Was there ever a plan for a ‘Thriller Tour’?

dethorro

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I was thinking about this....do you guys think that Michael would have toured for ‘Thriller’ if the ‘Victory Tour’ didn’t happen?

Did Michael even want to tour or was the promotion campaign supposed to stop completely after the ‘Thriller’ short film?
 
I don't know... Maybe yes maybe not. But Thriller was an album so sucessful, that maybe Michael didn't think it needed any tour to promote the album. But if we really want to know, there is only one person who could answer that, but unfortunately that person is not here anymore :(
 
The Victory Tour is the Thriller Tour just with a different name... In fact it has more songs from the Thriller album than from Victory (not even a song from that album was performed).
So, I'm sure that the Victory Tour increased the album sales of Thriller despite not being a MJ solo tour.
 
If you dont consider victory tour the unofficial "thriller tour", then I would say that the album was so successful that he didnt need to tour. He just finished touring the year before with his brothers so I'm assuming he just wanted to relax. He also probably wanted to get his dancing perfected (which is one of the reasons he didnt want to do victory tour imo).
 
After Motown 25, I think Thriller sales skyrocketed to the point where a tour was not necessary. Although, didn’t Michael want to do one, but Katharine insisted on another Jacksons Tour?
 
There were no plans for a Thriller Tour (even if the Victory Tour did not happen), mainly because of the ‘Thriller’ music video.

The ‘Thriller’ music video (released in November, 1983) played a huge role in that because it boosted so much the sales of that album to the point where it made totally unnecessary a possible Thriller Tour in the following months.

In reality, the phenomenal impact of the ‘Thriller’ music video on the sales of that album made unnecessary at the time any other way of promotion of the ‘Thriller’ album.

Also, there was an additional reason for the fact that Michael Jackson never planned a Thriller Tour.

He had only two adult studio albums by that time (‘Off The Wall’, ‘Thriller’) which did not give him enough songs to perform them on stage on a solo tour.

This meant that for embarking on a tour he also needed his big hits with the Jackson 5/The Jacksons, which in turn led to the Victory Tour where he performed on stage with his brothers.
 
mj_frenzy;4279659 said:
There were no plans for a Thriller Tour (even if the Victory Tour did not happen), mainly because of the ‘Thriller’ music video.

The ‘Thriller’ music video (released in November, 1983) played a huge role in that because it boosted so much the sales of that album to the point where it made totally unnecessary a possible Thriller Tour in the following months.

In reality, the phenomenal impact of the ‘Thriller’ music video on the sales of that album made unnecessary at the time any other way of promotion of the ‘Thriller’ album.

Also, there was an additional reason for the fact that Michael Jackson never planned a Thriller Tour.

He had only two adult studio albums by that time (‘Off The Wall’, ‘Thriller’) which did not give him enough songs to perform them on stage on a solo tour.

This meant that for embarking on a tour he also needed his big hits with the Jackson 5/The Jacksons, which in turn led to the Victory Tour where he performed on stage with his brothers.

I heavily disagree with this.

Shake Your Body
Heartbreak Hotel
DSTYGE
Working Day And Night
Rock With You
Get On The Floor
Off The Wall
WBSS
Beat It
Billie Jean
Lady In My Life
PYT
Human Nature
Thriller
She's Out Of My Life
J5 Medley
Ben

That's just off the top of my head. MJ had enough material for a thriller solo tour.
 
You can basically say that the victory tour was the thriller tour before he goes solo. he probably was thinking about going solo for a long time but really didn't do it or said it until the last victory tour and the bad era.
 
One more thing to point out most people went to the victory tour for Michael in the first place. if Michael wasn't there i really don't think a lot people would had gone. the album didn't do good but it made thriller sales go up even more after it.

kind of find it sad that people only went for Michael. his brothers was jealous of him. also I hate the fact his mom and dad force him to do it. Michael knew it wasn't a good idea. not to mention the Pepsi accident which he knew wasn't an great idea. they should of just went with Quaker. pepsi did give him business (still does in someways) but also ruin him too.
 
One more thing to point out most people went to the victory tour for Michael in the first place. if Michael wasn't there i really don't think a lot people would had gone. the album didn't do goodut it made thriller sales go up even more after it.

kind of find it sad that people only went for Michael. his brothers was jealous of him. also I hate the fact his mom and dad force him to do it. Michael knew it wasn't a good idea. not to mention the Pepsi accident which he knew wasn't an great idea. they should of just went with Quaker. pepsi did give him business (still does in someways) but also ruin him too.

Actually the album did very well and is in fact The Jacksons highest selling album to date, selling over more than 7 million copies. State Of Shock peaked at #3 and it was doing incredibly good overseas in Europe. They could have made Victory a world tour by that point as was the original plan but MJ shot that down.
 
There was. It's called the Victory Tour because it was their latest released album.
 
You guys are forgetting one aspect that I consider super important. Michael didn't wanted to go on Victory Tour. So, even though he performed some of Thriller songs in that tour, he didn't wanted to tour with his brothers. I think he didn't consider that tour, the Thriller tour, because of that. It was something he didn't planned to do.
 
When Michael Jackson had released Thriller in 1981 he could already have made a Greatest Hits tour...
 
You guys are forgetting one aspect that I consider super important. Michael didn't wanted to go on Victory Tour. So, even though he performed some of Thriller songs in that tour, he didn't wanted to tour with his brothers. I think he didn't consider that tour, the Thriller tour, because of that. It was something he didn't planned to do.

Probably. we don't know for sure because none of us are Michael. he was known changing plans.
 
Speaking of Victory Tour & Thriller songs, is there any sources/proof that Thriller was planned to be performed? Wikipedia, in terms of Michael Jackson Tours, is unreliable & has absolutely no sources. Anyone have a source?
 
Speaking of Victory Tour & Thriller songs, is there any sources/proof that Thriller was planned to be performed? Wikipedia, in terms of Michael Jackson Tours, is unreliable & has absolutely no sources. Anyone have a source?
I dont have any solid source, however Ive heard that MJ didnt like how it sounded live yet/didnt want to perform it with his brothers. How accurate that is im not sure.
 
mj_frenzy;4279659 said:
Also, there was an additional reason for the fact that Michael Jackson never planned a Thriller Tour.

He had only two adult studio albums by that time (‘Off The Wall’, ‘Thriller’) which did not give him enough songs to perform them on stage on a solo tour.

This meant that for embarking on a tour he also needed his big hits with the Jackson 5/The Jacksons, which in turn led to the Victory Tour where he performed on stage with his brothers.

Seems like speculation.

There are 19 songs across those two albums. Had he performed all of them plus the standard Motown Medley ("I Want You Back"/"The Love You Save"/"I'll Be There"), it would have been one of the longest set lists of his career: 6 more songs than the Triumph and Victory tours, 2-3 more than the Bad tour, 3-5 more than the Dangerous tour, 1 more than the HIStory tour, and tied with (one of the many configurations for) This Is It.

Plus, if Michael was comfortable enough to completely recycle the Victory tour set list, tack on three new songs, and call it the Bad tour, I'm sure he would have been fine making do with only two studio albums.

This is silly reasoning for him not going out on his own.
 
Themidwestcowboy;4279667 said:
I heavily disagree with this.

Shake Your Body
Heartbreak Hotel
DSTYGE
Working Day And Night
Rock With You
Get On The Floor
Off The Wall
WBSS
Beat It
Billie Jean
Lady In My Life
PYT
Human Nature
Thriller
She's Out Of My Life
J5 Medley
Ben

That's just off the top of my head. MJ had enough material for a thriller solo tour.

AlwaysThere;4279817 said:
Seems like speculation.

There are 19 songs across those two albums. Had he performed all of them plus the standard Motown Medley ("I Want You Back"/"The Love You Save"/"I'll Be There"), it would have been one of the longest set lists of his career: 6 more songs than the Triumph and Victory tours, 2-3 more than the Bad tour, 3-5 more than the Dangerous tour, 1 more than the HIStory tour, and tied with (one of the many configurations for) This Is It.

Plus, if Michael was comfortable enough to completely recycle the Victory tour set list, tack on three new songs, and call it the Bad tour, I'm sure he would have been fine making do with only two studio albums.

This is silly reasoning for him not going out on his own.

But he was not going to perform all of the 19 songs from his two adult studio albums on a possible Thriller Tour, only certain songs from these two albums.

If you add the runtime of these certain songs (from his two adult studio albums) with approximately 4 minutes for each song, and then you also add few more songs (like ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, or the standard 'J5/Motown Medley'), the total runtime of the set list hardly exceeds the one hour.

One hour of a set list is considered a very short duration of a concert (especially of a concert from a mega star named Michael Jackson), and the audience would certainly have complained, which would have given rise also to bad publicity.

Needless to say that songs like ‘P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)’, ‘Get On The Floor’, ‘The Lady In My Life’, etc, are songs that Michael Jackson was not going to perform them on stage.

He was aware at the time that his only two adult studio albums could not sustain a giant, solo world tour with an adequate concert's runtime.
 
Michael Had enough material for a Thriller solo Tour. 5 songs from Off The Wall, 5 songs from Thriller, and then the J5 Medley, Shake Your Body, Heartbreak Hotel, Things I Do For You and Lovely One. That's 15 songs in total. 14 songs were performed on the Victory Tour
 
MJ could have easily done a 'Thriller' tour.

Setlist could have gone something like:

Wanna be startin something
Workin' Day and Night
Human Nature
She's Out Of My Life

Rock with You/Off The Wall /DSTYGE Medley

Torture
Thiriller
Beat It

Never Can Say Goodbye

Jackson 5 Medley

Billie Jean
This Place Hotel
Shake Your Body
DSTYGE (Reprise)


Epic set list there!

Besides, so many solo songs from the early years he could have re-worked and put an adult live spin to.
 
I wish he would have performed One Day In Your Life on one of his solo tours. This might be blasphemy to some, but I would have removed I'll Be There in favor of it.
 
Seldervi;4279803 said:
Speaking of Victory Tour & Thriller songs, is there any sources/proof that Thriller was planned to be performed? Wikipedia, in terms of Michael Jackson Tours, is unreliable & has absolutely no sources. Anyone have a source?

I’m too lazy to find the exact quote, but Making Michael by Mike Smallcombe says Thriller was planned as part of Victory, but his family didn’t allow it because it went against his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing. Which is why by the time the Bad tour started in 1987, he stopped being a Jehovah’s Witness not only to perform Thriller but because of more creative freedom.
 
Hudson112;4280564 said:
I’m too lazy to find the exact quote, but Making Michael by Mike Smallcombe says Thriller was planned as part of Victory, but his family didn’t allow it because it went against his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing. Which is why by the time the Bad tour started in 1987, he stopped being a Jehovah’s Witness not only to perform Thriller but because of more creative freedom.

Literally makes more sense than "Didn't like the sound of it", where did that even come from. But thank you!

Also, you think this is the reason why Thriller wasn't performed in 2001? Because of his brothers performing those concerts? Just a thought.
 
Hudson112;4280564 said:
I’m too lazy to find the exact quote, but Making Michael by Mike Smallcombe says Thriller was planned as part of Victory, but his family didn’t allow it because it went against his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing. Which is why by the time the Bad tour started in 1987, he stopped being a Jehovah’s Witness not only to perform Thriller but because of more creative freedom.

I believe this much more than "He didn't like how it sounded." That would have been an excellent question to ask him in an interview.
 
I believe this much more than "He didn't like how it sounded." That would have been an excellent question to ask him in an interview.

Don't be ridiculous. People needed to ask the real important question like how much plastic surgery did he have. Asking Michael Jackson questions about his music? That's just silly
 
Literally makes more sense than "Didn't like the sound of it", where did that even come from. But thank you!

Also, you think this is the reason why Thriller wasn't performed in 2001? Because of his brothers performing those concerts? Just a thought.

Time restraints. Michael Bush made an all black Thriller jacket, as well as a Bad jacket but they were cut because of timing.
 
Hudson112;4280564 said:
I’m too lazy to find the exact quote, but Making Michael by Mike Smallcombe says Thriller was planned as part of Victory, but his family didn’t allow it because it went against his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing. Which is why by the time the Bad tour started in 1987, he stopped being a Jehovah’s Witness not only to perform Thriller but because of more creative freedom.
Why would the brothers care about that since most of them were not JWs at the time and Papa Joe never was one? The Torture video could be considered occult just like Thriller was and Jermaine had a song on his 1984 solo album called Escape From The Planet Of The Ant Men. I think it was likely the JW elders themselves, since Mike was planning to destroy the Thriller video because of them. John Landis talked him out of it and put the disclaimer at the beginning.
 
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