enigma

I can just imagine him as a contestant on Strictly. All flailing legs and arms, with grey underpants showing above his pink sequinned outfit, his converse, and that bloody hat. Nope, I think a performance of a song will suffice!

The Fonda's a fabulous venue, been many times. Hope you all get your tickets sorted for the shows!

Have fun y'all. Mika tweeted he was sat in the sun so hope it stays fine for you!

Never liked the song and don't see anything celebratory happening in the video. I think I'll just hibernate till the album's out in the hope that I'll wake up to find something good on it.

Absolutely. I spotted him immediately. *lies*

Faffed about, managed to get it on Freesat - one of the designated Olympic channels, heard Celebrate and GK but it was just an aerial view of Horseguards so couldn't really see anything except that there were people dancing about on the "beach"! Too late to record it. Hope someone did?

Well I did ask him to play my living room but he said the acoustics weren't up to scratch so this is the next best thing. I thought long and hard about having to go all the way to Chalk Farm but in the end I decided to make the effort. Ticket purchased!

How very thoughtful of him - a gig which takes me approximately 5 minutes to get to from my house!

Oh, I don't think I criticised the performance - I said he was on form! It's only the new SONGS that are so disappointing for me!

For me the Heaven gig was – well, a little bit of heaven, a little bit of hell. Once again, the lighting looked great. Love the flags stage set – so simple, and being neutral coloured, the lighting could transform the streamers into different colours - looked beautiful. Probably because of the nature of the venue, I did feel Mika seemed particularly comfortable, at home and relaxed. There was a really good buzz in the crowd just before he came on, and when he kicked off with BG, followed by Relax, BIOTG, BB etc., it was sounding and looking great, and he was definitely enjoying himself and on form. I’m afraid I still can’t really see what advantage the new band has over the previous band, except possibly less personality, and therefore Mika’s ensured he’s the only star of the show? I’m not keen on the new arrangements of SITM (which has lost it’s swing) or Rain (the previous live version used to bring the house down and this version misses something), and on several songs it seemed the band was too high up in the mix and the sound went muddy and distorted. Also I don’t want to see him dance on the piano, I want to see him play the damn thing. But it was the new songs (sorry Mika) that was my hell. Lola I find repetitive and dull. TOOL the same. MYH does nothing for me. And Celebrate – well on the eve of the Olympic Games all I could think of was that it would have been totally suitable as a theme song for that, but as it’s not going to be, it’s pointless and disposable pap. On the plus side, I do quite like Underwater. I don’t think the new material will do badly, probably the opposite, but somehow I just don’t personally feel inspired by it. On a personal level – as someone who embraced Mika from the word go and thought he was the most talented and unique artist to emerge in a decade, I feel he’s lost his grip on what he’s best at – MELODIES. I don’t like the electronic stuff creeping in, I think autotune should be reserved for people who can’t sing – like Jedward, and as far as I’m concerned rap is simply spelt wrong (missing the “c” at the beginning). I fear that as more of the new material replaces the old, I won’t want to listen to it, or even want to go to the shows in future. And before everyone argues back – it’s only my opinion, and I have no objection to “change” per se, it’s just I feel it’s change for the poorer. As I have no interest in getting autographs or photos, and couldn’t give a flying f*ck about Mika’s personal life, for me it’s JUST about the music, and sadly I just don't like the new stuff. BTW, regarding the “coming out” which so many seem to think was a monumental “big moment”, I didn’t even notice it! I thought he was always “out”, at least as bi, if not gay. So, his current love is a man. What was the news?!!!

4pm? I was kinda thinking about 8pm!

Never mind One Direction, when is Mika writing a death metal song for Behemoth?

I was really sick with flu the day of the gig, still went of course - doctor's orders, ahem! Anyway, I'm not adding anything to what's already been said except to recommend that - even if it's just once - it really is worth watching the show from a different perspective, i.e. other than front row. Sound's better, and the lighting's simply fantastic (kudos to the LD!). I was feeling too ill to even contemplate getting there early, so arrived just before the second support act (which actually nearly finished me off ), and sat up by the sound desk, quite near where Nina was, I think, and it looked SO good from up there! Hello to everyone I met and I hope none of you caught what I had... I did try and stay at a safe distance!

I do wish he'd get some brighter trousers. Those ones are so dull.

One minute it's an Austin Healey, the next it's a Morris Minor! All that being in love stuff has confused him.

Ouch indeed. But it pretty much hits the nail on the head IMO.

From Music Week (trade publication): http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1049946&c=1

Don't be silly, Kath, in London we all dress like that all the time just to go to work

Yes, sorry not to have seen you! I am getting so laid back in my old age, I couldn't be arsed to stand near the stage till Mika was on and I left straight after he finished. And because I was there such a short amount of time I didn't need to visit a toilet of any kind

OK, a brief summary of Lovebox, bearing in mind this is my own opinion only... Firstly the weather was good. It was raining a bit when I left home so I wore my wellies, which weren't that comfortable, and, in fact weren't actually necessary because despite all the recent rain the ground had dried out pretty well! Arrived at 4pm. In retrospect, this wasn't a minute too early because it certainly wasn't rammed, and there was a lot of space everywhere, including right in front of the Circus stage. I have no idea what was on - it wasn't really an "act", just a DJ playing total crap. Where's the talent in that? Anyone could stand there and play records, for heaven's sake. The DJ did change after a while, but the music (if it can be called that) seemed pretty much the same bloody thing for over an hour, and it was godawful. I went and found a wooden platform thing away from the front and sat in the sun. MFC friends came and joined me, and we only went further forward when Mika was about to come on, and it was easy to get fairly close, no jostling or anything. Could have pushed to the front probably, but didn't really see the point. Some people had been there for hours and stayed at the barrier, but it really wasn't necessary. Mika didn't play for long, it went by in a flash! I think it was about 30 mins tops. Short straight hair (OK, but a bit preppy looking). Black skinny jeans, which came ALL the way down to his feet (yay!) and black and white striped t-shirt . So, no dreadful hideous short pants today, and hopefully while his back was turned Melachi has chewed them to pieces and they’ll have to go in the bin! Still grey underpants so some things never change. I do like a bit of continuity. The sound wasn't good, but he seemed to go down pretty well. The new band - well, not sure to be honest. Couldn’t see what exactly they had that the old band didn’t, but I guess that will become apparent in the future over a longer set. Steel drums was a new and unexpected addition. Old familiars were Relax, Blame It On The Girls, Love Today, Lollipop (new stylee), and Grace Kelly. Did the new songs MYH and Celebrate. Sounded better live than the studio versions, but I still think Celebrate comes across as a very, very average song. It went down pretty well with the crowd, but in my book, popular doesn’t necessarily mean good. My yardstick is: if someone else released it, would I listen to it, or think it was great, or buy it, and the answer is no. There’s simply nothing to it – disposable forgettable pop, and Mika is capable of far better. MYH – well that was better, because live it sounds less electronic, but it still doesn’t grab me. I have no objection to an artist evolving or changing (all artists MUST evolve and experiment) but so far I find Mika’s new material a step backwards, not forwards. He was the one TRULY original artist to emerge in the last decade, and it feels like he’s conformed, dumbed down now, dare I say it – been influenced by other people too much? It’s brave for an artist to change direction, but perhaps even braver to stick to ones principles and fly in the face of what’s fashionable. In the threads about the new music, there are loads of comments about the two tracks – saying “I think it sounds a bit like X” or “it reminds me of Y”. Well I (and probably a lot of others) liked Mika because he sounded DIFFERENT to anyone else, and that spark, that uniqueness, seems to have been diminished. If I want to hear something that sounds like Daft Punk or Robyn or any of the other people who have been mentioned, I’ll listen to one of THEIR albums. I only hope I’ll hear something truly original on the TOOL album which fully utilises all the talent Mika has. I guess today wasn’t really a “normal” gig, and I’ll wait for a proper non-festival set before I abandon hope! The love has not completely gone, and of course I’ll be getting the album and going to shows, but looking at it purely objectively, I do feel it just doesn’t have the magic for me that it used to have. Didn’t take photos, because as you will all know, I haven’t managed to get a single in-focus picture of Mika since I joined MFC (and that’s a long time ago) so I leave it to those less pathetic with a camera! Oh and PS: I’m so glad I didn’t spend on a VIP ticket, I have no idea what superb facilities it entitled people to, but I can’t think it was worth the extra!

I'm still at home! What's the rush?!

Set times for Lovebox: http://www.lovebox.net/content/sunday-set-times.html

I was frozen today in windy central London. A hot water bottle will not suffice, I fear. I will be bringing my own portable blast furnace. And a car repair kit for Mika. And some extra material so he can make his trousers a sensible length.

Nope. Some things are just unforgivable!!!

For the ticket price I would have thought it should be FREE!