Don’t Hide Our Love (Apocalypse Sound AS180)
Olympic Stadium, Munich, Germany – June 4 & 6, 1997
Intro “Virtual Video,” Scream, They Don’t Care About Us, In The Closet, Wanna Be Startin’ Something, Stranger In Moscow, Smooth Criminal, You Are Not Alone, I Want You Back, The Love You Save, I’ll Be There, Billie Jean, Thriller, Beat It, Blood On The Dance Floor, Dangerous, Black Or White, Earth Song, Heal The World, History
In more releases meant to remember and appreciate Michael Jackson’s contribution to pop music comes Don’t Hide Our Love on the Apocalypse Sound label. This is edited from two shows in Munich in June 1997. Apocalypse Sound use the excellent quality transfer telecast recently on the Dutch RTL 5 channel including subtitles for the spoken parts. This footage was intended for a DVD for Christmas release. It was taped using High Definition cameras and the visuals are quite remarkable. It was never released since Jackson was not satisfied with the behind-the-scenes filming and laryngitis affecting his singing voice.
The second leg of what was Jackson’s final major tour started on May 31, 1997 at the Weserstadion in Bremen, Germany. Compared to the first half, the second added “Blood On The Dance Floor” (and which would be taken out after the August 19th Oslo show) and removed the “Off The Wall” medley and “The Way You Make Me Feel.”
All things being equal this is one of the best available document of the late nineties Michael Jackson live. The quality is outstanding, but it also presents the schizophrenic public image of Jackson incorporated into the iconography of the presentation. It is not at all incongruent for Jackson to balance his image between eastern-bloc fascist dictator and vulnerable little child. The show if filled with remarkable images in this vein. But of course the audience are there for the music which is a good summary of the hits even though it omits earlier material. Apocalypse Sound package the title in a cardboard DVD sleeve with images from the shoot.
