Cautionary Wife

For Hecklerspray - uncharacteristcally, this is a surprisingly good review!!! The bit about drugs I would imagine is their sense of humour showing through. Careful Hecklerspray... I think you enjoyd the show. If any of this review offends - please someone tell me and I will trim it or dispose of suitably. CW. --- HECKLERSPRAY Hecklergigs – Mika @ Northumbria Uni – 24/2 February 26th, 2007 by Matthew Laidlow Until yesterday, there had only been two acts to have been number one this year in the popular music charts. For most of January, we had to listen to the gawky-looking lass from X Factor. Maybe it’s our judgement, but she seems to have faded into the hole she crept out of. Knocking her from number one was the guy who we would compare to Marmite - Mika. You either love him or hate him so much you want to start some kind of violent fight. Before approaching the gig, we did wonder what it would be like. After listening to the album a good few times, we came to the conclusion that it was at times sickly sweet but also full of Mika’s personal feelings. Hecklerspray approached with caution. We realised the gig was going to be popular when we arrived at the venue printed on our tickets - Newcastle Union - and were then told by the gormless-looking staff on the door that it had been moved to rival Northumbria Uni down the road due to popularity. Brilliant, we thought, as we legged through the pissing rain to get to the venue on time. Well we say that - we wanted to get our watered-down pints from the student union bar before the rush. After battling with posh-sounding students at the bar, we were ready for Mika. Now, if you’re not aware of Mika, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that that he sounds like a fusion of the late great Freddy Mercury and Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters. Have you ever tried singing along to one of Mika’s tracks? Just try it next time Grace Kelly comes on the radio - it’s bloody impossible without knocking your throat in. With such a high vocal range we were curious to see how his voice would hold out with his hour-long set. The gig cost hecklerspray £8, and for such a high-profile star who has topped the single and album charts, we couldn’t complain. Only the bell-end touts outside could complain as everyone walked past them and gave them no business. So for £8 we expected two support bands and no extras. How wrong we were. Throughout the night, some random girl was dolled up as one of the characters from the artwork of Mika’s album Life In Cartoon Motion and was handing out lollipops to the crowd. But why was she doing this? Well using our mass intelligence, we gathered it was because one of the tracks on the album is called Lollipop. Really, we should quit our jobs and become detectives. Fifty minutes after the support band finished, on came Mika who pranced around before breaking in to Relax. The near disco of the song got the crowd ready for the evening with everyone in the room showing how badly they could dance. With the exception of hecklerspray of course. When it comes to dancing, we are the daddies. Mika wasn’t scared to show what he could do either with an arse-shake now and then; he kept the spirit of the gig alive throughout the night and prompted the women in the crowd to exercise their own vocal chords with his saucy antics. As mentioned, Mika's album is oozing with so much sweetness that you could literally drown in it. While it doesn’t go overboard and enter the realms of cheesy ****e like past evil popsters like Steps, 5ive and S Club 7 have done, it does come across totally different when done live. Maybe the album was over-produced, but some of the songs remind us of being trapped in a club which we’ve been dragged to and can’t escape from. One thing we didn’t think would be associate with a Mika performance would be drugs! Yes, drugs. During the course of the night, hecklerspray made friends with two girls who shall remain nameless and, throughout the night, we watched them snort bottle upon bottle of poppers. Did hecklerspray do any when offered? Of course not, we had crack cocaine and heroin waiting for us at home. The gig was short, due to the lack of material Mika has written, but it was still enjoyable. Mika’s music can basically be summed up as stuff that that will make you dance and sing along to. Just general happy music and that’s what you want really, as no-one wants to really listen to drivel like My Chemical Romance who tell us how **** the world is. With the crowds responding to everything he sang, Mika definitely did the job of entertaining tonight. Even his band were at the top of the game. Whilst most bands are made up of kids who decided to make music after getting bored one afternoon, Mika’s backing group were all clearly professionals. The music was tight and nothing was out of place. You know a band is good when the various members can all swap places and continue to rock out. After hassling the bloke on sound, we also recovered the set list. And just like the football results on a Saturday, if you don’t want to know what was played, look away now! Relax Intro (Which was strangely Dolly Parton v Royksopp from a 2 Many DJs mix album) Relax, Love Today Big Girl, Over My Shoulder, Billy Brown, Ring Ring, Everybody’s Talking, Stuck In The Middle, Grace Kelly, Lollipop. Boo, he didn’t do our favourite track. Well there’s always next time and, based on tonight’s performance, we’ll be back. ---

THE TELEGRAPH 26 Feb 2007 Thomas H Green reviews Mika at Koko, London The crowd who came to see Beirut-born pop star Mica Penniman were not your average gig-goers. Beirut-born pop star Mika plays to the crowd Well-heeled London trendies and screaming twentysomething women were the order of the day. The atmosphere was consequently somewhere between a moneyed boho soiree and a hen party. They would have raised the roof if he had merely come on, waved and disappeared. Such are the privileges of being number one in both the singles and albums charts. As it was, he sauntered on stage dressed in a glittery hoody to deafening applause and sang Relax, Take it Easy, a song that shares its chord structure with the Cutting Crew's bombastic 1980s epic (I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight. While there is a popular perception that major label-backed indie rockers are somehow more "real", Mika has been subject to media sniping for his good-time pop. It is true, his schtick is beyond derivative - a combined pastiche of the Scissor Sisters and Queen - but he does have a host of deliciously crafted songs. Recently recovered from flu, his falsetto was crystal-clear and, accompanied by a suitably photogenic band, including a glamorous female drummer, he dived straight into the cream of his album, Life in Cartoon Motion. Big Girl (You Are Beautiful), an ode to voluptuousness, saw a pair of rounded cowgirls in basques join the throng on stage. Billy Brown, a cheerful tale of homosexual love, was accompanied by a jaunty brass section, and for the album's hidden closer, the Radiohead-like ballad Over My Shoulder, the band left Mika to perform with just his keyboard and a cellist. Naturally, the huge hit Grace Kelly closed the show but an armada of Las Vegas showmanship was saved for the encore, the postcard sauciness of Lollipop, wherein the venue erupted in an explosion of glittery ticker-tape and the stage filled with an array of dancers, including a gallivanting teddy bear. However, when he finished, Mika had only been on for less than 45 minutes, more a PA than a proper concert set. If he doesn't have enough self-penned songs, he would do well to pad things out with a few well-chosen covers, yet his crowd seemed satisfied. Despite Mika's best efforts, however, I was left with the feeling there was something a bit needy about him, something that takes away from his catchy songs and frivolous stage-show. Once he gets over this and inhabits his pop persona without pause for thought, he will indeed be the flamboyant entertainer he wants to be. --- CW.

Grace Kelly, down to 2 in the UK singles chart. LICM, down to 2 in UK albums chart. Singles chart 1 2 (3) Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby (B Unique/ Polydor) 2 1 (7) Mika - Grace Kelly (Casablanca/island) 3 15 (5) Kelis Ft Cee Lo - Lil Star (Virgin) 4 NEW Akon Ft Snoop Dogg - I Wanna Love You (Universal) 5 NEW Fray - How To Save A Life (Epic) Album chart 1 2 (15) Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (Island) 2 1 (3) Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion (Casablanca/island) 3 3 (43) Snow Patrol - Eyes Open (Fiction) 4 NEW Fray - How To Save A Life (Epic) 5 5 (13) Take That - Beautiful World (Polydor) CW

It's also a waste of valuable space that has to be PAID FOR, to duplicate 'stuff' on here. So if you are new... please take a little while to dig around and see what is here, absorb the culture a bit. Best not to assume that because personally you are discovering new and wonderful things about Mika... and dying to share the excitement (we all identify with that thought) - the friendly folks on this board are very much 'on the ball' and news is posted virtually immediately it occurs. The search engine on this board if pretty good. Just go into the Forums Maybe there is a case now for some sort of Knowledge Base???? There is so much wonderful info on here it is becoming pretty much the definitive Mika Resource !!!! thanks to the vigilance of the brilliant people on here. OH... and if you are new.... A BIG HEARTY WELCOME. CW.

Q4MUSIC February 23, 2007 Number one singer Mika has pulled out of touring with Take That, reportedly leaving the band struggling to find a support act in time for their tour announcement next week. A source told The Sun, “Mika was considering the offer. But after his No1 he thought he could earn more headlining on his own. In the short term that may be true but Take That have such a huge following it would have given him the perfect platform to showcase his new album." “The Sugababes are one of the most successful UK bands yet they saw it as an honour to support Take That last time. They can’t do this one because they’re working on a new album. Girls Aloud are doing the same." It can't be that much of an honour or the ageless boy band wouldn't be having so much trouble trying to find support. Oops, did we say that out loud? Mika, Take That, or head in an oven? --- CW.

DIGITAL SPY Saturday, February 24 2007, 09:19 GMT By Daniel Kilkelly Mika is at the top of the Irish singles chart for a fourth week with Grace Kelly. While Jojo and Akon swapped positions in the top three this week, the Kaiser Chiefs, Beyonce, Kelis and Fray all moved up the chart. Fall Out Boy's This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race fell one place to number seven, while Leona Lewis dropped five places with A Moment Like This. Snow Patrol have remained at the top of the album chart with Eyes Open, followed by Mika's Life In Cartoon Motion at number two and Nelly Furtado's Loose at number three. Fray's How To Save A Life album debuted at number four. The top ten singles in full: 1. (1) Mika: 'Grace Kelly' 2. (3) Jojo: 'Too Little Too Late' 3. (2) Akon ft. Snoop Dogg: 'I Wanna Love You' 4. (4) Just Jack: 'Starz In Their Eyes' 5. (7) Kaiser Chiefs: 'Ruby' 6. (46) Beyonce: 'Listen' 7. (6) Fall Out Boy: 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race' 8. (31) Kelis ft. Ceelo: 'Lil Star' 9. (11) Fray: 'How To Save A Life' 10. (5) Leona: 'A Moment Like This' --- CW.

THE SUN February 24, 2007 MIKA fans were queuing around the block for their No1 star’s show. The singer’s popularity has soared since his sugarsweet pop album Life In Cartoon Motion went to the top of the charts. And he is one of the rare acts who sounds better live than on his record. It was touch and go whether the camp artist would even make the gig after cancelling a concert on Tuesday with flu. But he battled through with the support of the adoring audience. Wearing a Freddie Krueger hoodie, the Grace Kelly ace had the crowd singing along from the start. As the temperature soared at Camden’s Koko club he bounced between the piano and centre stage with his mop of SHIRLEY TEMPLE curls bobbing, belting out the ultra-catchy Relax, Take It Easy and Lollipop. He behaved like a true star after the show too — heading off for pint with celebrity fan BRIAN MAY. --- END. Brian May posted about the Koko show on his site later, urging people to try and catch a Mika gig, with a fab picture that he took himself from the balcony, and DESTOP SIZES !!! http://brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbfeb07.html#36 CW.

In case anyone didn't see.. The Taratata footage is still available at http://www.taratata.net/ Click on the centre film: Emission du 09/02/2007 Carla Bruni, Mika...En savoir plus http://www.taratata.net/artistes/dates/07d02d09.htm The URL for VOIR LE BONUS is http://www.taratata.net/voirBonus207juyd.htm CW.

Try http://www.mikalife.fr CW.

Here's a Press quote: From: THE SCOTSMAN Cheesy and crackers, but rather moreish 2 Feb 07 In fact, Mika most resembles Scissor Sisters in his ability to thieve gleefully, yet still produce a song which is worthy in its own right and, like his New York brothers and sister, his party face shields a more vulnerable core. Behind the stealthy disco exterior of former single Relax, Take it Easy is a lyric inspired by the emotional void after the July 2007 London bombings. I had heard or read about the connection some time ago, before the Press started to wrongly say the song had 'gay' meanings - that 'where no one ever goes' was something forbidden, and remember at the time thinking 'what utter claptrapp'. CW.

On the way home from the Barfly gig, Rufus Wainwright was on the radio singing Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and I was thinking what a good job Mika would make of that. I want to hear him sing more of the Marriage of Figaro. The small bit he did on Taratata, showing how Grace Kelly is based on that melody, I was enthralled how he so easily alternated between falsetto and baritone, in the same breath !!!! I'm sure he has much more vocal gymnastics in store for us. CW.

Returned from Birmingham - the proud owner of Martin's set list... MIKA BARFLY, BIRMINGHAM FRIDAY 23/02.06 RELAX INTRO RELAX LOVE TODAY MY INTERPRETATION BIG GIRL OVER MY SHOULDER BILLY BROWN RING RING STUCK IN THE MIDDLE GRACE KELLY LOLLIPOP A nice moment was when Mika thanked everyone there for their support, as he said we had bought our tickets early on, before any of this got big - oh, and his Mum was in the audience. He felt awkward about singing Stuck In The Middle, because of the lyric about dying. Enjoyed the show, though shame about the long wait in the rain and the long time between the excellent support and the band coming on. I had a chat with Mikey and Martin, who were very nice. Hope it will be a longer set when they come back in May - seemed it was acceptable this time round because it was a showcase. Mika was so familiar when he came on stage - had to pinch myself I wasn't watching him on TV, or youtube. And his voice was just as good live as on the studio tracks. Nite and sweet (Mika) dreams. CW.

INTHENEWS.CO.UK Music: Festival fever, Keane enthusiasm and latest releases 23 Feb 2007 EXTRACT... Mika and the Kaiser Chiefs may be dominating the UK singles chart but there are plenty of new releases this week that could see them knocked off their chart-topping perch. Gwen Stefani's upbeat Sweet Escape featuring Akon, The Killers' Read My Mind and Take That's Shine will all hit shops this week. Over in the UK album chart the release of Kaiser Chiefs' Yours Truly, Angry Mob is likely to enter the top ten, but it may have a tough job of shifting Mika, Amy Winehouse and Snow Patrol from the top spots. --- CW.

If I was going to buy Kaiser Chiefs, I would see little point buying a single, when the album will be out on Monday. CW.

Well I'm 'travelling' for Birmingham tomorrow, with a stopover. Hmm... were the supports on longer than Mika? I feel for the people who spent Megabucks on eBay for Koko tix. CW.

This was already posted and is in Front Page News 2nd Feb "SFTW Meets The Saviour of Pop" Please search the site before posting. It's very easy to do. In this case a search of Psychobabble, schizophrenic, hyper-pop finds it easily. CW.

LICM Enters Swiss Chart http://swisscharts.com/weekchart.asp?cat=a Week 18 Feb New: 36 Mika Life In Cartoon Motion Universal Week 1 CW

"Grace Kelly" is still one of the 10 "DJ Picks" on Capital Radio http://www.capitalfm.com/Article.asp?id=340019 Comprises: Lucio, The Klaxons, Jamie T, Lady Sovereign, Sophie Ellis Bexter, Paul Gillies, Just Jack, Mika, Mr Hudson and the Library, The Hours. The Mka item reads...... Mika "Probably the most talked about artist at the moment, with comparisons to Freddie Mercury even being made. 'Grace Kelly' is just the beginning. Believe the hype, Mika is going to be huge!" Listen to 'Grace Kelly' --- CW.

Most albums these days only have one or at best, two hits on them and the rest fillers. Mika has a better chance of more than the average number of songs capable of being released as singles from his album, every single release being another boost to album sales. Let's face it, a good many of us have been listening to and loving Grace Kelly since at least last summer - something of a long life for any pop song. A change won't harm and I'm looking forward to the next promo video. CW.

I went to Kaiser Chiefs last night and they opened their show with Ruby. I enjoyed the show very much, but Ruby wasn't at all their best song - more a 'football chant' than a melody. Kaiser Chiefs may be in a strong position for a couple of weeks, because of their tour and their album comes out on Monday. If Grace Kelly's days at No 1 are over, I agree he will soon be back up there with his next No1. With Mika's songs we get 'craft'. Just need the record company to get the timing right. CW.

Capital Radio has Mika on their playlist for this week with Love Today http://www.capitalfm.com/playlist.asp?start=21 Date is 14 February - so probablybe due to change soon. CW.

On BBC R1 there is an opportunity to tell JK and Joel what you want to hear, but looks like you have to do a whole play list. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/mytunes/ Maybe it would be a protest if we all wrote in and just filled out just a blank with Grace Kelly or all the other blanks with Mika songs.....? It's as though they want Mika out of that top spot on Sunday and doing their darndest. Ore you can follow the Contact Us link on the left side, and there are about 30 DJ's to e-mail separately. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/help/contactus/ Just checked the less fickle VIRGIN RADIO and Grace Kelly still there in the Playlist for this week. http://www.virginradio.co.uk/music/we_play/playlist/index.html On 4Music - there's a tracklisting for Sunday which includes Love Today http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/chart/tracklisting.shtml CW.

Me angry too. Well... I think we should write to the BBC in droves and complain. You can still nominate Grace Kelly as Record of the Week on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/dermot/recordoftheweek.shtml - say it still deserves to be on R1 and R2 playlist and not unfairly overlooked, because... 'Hello'... it's still the Number One song. Well I did. CW.

THIS IS FAKE DIY 21 February 2007 Artist: Mika Brian May is going to have some new best mates: hellogoodbye are urging everyone to listen to Mika because he's 'awesome'. Frontman Forrest declared: "Check out Mika on iTunes. He's only got a few singles up but they're just that good that it warrants recommending, oh get the video! It's great. perezhilton.com praised Mika as "over-the-top and fagulous". I didn't think it was gayish, but I get called mean names from passing cars when I ride my bike so what do I know. I asked my girlfriend when I read that "do you think hes gay?" and she was like "ohhhh yaaaaah for sure." and I was like "really? I just thought he was awesome.". He is awesome though." --- CW.

Can you just imagine the conversation if those two got togther. CW.