Michael Jackson was ready to perform 50 live shows before his tragic death, says Brit stage wizard Mark Cunniffe
MICHAEL JACKSON was more than ready to do his 50 London dates before he died, according to one of the last people to see him.
Brit Mark Cunniffe was the lighting programmer and operator for This Is It and saw *****'s final two rehearsals before he died, aged just 50, in June last year.
Mark has worked with many of the world's greatest performers including David Bowie, Rod Stewart, George Michael and Stevie Wonder.
He is also lending his vast technical ability to the Doctor Who Live arena tour that stops off at Glasgow SECC next month.
Like many, Mark wasn't sure *****, whose last 82-date world tour had been in 1996, could cut it again.
The 44-year-old said: "If he'd died two weeks before he'd done it, I'd have said he'd never have done it. But he performed a full show twice on Tuesday and Wednesday before he died and he nailed it both times.
"He was stopping to give us notes.
"I was devastated when he died. Even if he'd done one show, it would have been great to see him do it and take the accolades for it.
"I think it would have been one of his finest moments."
Mark, who worked on the Balamory and Tweenies tours and turned Edinburgh Castle into Hogwarts when JK Rowling read from Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, got the call to work for ***** through Stevie Wonder.
Mark - who married wife Annie in Aviemore and has three children Ellen, 13, Charlie, 10 and Jamie, seven - had been trying to stop his excessive touring.
But he grinned: "It was one of those things that you get the phone call and you don't turn round and say, 'I'm busy.'
"You drop everything. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with one of the biggest artists the world has ever seen."
After the briefest of hellos with arguably the greatest entertainer we've ever had, Mark was thrown straight into work. He said: "In our first meeting he was explaining the lighting notes for Billie Jean.
"It was six weeks before he died and before we moved to the Staples Center for the final rehearsals.
"He was telling me, 'I walk on stage, cock my hat, click my fingers and a light comes on.'
"I'm writing all this furiously. 'Then I move over, click fingers, light comes on. I turn to the audience, look this way, look that way, light comes on.'"
Mark is grinning at the memory. He said: "It becomes a surreal moment.
"Afterwards, I said thanks very much, Michael, went back to the control room and was straight on the phone to my kids saying, 'Guess who I've been speaking to.'"
Despite working with huge names, Mark admits the Doctor Who Live show is more of a challenge as it's a TV institution being turned into a stage show.
Mark admitted: "If I didn't have the people behind it, it would be scary."
Developed by Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat and directed by Will Brenton, the show promises to be an incredible event.
It opens in wartime London, baddies including the Daleks, the Weeping Angels and Cybermen appear and it concludes with an epic on-stage battle.
Current Doctor Matt Smith will appear in specially filmed sequences to be shown on a giant screen.
Nigel Planer will play the part of Vorgenson the Greatest Showman in the Galaxy. He uses his incredible invention, The Minimiser, to make any Doctor Who character appear on stage as part of a travelling show dedicated to his hero.
It is Mark's job to make the Weeping Angels - who will get you if you blink - believable to even the back row of the SECC.
There will be a massive 50 ft screen, lights - lots and lots of lights - pyrotechnics, optical illusions and special effects.
Mark said: "At first I was like, how the hell are we going to make a telly programme into an event?
"I grew up with it as a kid and remember hiding behind the couch like all of us used to do on the old Jon Pertwee series.
"But it's going to look incredible."
He refuses to give any secrets away about the plot or what the show will look like.
He said: "We could do an exhibition of all things great about Doctor Who and it would be fascinating but it wouldn't draw the audience in."
Mark has a very different life to the one he was supposed to have.
Born in St Helens, near Liverpool, his parents wanted him to study medicine.
But when they moved to Poole, Dorset, he fell in love with his school's auditorium and took over the lighting for school shows aged 16.
After studying theatre and design, Mark went into London's West End, working on Phantom Of The Opera, Miss Saigon and 42nd Street. In the Eighties big music shows were taking hold and at 22 Mark joined George Michael's Faith tour.
He said: "I used to stand at the side of the stage and the hairs at the back of my neck would stand on end.
"He's one of the greatest singer songwriters this country has ever produced. I wish we could see more of it."
Since then he's worked on shows for AC/DC, Jon Bon Jovi, Wet Wet Wet and Lulu.
Mark also spent 11 months on the road with David Bowie on his 2002 Reality tour which was cut short due to illness.
Mark said: "I hope he tours again and I'd love to think I'd be involved because it was a really, really successful tour and one he said was one of his most enjoyable."
So can he ever switch off if he's going to a gig? He said: "My wife Annie is a huge Robbie Williams fan so I took her to Hampden a few years ago for her 40th to see him.
"She's up on her feet dancing and I'm sat down looking at the lighting rig and video screens, noticing there's a problem with that and how did they do that.
"She looks down at me and shouts, 'Would you get up and dance.'
"But it's a busman's holiday for me. I even complain in restaurants if it's really badly lit and offer them advice."
Doctor Who Live is from October 14-17 at Glasgow SECC.
