{"id":410862,"date":"2026-04-22T00:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410862\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:06:14","slug":"memories-of-when-michael-jackson-came-to-cork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410862\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of when Michael Jackson came to Cork\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was no one like Michael Jackson. For a period in the 1980s, he really was the King of Pop. In the summer of 1988, during a glorious August bank holiday weekend, he performed\u00a0 in Ireland for the first time with two gigs at Cork\u2019s P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh, as part of his Bad world tour. The city, which has arguably never experienced another showtime like it, went \u2018wacko for Jacko\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole buzz was extraordinary,\u201d says Eddie O\u2019Hare, a photographer with the then Cork Examiner. \u201cI was out doing photographs in town, around the streets, going to the makeshift campsites; there was a big one where Mahon Point Shopping Centre is today. I remember the Marina being packed full of tents. There would have been people sleeping in cars. Everybody was in brilliant form.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hare has been on duty for numerous Cork concerts since, from Bruce Springsteen to Oasis, but still feels the excitement around Jackson\u2019s visit was on a different level.<\/p>\n

\u201cJackson was more everybody’s cup of tea compared with Springsteen or Oasis back in the day. Jackson appealed to everybody. The city came alive,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Jackson on stage at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh in Cork\u00a0in 1988. Picture: Dan Linehan, Irish Examiner Archive<\/p>\n

It was thanks to music promoter Oliver Barry\u2019s vision and guile that Jackson was lured to Leeside. Barry got in touch with Jackson\u2019s agents in Los Angeles and convinced them P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh would be an ideal venue for Jackson to include during the European leg of his world tour. The GAA stadium had successfully staged Siamsa Cois Laoi concerts going back to 1978, and a U2 gig in 1987, the year the band graced the cover of Time magazine. Even still, people were in disbelief that Jackson would be coming to town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a surprise that we got him,\u201d says Jim Comet, whose band, Belsonic Sound, performed at local venue Sir Henry\u2019s the night before Jackson\u2019s first concert, as part of a series of satellite gigs that went on over the long weekend. \u201cThe people who managed Michael Jackson, the cabal who sent these big acts out on tours, when they saw what happened with U2, would have said, \u2018We can put Michael Jackson in there next year.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Jackson arrives at Cork airport, with members of the his entourage, and his child companion Jimmy Safechuck. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive<\/p>\n

\u201cP\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh was the perfect venue for Michael Jackson because it could fit 60,000 to 70,000 people per night, and because it’s a stadium everybody could see what’s happening on stage. Slane Castle, for example, wouldn’t have been suited to it, because if you’re looking from a vantage point where you’re looking up at the stage, you’re not getting the benefit of the production, all the dancing. The show was very choreographed. Every song was a different production number. He probably had as many choreographers on that tour as roadies. With Michael Jackson, you have to be able to see everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson was arguably near the top of his game in 1988 after an already impressive career in the business. As the lead singer and child star of The Jackson 5, one of Motown\u2019s finest acts, it seemed he\u2019d been famous for ever. The Jackson 5\u2019s number one hit, I Want You Back, topped the charts back in 1969. Solo album Off The Wall in 1979 had produced such hits as Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough and Rock with You. But it was the success of Thriller in 1982 and beyond that sent him into the stratosphere.<\/p>\n

Created with producer Quincy Jones, seven of the album\u2019s 10 tracks hit the top 10 in the US. Billie Jean and Beat It were number one all over the world, and tunes such as the title track were accompanied by impressive music videos that kick-started the MTV era and added to ubiquity of Jackson\u2019s music. A megastar was born.<\/p>\n

As well as the music success, Jackson was a consistent presence in the celebrity pages through the mid-part of the decade, with a succession of stories adding to the mystique. His skin tone changed, he had plastic surgery on his nose and chin, hung out with a pet monkey, and reports of his lifestyle featured everything from sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, to an attempt to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the ‘Elephant Man’).<\/p>\n

At least the release of Bad, in August 1987, got people talking about his music again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much hype about him coming over to Ireland,\u201d says Mike Hanrahan, who performed with Stockton\u2019s Wing, as one of the warm-up acts in Cork. \u201cHe was a complete enigma, a rumour machine his whole life. There was big talk about his chimpanzee, Bubbles, and about how he was sleeping in an oxygen chamber. It was only years later we heard all of what was going on in his life [regarding paedophilia allegations].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of Jackson\u2019s entourage in Cork included Jimmy Safechuck, a 10-year-old boy. The press commented about the \u201cyoung sidekick at his side\u201d, \u201cmunching peanuts on a sofa\u201d, almost whimsically, as if, naively, there was nothing troubling about the situation. Many years later, in his late 30s, Safechuck filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Jackson\u2019s estate, claiming he was regularly abused by Jackson.<\/p>\n

Hanrahan continues: \u201cThere was all that intrigue about him, but when he went out on stage, that was gone. He was an incredible showman. I love U2 and their music. Some of their gigs were iconic as well and the energy that they give off. I’m a huge fan of the band, but there\u2019s nobody like Jackson. Even Prince was brilliant, but Jackson had something different. It was such a huge sound in the band. Every one of them were exceptional, top-class musicians who were pumping it out. There was a great groove to the music. The stadium was rocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson had arrived in Cork airport on a private plane, Friday morning, July 29, a few weeks before his 30th birthday. He was billeted at Jury\u2019s Hotel on the Western Road (since replaced by the River Lee Hotel). On the Saturday morning around 9.40am, he snuck out of the back of the hotel \u2014 wearing black jeans, white jacket and trainers \u2014 with six bodyguards for a stroll around Cork, unbeknownst to fans who were keeping vigil in the lobby at the front of the hotel.<\/p>\n

\"AA Michael Jackson impersonator entertains fans on the streets of Cork.\u00a0 Picture: Irish Examiner Archive <\/p>\n

The day was kissed with sunshine. Pubs doubled their trade. Street hawkers did a busy trade shifting Michael Jackson merchandise, including T-shirts, headbands, scarves and Michael Jackson candy floss.<\/p>\n

There was a constant buzzing of helicopters overhead \u2014 a novelty in those pre-Celtic Tiger days \u2014 as rich businessmen, including Ben Dunne, and celebrities such as Brendan Grace, Michelle Rocca and Michael Lyster, convened on Cork. Future taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his daughters, the future novelist Cecelia Ahern, aged seven, and her older sister Georgina (who went on to marry Westlife\u2019s Nicky Byrne), were also there.<\/p>\n

Stockton\u2019s Wing kicked off around 6pm. They were followed by British singer Kim Wilde, before Jacko, flanked by four male dancers, burst on stage with an electrifying version of Wanna Be Startin\u2019 Somethin\u2019. He hardly drew breath, ploughing through banger after banger, unleashing his arsenal of dance moves \u2014 the quick jumps, the corkscrew kicks, the James Brown funky chicken, and the pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance, the moonwalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had his dancers and the stage was specially laid out so the band were at the back,\u201d says Comet. \u201cThere was huge room at the front of the stage with a special floor where he could dance. A friend of mine was working on stage. He had to run out every so often with a few other people with towels mopping the stage so nobody would slip.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sent the crowd mental was when he moonwalked. To see Michael Jackson moonwalking live was unreal. That was his trick. He did it in three or four of his videos. At the time when people talked about Michael Jackson or when they tried to emulate him, they always tried to do the moonwalk. So, to see the guy who perfected the moonwalk doing the moonwalk was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanrahan recalls Jackson\u2019s performance of Thriller \u2014 in which dancers emerged on stage dressed as monsters at its climax \u2014 being a highlight, and the majesty of his lead guitarist, Jennifer Batten. Jackson\u2019s band also included the keyboardist Greg Philinganes, drummer Ricky Lawson, and a 26-year-old Sheryl Crow as a backing singer (see panel).<\/p>\n

The crowd on the pitch at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh was peppered with US flags. Fans fainted. Others lost their shoes, or their friends, in the bedlam. Jackson didn\u2019t let up, finishing his set with Beat It, Billie Jean and Bad, with smoke billowing from the stage, before returning on stage to do two songs for his encore, wrapping up the show with Man in the Mirror.\n <\/p>\n

Jackson did it all over again the following night. On Monday, the circus moved on to Marbella, Spain, for the next leg of his tour. Jackson boarded his private plane, en route to Luton Airport, at one o\u2019clock in the afternoon. O\u2019Hare was waiting at Cork airport for his departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew a guy, John Smith, who was in the PR department at the airport,\u201d says O\u2019Hare. \u201cHe said, \u2018Right. You’re coming with me.\u2019 I was brought out onto the tarmac and, as Jackson arrived, I was literally standing at the bottom of the steps of the plane. He couldn\u2019t avoid me. He just waved to me and went up the steps. And that was it \u2014 he was gone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson, is opening in Irish cinemas on Friday<\/p>\n

Sheryl Crow \u2014 The backing vocalist<\/p>\n

\"SherylSheryl Crow joins Michael Jackson at Wembley Stadium in London, a week before the Cork gigs. Picture: Pete Still\/Redferns<\/p>\n

Years before Sheryl Crow won nine Grammy Awards, and before she acted on TV shows such as 30 Rock, the country star toured with Michael Jackson as a back-up singer on his Bad World Tour 88.<\/p>\n

Crow grew up in a town in Missouri. She was in her mid-20s, teaching and making music for TV adverts, when she ended up duetting with Jackson on I Just Can\u2019t Stop Loving You, which led to an invitation to tour with him. She didn\u2019t even have a passport when she landed the gig.<\/p>\n

On stage with Jackson, she often wore pink lipstick and had strikingly big hair \u2014 de rigueur for the 1980s. She also starred in his video for Dirty Diana, part of a two-year association with Jackson, before going on to record her own hit records, including All I Wanna Do in 1994.<\/p>\n

Bad World Tour 88\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Jackson\u2019s Bad World Tour 88 was his first solo concert tour; his previous Victory tour in 1984 was with his brothers. The Bad tour began in September 1987 with a gig in Tokyo, Japan. It was conceived to promote Bad, the third album of his solo career. Jackson had earlier released Off the Wall (1979) and Thriller (1982) to huge acclaim. Bad was another chart-topping success, the first album in US Billboard Hot 100 history to achieve five Number 1 hits, all of them Jackson performed at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh \u2014 I Just Can\u2019t Stop Loving You; Bad; The Way You Make Me Feel; Man in the Mirror; and Dirty Diana.\n <\/p>\n

Jackson performed 123 dates on the tour, creating sensation wherever he went \u2014 in Japan, the press gushed about \u201cTyphoon Michael\u201d; the British tabloids christened him \u201cThe Earl of Whirl\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FansFans at the Michael Jackson concert in Cork. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive<\/p>\n

He kicked off the European leg of his tour in Rome towards the end of May 1988. A couple of days before the summer solstice, Jackson gigged in front of the Reichstag building in West Berlin. Fans behind the Berlin Wall convened in a stadium in East Berlin to listen to the concert, albeit with a two-minute delay so East German authorities could edit any unsavoury political comments that Jackson might have made.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s visit to London was a tour highlight \u2014 he staged seven sold-out concerts at Wembley Stadium over the summer. Prince Charles and Lady Diana were guests on the third night of that run. He stayed on the road for a year and a half, playing his last tour gig in Los Angeles in January 1989. Tired of, ahem, working day and night, Jackson announced it would be his final tour, as he wanted to focus on filmmaking.<\/p>\n

Eventually, he returned to Ireland twice more during subsequent world tours, performing at Lansdowne Road (1992) and the RDS Arena (1997).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was no one like Michael Jackson. For a period in the 1980s, he really was the King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,6405],"class_list":["post-410862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-music-movies-reviews-munster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}