Hey! I thought I'd write a little report of my own.
This was my first MIKA gig and my god was I excited. The morning of the gig I woke up at about 7 and could not get back to sleep, so I got up plugged my ipod into the speakers and played both albums and the live at Parc Des Princes cd back to back by this time I was really buzzing and couldn't wait for my friend to arrive so we could go and catch the train!
We got to the station at about 11 and we had to wait about half an hour for the train to come, during this time we were discussing our favourite MIKA songs and considering the setlist etc. (I had managed to not look at any reports, videos or pictures, so was completely clueless and proud to have managed to do that!!)
The train journey was about 40 minutes, (Stoke to Manchester) and I was getting more and more excited by the minute! We got off the train and felt the temperature and nearly died! So we rushed to Burger King and ate! The we went into Primark because I wanted to find a cheap crazy piece of clothing to wear but Primark failed and I just wanted to get to the Apollo and queue! So we started walking down to the Apollo from the city centre and saw that there was already a good 50 people there, this was at about 3 o'clock. But we thought it wouldn't hurt to nip to MacDonalds to get a drink and go to the toilets! and buy some HOT food! We got back to the queue and were just outside of the sheltered part of the apollo so were FREEZING but I knew it would be worth it!
Behind us we met these two really nice girls who ended up being lollipop girls and big girls, which I loved! There were really excited and I remember one of them came back round and jumped up and down because she'd met MIKA's mum! Anyway, the queuing time dragged really really badly! It was horrible, I thought I actually had hypothermia! The security really annoyed me, it was at least 10 past 7 and they were just chatting and laughing in the nice, warm foyer! But they finally let us in and we thought we'd get good positions in the second row, but then I was like desperate for the toilet and would no way be able to hold it for 3 hours! So i had to go and we ended up in the fourth row! Still not bad!
Again, it felt like years before Erik Hassle came on and frankly I was unimpressed! I didn't feel he warmed the crowd up nor did he sell himself! So I was just waiting until half 8 when he was leaving! I'm not knocking the voice though, I did think he had a very strong voice!
After this it was another half an hour wait until MIKA, luckily to make time go slightly quicker, I got a text saying who'd killed Archie Mitchell in Eastenders , these two women standing behind us, got very worried that we were gonna shout out who'd done it and they said "please don't say who killed him, I've got it on iPlayer at home!" So we were nice and kept it to ourselves. By this time it was about 5 to, and I was buzzing like hell!
Finally, David (I found out his name, at the end of the gig) came on to start writing at the desk and the big black sheet (don't know if it has a proper name) came down and I went wild! I loved the co-ordination between David and the notebook, the graphics on the screen were incredible and then Rain began! What a way to begin, when MIKA arrived from behind the piano, I was actually starstruck (I've been to many gigs, big and small and never felt as starstruck as this) and he started off the show with such amazing energy! I was jumping around yelling rain at the top of my voice and while he was singing, I thought I was the only person there!
Then he sang Big Girl and again the energy he performs with is unreal, but it never seems as though it's forced like it is with other artists. We then got some MIKA piano treatment, when he performed Stuck In The Middle, firstly the piano was incredible, it looked like broken mirrored glass, then it lit up and I finally noticed that it was see through! There was this fantastic part where he asked one of his band members (I feel awful not knowing his name ) to play the trumpet, where he basically failed and then MIKA did and oh-my-god! It was an incredible impression! He then performed a personal favourite of mine Any Other World and it was like I was in another world! Incredible vocal performance. This was followed by another favourite Billy Brown and then we got Blame It On The Girls, I started to record but just stopped becuase I had to focus too much on the camera and I loved the song! He then did Blue Eyes and then in my opinion the best song off the second album Touches You, where he did these incredible MIKA dance moves! We were then treated to his incredible shiny silver umbrella for I See You, where I took a few pretty good photos and he climbed up onto the piano and it was just a beautiful ballady moment in the set! Then this feathery jacket dropped from up above and MIKA's acting skills took centre stage for Dr John and then he performed another favourite Good Gone Girl, which was then followed by an amazing violin concerto introduction to Happy Ending, this was the moment when my camera cut out! The only good thing about this was that I could focus completely on the show! Nonetheless, the performance was incredible and was followed by Love Today and then Relax, where the crowd was treated to some chair dancing! and he demanded that everyone who cared should jump! So i leaped into the air! and the final song on the main set was We Are Golden and there was an incredible introduction and then the crowd went wild!
MIKA then came back on stage with this terrifying puppet, but I loved it at the same time, he did a great little bit with it, trying to make it sit upright but ultimately failing and then started bashing it's arm on the piano and then apologised to the crowd! He then ended saying something along the lines of " It's something when you're onstage talking to a f*****g puppet!
He then performed Toy Boy and Grace Kelly both were again amazing performances! He then left the stage again and they set up the dustbins!
The backing band took positions behind their bins and then MIKA entered taking the centre bin and they performed this awesome bin bashing routine, incredible and then he performed Lollipop where we had confetti everywhere and multi-coloured streamers! The lollipop girls and big girls with their terrifying skull heads came back on and danced and I tried to find the two girls behind us but had no idea which was them! Lollipop finished the band, lollipops and big girls and MIKA bowed and left! That was the end! Probably the biggest and most stunning show i've ever been to! I couldn't believe I'd just witnessed it!
I grabbed as much confetti and streamers and stuffed my pockets! and we made our way to the Merch Stand, there was far too much to choose from! So I bought a poster (a compulsory item for me at any gig!), an exercise book because I thought that was a really unique piece of merch! and a T-Shirt with all of the tour dates on! and we excited the Apollo!
We then looked at the time, and had to sprint to Manchester Picc. Train Station because our train was at 11:15 and it was 10:50! We got to the station to see the horror of our train LEAVING! We were basically stranded in Manchester!!!
We weren't actaully bothered though becuase I was on such a high! So we thought we'd see what time the next train was, the board said 5:40! :shocked: So we went back down to the Apollo to see if MIKA was there but there was no-one waiting so we assumed that the M&G had finished so we walked back to the station got a coffee and prepared for a 4 and a half hour wait! So we listened to both MIKA albums again and Marina's new album and played some games and learnt the timetables and had a lot of fun actaully!
The train came at about 4:50 and we were allowed to get on and absorb the warmth!!!!!! We got back into Stoke at about half 6 and went home! I was still not at all sleepy so I just threw all the confetti all around my house and danced around!
And that was my MIKA experience! Turns out this is not at all a little report! I will post my videos and pics when I upload them
