Jackson set to trip the light fantastic again

SMALL PRINT:THERE WERE gasps when the rapper Tupac Shakur showed up onstage at the recent Coachella music festival in the US. Shakur, one of music's most influential rappers, appeared with Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre – despite being shot dead in 1996.

He “appeared” at Coachella as an eerily life-like hologram (which cost a few hundred thousand dollars to make).

If you have a look at the footage on your local video-sharing website you’ll see how it really does seem as if Tupac is rapping on stage.

Shakur is not the only deceased pop star on the comeback trail of the dead. The hugely successful girl band TLC plan to reunite this summer with Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes – the singer who died in a car accident in 2002 – joining them onstage thanks to the same technology.

Michael Jackson’s brother, Jackie, was so impressed by the Tupac Coachella footage that he now hopes to go on tour with The Jackson 5, complete with Michael. “It could have been Michael [at Coachella]. Wouldn’t that have been wonderful?” he told reporters.

A Jackson 4 plus hologram of Michael tour would be a massive box-office event and with the technology now in place, the Jacksons are reputedly mulling over rival offers from promoters.

One music industry source says a Jackson 5 tour could be “the most lucrative of all time” (which is perhaps overstating it) but there would be intellectual property problems to contend with.

It is not clear if Jackson’s estate would sanction his use as a hologram, and then there’s the tricky question as to who would own what if Michael were to “appear” as part of the group.

The hologram certainly opens up possibilities for the live entertainment industry. Sanj Surati, the Tupac hologram maker, says he’s got a number of dead stars in his sights. “Seeing Elvis onstage with Justin Bieber would be a cool thing,” says Surati, who would also like to remake Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Whitney Houston.

But why confine this to the popular music world? What about Rudolf Nureyev or Maria Callas? JFK could be brought back for the US Democratic party conference to rally the troops for an Obama re-election.

Imagine what could be done at the GPO for the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Ultimately one suspects the box office will dictate who gets the hologram nod.

Either way, it’s probably safe to say that within the next few years, the hologram-assisted stage show will become commonplace.