JACKO'S LAST SONG MAY HAVE BEEN IRISH FAMINE DIRGE

Irish choir have priceless recording of King of Pop singing Fields of Athenry

BY KEVIN BRADY

(IRELAND, WEDNESDAY) Michael Jackson's last original recording may not be any of the music featured in the This Is It movie, but an off the cuff singalong of The Fields of Athenry with a little known Irish choir.

The amazing recording featuring the late Jacko singing six verses of the popular Irish song only emerged tonight (Wednesday) when the choir revealed that they had the digital tapes to the impromptu session recorded while the star was living in Ireland in 2006.

If the song proves to be releasable, then the village choir from Caherraggin and the song's writer Pete St John could be in for a massive windfall. St John already benefits from the song being used in football grounds in Liverpool, Glasgow and wherever the Munster and Irish rugby teams play.

Jackson became attracted to the song because of the line "Michael, they have taken you away." The song refers to the deportation of an Irishman during the Famine years of the mid-1840s.

The recording was discovered by the secretary of the Caherraggin Choir group, who were brought in to perform backing tracks in rehearsal sessions while Jackson spent five months in the county recording in 2006. Spokesman for the choir Kieran Gillane said last night they had known about the recording for three years but were unwilling to record it out of friendship for the singer and in the last few months, out of respect for him after he passed away.

"He had a great interest in the old Irish stories so one day while we were there getting ready to provide a sort of choral wall for him, we started belting out Irish songs and he was fascinated by The Fields of Athenry, especially, the song has a line "Michael, they have taken you away."

"He was amazed by that that and then he asked for the lyrics.

"We were doing this to loosen up the vocal chords but Mr Jackson came in with his entourage and clapped to the music.

"He wanted to know what it was so we printed out the lyrics and he sang along to it for about five minutes. At that stage, we were all laughing as he didn't make a bad fist of it at all.

"The decks were recording our own efforts and so it was all put down on tape and lo and behold, it is excellent quality.

"We have had it in the local studios and the engineers say that it is possible to make something out of it. We haven't contacted Mr St John yet about it because as a mark of respect to Mr Jackson and the release of his film.

"However, now that we know there is considerable interest in it, it may be a hit, you'd never know.

Last night, a spokesman for the company who owned the rights to Mr Jackson's music for the This Is It concert series said that they had known for some time that he had made several recordings in Ireland which are not their property because they were made in his private capacity.

"We know that Michael had a very enjoyable time in Ireland and recorded several songs but any recordings there would be totally owned by the Jackson estate, his record company and his legal entity.