1/7/15

AEG - More Evidence of Intent and Greed

I want to post this because it drives me crazy hearing these stories.  I've been reviewing the site I posted on previously and the news person responsible seems legitimate.  The dates of the entries correspond with the time that events were happening in Michael's life that the public did not know about.  Some of these events were just made public at the AEG vs Katherine Jackson trial.

I couldn't stand reading this without getting angry. This is part of the Newshounds post dated 4/15/2009 and it's title is:

50 Nights in London. A Jackson press conference retrospective

It's obvious here that the "50 nights" were decided upon very early on by AEG and Tohme Tohme, not 10 nights as told to Michael.  I am underlining some words in this writing because this reporter reported this information years before it became public.  A drunk a despondent Michael, as previously described by Randy Phillips of AEG, is now colored an angry man refusing to do a press conference.  Why?  Randy Phillips and Tohme Tohme had just added shows that Michael was refusing to do.  This is complete control over Michael's life.  Of course he would be angry.  I'm posting the video footage of Michael's announcement of the This is It show below.  I remember this, I saw it, he was angry ..."This is It, I mean it. . these will be my last performances . ."  

If you read further down below, you'll also find out WHY AEG Live added so many shows.  They were LOSING money.  Another company headed for losses looking for Michael to recoup them. It's easy to say someone is unreliable when you schedule a press conference, say they are going to take part in a concert, but when that person DID NOT agree to it, that's hardly unreliable people, that's just plain manipulation.

The Newshound can exclusively reveal that Jackson had barricaded himself in his hotel room and spent several hours refusing to attend the press conference. Minders were forced to stand in the hotel corridor and plead with him through the door to his room. By the time he was persuaded to leave, he was already significantly late for the announcement. Meanwhile, at the O2, PR staff were becoming concerned and irritable.

Once at the O2 Jackson remained reluctant to take the stage. After Dermot O'Leary introduced the star, it was several minutes before he eventually stepped through the curtains. Footage of the press conference on the star's official website was later edited to give the impression that he had sauntered immediately onstage.

When Jackson did take the stage he abandoned his teleprompter and gave a disjointed speech. Rather than the upbeat concert announcement fans had expected, they were instead subjected to a rambling retirement announcement in which Jackson sounded audibly irritated by the fact that he was to perform again, sternly informing the audience, "This is the final curtain call, OK?"
Caitlin Moran later wrote of the event, "He seems borderline tetchy about being here at all... It sounds like a weary warning. I will not be performing for you now, is the subtext. I will give you nothing else... After announcing that the concerts will be in July, and that he loves us all so, Jackson is gone - giving four minutes to people who have been waiting five hours, and 12 years, and a lifetime."

After Jackson left the stage one young female follower was carried from the building, sobbing that Jackson had sounded angry with his fans.

Reports suggested that Jackson later returned to his hotel drunk and complaining loudly about the prospect of his live comeback.

Since Jackson's announcement British tabloids have been awash with stories surrounding the upcoming concerts. These have included stories about four separate properties Jackson will supposedly live in (Rod Stewart's Essex mansion, a house on the Thames so he can travel to the concerts by boat, a castle built atop a network of haunted caves and a private house in suburban East London), stories about Jackson hiring David Copperfield to help orchestrate magic tricks, and suggestions that Jackson will enter the stage astride an elephant.

The Newshound can reveal that most, if not all of these stories, are false - but they are not the concoctions of tabloid reporters. The stories are in fact being systematically planted on an almost daily basis by concert promoters AEG Live, who have developed an obsession with keeping the concerts in the headlines.

The reason? Although the official line is that all of the concerts are sold out, the company is facing a ticketing crisis.

Just days after the concerts were announced, 'The Times' revealed that AEG Live had secretly given up to 1000 tickets per concert to commercialized touting company Viagogo. The tickets would be sold at inflated prices on the condition that both companies shared the profits.

At the time a spokesperson defended the move, saying, "To suggest that there won't be a premium market is unrealistic." Indeed. But isn't that why several blocks of seats at each concert were reserved for £800-a-ticket premium packages?

After reserving several blocks per show for official premium packages and donating up to a further 1000 tickets per show to Viagogo, almost 10% of all seats for the residency were being sold for hugely inflated prices. That is without taking into account the number of business-minded buyers who snaffled tickets in the official sales with the specific intention of re-selling them for several times their face value on Ebay.

Consequently, although the shows are officially billed as 'sold out', somewhere in the region of 50,000-100,000 tickets currently remain onsale in the form of VIP packages on Ticketmaster, overpriced tickets on Seatwave and Viagogo and countless tickets being touted on Ebay.

AEG now has a dilemma on its hands. The company has fallen victim to its own greed. Bosses accurately predicted that the shows would be immensely popular and would sell out, leaving a huge excess demand. What they over-estimated, however, was the number of people who could actually afford to pay hundreds of pounds for a concert ticket.


When you watch the video below I want you to notice the things I did.  Michael walking into the conference tailed by Tohme.  Notice how Michael pulls his arm away from Tohme before he walks in.  My personal knowledge, with Michael?  Let's just say this tone of voice is what I used to hear. Lower in tone.  And him backing away from the microphone like that?  He's trying to gain his composure. He loved his fans but not what was just done to him. This wasn't a drunk and despondent man, as once stated by Randy Phillips of AEG Live.  This was a pissed off man that had just been conned trying to be nice in front of his fans.  Lastly, let's not forget the last scene; the clenched fist.  Mr Mandela remembers this one. A symbol for solidarity and those who are oppressed. 





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