July 2009
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Northern Ireland: "Leading Irish News cartoonist...
A brilliantly tenuous link from the Irish News, about a cartoonist who once draw MJ. It includes the superb line right at the end:
Mr Knox said he “didn’t feel any huge emotion” when he heard of Jackson’s death but admitted searching for the cartoon on line.
This story has touched us all. Here’s the article in full as it’s not accessible online:
AT the height of Jackson-mania,...
June 2009
23 posts
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Wandsworth: "King of pop dies ahead of O2 shows" →
This is quite a spectacular local link - to the extent that the story manages to link it to the local area despite Jackson NEVER HAVING BEEN THERE and only the POSSIBILITY THAT HE MIGHT HAVE DONE IN THE FUTURE, HAD HE NOT BEEN DEAD.
The music icon had planned to rent the manor in Kemnal Road for a year and use Biggin Hill airport to fly in and out of the borough.
Thanks to @Ryaneweir.
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Yorkshire: "Michael Jackson at Roundhay Park 1988" →
Hmm, that’s odd - when I went to buy a newspaper today, all they seemed to be selling were oldspapers.
More than 60,000 fans turned out for the concert which was hailed at the time by critics as “perhaps the most dazzling two hours of showmanship ever witnessed in Britain.”
This article would fail the Wikipedia “weasel words” test as it’s full of wooly...
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Derby: "Michael Jackson's album sales up by 500%... →
We’ve changed the in-store CD! Quick, phone the papers!
Derby outlets of HMV and Tesco have witnessed a ten-fold increase in sales, whereas Asda, in Spondon, has seen a rise of 500%.
Yesterday the HMV store, in East Street, Derby, was playing Jackson hits in tribute to the star.
Thanks to @Alun.
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Bournemouth: "The day Jacko played Poole" →
Bournemouth Echo got quite a coup They managed to talk a GLAZIER about Jackson. That’ll teach those bastards at the Bournemouth Post for getting all of that locally relevant news first.
Bournemouth glazier Nick Woods, a lifelong Jackson fan, did not believe the allegations but “I don’t believe Jackson helped himself, either,” he says.
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Cambridge: "Jackson’s legacy to live on in fans" →
Apparently copying pasting message boards is news these days - though Cambridge News does go one further and talk about an online retailer’s sales figures… which are relevant as the retailer are based in Histon, presumably in Cambridgeshire.
Helen Marquis, head of music at Histon-based Play.com, said sales of Jackson’s albums leapt 15,900 per cent yesterday as fans snapped up tens of...
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Gloucestershire: "King of Pop Jackson dies" →
This is almost relevant and proper. ALMOST. It quotes a “close friend” of Jackson who’s godfather to his kids. The paper is at pains to point out it’s local relevance though:
One of Jackson’s closest friends is child actor turned osteopath, Mark Lester, who works and lives in Gloucestershire.
Cheltenham-based Lester, who shot to fame as a child star in Oliver!,...
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Portsmouth: "Heartbreak as fans mourn King of Pop" →
Like Burton (see below), Portsmouth have also taking the “reporting what some guy said” angle, and used three of the million people who had tickets to see Jackson at the O2 as quotes. They have gone a step further though, and interviewed who I assume in Jackson’s personal doctor, to get her analysis of what caused is death - conviniently she was a “friend” of one of...
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Burton: "Tributes pour in for Jacko" →
This is amazing. The people in this article didn’t even meet Jackson. It is literally just a story about what some guy reckons. The angle is he’s a student doing a BTEC in music, which on the relevance scale is somewhere between having once listened to a Michael Jackson song and being a plastic surgeon.
Meanwhile, shock at the reclusive star’s death has also been felt in Burton and...
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Glasgow: "Michael Jackson: A star from start to... →
Here’s the memories of someone who worked at a hotel he stayed at, and wasn’t actually a fan of Jackson or anything. Great work, Glasgow Evening Times.
“His visit was one of the highlights of my time there. I was never a Michael Jackson fan, but was given tickets for the concert, which was electrifying. I was at Take That last week but he was easily better than them.
...
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Birmingham: "Michael Jackson: When King of Pop got... →
I might try ringing up my local paper to see if they’ll print a story about the time I saw Michael Jackson on TV.
“I actually drove him myself in a hired Ford Granada. I think he was quite nonplussed with being in Birmingham in the snow in February.
Can’t imagine why.
Birmingham: "Midlands pop stars remember meeting... →
Oh no, a major celebrity is dead! Call the has-been-celebrity-rent-a-quote-hotline! The thing that makes it relevant is that it’s a MIDLANDS celebrity - not a “LONDON” celebrity, oh no. I bet the editor was secretly hoping that Jasper Carrot had met Jacko, rather than this nobody…
MIDLAND pop stars and celebrities today paid tributes to Pop King Michael Jackson as...
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Ipswich: "Jackson's death pushes up sales" →
The Ipswich Evening Star have managed to subtly add a local angle to the “People are buying Michael Jackson albums” story. Can you spot how?
HUNDREDS of stunned Michael Jackson fans have been flooding Ipswich town centre looking to get their hands on any Jacko memorabilia they can. As the region joins the world’s population in trying to come to terms with the superstar’s...
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Bristol: "Bristol pays tribute to Michael Jackson" →
Say what you will about the slow decline of local journalism, but you can’t deny that sometimes they do get the scoop. The Bristol Evening Post managed to get the assistant manager of the Broadmeads branch of HMV:
Tim Minett, assistant manager at Broadmead’s HMV store, said lots of people have been buying Jackson’s albums yesterday.
He said: “We have been playing his...
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Exeter: "The day Jacko came to town" →
A whole article reminicing about the day Jacko went to the Westcountry (!). I’m glad they reported this though, as I was dying to know how the former chairman of Exeter football club thought about Jackson’s death - apparently he was saddened. I was expecting “delighted”.
God knows what these country bumpkins would make of London though - there’s celebs here ALL THE...
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Midlands: "Bev Bevan: The day I met Michael... →
This looks like a typical tenuous memory, but this person who “met” Jackson thirty one years ago… NEVER ACTUALLY SPOKE TO HIM.
Musician and radio presenter Bev Bevan has recalled the day he met Michael Jackson, who died last night at the age of 50.
The musician made the revelations in his Sunday Mercury blog.
He said: “I recall the day I met Michael Jackson backstage in...
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Middlesbrough: "Tributes by Teessiders who met... →
I hope when I’m dead they ask my tribute acts how devasted they are.
TEESSIDERS who have met Michael Jackson today spoke of their devastation at the death of the King of Pop.
Distraught John Amoah, a Michael Jackson tribute act, says his idol’s death feels like “losing a brother.”
John, of Middlesbrough, has worshipped the superstar since childhood, when he and his brothers used to...
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Salford: "Salford singer's laughs with tragic... →
Man alive, this is weak…
THE Salford soul singer who opened for Michael Jackson at the Manchester Apollo in 1979 believes it was the pressure of preparing for a gruelling tour which led to the star’s heart attack. Dougie James, who took part in a 10-date tour that year with The Jackson Five, blames music business pressure on the singer on the eve of a 50-concert stint at the 02...
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Manchester: "Schoolboy's Thriller tribute" →
“Kid does dance”. And to think if *I* did the Thriller dance in the street, people would just cross the road to avoid me, thinking that I was mentally ill.
LITTLE James Howarth paid tribute to the King of Pop with an impromptu performance of Thriller before a Michael Jackson tribute show. James, six, from Ramsbottom was among hundreds of fans at Manchester’s Opera theatre for...
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Preston: "Lancashire fans mourn 'King of Pop'" →
From the Lancashire Evening Post, in which they reported verbatim a conversation that probably NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD had on Thursday night:
Fans in Lancashire today paid tribute to Michael Jackson as news of his death filtered around the world.
Pam Satchwell, 55, originally of Ribbleton, saw the Jackson 5 when they rolled into Preston in February 1979. She found out about Michael...
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Leicester: "Thriller star in tribute to King of... →
All of the submissions so far have been papers from the same parent company. Did the DMGT send a memo from head office? “Forget covering local government and holding local authorities to account, get your best man on Jacko, instantly!”.
Tributes to the King of Pop have been led by a teenager from Leicester currently starring in a West End musical about Michael Jackson’s life.
...
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Croydon: "Croydon girls who sang with Michael... →
Flagged up as an exclusive, lest those bastards at the South London Guardian get the story first.
News of superstar Michael Jackson’s tragic demise has stunned the world since it was announced.
And two Croydon girls who have more reason than most to be reeling are Channel Staple and Mary Noel, who joined the legendary showman onstage the last time he was ever to perform in the UK.
Today...
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Plymouth: "Plymouth photographer covering death of... →
A PLYMOUTH photographer working in Los Angeles has today spoken of the incredible scenes after the news that Michael Jackson has died.
The 50-year-old singer suffered a cardiac arrest yesterday at his home off Sunset Boulevard, LA, and arrived at hospital in a coma.
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Plymouth: "'It's like losing a member of family'" →
MICHAEL JACKSON was a way of life to Plymouth couple Sam and Sarah Davidson
The husband and wife used to come home from work, log on to the internet and follow what Jacko had been up to during the day.
And Sam and Sarah did that every day for years.