ICONIC pop legend Michael Jackson might have played Newry Town Hall.
Well, he might have if Gabby Curran had got his way.
The King of Pop’s passing has prompted the Newry man to tell all about a close-encounter thatalmost-was when Jacko played Cork at the peak of his career.
The well-known O’Neill Avenue music fan was one of the many thousands who made the journey to see the Irish leg of the Bad tour in 1988.
“There was about 10 of us altogether and we hit Cork on the Saturday evening, the day before the show,” he recalled.
“Cork was chaotic, it seemed as if the whole of Ireland was there, so we decided the safest thing to do was get out of it as quickly as possible.
“We decided to head to Blarney and stay the night there. Anyway the next morning was a real scorcher. So there I was heading to clean myself up when a busload of yanks pulled up. They were all wearing Bad Tour jackets and it turned out they were the tour’s road crew.
“Next thing I see this huge white stretch limo and this boyo with a fuzzy wig, hat and huge sunglasses gets out, along with two big burly boys.
But the weirdest thing was the sun was splitting the trees and he was wearing a long black overcoat. I thought to myself ‘you are a strange boy’.”
Thinking no more of it, Gabby and his companions went off for a day’s sight-seeing.
“We went to the Blarney Stone and Castle and who did I spot in the middle of a crowd of big Yanks but the limo man.
So I says to the ones I was with, ‘That weird looking fella over there – that’s Michael Jackson’. “They paid me no heed. So I says to one of the big Yanks, ‘here boy would you ask Michael there if he’ll come and do a gig in Newry Town Hall?’
“The Yanks asked where Newry was and when I told them they laughed and said ‘sure we’ll ask him.’ So I thought, I’d do better than that and ask him myself.
“I walked into the middle of their crowd towards the boyo, with my hand held out ready for a handshake. Wrong thing to do – the Yanks were on me like a ton of bricks and yelling ‘back off’.
“They formed a wall around the fella and that was the end of that. So, that’s the story of how I met Michael Jackson. He never made it to Newry but that concert in Cork was phenomenal and one I’ll remember for the rest of my days.”