "Rock with You"
8. "Human Nature"
9. "Smooth Criminal"
10. "Dirty Diana"
11. "Thriller"
12. "Bad Groove" Interlude
13. "Workin' Day and Night"
14. "Beat It"
15. "Billie Jean"
16. "Bad"
17. "The Way You Make Me Feel"
18. "Man in the Mirror"

Tour dates

#	Date	City	Country	Venue
First leg
Asia
1	September 12, 1987	Tokyo	Japan	Korakuen Stadium
2	September 13, 1987
3	September 14, 1987
4	September 19, 1987	Hyogo		Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium
5	September 20, 1987
6	September 21, 1987
7	September 25, 1987	Yokohama		Yokohama Stadium
8	September 26, 1987
9	September 27, 1987
10	October 3, 1987
11	October 4, 1987
12	October 10, 1987	Osaka		Osaka Stadium
13	October 11, 1987
14	October 12, 1987
Australia
15	November 13, 1987	Melbourne	Australia	Olympic Park Stadium
16	November 20, 1987	Sydney		Parramatta Stadium
17	November 21, 1987
18	November 25, 1987	Brisbane		Brisbane Entertainment Centre
19	November 28, 1987
Second leg
North America
20	February 23, 1988	Kansas City	United States	Kemper Arena
21	February 24, 1988
22	March 3, 1988	New York City		Madison Square Garden
23	March 4, 1988
24	March 5, 1988
25	March 12, 1988	St. Louis		St. Louis Arena
26	March 13, 1988
27	March 18, 1988	Indianapolis		Market Square Arena
28	March 19, 1988
29	March 20, 1988	Louisville		Freedom Hall
30	March 23, 1988	Denver		McNichols Sports Arena
31	March 24, 1988
32	March 30, 1988	Hartford		Hartford Civic Center
33	March 31, 1988
34	April 1, 1988
35	April 8, 1988	Houston		The Summit
36	April 9, 1988
37	April 10, 1988
38	April 13, 1988	Atlanta		Omni Coliseum
39	April 14, 1988
40	April 15, 1988
41	April 19, 1988	Rosemont		Rosemont Horizon
42	April 20, 1988
43	April 21, 1988
44	April 25, 1988	Dallas		Reunion Arena
45	April 26, 1988
46	April 27, 1988
47	May 4, 1988	Minneapolis		Met Center
48	May 5, 1988
49	May 6, 1988
Europe
50	May 23, 1988	Rome	Italy	Flaminio Stadium
51	May 24, 1988
52	May 29, 1988	Turin		Stadio Comunale di Torino
53	June 2, 1988	Vienna	Austria	Prater Stadium
54	June 5, 1988	Rotterdam	Netherlands	Feijenoord Stadium
55	June 6, 1988
56	June 7, 1988
57	June 11, 1988	Gothenburg	Sweden	Eriksburg Shipyard
58	June 12, 1988
59	June 16, 1988	Basel	Switzerland	St. Jakob Stadium
60	June 19, 1988	Berlin	West Germany	Reichstag Building
61	June 27, 1988	Paris	France	Parc des Princes Stadium
62	June 28, 1988
63	July 1, 1988	Hamburg	West Germany	Volkspark Stadium
64	July 3, 1988	Cologne		Mungersdorfer Stadium
65	July 8, 1988	Munich		Olympic Stadium
66	July 10, 1988	Hockenheim		Hockenheimring
67	July 14, 1988	London	England	Wembley Stadium
68	July 15, 1988
69	July 16, 1988
70	July 22, 1988
71	July 23, 1988
72	July 26, 1988	Cardiff	Wales	Cardiff Arms Park
73	July 30, 1988	Cork	Ireland	Páirc Uí Chaoimh
74	July 31, 1988
75	August 5, 1988	Marbella	Spain	Municipal Stadium
76	August 7, 1988	Madrid		Vicente Calderón Stadium
77	August 9, 1988	Barcelona		Camp Nou
78	August 11, 1988	Nice	France	Stade Charles Ehrmann
79	August 14, 1988	Montpellier		Stade Richter
80	August 19, 1988	Lausanne	Switzerland	La Pontaise
81	August 21, 1988	Würzburg	West Germany	Talavera Wiesen
82	August 23, 1988	Werchter	Belgium	Festival Grounds
83	August 26, 1988	London	England	Wembley Stadium
84	August 27, 1988
85	August 29, 1988	Leeds		Roundhay Park
86	September 2, 1988	Hanover	West Germany	Niedersachsen Stadium
87	September 4, 1988	Gelsenkirchen		Park Stadium
88	September 6, 1988	Linz	Austria	Linzer Stadium
89	September 10, 1988	Milton Keynes	England	The Bowl
90	September 11, 1988	Liverpool		Aintree Racecourse
North America
91	September 26, 1988	Pittsburgh	United States	Pittsburgh Civic Arena
92	September 27, 1988
93	September 28, 1988
94	October 3, 1988	East Rutherford		Meadowlands Arena
95	October 4, 1988
96	October 6, 1988
97	October 10, 1988	Richfield		Richfield Coliseum
98	October 11, 1988
99	October 13, 1988	Landover		Capital Centre
100	October 17, 1988
101	October 18, 1988
102	October 19, 1988
103	October 24, 1988	Auburn Hills		The Palace of Auburn Hills
104	October 25, 1988
105	October 26, 1988
106	November 7, 1988	Irvine		Irvine Meadows Amphitheater
107	November 8, 1988
108	November 9, 1988
109	November 13, 1988	Los Angeles		Memorial Sports Arena
Asia
110	December 9, 1988	Tokyo	Japan	Tokyo Dome
111	December 10, 1988
112	December 11, 1988
113	December 17, 1988
114	December 18, 1988
115	December 19, 1988
116	December 24, 1988
117	December 25, 1988
118	December 26, 1988
North America
119	January 16, 1989	Los Angeles	United States	Memorial Sports Arena
120	January 17, 1989
121	January 18, 1989
122	January 26, 1989
123	January 27, 1989

Personnel

Performers

• Michael Jackson – lead vocals, dance and choreographer
• LaVelle Smith – backup dancer
• Evaldo Garcia – backup dancer
• Randy Allaire – backup dancer
• Dominic Lucero – backup dancer

Musicians

• Greg Phillinganes – keyboards, musical director
• Rory Kaplan – keyboards
• Christopher Currell – Synclavier synthesizer, digital guitar, sound effects
• Ricky Lawson – drums
• Jennifer Batten – guitar
• Jon Clark – guitar
• Don Boyette – bass
• Darryl Phinnessee – backup vocals
• Dorian Holley – backup vocals
• Sheryl Crow – backup vocals
• Kevin Dorsey – vocal director, backup vocals

References

• Campbell, Lisa D. (1993). Michael Jackson: The King of Pop (1st ed.). Branden Books. ISBN 978-0828319577.
• Halstead, Craig (2003). Michael Jackson The Solo Years (1st ed.). Authors On Line, Ltd. ISBN 978-0755200917.