The Jackson's Victory was the first, and only album from the brother's to feature all six Jackson family boys. Some would say it was a product of the highly successful reunion showcased on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, which aired May 16, 1983.
By this time, Michael Jackson was in orbit with album sales from his November 30, 1982 released Thriller. The young singer swept the 26th Annual Grammy Awards held on February 28, 1984, and hosted by John Denver. It was this night that he would be nominated for twelve individual awards, and take home eight of them. However, with its success came great fatigue for Jackson, who to date, had opted not to tour to promote the album. Clearly, it wasn't needed anyway.
Between November 1983, and May 1984, the brothers would work on recording their Victory album, albeit, usually individually, and release it on July 2, 1984. Four days later, the highly anticipated Victory tour would kick off across the United States and Canada for a sold out fifty-five dates.
At $30.00 per ticket, the Pepsi sponsored Jackson's Victory Tour was already the most expensive venue to attend. However, the manner in which promoters, which included Don King, Joe Jackson, and Chuck and Billy Sullivan, opted to sell the tickets quickly became a topic of contention and controversy among fans.
In an effort to prevent scalping, the men implemented a lottery for the tickets. This required interested attendees to send $120.00, and a form to the mailing address. Essentially one out of ten entrants would win, but not before big money was taken in. This "scam" was ultimately a plan to invest the money into an interest baring account, wherein the seven percent interest would garner millions of dollars before non-ticket winners would receive their refundable money back.
While the brothers were on board for this plan, Michael was not. He would eventually push back on the program amidst the backlash, and held a press conference stating that all his proceeds from the shows would be donated. Regardless, the lottery remained in effect, only being disbanded for a handful of shows, which were sold through Ticketmaster.
Pepsi, and other distributors were quick to produce a bevy of promotional materials, which would be made available at the various venues. Though it would be difficult to identify and find every last bit of available merchandise, below is a series of my personal favorites.
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| Official Tour Book |
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| Shirts, Baseball Cap, and Button |
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| Jacket |
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| Limited Edition Digital Watch |
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| Promotional Poster |
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| Reprinted Autographed Pepsi Can |
Further controversies plagued the show, particularly those which involved the brothers fighting. Things would ultimately come to a head, and Michael would announce that he would not continue to tour with his brothers after their last show. This led to several planned international dates being cancelled.
For those lucky enough to attend, I'm sure this monotonous occasion was a spectacular sight to behold. For the rest of us, we had the option of living through the world of imagery via the plethora of coverage across several media outlets. These in and of themselves would make for one impressive scrapbook.
The show was recorded at several venues on video cameras, and this has resulted in several transfer being made available via bootleg sources. However, no official release appears to have ever occurred. I also can't find any information on whether or not any of these were ever broadcast on television.
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