greta Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 http://www.whiskyfun.com/archiveseptember06-1.html CONCERT REVIEW by Nick Morgan “Listen, you’ve just got to get tickets for this gig. It’s supposed to be awesome. Mika is going to be the next big pop sensation, another Freddie Mercury and Queen. Everyone’s going to be there, and it’ll be the last gig he ever plays in a small venue. You know, it’ll be one of those nights that in ten year’s time people will say, ‘I was there’”. Hard sell or what? So I checked out this Mika on that priceless source of music chatter, Popbitch. They said, “This Autumn, Island records unveil the artist who should be the breakout superstar of the next few years”, adding that “His sound is like nothing else on the market”. Further investigation revealed an engaging but pretty thin story about a boy born in Lebanon, brought up in Paris and London, who was lost in angst but rediscovered himself through music, who learnt his singing skills in the chorus of the Royal Opera, who was mentored in song writing by American composer and producer Jodi Marr, who wowed the people at Universal Music who signed him to subsidiary Island (though his forthcoming single and album will be on the old Disco label Casablanca), and then recorded his first album in LA under the guiding hand of veteran Canadian producer Greg Wells (he also produced Paris Hilton’s new album). His surname is a mystery (but I can tell you now he shouldn’t be confused with Finnish accordionist Mika Väyrynen, or Indian bhangra artiste Mika Mehndi). And although he’s obviously talented, quite how he pulled all of this off is a bit of a mystery too. Did I tell you that he has “an American father, whom he describes rather vaguely as being ‘in finance’”? We’re packed into the Borderline like sardines. It’s hot, excited, noisy and unpleasant. Everyone seems to know each other. There’s a huge family contingent, and a lot of braying smug and self-satisfied record company types, who seem to think that the mere mortals who actually paid for their tickets are second class citizens. They display what can only be called, with apologies to all my porcine friends, the manners of pigs. There are also fans – very excited too (“I thought the boys at the front were going to ejaculate” said the Photographer as we left), a lot of them clearly underage, and under the influence of a bit too much beer (hey Serge, did you know that Sol is cool again – how did they manage that?). Outside there are members of Mika’s Secret Society (“I take it you want to go to my gigs for free and get all sorts of cool things and be a part of this...epidemic?”) – actually I think it’s what you would normally call a Street Team – handing out Mika rosettes and lollipops. They’re practically peeing themselves too. In fact everyone is so excited that they’re not paying the slightest attention to support Mara Carlyle, who gamely tries to play through the overwhelming noise with her accompanist on guitar, while she sang and played the ukulele and saw. We were quite impressed. {continue} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greta Posted March 17, 2008 Author Share Posted March 17, 2008 Mika’s band appears to be another mystery, so I can’t tell you who they were. But they were good (“but were they good enough?” I asked myself afterwards), even though they were obviously as nervous as hell at the start. Mika is a tall young man with a mop of curly hair who oozes self-confidence and charm. His voice is quite remarkable, a falsetto that is very reminiscent of the Bee Gees, but with a range that takes him easily down to Freddie Mercury. He flops and dances round the centre of the stage in a rather camp fashion, and thanks us between each song “for coming out”, and at one point for “making all this happen, it’s been a remarkable two weeks”. He sings, unless I miscounted, six songs, and having come on stage at 9.10 pm is off by 9.40 pm, no encore. Songs included opener ‘Love today’ (“après ski Euro pop trash” yelled the Photographer, “but bloody good”) ‘Billy Brown’ and ‘Relax take it easy’ from the forthcoming single, ‘Big girl’ (that must have been the two who stood in front of us and eclipsed the stage like a pair of two huge moons, or do I mean morons?) ‘Lollipop Girl’ (which a mind-numbingly asinine refrain), and Mika’s ‘anthem’, ‘Grace Kelly’, a witty and knowing piece, brilliantly performed, with a huge debt to Queen. Yes, he was good, but was he good enough? And if he’s the next Freddie Mercury, then where’s his Brian May? And does he have the depth and substance to go beyond a relatively small number of highly polished tunes? And will his backers have patience with him if he fails to deliver on their up-front investment? Actually don’t even bother to answer that one. And how long will it take for his fans to see through the crassly insincere Myspace marketing? But I’ll tell you one thing. The day after the gig I read that he’s playing at Dingwalls in November. Listen, you’ve just got to get tickets for this gig. It’s going to be awesome. Mika is going to be the next big pop sensation, another Freddie Mercury and Queen. Everyone’s going to be there …- Nick Morgan (photograph - not banners - by Kate) advertisement - that part of the review was sponsored by: {there are some Mika Myspace images} end of advertisement - end of review Thanks Nick! I love marketing, I love advertising, I love prelaunches, I love preprelaunches, I love prepreprelaunches, I love postlaunches, I love clubs, I love CRM, I love London, I love Mika (well, I love Hakkinen even more) and all is well in the best of worlds. Oh, by the way, I hope you won’t take umbrage because I sold your excellent review to a few sponsors, will you? PS: Mika’s lovely music can be found on his lovely Myspace page. To our distinguished readers, Nick and Kate will fly to Uncle Sam's for some holidays so we'll probably get no new reviews for a while... Unless we get something from the good old US of A? We'll see... Oh, damn, with all the money and love flowing in, I almost forgot to add Kate's wonderful (and truly lovely, and truly Sergentpepperesque - or Adamantesque?) photograph of Mika at The Borderline: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cath85 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 pfff he should have gone to one of his recent gigs... can't believe he was at one of his early shows and didn't even appreciate it when he writes himself that it should be something one should be proud about (although in a sarcastic way I admit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greta Posted March 17, 2008 Author Share Posted March 17, 2008 I found the wole thing a bit ironic...and what about the connection Mika-whisky?! aaw if I were there..impossible though coz seems it was like a "private" gig with biz ppl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cath85 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I found the wole thing a bit ironic...and what about the connection Mika-whisky?! aaw if I were there..impossible though coz seems it was like a "private" gig with biz ppl ironic because he didn't like mika, that's how I understood it. he should have given us the ticket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guylainem123 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 wow that's old! you are almost an internet archeologist greta! :roftl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CazGirl Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 wow look at that picture! long curly hair and the famous circus ring master jacket. August 2006. He was 23. Nearly two years ago! He's 25 this year. Jeeeeeeeeeeeeez! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirtilla Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Ok, after recovering cause for a mini-second I thought there would have been a tiny gig at the Borderline next august, I'm quite ok:naughty: Aww, I SO wish I could have been there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertina Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 thanks greta, i'm doing some hard digging myself...but you seem to be unbeatable! shall we start a treasure hunt? to see who can find the oldest piece of news about mika? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FREDDIESDOUBLE Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Yeh secret society was all good on the face of it ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollipop_monkey Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Man, what I wouldn't give to have been there. How come I didn't have the sudden inspiration to hop a plane to London in August 2006? "You know, it’ll be one of those nights that in ten year’s time people will say, ‘I was there'". That may have been tinged with sarcasm, but after five million albums and giant stadium shows, it's so true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kata Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 :naughty: that pretty much made my day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greta Posted March 17, 2008 Author Share Posted March 17, 2008 btw, his very first support {the "ukulady"} seems really lovely:wub2: http://www.myspace.com/maracarlyle check her! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyn Mastin Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Mika isn't Freddie, and he doesn't need a "Brian May". God, please grant me patience in the face of these idiots and their Mercury obsession with regard to Mika!! Edit: I just realised it's an old article. Thank God for that!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcdeb Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Man, what I wouldn't give to have been there. How come I didn't have the sudden inspiration to hop a plane to London in August 2006? August 30th is my birthday -- THAT would have been a fine b'day present in 2006, for sure "You know, it’ll be one of those nights that in ten year’s time people will say, ‘I was there'". That may have been tinged with sarcasm, but after five million albums and giant stadium shows, it's so true. I think it's all in how you interpret it, though -- I think the reviewer did genuinely enjoy the show in spite of himself. He may have been a bit sarcastic, but look... At the end he very cleverly repeats his opening: "But I’ll tell you one thing. The day after the gig I read that he’s playing at Dingwalls in November. Listen, you’ve just got to get tickets for this gig. It’s going to be awesome. Mika is going to be the next big pop sensation, another Freddie Mercury and Queen. Everyone’s going to be there …" He's saying to the readers exactly what was said to him... I think overall it was a very favorable review... I just can't believe it was *2006* when we were all still blissfully ignorant of the havoc that MIKA was about to wreak on our lives! dcdeb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurel Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I really enjoyed reading that. I'm so so glad I discovered Mika when I did. Or at least had the brains to download that album early last year, you just can't remain immune to those songs. They're incredible. He's just so fecking talented. Really wish I was one of those people who cotton on to "The Next Big Thing" before it happens. Would have loved to have seen him at the beginning of everything. Only time that did happen was the Kaiser Chiefs and that's only cos' they supported Franz late 2004. Oh and Arcade Fire (Again a Franz support band) - they should have done Mika too lol - I would have got the bug alot lot earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Really wish I was one of those people who cotton on to "The Next Big Thing" before it happens. Would have loved to have seen him at the beginning of everything. I was thinking the same.. especially that I was even travelling to the UK quite a lot towards the end of 2006... Now I recall how blissfully ignorant I was about the UK's music scene that time and was not spending most of my time on the internet like I do nowadays - thanks to this young lad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katydid1994 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 awww thanks for posting that, I love reading about the early days. I try not to kick myself for missing so much, if it wasn't for Perez, I'd hate to know how long it would of been before I came upon the brillance of Mika. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittie88 Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 Wow, thanks for posting this, I went to the Borderline on Feb 14th this year to watch Palladium and is quite amazing to think now that Mika played there in his early days, thats so amazing! I quite like that venue so I can imagine that the gig would have been terrific! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cath85 Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 August 30th is my birthday -- THAT would have been a fine b'day present in2006, for sure I think it's all in how you interpret it, though -- I think the reviewer did genuinely enjoy the show in spite of himself. He may have been a bit sarcastic, but look... At the end he very cleverly repeats his opening: "But I’ll tell you one thing. The day after the gig I read that he’s playing at Dingwalls in November. Listen, you’ve just got to get tickets for this gig. It’s going to be awesome. Mika is going to be the next big pop sensation, another Freddie Mercury and Queen. Everyone’s going to be there …" He's saying to the readers exactly what was said to him... I think overall it was a very favorable review... I just can't believe it was *2006* when we were all still blissfully ignorant of the havoc that MIKA was about to wreak on our lives! dcdeb I really don't think it's a favourable review... and IMO he just repeats that ame sentance to mock what people say. but that's just the way I see it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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