kreacher

At first all the songs on the album were pretty even as far as how I’d rank them (all so good!) but this song has emerged as one of my most favorites. It’s the one I most often sit silently in awe of whenever it ends, or sometimes afterward I can’t stop myself from whispering “wow! damn I love that song” and immediately want to replay it.

Remember back when Max had brown hair? Yeah, I didn’t either until last night when I happened upon a pic of him onstage w/ Mika back in 2012

So many misheard lyrics in this one  Even tho my brain knows he’s not singing “douche douche douche” or “ambush my tushié” my mouth keeps singing it

If I had a workout playlist this song would be at the top! …and at the end… ok let’s be honest, it’d be in the middle too 

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Fine, it’d only be this song like 20 times, and by “workout” I’d mean just dancing around my kitchen

Thank you @TinyLove_CJ these are perfect!

41 minutes ago, Mikasister said:

Fantastic @kreacher you're a genius. 

Thanks, but you're the genius for making this topic. Seems so long overdue! 

From what i can decipher on the link in the Mikastore email i received a couple days ago my album is either supposed to arrive Dec 5th or it doesn't ship until the 5th?!?! So, can someone who has the album already pretty please post pics of the album credits? I'm very curious. Thanks!

IRELAND

Found an album review in Irish press, they say nice things!

Album review: Mika blooms in French with Que ta Tête Fleurisse Toujours (irishexaminer.com)

lots of pics with this flower curtain (w/ Mika in my fave outfit ever ), but this one is extra flowery...

i forgot what a long history of sticking flowers to his clothes that Mika has xD

ok i'll stop now

and this classic...

seems like it'd be more of a challenge to find pics of Mika WITHOUT a flower somewhere in them 

On 11/24/2023 at 2:10 AM, krysady said:

I knew I've heard this melody before!  Here's a snippet from "Envoyé Spécial" 2016:

 

 

aaaaaah, this explains why Skyler Stonestreet (a co-writer for several songs on NPIH) is credited with co-writing this song. I bet that's her singing too

great topic! i love hearing stories of how generous and sincere Mika is with his fans, because he totally doesn't have to be.

my first real time meeting him was after the 2nd NYC gig in October 2012. A bunch of us MFCers got to go to the VIP area and sat on a couch to wait. He came out after a bit and talked to us while we all sat there. I gave him a plush corn that said Nebraska on it and he said something funny about Nebraska which i promptly forgot. He signed stuff and stayed talking to us for 5 minutes (or maybe it was 15? i really couldn't say, time moves so weird in his presence) then we took a group photo. I will never forget the feeling of his hand briefly grasping my upper arm to pull me closer to him into the photo more and the awkwardness of wanting to touch him but not actually wanting to touch him so i just kind of held my arm out and hovered my hand near his lower back.

I "talked" to him after gigs a few other times. He has this way of gazing at people when he's listening that always scrambles my brain when he turns to me, so by talked i mean i stared at him and maybe said whatever words hadn't failed me yet and he replied something to me which i forgot as soon as he smiled.

In Montreal 2015 after the 3rd concert with L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal i didn't really speak with him one on one, but others did, and he kind of spoke to all of us at once and watching it again just now gave me ALL THE FEELS  

My most recent time of meeting him was after his 2nd gig in Montreal in Sept 2019. There were a lot of us waiting in a dark alley and i was toward the end of the (thankfully!) orderly line so was anxious he'd leave before he got to all us. But he didn't, he stayed to have a moment with everyone. I gave him a big book of Maurice Sendak's designs for art & ballet which he seemed to like & thanked me for. I didn't have anything in particular for him to sign and security had said NO PICTURES but before i could stop myself i asked him for a hug. I never had hugged him before (i generally avoid hugging anyone, cuz ew touching!) and figured it'd be a one arm quickie but nah, he used both arms and squeezed for what seemed like 10 seconds but was probably more like 2 or 3. I remember actually being a bit weirded out as it was happening xD Then he moved to the next person in line. My heart was pounding and i was kinda shaky for a few minutes after that, never experienced that after meeting him before!

@QueenBigFat i hope you get to meet him in person someday, it really is something special

Found an album review in Irish press, they say nice things!

Should it be left here or is there an Irish press thread... or should it go in the UK press thread?

Album review: Mika blooms in French with Que ta Tête Fleurisse Toujours (irishexaminer.com)

Thank you for this topic @Prisca!

The inconsistences in his stories frustrate me to no end when i'm trying to work on the mikapedia thing 

On 7/28/2023 at 4:39 PM, Kumazzz said:

From @kreacher's Mikapedia

 

While they attended Westminster as teens Alex wrote a few articles in the school magazine, The Elizabethan, that mentioned young Mica Penniman.

 

Could anyone let me know those articles Alex Millar wrote. Thank you.

Sorry this reply is months late! i thought I'd saved these all somewhere, but i guess i didn't, so i dug them up from here... 

These aren't the only mentions of Mica in the magazine, but these are the ones Alex wrote.

The Elizabethan 2001 (westminster.org.uk)

Music

Another big year for the musical life of the School. Alex Millar gives us an overview of what the year held

This year has surpassed previous years in the standard of performance and the sheer number of concerts. As usual there were numerous House concerts of extremely high standard, along with the annual concerts: Contemporary Music, Choral and Orchestral and School Concert in St. John Smith's Square. Additionally we were treated to several performances by visiting professionals such as the pianist Joanna Macgregor, whose energetic piano playing was both a show and a performance and the German baritone Stephan Loges. In addition to this immense amount of music-making, this year saw the introduction of a new concert - the Soloist Concert, which took place in January, where some of the best musicians in the school were able to shine. At the concert, the number of viola players was surprising, and the performance from an Under School boy was especially memorable.

This year the orchestra has surpassed itself on numerous occasions, principally in my opinion the performance of Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony in St. John's, Smith Square, which was a wonderful task to be involved in. The performance in conjunction with the choir of Francis Grier's Around the Curve of the World was another great success. One of the best aspects of music at Westminster is the orchestra, where challenging music is performed to high standard, and in which many friendships can be formed, and I'm sure that this year's new experimental orchestral tour in Italy should prove to be very rewarding.

The high standard of music at Westminster is very much due to the efforts of students, who in their spare time engage in performances and concerts. To do this at the same time as coping with the many academic demands placed on them is an achievement which is not nearly praised enough as shown by the many Thursday lunchtime concerts - there are always opportunities to perform.

This year some of the best musicians that Westminster has had in recent times will be leaving. Their farewell to the school came in the form of one of the best Concerto Concerts that I have ever witnessed. People such as Edward Corn, Annabel Legge and Bernard Freudenthal have been so influential in the music at the school that their departure is going to leave a large void. Saying this, there is so much new talent in lower years that undoubtedly the void will soon be filled.

I would like to thank the following people who have helped to write the music section: Mica Penniman, Alexander Bradford, Sarah Pett, Francis Murphy, Mark Jolly and Charles Corn, as well as those who have been kind enough to write the reviews, especially members of staff.

The Jazz Concert
Up School
December 2000

The Jazz Concert was a perfect opportunity for the school's jazz musicians to show their talents, which most school concerts don't allow them to do. The entire evening was a great success, comprising some excellent ensemble items and superb solo performances. The Big Band, who got the evening started with three traditional pieces, caught the attention of the audience and electrified the mood. The other two ensembles - The Basement group and The Missing Link - were extremely impressive and most enjoyable to listen to.

It was quite evident that much effort had gone into these groups, and it was easy to see that all were enjoying themselves. Special mention should be given to Anthony Cardona (Jazz Flute), Nathan Korda (Clarinet and Bass Clarinet), Charles Corn (Trombone), and Tom Wroe (Alto Saxophone) each displaying great virtuosity and musicality.

The highlights of the evening for me had to be the two singers, and Tom Nishiwaki's piece Oriental Blues. Naomi Curtis was simply amazing; the clarity of her voice was captivating and a joy to listen to, bringing new life to 'Can't help lovin' that man' for all the audience. Mica Penniman's performance was confident, enjoyable and extremely impressive. He took control of the whole audience with the charisma that shone through his renditions of 'Love me or leave me and Lullaby of Birdland'.

The speed and agility of Tom Nishiwaki's piano playing was unbelievable, moving over the keys with such speed and yet so effortlessly. Oriental Blues, his own composition also allowed Al Moylan to show off his technical proficiency on the Double Bass, with some magical playing making the audience lean forward on their seats to watch as he slid along one of the strings. This concert showed everyone that there was yet another side to music at the school.

Alexander Millar

Carol Concert
Abbey
December 2000

The Carol Concert is always a difficult event to pull off musically, due to the size of the Abbey. However, as usual, the music performed was still up to the high standard that we have come to expect at such events. Before the service the audience was treated to the first movement from Brandenburg Concerto no. 4, where the solo violin and recorders mastered the complexity of their parts superbly. The music of the service, as always, was performed to a high standard by the combined voices of the School Choir and the Parents' Choir. Apart from the traditional congregational hymns, the choir performed several pieces alone. The more ambitious of these pieces was the Magnificat by César Cui. Sarah Pett rose to the challenge made on the soprano soloist, and the result was successful with the solemn and spiritual sound of the piece attained. The Berlioz carol The Shepherds' Farewell with additional instrumentation arranged by Dr. Savaskan, and the Sans Day Carol showed how good the School Choir really is, with some wonderful singing which highlighted the delicacy of Berlioz. Special mention should be given to Lawrence Keegan-Fischer, Alexander Bradford and Mica Penniman, the soloists in the traditional carols, each of whom sang marvelously. The Henry VII Choir, the chamber choir, made two contributions to the service, and their performance of Jesus Christ the Apple Tree in particular was delivered with great musicality. Just as last year Annabel Legge had her carol performed, Alexander Campkin's Good Christian Men Rejoice brought to this year's congregation an impressive setting of traditional Christmas words. Peter Sells, a parent, composed his own Christmas anthem Christ's Nativity. The School Choir worked hard to perform successfully this extremely demanding and complex challenge. The music of the service worked extremely well with the traditional readings, and together made the evening a thoroughly enjoyable one.

Alexander Millar

"Mica Penniman's performance was confident, enjoyable and extremely impressive. He took control of the whole audience with the charisma that shone through" 

Anyone else having trouble placing their Mika store order because your card info isn't accepted by Lyra thing?

When i enter my card info it says "Your payment request has been refused by your financial institution" and then when i click the NEW PAYMENT ATTEMPT button it takes me back to the page to enter my card info again. When i went back to Mika store to check the address info i entered there's a notice that says "Your payment cannot be processed for technical reasons. Please try a different payment method" and when i click confirm payment it just reloads the same page. I used a different browser and my mum's bank card but it did the same thing.

UPDATE as i was typing this reply i got a call from some recording that said something about "fraud prevention" and i hung up after 1 second because i was like "ugh spam" but now i'm worried it was legitimately my bank calling to see if it was really me trying to order something from overseas. GAAAAAH crap, i hope the bank isn't going to cancel my card and send me a new one. There doesn't seem to be any other way to pay so i guess i won't be preordering the vinyl album from the Mika store

EDIT: Nevermind, i just got it ordered!

Today I got another call from my bank's fraud prevention dept, from a real person this time. Sure enough, they had blocked the transaction because it was sus. I'll leave this post here in case anyone else encounters this issue.

On 7/22/2023 at 9:57 AM, Kumazzz said:

 

 

The car was a van, there were 10 of us, there were also two rabbits, Coco and Pussy, I'm not kidding.

 

 

@SusanT Thanks for reminding me.

 

And @Camus I enjoyed reading your report !

 

From Il Testimone PART - 1

 

 

 

@kreacher

Dee, I did searched,

Pussy and Coco are not in the Mikapedia.

Thanks for your works.

Pussy does have an entry, but Coco doesn’t. I’ll put it on my list of entries to add. Thanks!

It’s the magic of Geraldine! 

12 hours ago, dcdeb said:

I believe the first time Mika did J'ai Pas Envie on TV was on the Penelope McQuade show in Montreal in July 2015. I remember watching it in my hotel room, couldn't believe I was actually seeing Mika on TV! (That almost never happens in the US!)

 

It's not the whole song, but you can see about 30 seconds of Mika performing No Place in Heaven at the Montreal Jazz Festival on July 5, 2015 here:

 

He performed Touches You earlier than October 23, 2009. I think you just have the date wrong -- It was Toronto, but it was October 12, 2009:

 

 

Jai Pas Envie: In the mikapedia I list TV performances separately from live performances. I had the Penelope McQuade show listed in the TV line, and "The first time at a concert was on June 9, 2015 in Paris, France" in the live performances line, but for some dumb reason I had listed The Voice 2016 performance in the live performances line too and that's what I copy & pasted here 

NPIH: he played the jazz festival on the 4th and 5th, and definitely did NPIH on the 4th. I checked the report thread and ppl confirm it in their reports. Found a video of the show: 

Touches You: lol typo, derp.

4 hours ago, Glitterbug said:

Ah what an amazing tread! It's great to have all the dates collected in one place.

 

Thank you for all the hard work  I'm really not an internet person but my.. I'm starting to really like this forum.

 

I can confirm that Promiseland was done for the very first time at Cattolica. I'm aslo pretty sure that he performed Staring at the sun  in that gig, too (So, 5 days before the Swiss Estivale).

 

I remember because I had a terrible experience going in (I got heatstroke from queuing in the sun and there was so much pushing and shoving at the entrance that it became a bit dangerous and I almost left), but I endured it and afterwards I was so happy and thinking that it had all been worth it and I couldn't believe I'd almost missed two new songs!

Thank you for this info about SATS, it'll be fixed in my next Mikapedia update!

Found this video 

I had the PUOTF @ jools holland info in the TV performmances line. So cool you got to witness that live!

4 hours ago, Glitterbug said:

Ironically, the first time I saw "one foot boy" was in LA  but I didn't notice he was injured until the encore..

That's because it happened during the encore i think. It was definitely during Love Today, and he tends to do that one toward the end of the show, no?

2 hours ago, mellody said:

A few photos from merch stands over the years:

 

November 2007 Berlin (the red part on the left is support act merch)

 

London, March 2010

Thanks for these merch booth overview pics @mellody, it's interesting to see how much money things were sold for. Some of these things I have on my 'Mika merch i want' pinterest board where i was looking for merch to post here, but I didn't add them to this thread because I thought they were bootleg/fan-made stuff.

4 hours ago, dcdeb said:

 

No, you're not spamming! Thanks for all this. I didn't have photos for all the albums and CDs so you've saved me the trouble. And I never knew about the Je Chante single!

I didn't know about the Je Chante vinyl either.

@vanessa-love-mika do you remember where you got it from? thank you for posting it! would you mind posting a close up pic of the label? I'd like to add the info to the mika encyclopedia.

I don't own the Dodgy Holiday EP sadly. My 2nd post is all things I don't have. The puzzle is great, i love creative merch like that so i ordered it without a second thought. I forget where I ordered the edition of NPIH that it came with from, most likely yesasia.com.

just a few more things...

-Dodgy Holiday EP

-dunno what it is, but i want it

-only a couple days ago i became aware of this version of PDP on blu-ray. it's so shinyyyy 

love this thread @dcdeb !! i literally made a little sound of delight in my throat when i saw & opened it. lists & Mika stuff are two of my most favorite things 

-you said no magazines, but included Topolino. Are these not magazines?

-the white scarf is on the list twice, once in tbwktm and once in tool

-you have the tiny tour sweatshirt and the revelation tour hoodie on the list, but no tiny tour hoodie (it has a pocket!). i got mine from Mika's webshop 

-these postcards came with one of the magazine editions

-these photo cards came with some sinfonia pop dvds

-this puzzle came with the korean edition of NPIH w/ the OSM disc

-the sinfonia pop section could include OSM too perhaps, since that's where the shirt and mug were first sold, and these posters (i don't have the full pic handy)

-dodgy holiday tote bag

-there was a TOOL poster for sale at gigs in 2012. sorry i don't have a better pic of it

On 4/27/2023 at 11:43 PM, kreacher said:

One Foot Boy first time was in the fall of 2009 (or before???)... i need to figure this out

 

Pick Up Off The Floor first time was in the fall of 2009 (or before???)... i need to figure this out

i checked the gig reports threads for 2009 and the earliest instances that I can find for these two songs are both from October 12, 2009, at Sound Academy in Toronto, Canada.