By Eric Talmadge

After a $3,500-a-head gala the day before, Michael Jackson attended another party in Tokyo for his less affluent fans, more than 1,000 of whom crowded a popular nightclub Friday for an evening with the King of Pop.

Tickets for Friday’s party went for $130, a fraction of the $3,500 that several hundred fans and business people paid for a chance to meet and greet Jackson the night before at a dinner held in his honour.

Jackson offered only brief remarks at the end of that six-hour party and did not perform.

At Friday’s party, guests — most in the 20s or 30s — were treated to a stage show of gospel singers, Michael Jackson impersonators, but were not given the one-on-one opportunity that “premium” ticket partygoers got the night before. Jackson watched the show from a second-floor VIP room.

Japan remains one of Jackson’s strongest fan bases, and Jackson fans have been out in force since his arrival in Tokyo on Sunday.

A screaming mob greeted him at the airport and more crowded outside a popular electronics shop that gave him the run of the store after-hours the following day. Before leaving Japan, Jackson was also scheduled to tour a U.S. Army base just south of Tokyo on Saturday.

Source: Associated Press