Subtle changes during tours that you've spotted

analogue

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Are there any subtle changes that Michael made during a tour that you've picked up on that other people might not have? This could could be anything from costumes, dancing, lightning, singing, how the band plays etc.


One that sticks out to me is the BAD Tour 1988 silver costume. In the early shows you'll see that the costume has no zipper, but then on the later shows the zipper was added.

Early shows without the zipper
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Later shows with the zipper
michael-jackson-in-concert-at-wembley-15th-july-1988-BCBK2D.jpg
 
Oh wow, I never noticed the change in that silver shirt. Good observation. I wonder why the stage on the Dangerous Tour was different in concerts after July (until it returned in Romania)? It used to rise and descend in Thriller, Billie Jean, and Heal The World, and then it was a normal stage. Also, when watching the show in Olso and then the one in Copenhagen, the microphone’s color transforms from purple to white. It seems that the purple microphone was used until the Oslo show and a white one was used in shows after that.
 
1.
michael danced different at Rock With You on the first shows of the bad tour 1988 (see kansas). At the end of the of the second verse after michael sings
"when you feel that beat". Then there is always that little drum solo. He danced more like in 87 shows.
1:47




2.
On the 1988/89 leg of the bad tour they changed a little part of "Heartbreak Hotel".
There is a little break after he sings "live and sin". You hear hear only two piano notes and then the band comes back in. On the 1987 leg they simply didn't do that break.
compare it ;)
 
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I could be wrong, but the shoes he uses do to the Smooth Criminal lean on the HIStory Tour looks different to the shoes he used on the Dangerous Tour. The HIStory Tour shoes look less bulky. Which probably made it easier for him to dance in.
 

2.
On the 1988/89 leg of the bad tour they changed a little part of "Heartbreak Hotel".
There is a little break after he sings "live and sin". You hear hear only two piano notes and then the band comes back in. On the 1987 leg they simply didn't do that break.
compare it ;)
They inserted a similar break towards the end of Jam during the '93 leg of the Dangerous Tour, which had not been there in '92. They kept that in for Brunei too, and it was rehearsed that way for This Is It as well.
 
They inserted a similar break towards the end of Jam during the '93 leg of the Dangerous Tour, which had not been there in '92. They kept that in for Brunei too, and it was rehearsed that way for This Is It as well.

That's something I didn't pay attention to. Gonna watch the Royal Brunei performance to see
 
During the '93 leg of the Dangerous Tour Michael Jackson's silver satin jacket (used during JAM) was replaced by the iconic golden belts one. However, not only the colors have changed. The right sleeve of the jacket was cut off because Michael was having a hard time with the long sleeve covering his white armbrace.
 
Michael had different kind of shoes during some concerts in 1996:
[video=youtube;l7tQQnK3_1M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7tQQnK3_1M[/video]

The heel was metallic color. You can see it clearly when he does the toe stand.

Serious Effect;4304786 said:
Oh wow, I never noticed the change in that silver shirt. Good observation. I wonder why the stage on the Dangerous Tour was different in concerts after July (until it returned in Romania)? It used to rise and descend in Thriller, Billie Jean, and Heal The World, and then it was a normal stage. Also, when watching the show in Olso and then the one in Copenhagen, the microphone’s color transforms from purple to white. It seems that the purple microphone was used until the Oslo show and a white one was used in shows after that.

It possible that they had two stages during the tour and only one of them had the moving stage. When they are setting up a show in one city the other crew is en route to other city at the same time.
 
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Not much of a subtle change, but there are two different versions of the 1992 Jam costume

michael-jackson-dangerous-tour-wembley-stadium-london-britain-aug-1992-shutterstock-editorial-203423a.jpg


009_300x100000.jpg
 
The belts and straps on his pants. In Tokyo shows you see Michael switches them from time to time, in Brisbane, he has both of them. In the U.S. shows all the way to the first show in Rotterdam he uses belts and from the next Rotterdam show until the Bad Tour Finale in L.A. he uses straps.

Tokyo 87’ (Bad Tour Premiere)
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Yokohama 87’
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Brisbane 87’
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Rome 88’
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Los Angeles 89’
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It possible that they had two stages during the tour and only one of them had the moving stage. When they are setting up a show in one city the other crew is en route to other city at the same time.
When watching the concert in Bremen, the stage is clearly not the moving type used in the earlier June/July shows in Munich, Cologne, Oslo, Copenhagen, etc. It is as if the moving stage was no longer in function in the shows in August and September until it returned in Romania and Japan. There are some amateur shots of these later shows (Frankfurt, Barcelona, Oviedo, Madrid, etc.), where the stage is shown to not be the moving type.
 
The Dangerous Tour concert in Toulouse, France in mid September 1992 did have that moving stage as it can be seen in the amateur clip.
 
The lead-in to the guitar section during TDCAU is slightly different when comparing the 1996 (including Hawaii) and 1997 legs of the HIStory tour.

1996:



1997:

 
Not much of a tour change, but I just noticed that in Brisbane 87, the black jacket Michael wore in Bad (with Stevie Wonder) is the one he wore in WBSS in Australia 87 and the 88 leg. Oh and what was up with the outfit worn for Bad in Japan 87? 88 and 89 leg had almost the full costume with the buckles and everything

WBSS Brisbane:

tNl9pAC.jpg


Bad Brisbane:

DyKeHPg.jpg


WBSS Rome:

6v4Z6LE.jpg
 
The lead-in to the guitar section during TDCAU is slightly different when comparing the 1996 (including Hawaii) and 1997 legs of the HIStory tour.

never noticed that! :)
 
Not much of a tour change, but I just noticed that in Brisbane 87, the black jacket Michael wore in Bad (with Stevie Wonder) is the one he wore in WBSS in Australia 87 and the 88 leg. Oh and what was up with the outfit worn for Bad in Japan 87? 88 and 89 leg had almost the full costume with the buckles and everything

WBSS Brisbane:

tNl9pAC.jpg


Bad Brisbane:

DyKeHPg.jpg


WBSS Rome:

6v4Z6LE.jpg

Also don't forget that he started wearing the white stripped pants in the Australian leg :)
 
During the Bad tour in 87/88 he was wearing a white crew neck shirt during songs like Billie Jean and MITM, but on the last night of the tour in 89 it was a v-neck shirt like during the Dangerous tour.
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Not much of a tour change, but I just noticed that in Brisbane 87, the black jacket Michael wore in Bad (with Stevie Wonder) is the one he wore in WBSS in Australia 87 and the 88 leg. Oh and what was up with the outfit worn for Bad in Japan 87? 88 and 89 leg had almost the full costume with the buckles and everything

WBSS Brisbane:

tNl9pAC.jpg


Bad Brisbane:

DyKeHPg.jpg


WBSS Rome:

6v4Z6LE.jpg

That's a good one. Never noticed it.
 
Michael had different kind of shoes during some concerts in 1996:

The heel was metallic color. You can see it clearly when he does the toe stand.
For some reason the second moonwalk in most of the 1996 Billie Jeans was particularly "bad". I get the impression the metallic heels allowed him to spin longer but the leather soles in 1997 were smoother. Not sure if the shoes affected that or if it was intentional.

Of course there's also the countless changes in dance moves for Billie Jean and especially Stranger in Moscow. I get the vibe that SIM was the most impressive at the end of the tour, but other songs seemed more lacklustre (like holding the mic in Dangerous or the half-ass lean in Smooth Criminal). Billie Jean is a mixed bag. Seems like he had a smoother moveset for the spotlight endings but the first half of the song tended to be weaker. Vocally he sounded weaker but he was singing more ad-libs than much of the first leg (except late 96 performances where the mic was turned on earlier)
 
On the Bad Tour I have noticed these changes starting from the Paris concert June 27th 1988 and onwards whe it comes to vocals and sounds effects:

That "Woom, woom, woom" bass sound effect you can hear during the Human Nature robot dance in the early European concerts like in Rome was not present.

During the dance instrumental part of Rock With You, Michael started to ad-lib the line "Shake your thing! Come on yeah!"

In Smooth Criminal, Michael started to ad-lib the line "I don't know" fully during whole first ad-lib section of the chorus, instead of going into with "Dad gone it, hoo" from the second half of the ad-lib section.

In Billie Jean after the first moonwalk Michael started to ad-lib the line "You know what you did, baby! You know what you did, baby!"
 
After the Bad tour MJ stopped dragging out the line in billie jean "People always told meee" as he does on the album version and on the Victory and Bad Tours.
 
After the Bad tour MJ stopped dragging out the line in billie jean "People always told meee" as he does on the album version and on the Victory and Bad Tours.
Well, technically, he did do it, but not live, as he lipsynched it on the HIStory World Tour and in other performances after the 80s, so...

But in terms of live vocals, then yeah, Mike did not put emphasis on "meee" on the live performances of the Dangerous World Tour.
 
After the Bad tour MJ stopped dragging out the line in billie jean "People always told meee" as he does on the album version and on the Victory and Bad Tours.

I love this kind of variation. Michael Jackson's live vocals were always unique.
 
They also made some subtle changes to the video (with segments of his music videos and highlights of his career) that was played on the video walls right before the ‘Billie Jean’ performance during the HIStory Tour.

The video of the earlier HIStory concerts was longer and included shots that were cut from the later HIStory concerts.

For example, in the later HIStory concerts, towards the end of that video they cut his ‘Human Nature’ pose, but they also cut the ‘Thriller’ scene in which while hugging Ola Ray he turns to the camera smiling with these scary eyes.
 
On the first 6 shows of the HIStory tour,Michael peformed Thriller with the Red Jacket (Made with FDNY Reflective material)
But that one kept getting damage and on the Amsterdam shows He wore a Different jacket.
Starting from the next show in Tunis,The White Leather Jacket was used for the rest of the tour

120287678_1272005496471105_7967134742386510057_n.jpg
 
In 1992 dangerous tour, his mic was off during the entire dance routine of Smooth Criminal until the last live line. In 1993, his mic was on so that he shouted the live "Ahhh!" when he did the post in the dance routine.

https://youtu.be/-xBpbqt5guo?t=291

This did not appear in Argentina, but appeared in many other concerts such as Mexico and Brazil. However, in the clip above, his lips were barely moving, which is kinda strange.
 
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