TRANSCRIPT: Dermot O'Leary Show, BBC R2, 13.01.07

MIKA ON DERMOT O’LEARY SHOW

BBC Radio 2

13 January 2007

Transcribed by Cautionary Wife

 

PART 1

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DERMOT O’LEARY: That’s genuinely the one thing you don’t want to hear before you’re about to do an interview when your guest says, “Oh, and are we chatting as well, I think…?†O…K. Mika, it’s nice of you to be with us. How are you?

 

MIKA: I’m good, thank you. How are you?

 

D: I’m very very well. The whole gang are here.

 

M: I’ve got about 17 people in the studio.

 

D: This is the….

 

M: It’s very Hip Hop. Actually they’re all here for a purpose. Everyone’s gonna clap along for my cover.

 

D: OK. Now hang on a second. I get the reason why Martin’s here. Martin’s on guitar.

 

M: Guitar, that’s right.

 

D: Cherisse is behind us on percussion

 

M: Bongo.

 

D: I always like to be surrounded by the percussion. (Mika giggles) It gives me that whole wonderful Dolby surround sound feel to the studio, but the 3 other people are just sitting on the floor!! What are they doing?

 

M: Well it’s kind of, you know, we’ve got Jamie[sp?], my tour manager, who’s on the shakers.

 

D: Jamie – look you, firstly you’re the best-dressed tour manager I think I’ve ever seen in my life. (laughing) You guys are normally terrifying.

 

M: We’ve got my sister, Yesmine, who’s on her knees.

 

D: Hello Yesmine.

 

M: She’s going to do a like a…

 

D: How are you?

 

M: … clapping thing on her knees. And then we’ve got….

 

D: I see that music runs in the family.

 

M: Yeah. Charlie’s gonna be doing some pigeon noises during the song.

 

D: Wonderful.

 

(Pigeon noises)

 

D: Is that just you on… ? (More noises) Oooh, she is. I’m very impressed by it, and this box of tricks here. What does this do? I’ve got to…

 

M: Well really they were for guests, for you. You can have one of them.

 

D: Shut up! Can I?

 

M: So…

 

D: (shakes shaker) I have… Yeah.

 

M: And you can join in.

 

D: Are you… do you really want me to join in because this is a first? I know the song. Don’t worry.

 

(Dermot shakes shaker)

 

M: We stole that from the Primary School down the road.

 

D: Did you? I like the cowbell. Is this..

 

M: Oh no. I knew he was gonna choose the cowbell.

 

(Dermot strikes cowbell and Mika joins in with piano vamp - giggles)

 

D: I can see that getting quite irritating for you, so I’ll put it back now. So firstly, are you getting a bit freaked out about everything, because suddenly you’re everywhere?

 

M: Ah. I know, I know. I’m… it’s kind of weird.

 

D: Yeah.

 

M: But it is weird. It’s very strange.

 

D: So you are getting… (laughing)

 

M: Yeah. Basically, yeah.

 

D: And secondly, you just literally just got in from Paris, I certainly appreciate it?

 

M: About an hour ago.

D: I certainly appreciate. And how was it? It a great gig last night?

 

M: It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. They just kind of warmed to it really, really well.

 

D: And are you launching sort of simultaneously around Europe, so is the single out there in Paris at the same time?

 

M: Yes, well yeah, we’re kind of ‘seeding’. We’re just kind of starting things going you know, so that people, so we just don’t come and try and do the bit push at one point.

 

D: Yeah.

 

M: So we’re just gonna do little shows everywhere and let it grow a little bit more organically, just like we did here, you know.

 

D: Yeah, yeah.

 

M: Took quite a long while to get it going but that’s what we wanted. So, no, it’s really fun.

 

D: Great. Well it’s a terrific song and the EP is really enjoyable as well, so…

 

M: Thank you.

D: It’s lovely having you with us. We’ve been playing it for quite a while now and it’s nice to find…

 

M: You were the first, weren’t you?

 

D: … you hear in the flesh.

 

M: You were.

 

D: Were we?

 

M: You were the first actually.

 

D: Woo Hoo!!

 

M: You were the first person to play Grace Kelly on, you know…

 

D: On this show. Officially.

 

M: Proper radio.

 

D: Well, yeah. That’s nice. Thank you.

 

M: Thank you.

 

D: No, well you did it. We just – I just pressed the button and went (squeaky voice) “Here’s Mikaâ€Â. And so now, you’re gonna play for us right now?

 

M: I’m gonna play it, yeah, on my own, without the pigeon noise and DON’T do maracas, wait for the next one.

 

D: You’ve just given me the maracas.

 

M: No, no. Wait. It’s for the next one. We’re doing a cover, right?

 

D: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

 

M: We actually figured out this cover on the Eurostar….

 

D: Okay.

 

M: … in carriage number 14.

 

D: This is going…

 

M: So apologies to everyone that was on the train.

D: The genie’s going back in the bottle, alright.

 

M: Okay.

 

D: So hang a second. You worked out the cover on Eurostar?

 

M: On Eurostar, yeah.

 

D: That’s brilliant.

 

M: Ah, yeah… thought so.

 

D: Any complaints?

 

M: Well actually I was… No, they really liked it. They kinda got into it – I think.

 

(laughing)

 

M: Yeah - actually Martin got some money thrown at him.

 

D: Nice.

 

M: The people were throwing one p coins at him.

 

D: Everyone got off at Ashford and you don’t understand why. “It’s a eally empty train to London.†So, brilliant. So this is Mika and Grace Kelly – over to you. Thank you.

 

 

<Mika plays GRACE KELLY live>

 

 

TRANSCRIPT - to be continued....

 

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CW.

Aww, he's freaked out by all the attention!