Joyce Nelson, now 60, from Bolton, has identified herself as the woman in a famous photograph taken at Aintree Racecourse during Michael Jackson's 1988 concert, where she was carried unconscious over the heads of the crowd.
In September 1988, Joyce, then 22, travelled from Bolton to see the King of Pop perform at the racecourse on September 11, the final show of the British leg of his Bad tour. She had agreed to accompany her friend Michelle, 26, who was the real Michael Jackson superfan. The friends travelled to Liverpool on a 52-seater coach after Michelle had arranged their concert tickets, costing £16.50 each.
Although Joyce enjoyed Michael's music, she admitted she was nowhere near as devoted as her friend. Arriving at Aintree Racecourse, the pair made their way into the huge venue and found a spot near a podium just behind the stage.
Fainting in the Heat
Joyce, who is 5ft 2in, remembered struggling to see over the crowds as 125,000 excited fans gathered for the performance. She said: "It was really hot for starters, and there were loads of people. We had no internet then so we just arrived on the coach, made our way in and it was just a massive racecourse so we didn't know where to go or where to stand."
Despite the huge numbers, she recalled a surprisingly calm atmosphere. She said: "Before he came on it was nice and calm. There was definitely an atmosphere of excitement in the air, a lot of people were smiling because Michael Jackson had come to Liverpool and he was obviously this big famous American person coming to the North West."
But the heat soon began to take its toll. With the toilets a long distance away and huge crowds gathered around them, Joyce and Michelle had avoided drinking too much water. Having arrived hours before the show, Joyce was left standing in the heat with no sun hat or sunglasses.
Carried to First Aid
As she waited for Michael to appear, Joyce began feeling increasingly hot and thirsty. She recalled thinking she wished she was at home in bed before suddenly losing consciousness. Unbeknown to Joyce, fellow concertgoers had lifted her above their heads and passed her through the crowd towards the first-aid station.
She eventually came round on the podium, where two first-aiders were waiting to help her. She said: "I didn't realise I was being carried, obviously, because I was unconscious. I twisted my ankle a week before and someone must have squashed my ankle as I was crowd-surfing, and the pain woke me up."
The first-aiders wanted Joyce to have some water and potentially go to hospital, but she had another priority - making sure she didn't miss Michael Jackson. Having lost sight of Michelle during the commotion, she was also worried about leaving her friend alone. With no mobile phones to get in touch with and little knowledge of Liverpool, Joyce decided to refuse treatment and get back to the concert.
Discovery Years Later
Despite the dramatic start to the day, Joyce said the concert itself was "absolutely fantastic". She said: "He's just a great showman, really. His costumes were fantastic. I remember him doing the Moonwalk. It was just seamless."
Around 12 years ago, her daughter was studying at university and presenting student radio. During a nostalgia-themed show, her daughter asked her about her favourite musical memory from the 1980s. Joyce immediately thought back to the Michael Jackson concert and decided to search online for photographs of the event.
She came across an old Liverpool ECHO article about the show and sent it to her daughter. When she looked through the photographs accompanying the article, she spotted something unexpected. One image showed a woman lying unconscious as she was carried above the crowd. At first, Joyce did not recognise herself because the woman was upside down in the photograph. But after turning the image around, she realised the woman was her.
She said: "I turned it round, I thought, 'Yeah, that's definitely me.' I was wearing that outfit, I remember fainting, and I remember coming round. I don't remember the bit in between, but that's definitely me."
The discovery came as a huge surprise, particularly as Joyce had never realised how she had been taken from the crowd to the first-aid station. She said: "I was a bit shocked because I thought, 'Oh my God, all those people were basically lifting me up'. Which is a feat in itself, isn't it, that they didn't injure me. They must have been very careful, working together to get me to safety."
Now, Joyce hopes that finally putting a name to the face will add another chapter to the story of one of Liverpool's most memorable musical moments. She said: "It's nice to get the internet updated with the name related to the picture."
