Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
A Jackson brothers comeback is as easy as 1, 2, 3
LONDON: What a week for boy bands. Around the time One Direction announced they were splitting up, the remaining members of the Jackson 5 revealed they are saddling up – and coming to London.
The British band may have managed a scant five years together, but the American-born Jacksons have been a force in pop music for nearly 50..
The group were little more than children when they had their first hit, I Want You Back, in 1969. Since then their lives have been a switchback of triumph and tragedy, of notoriety and rumour.
The greatest heartbreak was the death of their brother Michael, in controversial circumstances in 2009.
Two years later, Michael’s doctor Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, after lethal amounts of prescription drugs were found in the singer’s body. Today, however, the Jackson family still believe that questions remain unanswered about Michael’s death.
Since his death, the remaining Jackson 5 brothers – Jackie, 64, Tito, 61, Jermaine, 60, and Marlon, 58 – have reunited and gone back on the road. And now they are going back to Britain, to headline at this year’s BBC Proms In The Park in Hyde Park on September 12.
So what are The Jacksons, as they now style themselves, going to take to this most British evening of the cultural year?
“High level, high energy,” promised Jackie. “And as it is an outdoor event, we are going to crank it up a lot louder. We are going to make it really exciting for our British fans.”
”I think the parents who loved the Jackson 5 music teach their children to appreciate it, too,” said Tito.
The rigorously syncopated dance routines of the old days have been replaced with something gentler.
“The dancing gets easier,’ said Jermaine.
“Because we know how to pace ourselves,” said Tito.
“We just kind of gravitate towards whatever the song calls for,” said Jackie. “We don’t have to rehearse or train.”
One thing the Jackson family are very good at is battening down the hatches when any kind of scandal ensues. In his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, Michael accused his father of physically and mentally abusing him as a child.
While the other brothers admit today that their father Joe was a harsh taskmaster, they excuse his behaviour by arguing that all dads were like that back then. And that it was Joe and his wife Katherine – between them they had 10 children – who drove the group on to early success.
The brothers still talk of their father with something approaching reverence and were shocked when he fell ill. On July 27, while celebrating his 87th birthday in Brazil, Joe was rushed into hospital.
“He actually had a stroke and three heart attacks,’ said Marlon, “but he’s doing much better now.” He is recuperating at Jermaine’s home.
Like Joe, the brothers seem to have the fortitude to go on for ever. Jackie said it’s because they all enjoy it so much.
“No one can take Michael’s place but we are doing our best,” said Tito. “We all share his parts.”
“Sometimes it is hard, singing these songs and seeing people crying,” said Jermaine. “They cry every night.” – Daily Mail