Hawaii’s premier promoter & DJ Tom Moffat (known to the locals as “Uncle”
Tom), who presented Michael Jackson in concert in 1997, has written a
autobiography with the assistance of author Jerry Hopkins.
The book details Uncle Tom’s life and experiences from being a DJ at various
Hawaii radio stations and from promoting and bringing the most legendary
entertainers in the world to Hawaii. The entertainers include Michael
Jackson, Janet Jackson, Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Liza
Minelli, Sammy Davis, Jr, ‘Nsync, and more.
The book entitled ‘The Showman of the Pacific: 50 Years of Radio and Rock
Stars’ includes numerous black/white and color photos. However, only a few
legendary entertainers have the honor of gracing an entire page with a
picture. Michael Jackson is one of them (page 194). Michael is also the
first picture on the cover of the book at the top left corner right next to
a picture of Uncle Tom and Elvis. The picture is from his arrival at the
Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel on January 2, 1997.
“Michael played to a total audience of over 65,000, a Hawaii record that
even the Rolling Stones couldn’t match.” (page 196)
In the book Uncle Tom states the following about his experience in getting
Michael Jackson to perform in concert in Hawaii:
“Hawaii’s biggest concert to date has to be Michael Jackson’s in 1997.
There’d been a lot of shows in the stadium by then, but nobody had a
sell-out. I did this deal on a handshake with Paul Gongaware, who
represented Michael’s World Tour, and I asked him what we should do if we
sold out the first morning of sales, because I thought we would. Michael was
in Southeast Asia, and by mid-morning, Hawaii time, we knew we had a
sell-out. We called Southeast Asia in the wee hours of the morning there and
got an okay for a second concert. But they didn’t know if Michael wanted to
do two shows in two days or would want a break in between. He was sleeping,
and they couldn’t wake him up and get a final decision. We didn’t want to
lose the momentum, so we put the tickets on sale at noon, time and date of
the concert to be announced. And we sold that one, too, before the day was
over. That was probably a world’s first, selling out a major concert without
a time or date printed on the ticket.
The next week, we got a call that Michael wanted a local act to open his
show. After thinking about it, I felt a surprise act would make this even
better. So we decided to leave the act’s name out of the promotion and just
make the introduction on the day of the show. I felt the element of surprise
was important. I wanted sweet-voiced Israel Kamakawiwoole, the hugely
popular -and huge-Hawaiian entertainer, but I didn’t even want to sell
“Bruddah Iz” himself that he was an opening act. The secret would’ve gotten
out.”
Source: Bookshawaii.net, MJFC
22nd May 2006
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