andi

http://www.whatsonne.co.uk/gb/music/reviews-and-previews/review-mika-o2-academy-newcastle

Review: Mika, O2 Academy, Newcastle

By Nicola Fish, Evening Chronicle

On February 25, 2010

SOLD Out! So the sign screamed, and of course the line that circled around the Academy was proof enough.

With fans lined up aged seven to 70, Mika has a broad appeal and I was about to find out why.

The show began with a curtain falling, revealing the huge screen covered with Mika’s animated cartoons. As an eerie French song screeches to a climax and the cartoons scribble wildly out of control, out bursts Mika starting the show with Rain, which includes the lyrics of ‘I hate days like this’ and which doesn’t seem like an obvious choice.

It’s not, but that’s why it works because one thing Mika is not is predictable.

With crowd pleasers like Big Girls Any Other World, Mika showcased his wide range of depth and emotion and you could tell he believed in every single word he sang.

His conversation with the audience was minimal but it didn’t matter as the songs spoke for themselves.

With limited props (a giant inflatable leg and an umbrella) and no real costume changes, the spotlight was on Mika.

Barely pausing to take a breath, time sped by as he belted out hit after future hit.

In the music industry where style is often chosen over substance, it was refreshing to see someone perform in such a free, unrestrained style.

There was no choreography; everything just seemed to happen organically.

Mika is very much an in the moment performer and does what he wants without alienating the audience. Part of his appeal is the fact he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He openly admits to the audience that he always screws up his part on the piano and that he’s trying to hide that he needs to wipe his nose!

All this meant the audience was like putty in his hands. Even the dreaded ‘I’m going to sing some new songs’ was met with cheers and the audience sang along with every tune. Mika’s care-free attitude was infectious, from the butch man with his wife who knew all the words to ‘Everybody’s going to love today’ to the woman swaying in the completely wrong direction.

Ending with a confetti strewn performance of Golden and an amazing encore of Grace Kelly and Lollipop, the crowd were left wishing this was one party that would never end.

also it may snow quite a bit... might do, cos i don't know if it's over Newcastle

it's snowing now in the North East, but it's wet snow and not too bad. They say it should be rain by later tonight.

I was planning on getting there at about 5..but I have been ill all weekend and now have a chesty cough, so might make it nearer 6.

See you there though..the bouncy floor awaits:naughty:

an article from a local paper in newcastle....

Mika ringing the changes

By Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

On February 5, 2010

GOLDEN boy Mika brings his colourful show to Newcastle this month. Entertainment Editor GORDON BARR catches up with him.

ONE thing is for sure about a Mika gig – no two shows are the same.

That has never rung truer than with his latest tour, which arrives in Newcastle later this month.

He’s playing a host of different-sized venues, so each concert will be different from any of the others.

“We go from 1,000 capacity places to 1,800 capacity, so we have this crazy show to put together as it has to adapt to all these different types of venues,” he tells me.

“For the massive arena places, the set is so huge it has to be rehearsed in a film studio – actually at Elstree, where they rehearsed Star Wars.

“It is the way that my career has progressed. Unconventional. It has gone all over the world and it is in different stages all over the world.

“Around Europe we are doing arenas. In Japan I will do four nights at a theatre but in Korea I will do one night at the Olympic Hall.

“I do what I do in the way that I do it. I never change the way that I perform. That has been a philosophy since the first day. ”

Mika’s second album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, shipped an incredible one million copies worldwide in its first week of release.

Featuring tracks from The Boy Who Knew Too Much, the tour will also include favourites from his multi-million-selling debut Life in Cartoon Motion, such as Grace Kelly, Relax and Big Girls and, as we have come to expect, a few exciting surprises thrown in.

Recognised as one of the most inventive and thrilling live showmen around, Mika, who has laid down vocals for the Haiti charity single to be released next week, has been working with show producer Es Devlin (Kanye West, Pet Shop Boys) to ensure the tour will be nothing short of spectacular.

“I found out about Es when she was working on Salome at the Royal Opera House. I badgered my way into meeting her. She had done a rap show for Kanye, and I then convinced her to get into a pop show. It was the first one she had ever done and we did this stadium show together in Paris with this enormous clown fascia, all based on the circus,” he explains.

“From there she became the biggest pop set designer in the world. But she always promises me she will come back to me, no matter how tiny the show.

“We did an acoustic show at Sadler’s Wells, and we treated that with the same attitude as an arena and stadium show.

“We build on something that tells a story and looks visually beautiful, something that you would associate with opera or theatre, not a pop show. It has always been how we work.

“So now we have got this new show that we have been working on for a while with this concept of surreal scale and depth. It is a giant book and we have this enormous book that comes to life, where all the pages drop down to reveal other bits of the story.”

Mika is looking forward to playing the O2 Academy in Newcastle on February 24. It was one of the first cities to take him to its heart.

“Newcastle was explosive,” he recalls. “It was like a fun club show from 80s New York, that is how it felt. I want this new show to feel like you have taken some crazy substance and you have jumped into the pages of my artwork.”

Regarding the Haiti charity single, he says: “I came back from France to do it. It is an honour to be asked and I hope it raises tons and tons of money.”

Mika won’t be writing any new material while on the road though. “I don’t write when I travel, I write in the studio in a very disciplined manner, from 10am to 7pm, with a very strict routine,” he says.

“If you work every day in the same place, it is like a drawing, an idea you started four days earlier, you have, through flow, it turning into something else four days later.

“It is a bit old school, a tin pan alley way of writing songs. But that is the way I have always done it - sitting at the piano on my own, recording everything I do and then crafting songs out of it. You get addicted.”

I dreamt about this gig last night....it was taking place in a small working mens club near ST. James's Park (the football ground).. and some of the MFC were there:blink: It was all very bizzare:naughty: and that was before I got the email about tickets being on the way!!!

my tickets came today but I was at work:sneaky2: now getting them on Saturday:thumb_yello:

Wasn't Andi a refugee from the SS forum?? I seem to remember that *peers back into the mists of time*. And a couple of other *old* names.

 

Nah, Mika will be around forever, he's like Cliff . When he is 70 he'll be releasing dodgy Christmas songs and we'll all be spending our pension money on his gigs .

:roftl: don't think I've ever been called a refugee before!!! hahaha...

party afterwards??? omg so there!!! school doesn't matter i can fall asleep in something...

 

what time are you planning to queue? i have school beforehand so will i be too late to get a good spot?

I thought it was half term?? I shall have to check now....

5 should be fine , sorry I didnt know you were a youngling

 

<sorry parents for trying to take your youngling partying>

You leading people astray again???

OK.. I'm in!!! can't bloody wait..The November 2007 gig was awsome...Newcastle is a party town... so put your party pants on:naughty:

btw...(I'm so sentimantal:blush-anim-cl:)The first Mika gig I did was

24-02-07!!!! To be going again to see him exactly 3 years to the day later...Amazing!!!!!

I didn't leave her without it. I would have been torn limb from limb! So we now have 2 copies of the album.

You had to buy 2 copies of the album because you liked it so much and you still don't think you're mikafied:roftl:

Mika is addictive....... I don't know what it is that makes him that way... but he has it..!!

Please go to a show... you won't regret it. In another post you mentioned how Mika doesn't lip sync..!! It's one of the things I admire most. he sounds the same live as he does on his albums....actually.. imo.. I think he's better live if he has a good crowd going. You will enjoy... and your wife will be ecstatic!!!

I hope you keep posting.. I look forward to your gig review!!!!

p.s. there's nothing wrong with cardies...mika wears them all of the time.. you'll fit right in:naughty:

I like your review...hope your wife was OK that you had her Mika cd in the car:naughty: if she stopped breathing when it first went on.. how was she when you left her without it?

Anyway.. you should go to the Mika gigs in Australia.....Once you have been.. you will know why!!

Hi Yve...... Nice to see you have joined up!

Fine, no worries. Certainly better than the time I crashed into the bin wagon!

should I ask?? better not:naughty: next time.. we'll do the after party arangements before the gig, then you will be there:wub2:

I scraped the car getting out of the car park and then I couldn't find anywhere else to park within walking dist of The Counting House. It just seemed easier to drive home! So I did, and bored Rob rigid with a blow-by-blow account of the whole experience. (except for pranging the car - I left that bit out )

 

PS Rose: Do you colour EVERY post before you post it?

aww, hey ruth.. I didn't know you had scraped the car:boxed: hope it wasn't too bad.

I thought you were going to hyperventilate when Pixie was on:naughty:

 

I am in love with Will Young...just watching him on red button now:wub2:

 

 

 

Mine isn't a COPY:naughty:

nope.. very original and very beautiful x:wub2:

Ah, I see, got ya. I don't know.............I treasure the autograph that I got the first time that I met Mika......but I think 'in the early days' we didn't have a clue that we were going to have the opportunity to meet him so often and I guess I thought it would be nice to have something to keep.

 

What I don't understand is autograph tattoos that aren't actually autographs...but just a copy of someones signature. I think that is very odd, why anyone would do that:shocked:

yeah Kath.. I mean.. who would do that?:roftl:

Thanks for the pica Andi, they are great.

 

Also nice to finally meet you, think I've been at a few gigs with you but never been introduced

 

You can see me! Well sort of. I'm next to FD at the back, you can see the top half of my face, I'm stretched on tip-toes!

 

Maybe next time we could try to organise shorter peeps near the front? I know every wanted to be next to Mika but would for a better pic if we could see everyone! Lol!

it was great to meet you too...and Marc.. Mika mentioned that about people not being able to be seen, so some people crouched a bit. I was quite near the back myself, and I apologise if I blocked anyone behind me

this is a WY pic but you can see some of the MFC there on the front row x

it's picture 5 of 8 x

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/live-in-blackpool/2009/artists/will-young/photos/

Thanks for posting the group photo Andi.

 

Thrilled to see I'm actually on that one. I was at the back and I'm 5 3. I was standing on tiptoes but I didn't think you would be able to see me. I was just happy knowing I was there.

 

So chuffed to see that

you're more than welcome x lovely to meet you last night:wub2:

hiya rose thanks for the name.. he was so good to offer to take them... and yeah.. he's pretty handy:thumb_yello:

you home now?

my pics arn't so good..*note to self to get a new camera before next gigs!!!*

I won't report on the gig as I think everyone else has summed it up so very well.

However...I do want to say it was lovely to see everyone..old friends and new ones:wub2: The MFC is the BEST ever group of people.. no wonder Mika is happy!!! And huge huge thanks to Vixen.... Love you xxx

It was my first group shot also.. and I was so pleased to be a part of it. Thanks to the guy who took it.. very nice bloke who was with Mika:thumb_yello: he's on the tram pics, b ut I'm sorry, I didn't know his name:blush-anim-cl:

Welcome even though you're already here....haha

I'll give a shoutout to your toes though! Hope you feel better!!

thank you ... and my toes thank you too...

current line up is.....

Mika, Pixie Lott and Newton Faulkner.....

How are you bella ???

I really good thanks.. and you/

What does bella mean?

I'm sure someone once told me it was italian for lovely.. but Karla will tell us...Karla???

Don't worry Bella :hi

hello x

hey Andoooooo

 

Thats a nice title youve got there:naughty:

thankyou my toes need some tlc....

ok.. so quite a strange thread, and really it has nothing to do with my toes:naughty: although, they do hurt..damn rocketdogs..love them but they cripple me:wink2:

I just wanted to say hi to all... I know I don't post much now, but I havn't left the fan club, and I still read as much...(and that's not easy with how much gets posted here) as I can.

so hi everyone:group_hug: