Fifty-four years ago tomorrow, on November 11, 1972, a bus rolled out of Manchester in England and headed for Liverpool. Inside were the Jackson 5, in the middle of their very first UK tour.
That tour had started with a bang. When the brothers arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport on October 29, 1972, hundreds of fans and police filled the customs area. They also sang at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
British TV wanted them too. This clip is labeled as the group’s Top of the Pops appearance from November 9, 1972, just two days before that bus ride, so it’s a good way to see how young they all were.
The Jackson 5 on Top of the Pops in 1972
Riding along on the bus that day was Robin Katz. She was a 20-year-old journalist from New Jersey who wrote a Jackson 5 column for the British paper Record Mirror. She also helped run the group’s UK fan club out of Motown’s London office. Years later she shared her notes with Motown historian Adam White, who published them in 2023.
Robin had come to talk to Jermaine, Michael’s big brother, who was 17.
It didn’t go to plan.
Jermaine had earphones in, plugged into a tape recorder. Jackie, another of the brothers, was reading a newspaper. And Michael was chatting with Rose Fine, who tutored the boys on the road.
If you want a feel for how Michael and his brothers came across in interviews that year, this 1972 clip has Michael talking alongside Jackie.
Michael and Jackie Jackson in a 1972 interview
So what happened on the bus? According to the reporter who was there, 14-year-old Michael noticed she was stuck and stepped right in.
“He’s got earphones in his ears, you know,” he told her.
Then he pulled the earphones out of his brother’s ears. “This lady wants to talk to you, Jermaine.”
Jermaine wasn’t too keen. He said he’d already answered her questions the day before. Michael pointed out that Jermaine hadn’t answered his questions yet.
And with that, the 14-year-old turned reporter.
“Now, tell me, Jermaine, where did you get that hat?”
It got better. At one point Jermaine thought someone had asked if he had a girlfriend. Michael shot right back that “they want to know what your hat size is,” and told him nobody was interested in his love life.
The write-up of that day calls it Michael’s “Groucho Marx moment,” after the old movie comedian known for his wisecracks.
Anyone with a little brother knows exactly how that felt for Jermaine.
For all the teasing, Robin came away with a warm picture of the brothers. She said “they were never prima donnas, they were modest, soft-spoken.”
Want to hear more of young Michael from that same year? Here he is being interviewed on American Bandstand in 1972.
Young Michael Jackson’s 1972 American Bandstand interview
The bus rolled on to Liverpool for the next show. Robin got her interview in the end. It just came with a 14-year-old co-host she never planned on, and a question about a hat that nobody on that bus saw coming.