"Like an Angel....."
Fieldreport Fans greeting and Press Conference by The King of Pop in Munich, Germany, June 8th and 9th 1999, presenting his Humanitarian Adventure.
by Marjo , aka Dirty Diana Oh..no..
Sunday, June 6th 1999.
As usual I was chatting in MJIFC on sundayevening when I read this message: "Michael Jackson on Tuesday, 6/8/99, in Germany! The King of Pop is pleased to greet his fans on Tuesday evening at the Promenadeplatz in Munich, near Bayerischer Hof. Michael Jackson will held a press conference on Wednesday, 6/9/99, 11.00 am in the Olympic stadium in Munich to make his charity concert "Michael Jackson and friends" known to the world press. Also at the press conference fans are welcome.
Support the King! See the King! Meet the King!
My heart stood still......my mind was working like crazy....how far is Munich, can I take some days off from work, where can I get railway or coach info, do I have the money....? lolHusband Papa Bear said i was crazy.....but in the end he said "What the heck, let's go, we'll go together". Unfortunately the kids had to go to school and could not go with us, but they supported our plans and loved that their favourite aunt would take care of them.
Monday, June 7th 1999.
First thing I did was checking the MJIFC news to see if the news was still a current event and really true.......At work I asked my boss for 3 days off with an urgent reason. He asked : "Something to do with Michael...?" I laughed, answered in the affirmative and got permission!Tuesday, June 8th 1999.
We got up at 06.15 am and left the house at 07.30 am, READY TO GO!!!
A 890 km (that is about 556 miles) drive was ahead of us!
After several traffic jams, roadblocks and taking a wrong exit, we arrived in Munich at 5 pm! In a rush we found a hotel, changed, and walked one way to the Bayerischen Hof, Michael's hotel!!!!
It was a special feeling to enter the square, the Promenadeplatz.......just couldn't believe I was really there! In front of the hotel some fans were waiting, I think about 30. And there were our friends from
Fans told us Michael was on his way by Concorde from New York and that the plane would land at Paris airport on 17.45 h pm. Later on a fan told me Michael arrived in his private plane!
In front of the hotel the two famous black vans were waiting, escorted by a black luxe sedan in front of them and one in the rear. It gave me butterflies in my belly to see that! Then Teddy Lakis showed up on his moped! Hi Teddy! For me that was the sign that Michael really would be there. Teddy started to coordinate the fansgathering and instructed us how to behave (!!) in front of MJ's hotel and that he would try to do his best for us if we listened to his instructions. I must say, most fans were very obedient to Teddy!
At 18.30 pm the black vans in front of the hotel drove away slowly and with class.......oh wow, what an excitement that gave because we knew Michael would be here soon! Teddy told us that the vans left to pick up Michael from the airport and that he would be there in 45 minutes. The countdown began! All of a sudden security people showed up in front of the hotel, on the roof, behind the fans.....policecars drove around, roads were blocked by the police. People passing by stopped to see what was going on and we started to chant Michael's songs a capella!
"I WANNA ROCK WITH YOU.....ALL NIGHT!!!!!".....More fans arrived on the spot and joined the fanfamily.After 45 minutes Michael still did not arrive. Teddy told us he was stuck in a traffic jam, but that he would really be there, oh, those nerves!
Then, at 20.00 pm, the vans arrived and slipped into the hotelparking!
Michael was there!!!!All the fans hoped that Michael would arrive in front of the hotel, because Teddy promised us that he would, but anyway, he was there! How we screamed for him!!
After about 10 minutes the best night of my life as a fan began......
a complete "Michael -Jackson-at-his-hotelwindow-SHOW"!Teddy told us to move a bit to the right of the hotelfront, because Michael's room was there. And yes, Michael's hand waved to us from a window! A fewminutes later that same hand waved to us from a window on the other side of the floor, it was so funny! Michael sure was in the mood to have some fun with his fans that night!
Then a window in the middle of the 3d floor opened, the curtains were moved and lifted up a bit.......
THERE WAS MICHAEL!!!! What an excitement, we screamed "Michael we love you!!!!" and he blew handkisses to us, waved, made his famous "I love you all" gesture with his arm and then disappeared in his room. I just couldn't believe he was really there! It is almost impossible to describe the feeling that it gave me to see him back after a long time. The last time was the Oostende Diana concert in Belgium in 1997!Michael returned at the window so many times that evening, he was really there for us! He showed us a white pillow at the window, he wrote
I LOVE YOU in black capitals on it. Dozens of fan voices screamed WE LOVE YOU MORE and then Michael threw the pillow down to the fans.Later on he threw another written-on-pillow out of the window, right on top of a cab! LOL!
That was a great smash, the cabdriver looked pale as a ghost! YOU GO Michael!
The text on the pillow was in normal handwriting, I could not read wat it said, because 2 fans, a boy and a girl, started fighting for it. It looked like comedy, really, the girl pulling the pillow on one side, the boy on the other...Unfortunately the boy won and ran away around the streetcorner with the pillow in his hands, leaving the girl behind in despair, she was so sad, poor girl!
Then Michael threw down a yellow balloon, that was funny!
He gestured "come on up" to us and we shouted "you come down!".
In the meantime the city-tram came by right in front of the fans all the time. It was annoying, but funny at the same time, because the passengers looked very surprised when they were confronted with MJ banners and screaming Mjfans so close to their unsuspecting faces!!! LMAO!
We started to ask for Prince, chanting
"Michael, how is Prince?" and "Michael, show us Prince!"And yes, there was Michael again, with Prince on his arm! At first he made Prince wave to the fans with his little hand..aawwwweee..., so cute!! Then he lifted Prince up and held him up to show him to us! It was just a moment, but we could see that the boy was fine and Michael obviously felt proud! The King of Pop showed us his Crown Prince!
After that we started to chant "F** the press, Michael is the best!" and "Stop Filthy Press". Michael answered us by showing us a white sheet with in capitals BURN THE TABLOIDS on it (see picture).
All the time Michael showed up at the window, again and again, pointing to banners he liked, gave thumbs up several times, gestured to come up to his room......
The chants we sang to Michael must be famous now :
"HEY MICHAEL, MEET THE FAMILY!!!"
Sometimes the fans were quiet for a moment and I used that "silence" to chant
"Michael I love you so much!", "Gold Strings in Munich", "Michael, my kids love you too!", "Michael, I am here with you!". At one point he came back at the window when I was chanting and I did the famous "shoulder move" like in the end of the Remember The Time videoclip. He pointed at me, gave me thumbs up and did the same move!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH, I almost fainted! With my hands in the air I thanked him and with tears in my eyes I screamed "I LOVE YOU!!!!"All the time my husband Papa Bear was beside me and I had to hold him sometimes when I was emotional, saying "Oh...my God.......". He was screaming to Michael too with his loud voice and started chants all the time, the funniest moment was when he spelled Michael's name wrong because of all the excitement; all fans were laughing!
And it was cold outside that evening, wow, but summer kept on saying "It's not cold, it's
MAGIC!", hee hee, and then we forgot the chilly wind! And we were so hungry too, but no one dared to go get something to eat!On the 2nd floor a man was at the window all the time, obviously having a good time watching us and eating and drinking. He looked like Wayne to me, so I chanted "Wayne, I wanna wash your socks!", LMAO!!! He smiled! (the next day I found out that it was Skipper, the younger Wayne-version, lol, but well, what the heck!!).
Michael came back to the window with a man in a white polo-shirt and started pointing to banners he obviously liked and gestured the fans to come upstairs. After a few minutes the "personal assistant" came down to the fans and asked some fans for their banners to give them to Michael.
I couldn't believe some fan's reactions! Some of them did not want to give away their banners! Then the assistant approached a French boy who could not speak a word English. The man asked the boy to go with him upstairs to give his (beautiful) banner to Michael personally! At first the boy did not understand the question, and when he did he paniced because his girlfriend was away for a moment.....but in the end he went in the hotel with Michael's assistant. What a lucky guy!! When he came back a lot of fans rushed forward to him when he told his story about meeting Michael.
He said that Paris has brown frizzy/afro hair and blue eyes and that Prince and Paris were running around the appartment all the time when he was there. He said that Prince jabbered the words the fans were chanting "Hey Michael, meet the family!" in his own todler way and that Michael laughed out loud when he heard Prince doing that and said something like "What a kid!".
At one point Michael's assistant came back to the fans, negotiating with fans for their banners, and I took my chance to hand him over the picture of my kids. The assistant was very friendly and said he would give the picture (with the personal message and my home addy on it) to Michael!
THANKS Mr. Whiteshirt, you made my day!!!!I asked him if I could join him upstairs but he said that he was there only to do what Michael asked him to do. He told me he was not sure if I would get the picture back, because Michael sometimes decides to keep banners or pictures for himself, instead of returning them, autographed, to the fans. I told Mr. Whiteshirt that the picture was a present for Michael and that I did not want it back!!
Then, at around 22.45 pm, Michael was at the window again, and I think it was the most moving moment that evening........He made a loving gesture to the fans: he pointed at us, put his hand on his mouth like blowing a kiss, then put his hand on his heart and made a giving gesture to us........
It was so very moving, I started to cry and put my arms in the air to Michael and told him I loved him more with all my heart! Papa Bear told me later that he never saw my eyes before with so much love for Michael in them, and that it moved him to see me like that, so sweet!
At 23.00 pm Michael obviously decided that it was enough now and he closed the curtains and the window..........as we chanted hopefully in the early evening, WE ROCKED WITH HIM ALL NIGHT!!!
Thank you so much Michael, it was worth being there, feeling your love for us was the best experience ever!!!
Around midnight Papa Bear and I were so cold , tired and hungry that we decided to go to our hotel, have a meal and some German beers and get some sleep, because the next day would be busy too!
Wednesday, June 9th 1999, Press Conference Day.
I still remember waking up in our hotel at 06.30 am, feeling the soft duvet cover, the morning sun coming in the room, and my thoughts about the evening before.........it wasn't a dream, no, it all really happened, and today I will see Michael again!
After a nice German breakfast and making inquiries about Lucky Girl's whereabouts, we left to check Michael's hotel again. There were just a few fans now. The press was already there and I was interviewed by a Munich TV station, called MTV (!!). The reporters asked us all about where we came from, what Michael means to us, and they told me my MJ jacket was the coolest! LOL The reporter told us he was an MJ fan himself and that he had seen the BAD Tour live. He also had a special videotape with MJ dancing with James Brown and Prince (TAFKAP)! He promised me to send it to me when I gave our
ANOTHER PART OF ME-businesscard. They filmed my new banner for Michael that said: "Internet People - We Back Up Michael Jackson - YOU back up the kids - Happiness & Eternity". The banner is filled with pics of children with an MJ picture in the center and I made Michael say "What More Can I Give".They filmed us when we looked up at Michael's hotelroom.
Other reporters took our picture too. We saw Teddy Lakis again and he told us that it would be best if we headed for the Olympia stadium now. I said "goodbye" to the black vans in front of the Bayerischen Hof and we drove to the stadium.
All Munich city was full with MJ promoposters for the concert now!!!
So great!!Ofcourse I wanted one, so I told Papa Bear to pull over.......lol.....for the first time in my innocent life I became a
"thief" and ripped of some promoposters from the noticeboard in the street! I was so happy I got one!! lolWe didn't know what entrance to take, but after a while we saw reporters from ANTENNE, a German radiostation, arriving and we followed them into the stadium, like we were part of that team, LOL!! All of a sudden I felt "an acute attack of acting talents" coming up........The lady behind the desk of the Press Room asked if we were press members and I said yes, and that we were reporters from an MJ website. She asked for our businesscards, then asked us to sign in on the press-list and gave us some press info-material (cool, a complete infobook about all the artists that will perform on the concert!) and, most important, synthetic bracelets to show security we were press members! LOL!!
With serious faces we entered the press stand and took a seat; our friends in the fans department had big eyes "What are you guys doing THERE??"!! We took a seat next to fedora, who was there too, sitting next to Robin Meltzer from MJNI. We started to talk to other reporters, the camerapeople from ZDF and CNN were right in front of us, was cool, and they asked a lot of questions about where we came from etc. The ZDF cameraman shouted to his fellowreporters : "Hey, Mrs. Michael Jackson is here as well!" (pointing at my MJ jacket) and laughed!
After 20 minutes we decided to take a seat closer to the conferencetable and moved over. It took some discussion with securitypeople, fedora almost gave up the try, but eventually we sat first row!
I guess some competitive MJ fanclub wanted the exlusive fieldstory, because in minutes security approached the three of us and demanded us to leave the pressstand. We eplained we wanted to write a story for our website, showed our businesscard and bracelets again, but the man told us another fanclub/magazine asked for us to leave. He said we didn't own a magazine! We explained him about the Internet, but we had no chance and went to the fans department, without making too much trouble. I felt so very sorry for fedora, because the last time in London, when she was so lucky to meet Michael, her fieldreport was kept exclusive for a fan-magazine and now she had to leave the press stand too.
Anyway, Papa Bear and I took new seats and laughed about all the commotion.
The Press Conference started and we tried to listen to Marcel Avram (Mama Concerts & Rau), and representatives from The International Federation of Red Cross (very nice lady!), MCY.com (the internet site that will show the concert live online) and Olympia Stadium. Marcel was very popular among the fans and he got some loving chants, hee hee! Marcel We Love You!!
He told us a few new names of performers that would also be at the concert: The Kelly Family, Sasha and another one, but I forgot her name, lol.
The filming press was ordered to take places behind a line on the left side of the party-tent that was placed on the soccer field, right in front of the fans department. The fans had the BEST view!! LOL!!
In the meantime Teddy Lakis was directing the Fans-Choir, LOL! The Michael music was played very loud in the stadium and ofcourse we all started singing with SCREAM, Earth Song, Money, 2 Bad.....it was obvious the 2nd CD from HIStory album!!
Finally, they played Heal The World , we waved our arms, sang along and there was Michael!!!!!
The two black vans entered the soccerfield and we all screamed like nuts!!!
The vans stopped, the bodyguards jumped out, Teddy rushed forward and Michael stepped out of the van!!!!!!! He was dressed in black, black shirt, black pants with a cool black belt decorated with a silver emblem. His shoes were black shiny polished boots (oh how I love those!!!!). Ofcourse he was wearing his black fedora and sunglasses, but NO MASK!
He walked up to the fans and was obviously surprised that we were all there, he waved at us, blew kisses and we could see him say I LOVE YOU!
He kept on pointing at banners and waved to the fans. Then he was directed in the ridge tent where he couldn't stop smiling and giggling because we screamed so much! At one point he was so shy that he hid himself behind the back of the MCY.com-man, LOL!!, who was waiting with the 50.000 $ check to hand over to Michael. A fan threw a little grey/pink pluche cuddly toy to Michael and he took it in his hands, hiding his face behind it, was so funny! Michael made greatfull Thank You gestures to the fans, with both hands joined.....he looked so very gorgeous, so happy, relaxed and sweet!
He looked very healthy too, no sign of stress or being tired. He looked much better than last time in the Wetten Das show in Germany.
I was amazed by the aura that he carries around himself; his charisma is so loving and warm, .......like an Angel.............!!
I was touched very much by his presence there, being within seeing distance to Michael, about 5 to 7 meters in front of me......I will never forget those moments, they are pictured in my mind. Again, like the night before, he pointed at my banner ("Michael, do you need a babysit, call me!!!") and gave me thumbs UP!! I gestured a giving sign with both arms and shouted that I love him....!
Tears in my eyes, really!!!
The MCY.com-representative handed over the 50.000 $ cheque to Michael, as a donation for the good cause of the concert. The Olympia Stadium Manager handed over some Bayern Munchen soccer outfits for Michael's children, but Michael immediately donated them to the Kosovo kids! Cool!
The Red Cross lady was obviously having a nice conversation with Michael btw!
Then Michael was invited to take a walk across the soccer field and take a look at the stadium and show us where the stage would be (NORTH!!!). They played Billie Jean now!!!! As soon as he started walking, the filming press broke the line and followed him like real paparazzi, wow, it was horrible to see those wolves running for their prey!!! Michael put on his mask, I can imagine that, and he rushed back to his van with all those hunters around him, oh Michael, I felt so sorry for you!
Papa Bear was so accurate that he saw Michael's message on the electronic newstrailer in the stadium, it said: "SEE YOU ON JUNE 27TH IN MUNICH AT OUR BENEFIT CONCERT. I WILL BE THERE. I LOVE YOU. MICHAEL JACKSON"!!
cool!!!
Then Michael stepped back into his van, and the vans left the stadium...........
thank you so much Michael, we adore you, see you soon!!!!
Papa Bear and I left the fans department and left the stadium via the Press stand again. Before leaving there we received a promo poster for the concert, a promo letter (a press release) from Michael and we could take some pictures with us from the performing artists. I chose a picture from Slash, cool!, thanks to s.e.t. Photoproductions.
After that we managed to take a few BIG promoposters from the walls in the Press Room!
A reporter and photographer from a Munich newspaper approached me and asked me if I wanted to be interviewed in German for their paper. Ofcourse I wanted that and I told the lady all about my special love for Michael. My picture was taken several times, when I was standing next to the promoposter and I "kissed" Michael for the picture as well!! LOL
A Big "Thank You and we Love You" for all fans and MJIFC-chatfriends that we have met (again): fedora, summer, Blood, zappy, Bart, Lucky Girl, doo--doo, Maria Stauffer, Karolien, Celine and all the people we had fun with but from whom we don't know their names!!
Thanks also to Teddy Lakis, Skipper, Marcel Avram, MJIFC fanclub, the press-room receptionist (lol) , stadium security and everyone else who made these 2 days a great tme for us!
Thanks to Papa Bear and McDonalds for the chicken-mcnuggets and the drinks!
Thanks to the hotelclerk who served us Munich beer in the middle of the night!
It was 02.00 pm, we were tired from excitement. We walked back to our car and started our trip back to Holland.........my daughter was ill and I wanted to go back home to her.
Eventhough that I read in a Munich newspaper that morning that Michael would do some shopping in the citycenter that afternoon, I really wanted to go back home. I had my share of joy with seeing Michael.........it was a wonderful experience!!!
I love him even more!
We arrived home, in Holland, at 21.30 pm. The kids were so happy to see us back and we showed all our souvenirs and told them the complete story before they went to sleep.
The next morning I put the promoposter in front of the window of our house............VERY PROUD!!!!
I love you Michael!!!!
With all my heart........
Marjo
9 pictures attached, photo's by Peter Anspach Ócopyright ANOTHER PART OF ME
The first 12 pictures are from Associated Press (thank you!), and from the Westdeutsche
Allgemeine newspaper, the others are all personal pictures with copyright on them.