enigma

She's the kid from the Grace Kelly video isn't she?!

In 2010 I travelled from London via Cyprus to Beirut and then on to Baalbeck, and was sitting in these grounds waiting for the gates to open and Mika's gig to start. In 2020 I have travelled 3 metres from the sofa to the table,. and am waiting for Mika's virtual gig to start!!

Yep! For the first time ever we are ALL front row! Livestream may not be as good as an actual gig, but hey - every cloud...

Woohoo! Front row! 🤣

Yes. I fear it may be a slippery slope now 🤣... but so much has happened since my Mika-travelling-days... most of it sad... and Shepherds Buch was SUCH fun, I just have to do it again!

Me BEFORE the Shepherds Bush gig: I'm getting too old for all this, I'll go for the seated section 😐. Me AT the Shepherds Bush gig: To hell with that, I'm standing, and going down the front 🤣 Me BEFORE the Shepherds Bush gig: This is the only gig I'm doing. Too old to travel all over the place like I used to 😐 Me TODAY: Books Eurostar, hotel, and gig ticket for Lille...

This song is SO mellow! It just transported me from the office to a lazy, warm Italian evening....

After so so long, ANY flipping dates are a start! Even if they do all appear to be in France! Can't wait for some proper links to click on 😃. Had thought I might be in a old peoples home by the time he toured again...

I'm probably moving house to somewhere much smaller, and I have WAY too much stuff! I'm putting some nice Mika items on Ebay, all for a 99p start price, if anyone wants to add to their collection! Some were things I had duplicates of, so have never been worn... I listed a few things today and will add more soon. Here's a link (hopefully) to one of the items, then you can just click on "see seller's other items" to view the other things... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332437468150?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Adding my bit… finally... Absolutely loved the show. Like I was hoping, it was more of a gig, and less of an extravaganza than Paris, AND he did Promiseland (yay!). AND Ordinary Man which is the first time I’ve seen him do that live – brilliant! As has been mentioned, there were no French songs, so maybe someone took onboard the negative comments about them after the last London show (although I personally don’t mind him including one or two - please God not EMD though!). Now the pros and cons of seated venues. Pro is obviously that you don’t have to queue from stupid-o’clock, and you don’t have the stand in a crush for ages before the main artist takes the stage. Con is that it feels a bit restrictive staying in your row. I am therefore going to invent a new style of seating which would allow people the freedom to arrive at a sensible time, then sit down, wander about, get drinks, etc. without losing their place, and then disappear into the floor the second the artist comes onstage. I think it’d be a total winner . As for this gig – there’s a big part of me that still yearns for the simpler times of the early days when Mika just wore jeans and t-shirt, ands the emphasis was on the music only, rather than the set. It was the music I fell in love with, along with his exuberance and giggly self-depracation, his bonkers stories, and all the mistakes he used to make. Now it feels less chaotic, more like a slick machine and a lot of the fun has disappeared, although he did still ramble quite a bit with his stories. But then things can’t stay the same, I do realise. He’s not going to be playing to 30 people in a grotty basement venue in Digbeth, and he’s not going to be doing the ICA anytime soon. He’s in his thirties now, and I’m well over a hundred, so it’s a different era. It’s probably always the case when you discover (or stumble upon) an artist at the very beginning of their career and watch them evolve – somewhere along the line, they either become successful and change, or worse - they don’t make it and give up. It’s a bit like discovering an amazing out-of-the-way unspoilt holiday destination, only for thousands of other people to later discover it too, and turn it into a resort. It’s a different era on here as well, I kind of miss the – er – debates (arguments?!!!) of the early days when I knew who most of the people on here were, getting tickets for TV appearances, and having ridiculous late-night conversations about New Year’s Eve playlists, baguettes, and grey underpants . I rarely post here now, there are thousands of people I’ve never met, and I’m quite annoyed that I had to rush off at the end of the Palladium gig so never saw any of the people I actually DO know! The only person I did see was Mrs P, who greeted me like a long-lost friend, bless her! What I would say is that the packed Palladium, and the reaction from the audience, proved that the UK deserves a couple more gigs. If I was French I could have sat there when the dates were announced and chosen which to go to. In the UK, it was a choice of one. My circumstances now mean I can’t whizz off at the drop of a hat any more to Russia, Lithuania, Beirut or other far-flung places. Some pre-Christmas UK gigs would be a good idea, mixture of standing ones and seated ones (if I haven’t finished my new-seating-invention by then!), small venues, pared back set… a bit like Unplugged from the ‘olden days’ if anyone can remember that far back! That would be perfect . Until then, yes, Sunday night’s gig was absolutely good enough to be going on with, and actually much better than my pessimistic self was expecting. And yes he played a lot of the songs I wanted. Not all, I would have made a couple of substitutions, but then I realise he is doing a Mika show, not a What-Enigma-Wants-To-Hear show .

Haha! I've given up on stupid-o-clock queueing so strolled in at 8.45pm, thinking - I'll work my way down the side to somewhere near the front. No chance as it was packed. So, I got about halfway down and decided to stop right there… which was excellent as the "middle" stage was right there! Result . Loved the gig, even if it was fairly OTT in terms of the amount of stuff going on! Imagine the Palladium will be very different, after all that set wouldn't even fit in the building, so I'm hoping for more of a "gig" in London than an "extravaganza"! Good to briefly see you and Blue Sky in Paris, see you in Londres

Firstly, what a great set - good mix of old and new, and OMS - LOVE that song! Secondly, I was in purgatory, i.e. the dress circle. NEVER AGAIN! For the first third of the show no-one stood up. I mean, how can you SIT during BG, for goodness sake? Eventually when everyone did get up (forgotten what song it was), they all sat down again at the end of the song leaving just four of us standing, at which point the person behind started 'tut-tutting', so we had to sit again. It was indeed purgatory for me until towards the end of the show when the rest of the dress circle finally discovered that they actually had feet and stood up (especially when I could see lots of people I knew in the stalls having a much better time ) And finally, I can't believe anyone is moaning about him doing a song in French. Most people in non-English-speaking countries have to attend concerts by artists who speak English all the time, and I don't hear them complaining. It wasn't like he did the whole gig in French - just the one song! And now, all I want is another gig! Anywhere I can stand up and dance. And afford to get to. Not much to ask!

Due to Eurostar journey from hell and work crisis I'm a bit late posting, but like others have already said, Paris was fabulous. I arrived just before he went onstage (not one for queueing these days!) and made my way to front and far side, got a good spot :-) You all know the setlist by now - it was great to hear the songs from the fourth album (which I've barely stopped playing since I got it) - first time I've heard them live and they sound wonderful. In fact I'd have liked him to include a couple more of them, and hopefully he might in the UK? I can happily live without ever hearing Boum Boum Boum or Elle Me Dit ever again (especially when he has such a rich catalogue of great songs to choose from), but the French crowd obviously love them, so... Other than that I thought it was a really well-thought-out set, and Last Party is a superb closing song. Other random observations: 1. The glowing balloons throughout the audience looked fantastic… 2. Mika clearly has far too many jackets and seems determined to demonstrate the entire collection during the show... 3. But he clearly only has one pair of trousers... 4. His dancing is much less self-conscious these days than it was in the very early days... 5. The merchandise is expensive and not particularly spectacular (and Allegra - no albums on sale as far as I could see)... 6. Melachi and Amira are my new BFFs... 7. I still can't understand French... 8. I have not booked to go to enough shows... That's all from me. Enjoy the rest of the tour everyone! x

Will let you know, although I can't promise a complete itemised spreadsheet with prices! I'm SO looking forward to this gig

I've been counting up all Mika's UK shows on this tour. Since there is still only a grand total of one, I'm off to Paris to be French for a day…