Publication Date:August 10, 2012 Andy Picheta, experienced music film producer and part time hotelier, steps out of semi-retirement and a comfortable life in the Scottish Highlands to work on Michael Forever, a giant tribute concert to Michael Jackson, featuring a host of international stars and Michael's family, children and friends. It sounds like the project of a lifetime, a perfect return to the world of rock 'n' roll, but wanton greed, massive hubris, secretive executive producers and a very rocky financial structure combine to quickly turn the dream into a nightmare of angry fans, incompetent management and wary performers. Miraculously, Michael Forever made it onto the stage. Whether it should have is a question this book tries to answer.
Summary of the book
The book starts with Andy Picheta writing "For the fans of Michael: You were right". And yeah we were right as you will see when you read through what I wrote below.
the idea of the tribute was introduced by Jeffre Phillips - Latoya's boyfriend and their company Ja-Tail was behind it.
They had high expectations for the tribute concert with high attendance, Live Broadcast, DVD and Cinema releases and such and hoped to bypass "This is it" Movie revenues ($400 Million).
They selected the location as UK to benefit from tax relief and Cardiff was selected because initially Wembley was booked and Cardiff was cheaper. Another reason for the selection of UK is due to the different copyright laws.
GLE consisted of Christ Hunt and Michael Henry and Jeffre Phillips. Jeffre actually owned the 80% of GLE. Although Jeffre was behind this he wanted to stay anonymous because he said if Jackson brothers knew his involvement they would never sign up for it - because Latoya would be earning more than they did.
The book says it was hard to get Jermaine to sign up because he saw himself as the patriarch of the family and wanted to be the one that does the tribute and wanted more payment. Of course the rest wouldn't agree to this.
Leonard Rowe enters into the picture with promises of many A-list artists that are ready to sign such as Prince, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Elton John etc. Later on they would find out that some these weren't even approached.
As they don't have money , they look for investors. Investors say they would only sponsor this event if Jackson brothers, Janet Jackson and 3 A-list name was guaranteed. Of course they can never get that. Later on another firm would invest 5 Million pounds into the event , mainly due to the hopes to broadcast it.
From the start they are aware of the image and likeliness issues and that they can't use "Michael Jackson" name, that's the reason the event is called "Forever Michael". Also due to consumer protection laws they cannot get ticket money after the show. In order to generate funds they come up with ticket price + charity donation so that they can get the charity donations and use it and later on replace it with the income earned.
As they had high expectations they decide to put the stage on the middle of the stadium and increase the attendance rates. They wanted to beat U2's record of highest attendance and hoped to get 80,000 people to attend. They also come up with the idea that the stage to be shaped as a glove which becomes highly problematic and inconvenient for performance wise.
Their expert consultants and Picheta believed the ticket prices to be too high but Chris Hunt believed the price to be okay for a "once in a lifetime" event and believed even if the fans didn't have the money they could find it.
Initially they planned to do the concert on August 27 but due to the above (not having funding, not even being to able to sign Jacksons or any other artist etc., not being ready) the concert is moved to October 8th. They wanted to do it before the weather was too cold, and they wanted to do it in 2011. The preparations were rushed too.
They never considered the trial date because they didn't think it would happen. According to Jeffre and Latoya's conspiracy claims someone high in the food chain came to Michael's house half and hour before Michael came from rehearsal, he waited for Michael and when he came they talked. 30 minutes after he left Murray found Michael dead (which would make it around 2 AM and which is totally contracting with Murray's versions and time of death). They believed Murray to be the fall guy and the evil forces wouldn't like Murray to go through a trial and the secrets to be spilled. So according to them Murray would cop a plea without seeing a courtroom and the evil forces would pay nicely him for being a patsy. Therefore the trial would never happen so it was a non-issue.
Picheta - "We set the date, not deliberately to coincide with the trial, but in the belief the trial would actually never happen"
Also apparently Michael told Latoya and everyone else that he didn't have a will and he wanted to die intestate so that everything he has would go to his kids directly. ( Note : Dying intestate would have make the Jacksons first in line to be the Executors and kids have access to the money at a quite early age. I have to say it makes to access to the money quite easier than the current will / trust)
One day before the announcement GLE only had secured the stadium, 3 Jackson brothers, Latoya and Katherine. No other artist was signed.
Picheta writes this about before the announcement "in two hours we will enter the perfect shit-storm of shit, and we will never emerge." - well that sums it right " src="http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/threads/images/smilies/basicsmile.gif" border="0" class="inlineimg" alt="" />
They start trying to sign the artists after the announcement. They had set an appearance on CNN with Katherine and they needed a name to announce. One manager says he can guarantee Kiss. So Kiss is announced. Even after the backlash they try to talk to Gene Simmons and get him to issue and apology so that everyone can kiss and make up.
Black Eyed Peas ask for $ 2 Million but later decide to not perform and return the $2 Million.
Both fans letter and Estate's letter is mentioned and he also mentions how their response wasn't picked up by the media. He also mentioned how the fans started digging information about their backgrounds and they wanted to remain anonymous , remove their names from websites, press releases and such.
Picheta says GLE never contacted the Estate or never considered it, they used all the available loopholes (such as doing the concert in UK).
The talks with the fan clubs - only 3 - and Gaz's phone call with them is also mentioned. Picheta tells that he told Gaz the trial wouldn't happen (due to the above conspiracy version) and Gaz tells him " You are dreaming".
After a week they had only sold 327 tickets. They were selling 12 to 20 tickets per day. By the concert date they would have sold around 20,000 tickets - 1/4 th of what they aimed for.
I don't understand the UK copyright law but a licence they needed to perform /air the songs were expired. Some songs could be performed under a blanket licence fee and some could only be performed with the copyright holder authorized the performance. For example Rod Temperton did not allow Thriller to be performed. Warner Chappell moves for an emergency order due to unauthorized use of their songs (they used to administer Mijac) and stops the live broadcast. Later half the songs performed would not be releasable on a DVD or a TV broadcast without approval of Warner Chappell.
Concert happens but of course it's not profitable. A lot of people are not paid including some of the artists. Basically if a person did not ask for a up front payment, they didn't get paid. TMZ's story about plane ticket costs not being paid and the travel company cancelling Jacksons tickets turn out to be true. There are also a lot of suspicious activities start to go on. For example the $2 Million paid to Black Eyed Peas by the investors is returned to GLE - Chris Hunt. Chris Hunt and Michael Henry leave GLE on the day of the concert, the rights of the concert is transferred from GLE to another entities, some people leave with cash ticket sales, Chris Hunt using other business entities makes creditor claims etc.
At this time the only ongoing deal is with Sky TV in regards to airing the show on TV at a later date. Sky TV initially going to pay 2 Million pounds which was later reduced to 70,000 pounds. The main investor (the one who gave 5 million pounds) go to court and get an injunction to cancel Sky TV broadcast. Of course by this time seeing all the suspicious activities they are worried and they want the rights to the concert.
This investor also doesn't believe that airing it on Sky TV is the best thing as it would diminish the cinema and dvd revenues. They want to talk to MJ Estate, Warner Chappell and MJ fans and get them on board to be able to release it as a DVD. Chris Hunt on the other hand want nothing to do with MJ Estate, wants to cut Warner Chappell songs and replace those with Michael home videos owned by Jeffre.
Long story short the investor wins their lawsuit against GLE , Chris Hunt and Michael Henry. Currently they own the concert rights. Court said Chris Hunt and Michael Henry are dishonest and deceitful as they took money and tried to take the concert. Hunt's a second company is in liquidation. Many people haven't been paid and it's unlikely that they would ever get paid.
No way, not that family, there so respectable, to even think they would try and make coin off their dead brother. This has to be some sort of mistake, it has to be.
The Most Important Thing In Life Is Sincerity....Once You Can Fake That, You Can Fake Anything.
Ohh purple joy oh purple bliss oh purple rapture!
REAL MUSIC by REAL MUSICIANS - Prince
"I kind of wish there was a reason for Prince to make the site crash more" ~~ Ben
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