So I was at Glastonbury when the news of Michael Jackson's untimely death broke and it was a rather strange experience on the Friday as 177,000 people came to terms with the death of the 'King of Pop'.

But a myriad of stories have crammed every front page since then - not least AEG's position on those 50 Jackson shows, whether or not the shows were insured, ticket refunds, the economic fallout for London as a whole, Jacko's will, Jacko's debts, Jacko's children, unfinished albums, secret songs, conspiracy theories and Michael's final resting place. Whatever else you might think, Michael Jackson was a major force in music who produced and released some extraordinary records, wrote some fantastic songs and gave some outstanding live performances.

To follow up on a couple of these stories: The promoters of the Jackson O2 residency, AEG Live, have told fans with tickets for one of the now cancelled fifty shows that they should go to the MichaelJacksonLive.com website tomorrow for details of how to claim a full refund, including any service charges they may have paid. Announcing that the refund process would begin tomorrow, AEG Live boss Randy Phillips told reporters: "The world lost a kind soul who just happened to be the greatest entertainer the world has ever known. Since he loved his fans in life, it is incumbent upon us to treat them with the same reverence and respect after his death". Fans will also be given the option to still receive the actual hard copy ticket that would have got them entrance to the shows; these are 'lenticular' tickets with a dancing hologram designed by Jacko himself - in place of a refund. In the UK. secondary ticketers have also publicly said they will make full refunds but the cancelled shows may well be a watershed moment for touting as fans who purchased outside of official sources struggle to get refunds.

Jackson sits atop of the UK album chart this week, with seven appearances in the album chart, and twenty tracks in the singles Top 75. In the US official figures are not out, but Billboard reports that the Jacko compilations 'Number Ones' and 'The Essential Michael Jackson', and Jackson's most famous album 'Thriller', all shifted more than 100K copies each in the week up to Sunday night, the vast majority in the three days after his death. By comparison, sales of the entire Jackson catalogue in the previous week were in the region of 10,000 units. Those three albums are expected to top the Billboard pop catalogue chart this week, with a very real possibility that Jackson will take up nine spots in the pop catalogue top ten. Jackson has also been scoring record plays on most online streaming services. Omnifone, who power unlimited music services (mainly mobile based) in nine territories around the world, reported yesterday that there had been a 525% increase in the amount of Jackson music being played by their subscribers since the king of pop's death. And interestingly, while Jackson's death had a huge impact on the UK chart, it is in Asia where Omnifone have seen the biggest rise in consumption of Jacko's music. While in the UK there was a 323% increase, in Omnifone's Asia Pacfic market there was a massive 750% increase.  

As to Jackson's private life, in an interim judgment by a Los Angeles court, Michael Jackson's mother and father, Katherine and Joe, have been granted custody of his three children  and whilst it seems that no funeral plans (including a date) have been decided as yet by the family, a permanent grave and memorial at Neverland has been mooted.

30/06/09