THE mum of a mini MJ wannabe told how her son thought school should be cancelled when he heard of the King of Pop's death.

Talented Aaron Harrison, 12, of Dyson Walk, Broadfield moonwalked his way to the final eleven in a nationwide hunt for a young MJ to play the legendary music maestro in West End show Thriller last November.

And he was devastated when his mum Nicky told him the tragic news.

Nicky said: "I sat there until about 1am thinking 'I should really got to sleep' but you had to find out whether it was true or not.

"When I found out that he had actually died my first thought was 'oh my gosh, he was only 50.'

"When I told Aaron in the morning he looked at me and went 'what?' I said 'he's died' and he went 'what happened?'

"When I told him he had a heart attack he said 'but mum he was really fit' and I said 'I know.'

"Then he went back into his room and put the telly on and found some channel that was running tributes to him and he just said 'mum, I can't believe it.'"

Nikki added: "He said 'can I have the day off school? Do you think they'll cancel school?' and I said 'Aaron he wasn't royalty.'

Fans from Crawley who have bought tickets for Michael Jackson's 50-date O2 Arena shows next month should get a full refund if they bought them from agencies or direct from the venue itself.

However, those who brought from private sellers on the internet could be facing losses running to thousands of pounds

Those who had tickets have reacted to the news here.

For the whole story see Wednesday's (July 1) Crawley Observer.