A Mika Excuse... The Daily Telegraph, AUS

[Lolliepop_girl]

A MIKA EXCUSE

Kathy McCabe

 

The Daily Telegraph

December 20, 2007

 

 

Mika isn’t coming for V Festival now. A brief slump in disappointment quickly turned to anger after reading the official statement attempting to excuse his withdrawal.

 

“He will unfortunately be unable to perform at the V Festival in Australia due to conflicts that have recently arisen with the production schedule for the recording of his follow-up album. In an attempt to create the best album possible for fans, Mika will need additional time to record in London.”

 

What a load of excrement. Are Mika’s reps so disorganised they double-booked him to perform at a major music festival at the same time he is supposed to be in a London studio? I don’t think so.

 

Those who were beyond excited about seeing Mika back in action in Oz deserve the truth, instead of the trite scheduling conflict excuse from his minders overseas.

Something really unholsem is going on.

I don't know if it's management or him having a bad run or just me needing a social life but something's not right:

 

He's canceling concerts and other things. He hasn't recovered from his illness that he has now had for months, he doesn't want us dressing up because other bands are doing it but why does that even matter?

And is it just me or does he seem... idk... Different somehow???

 

Well MFC veterans, I guess that's my controversial post done!

[avoca]

may I be the devil's advocate this time..?

 

i think for once we were told the truth. he's going to start working/ finish working at the new album, as many of us had guessed. coming long way to australia is time consuming, so I think it's actually the truth, as painful as it may be.

 

what i condemn, is that his staff is not checking these things BEFORE they actually tell he's taking part to a certain event.. that's SO shameful.. esp. as it's happened so many times already..

[Ioana]

I'm sorry but why dose Mika take the blame for bad organizing skills of the people in charge?

He wasn't sure about the gig in Russia either,I heard him say it,and yet people were all psyched about it.I'm pretty sure the V festival wasn't a sure thing for him either.

And like Avoca said,I doubt that statement is an excuse,he actually is recording

Didn't someone ask Martin about it and he said the same thing?

 

He's canceling concerts and other things. He hasn't recovered from his illness that he has now had for months, he doesn't want us dressing up because other bands are doing it but why does that even matter?

And is it just me or does he seem... idk... Different somehow???

Concerts? He was ill you know,very ill actually,he didn't cancel those London gigs just for the sake of it.

He hasn't recovered? he probably has but do you know how sensitive the vocal chords are? And to use them at 100% every night dosen't make them stronger.

Maybe he didn't love the dressing up from the beginning,or maybe now it has reached a new high (tho I doubt that's it)

He dose appreciate people dressing up,but he has also wanted to be unique. And didn't he say to go with political themes? That still is dressing up,but it's also helping a cause,and it's also helping him and you,to stand out

I also see positive sides to it...

[Christine]

And is it just me or does he seem... idk... Different somehow???

 

He is different. It's called growth. LICM is just one moment in time for Mika, it's not going to be his entire life. The characters, the dressing up, I'm sure it was fun for him and everyone involved while it lasted. But he can't just be about that for the rest of his career.

 

He has said right from the beginning that this was a coming of age album that he could only make once in his life so he did it last year. Eventually he has to move on and the fans should go with him, not live in the past.

 

I got the impression from his discussion about the costumes that he has something new in mind. He wants to be ahead of the curve, not doing the same thing that every mediocre band is doing. Sound like anyone we know?

 

As for the poor planning...has anyone read my posts? Mika was sick and had to postpone the London gigs unexpectedly to the end of February because the London gigs were first scheduled last June and couldn't be put off any longer. No one planned that, it just happened. I saw Mika with my own eyes and he was too ill to sing. He really shouldn't have even done the first London gig, but he did and he pushed it as far as he possibly could.

[happikali]

I definately read your posts Christine

[robertina]

A MIKA EXCUSE

Kathy McCabe

 

The Daily Telegraph

December 20, 2007

 

 

Mika isn’t coming for V Festival now. A brief slump in disappointment quickly turned to anger after reading the official statement attempting to excuse his withdrawal.

 

“He will unfortunately be unable to perform at the V Festival in Australia due to conflicts that have recently arisen with the production schedule for the recording of his follow-up album. In an attempt to create the best album possible for fans, Mika will need additional time to record in London.”

 

What a load of excrement. Are Mika’s reps so disorganised they double-booked him to perform at a major music festival at the same time he is supposed to be in a London studio? I don’t think so.

 

Those who were beyond excited about seeing Mika back in action in Oz deserve the truth, instead of the trite scheduling conflict excuse from his minders overseas.

 

this article is just so bad and i'm afraid this journalist is not behaving professionally.

i totally agree with christine on every front.

you might be bitterly disappointed but you simply cannot write in this way.

i don't like this article.

[happikali]

this article is just so bad and i'm afraid this journalist is not behaving professionally.

i totally agree with christine on every front.

you might be bitterly disappointed but you simply cannot write in this way.

i don't like this article.

I agree Robertina !!! And as RBSKY said ... we live & learn .... this is the first time in my (relatively long ) life that I have ever been a fan .... & I accept FULL responsibility for the fact that I bought tickets to festivals (to see Mika only) ..... so... I live & learn !!!!

[Lolliepop_girl]

He is different. It's called growth. LICM is just one moment in time for Mika, it's not going to be his entire life. The characters, the dressing up, I'm sure it was fun for him and everyone involved while it lasted. But he can't just be about that for the rest of his career.

 

He has said right from the beginning that this was a coming of age album that he could only make once in his life so he did it last year. Eventually he has to move on and the fans should go with him, not live in the past.

 

I got the impression from his discussion about the costumes that he has something new in mind. He wants to be ahead of the curve, not doing the same thing that every mediocre band is doing. Sound like anyone we know?

 

As for the poor planning...has anyone read my posts? Mika was sick and had to postpone the London gigs unexpectedly to the end of February because the London gigs were first scheduled last June and couldn't be put off any longer. No one planned that, it just happened. I saw Mika with my own eyes and he was too ill to sing. He really shouldn't have even done the first London gig, but he did and he pushed it as far as he possibly could.

Yeah but I don't mean different like "Growing" I mean that there is just something a little weird.

 

Oh well, forget I said anything.

 

All's good, it's good to be different and the fans, as far as I know (including myself), are moving with him, I just felt that maybe something was a bit amiss, not just this. That's all.

[senyorita12003]

I guess im almost over the big disappointment.....still hurts though but i have 'vented' now (which may have involved a few drinks ) but i know Mika would not cancel if there was no other possible way around it. I kinda scared my mum for a few days.....she thought i had gone off Mika forever, which meant she no longer had someone to be excited with everytime she watched his dvd......she even started calling tomorrow 'Mika Monday' because were having our christmas lunch early (i will be away for chrissy) and were gonna watch his dvd (for about the 20th time and still counting!). But all is good now.......i have vented, gotten it all out of my system......and am looking forward to when he does come and tour here in oz.

 

P.S. I was shopping today and heard what i thought was my phone go off, but turned out to be someone elses phone......and it kinda annoyed me because they had their ringtone as 'Happy Ending'......i mean, thats MY ringtone!!! Im finding it hard to share with people hehe! Oh and I have noticed more people like Mika now because of Happy Ending.

[lcmlcm]

that's suck

i mean Mika...errrrrrrrr...

do u know how many cancelling record do u have???

why u have to make yourself so busy...

when i see the schedule of upcoming gigs...

i start to worry u again....

when u have a 100% good state of health , it's easy to give out 110% of energy from your body

but when u just get 60% and try to put out 110%...that's hard...

 

i don't mind if u delay any gigs before anything's confirmed

u know , that's even more disppointing me when i know cancelling after buying tix......not to mention before the night or that day........

though i know u must get a very reasonable reason

what i dun want is , when im expecting yr gigs, but at the same time, i would think ""will he cancel tonight???"

so all u can do is try to avoid from these kind of thing happen....

just take care of yourself and take it slow.....

 

errrr...sorry...i become neurotic when i think of his illness..

u know how much i care of u

[mellody]

the interesting thing is, i'm not sure it was mika's/his management's fault this time, but rather the festival's. for those who haven't heard about it yet, i've asked john and luke about australia on dec 2nd in london. don't remember their exact words, but basically what they said was:

 

john: probably end of march/beginning of april, but it's not confirmed yet.

 

i first understood it that way that it wasn't confirmed from the festival ppl, but they had it already on their website at that time i think, so that means it wasn't confirmed from mika/mika's management yet!

 

luke: not sure if we're coming to australia in march, it was a decision between album first after the US tour or australia first, and i think the decision was for the album.

 

so i guess what happened was that v-festival asked mika to perform, mika said maybe or someone of his management said yes but there wasn't an official confirmation, v-festival took it as a yes anyway and put him on the list. maybe he really just said "maybe", and they used him to sell more tickets? if that's true, i'm really angry with them cause it means they've sold their tickets and he has the bad publicity now!

[happikali]

It's probably gonna be ok Mellody ...... it was us loonies that bought our tickets on pre-sale... ... however at the mo' there are heaps left .... we'll just wait til' the festivals are closer & then try to sell ......... but I don't think Mika got a whole lotta publicity re: the festival yet ..... so his rep. is probably spared ....

[norwalk174]

everyone i talk to says that mika needs to get his 2nd album out soon and that there's too much touring with one album so i think this was a good decision on mika's part

that was a really tough article

[soangel]

I notice people seem to think V fesitival is at fault. However, it seems unlikely that they would put him on the line up unless there was some kind of confirmation. What is more likely is that they had confirmed in some way, and then, due to having to reschedule the december gigs, thus rescheduling the studio time for recording. This would mean he had to pull out of V festival.

 

Festival line ups change all the time. Artists say they'll play, then they decide not to for whatever reason. But if V festival hadn't confirmed and put him on the line up then they could potentially face significant negative consequences.

 

 

Whatever happened, it really doesn't matter now. It happened.

[sariflor]

the interesting thing is, i'm not sure it was mika's/his management's fault this time, but rather the festival's. for those who haven't heard about it yet, i've asked john and luke about australia on dec 2nd in london. don't remember their exact words, but basically what they said was:

 

john: probably end of march/beginning of april, but it's not confirmed yet.

 

i first understood it that way that it wasn't confirmed from the festival ppl, but they had it already on their website at that time i think, so that means it wasn't confirmed from mika/mika's management yet!

 

luke: not sure if we're coming to australia in march, it was a decision between album first after the US tour or australia first, and i think the decision was for the album.

 

so i guess what happened was that v-festival asked mika to perform, mika said maybe or someone of his management said yes but there wasn't an official confirmation, v-festival took it as a yes anyway and put him on the list. maybe he really just said "maybe", and they used him to sell more tickets? if that's true, i'm really angry with them cause it means they've sold their tickets and he has the bad publicity now!

 

Thanks for that Mellody, that was exactly what I've been trying to say since the whole thing started...

[sariflor]

I notice people seem to think V fesitival is at fault. However, it seems unlikely that they would put him on the line up unless there was some kind of confirmation. What is more likely is that they had confirmed in some way, and then, due to having to reschedule the december gigs, thus rescheduling the studio time for recording. This would mean he had to pull out of V festival.

 

Festival line ups change all the time. Artists say they'll play, then they decide not to for whatever reason. But if V festival hadn't confirmed and put him on the line up then they could potentially face significant negative consequences.

 

 

Whatever happened, it really doesn't matter now. It happened.

 

 

You know, I don't think that this sounds quite right.

 

If the band signs a contract to perform and then pulls out, the consequences would be quite severe as they would not be fulfilling their contractual obligation and would probably have to pay a hefty fine or even face being sued.

A contract is a contract and I really doubt that Mika's management or any other band's for that reason would go singing contracts nilly willy and they just "pull out".

It makes much more sense to me that they never actually signed it, but the festival still decided to advertise their names.

Sure no band management would be that stupid? And then face all the negative press,etc...?

 

And I DO think that it matters to know what actually happened, as it can negatively affect Mika's name if this is in fact not their fault yet it's being "marketed" as Mika pulling out,etc...My 2 pence.

[soangel]

You know, I don't think that this sounds quite right.

 

If the band signs a contract to perform and then pulls out, the consequences would be quite severe as they would not be fulfilling their contractual obligation and would probably have to pay a hefty fine or even face being sued.

A contract is a contract and I really doubt that Mika's management or any other band's for that reason would go singing contracts nilly willy and they just "pull out".

It makes much more sense to me that they never actually signed it, but the festival still decided to advertise their names.

Sure no band management would be that stupid? And then face all the negative press,etc...?

 

And I DO think that it matters to know what actually happened, as it can negatively affect Mika's name if this is in fact not their fault yet it's being "marketed" as Mika pulling out,etc...My 2 pence.

This is festivals we're talking about here, there are clauses to pull out when a contract is signed, and many artists do pull out, only to be replaced with others.

 

Plus, a confirmation doesn't have to be written, it can be a verbal agreement, and still be legally binding (to a degree)

 

That said, the fact that Mika is getting bad publicity over it is the reason I think there was some confirmation of some sort, even if it was only a verbal 'yeah, sure' from someone in his management. Because, otherwise, there are grounds for a civil case against the festival, after all, if he didn't in fact pull out, as stated, then there is grounds for a defamition case there.

 

The festival would have to have had some sort of confirmation, however weak or strong, to put his name on that list, there would have been some agreement. It might only have been a 'yeah, if we have finished the album, we'll do it', but it would still be an agreement.

 

 

And when I say it doesn't matter who is at fault, it really doesn't. Tickets are not sold out to the festival, and it is, after all, a festival. Very few people will have brought tickets to just see Mika.

Yes, he has got a bit of bad press, but so far we have only seen one negative article, and the journalist herself was a fan, who may have written the article while still raw over the news.

 

We'll never know if Mika confirmed and then pulled out, or gave a verbal yes/yes with a maybe, and then couldn't go further, or whether the festival put him up with no confirmation. If we can never know, then it really doesn't matter, because all we can do is speculate.

 

(I'm not trying to start an argument, I just want to show that it might not necessarily be the festival which is at fault (entirely))

[Jolene]

Here is the article from OK! magazine

 

[tauruslady]

Awww, I feel bad for you Australians:(

But I like the fact that a second album was mentioned!

[sariflor]

This is festivals we're talking about here, there are clauses to pull out when a contract is signed, and many artists do pull out, only to be replaced with others.

 

Plus, a confirmation doesn't have to be written, it can be a verbal agreement, and still be legally binding (to a degree)

 

That said, the fact that Mika is getting bad publicity over it is the reason I think there was some confirmation of some sort, even if it was only a verbal 'yeah, sure' from someone in his management. Because, otherwise, there are grounds for a civil case against the festival, after all, if he didn't in fact pull out, as stated, then there is grounds for a defamition case there.

 

The festival would have to have had some sort of confirmation, however weak or strong, to put his name on that list, there would have been some agreement. It might only have been a 'yeah, if we have finished the album, we'll do it', but it would still be an agreement.

 

 

And when I say it doesn't matter who is at fault, it really doesn't. Tickets are not sold out to the festival, and it is, after all, a festival. Very few people will have brought tickets to just see Mika.

Yes, he has got a bit of bad press, but so far we have only seen one negative article, and the journalist herself was a fan, who may have written the article while still raw over the news.

 

We'll never know if Mika confirmed and then pulled out, or gave a verbal yes/yes with a maybe, and then couldn't go further, or whether the festival put him up with no confirmation. If we can never know, then it really doesn't matter, because all we can do is speculate.

 

(I'm not trying to start an argument, I just want to show that it might not necessarily be the festival which is at fault (entirely))

 

 

Hehe, don't worry, neither was I; I was (like you) just trying to put my point across .

I can't really comment on the technicalities of the contracts and pullout clauses that are used for festivals because I don't know anything about them, but I do think that even if there is the possibility to pull out after confirmation has been given or a contract has been signed, they should probably only be for certain causes such as illness, etc, and they would be quite strict in reinforcing this...

 

I agree that a verbal contract is legally binding, but not "any" verbal agreement qualifies for that.

Most legal systems require a verbal contract to have certain elements in order to be binding, and something like Mika or his management saying a general "yeah. we'll possibly do it, bla bla" would probably not cut it.

In any case, the problem is that, as you say, nobody knows what happened and what was said/signed, and obviously both "sides" will tell the story the way that suits them .

In any case all is well that ends well (or however it goes)

[soangel]

Yeah, alls well that ends well (or not in this case)

 

 

I think, to be safe, we'll assign 50% of the blame to the the Festival organisers, and 50% to Mika/Management. Only fair way to do it

[Kelzy]

Yeah, alls well that ends well (or not in this case)

 

 

I think, to be safe, we'll assign 50% of the blame to the the Festival organisers, and 50% to Mika/Management. Only fair way to do it

 

I agree.. share the blame.. If either parties weren't 100% sure that it was going to happen then they are both at fault, no matter what the excuse is..

*gives two thumbs down* :thumbdown: *then hugs Mika*

[Christine]

*gives two thumbs down* :thumbdown: *then hugs Mika*

 

That b*stard always gets away with it in the end doesn't he? A flash of the dimples and a blink of those big brown eyes and I'll forgive just about any abuse. He's a wicked, wicked man.

[Kelzy]

That b*stard always gets away with it in the end doesn't he? A flash of the dimples and a blink of those big brown eyes and I'll forgive just about any abuse. He's a wicked, wicked man.

I know.. it's just not fair..

 

We're his doormats:naughty: