2022 - Mika @ London Roundhouse, UK, 3 July - REPORTS/PICS/VIDEOS

[Mikasister]

Mika IG stories

 

  

[Mikasister]

While waiting for your reports, pics and videos, Mika posted some stories 

 

    

 

 

[Rachgirard]

So glad to see him again, absolutely phenomenal 

[BeccaStardust]

Honestly such am amazing night, I'm still buzzing , I loved every second and nearly cried during like 5 songs 

I'm glad I went and was perfect 

He sang Billy brown tonight which was a welcome addition. Also talking about his mum and the house he grew up in was sweet 

 

Agian was a great night it was nice to meet people too.

 

I've posted my pics and videos on insta but they aren't the best quality 

Edited July 4, 2022 by BeccaStardust

[smolly127]

Such a stunning night! It was amazing to meet so many of you! 💞💞 what amazing energy everyone had! Here is just a few photos I took! Much Love x

[kath]

Looking forward to hearing all about it. That queue looked scary!

So so sorry that I couldn’t be there- or at the party. Fingers crossed for next time and I hope you have all had a great weekend. X 

[Mikasister]

Mika's story

[couldbepurple]

Mika triumphs

 

The first time I saw Mika I went with the kids - then 8 and 10. He blew my mind: the visuals, the show. I have followed him ever since, no longer needing the kids as an excuse. My last concert before lockdown was Mika in New Zealand of all places. Now 14 years later Mika was the best I have EVER seen him. 

 

Last night in the Roundhouse magic happened. Mika suggested as much at the start - but I thought that was just, you know, artist chat. I couldnt have been more wrong.

 

Mika gave us more chat and sincerity than I have heard before. Moving words about his mother and family home. Sincere words about where he is at. It was wonderful to be part of the 'inner circle' for a bit. 

 

Mika also gave us: a lot of Mika! Bare-chest, ripping off bits of clothing, swooping cape and crown, borrowing those marvellous rose-tinted heart glasses from a fan, he interacted, he ran, stood on his tippietoes, jumped his classic Mika jumps, prowled the stage, jumped into the audience to be with us,  went all out 'clubbing' and dancing. Each minute he was on stage his joy grew. The audience absolutely adored him and we fed off each other till we reached dizzying heights of exstacy! And his smile just grew and grew and grew! At one point I thought he would explode with sheer happiness.

 

The setlist was free and clearly what Mika wanted to sing that night (no regiment of an album to follow) - Billie Brown tore the roof off - his voice was superb throughout! We got beautiful quiet with a new song - a small song that needs no showmanship, just Mika singing and us listening. 

 

Yoyo - if that is not going to breakdown nightclubs all over Europe, I dont know what will! Under water, and all those classics!

 

Yesterday I witnessed a man who has grown from a brilliant singer but at times shy performer (2008)  to a man who is completely out there (literally): he is proud of who he is, his songs have stood the test of time (and are so much more than silly bubblegum pop) and he sings them with absolute conviction. This was the BEST mika I have ever seen. 

 

The Roundhouse is a magic venue (the staff are the best, respecting the Q, sorting us all out) but I'd say it was not just the venue: love is a funny old emotion - when you truly give, you get it back double. Last night that it went both ways. Mika gave us all he had, and we gave all we had. We are both so much the richer for it.

 

THANK YOU MIKA for a night that will keep me lifted off the ground for many many days! 

[Maaikie...]

So I have an entire report on the weekend, fasten your seatbelts, get ready👀

 

————

So as everyone has noticed, flights have been cancelled left and right. And so were ours! First our return flight, I asked for a refund. Both were then cancelled woopdeedoop! So I booked a train home and a new flight on the way in.

My Mother on the other hand… She had even more issues. She booked a new flight for going home, this time directly. And then, her flight to Amsterdam got cancelled on the day before we left! STRESS! We stayed up late at night to rebook and call Lufthansa to get things fixed. I’d like to apologise to the lady that helped me, since my mood was somewhere in the gutter. But she made it work for us. Mum had to rebook her train ticket to Munich and it was sorted.

But it didn’t end there. No. Her journey was somehow cursed. The train in front of them broke down and stopped halfway. She took a taxi, taxi had to go pick someone up at the hospital, so he couldn’t take her to Munich hbf. But he brought her to the hospital so she could get a taxi there, instead of having to fight over a taxi with hundreds of people. She then finally arrived at the airport, turns out the pilot was sick! So they had to get another one, which was still on their way from Turinn! 🙃 So flight delayed. Plus the scanners didn’t work. Butttt she finally made it to Schiphol airport and landed at 16:20.

In the meantime I made my way to Amsterdam, just 5 hours later instead of 5am. The bus was free because the check in poles weren’t functioning. The train was perfectly on time. Security check took only 50 minutes, passports less than 5. Got myself a Starbucks, a Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew (try saying that 5 times in a row) and sat my butt down on a bench next to the windows at the gate. At 16:50 I was ready to chill. 

 

Until I realised I was at the wrong gate, I had to go down a floor, but I decided against it because if I were to go there, I had to go through boardingpass check already, and I didn’t want to spend 3 hours down in that gloomy area. I then saw my Mum, who was glad and exhausted. Glad she finally made it to Amsterdam, and she’d basically pulled an allnighter. 

 

We were sat down at the bench I was at before we met up, and we had some food. Time went by pretty fast, as there was plenty to see outside. Around 7pm we made our way down to the gate, and we then found out our flight got delayed. Thankfully only 20 minutes. After a while we were called upon and it was time to board! We drove in a bus all the way around Schiphol airport to our plane. At last, we were finally boarding the plane. We had seats next to eachother, and the Cityhopper also comes with USB connections to charge your phone. 

The flight was a bit bumpy during take off, which actually made me sick. The views were stunning as we flew past South-Holland and Zeeland. 

With a hop and a skip we got to the UK. And boy what a way in. As our destination was London City Airport, the plane went right through London during landing. Houses and trees and rivers came awfully close! Quite the experience indeed. 

 

We made our way to the hotel, the Nox Hotel at Belsize Park. A small room, but it had all we need.

 

The next day our plan was to go have breakfast somewhere and go to the V&A museum. We found this French bakery on England’s Lane called Sable d’Or. We got pain du chocolates, a coffee and a tea. 

After that we walked back to the hotel to continue our journey. But we walked into Deb! 😊 So we had a chat with her, and she mentioned she was gonna cut a bunch of drink tokens for the party. 

 

The ride to the V&A was quite full because of Pride happening, but it wasn’t very crowded at the museum thankfully. We went there for the Beatrix Potter exhibition which was very inspiring. It talked about all stages of her life. From childhood til youth, til her first book and marriage, and then her life on the farm where she worked on conservation. 

We also took a walk around the fashion area, which was very fun. We noticed a lot of regency clothing, but also early 1900s. After a while we started to get peckish so we went to look for a spot to eat. 

We found this lovely cafe that had a secret garden in the back, right in the middle of a bunch of flats. It was called Brompton Food Market. Very kind staff, very nice food. Camilla also joined us at this point as her friend had gone to a birthday party.

We decided to go to Oxford Street because I wanted to go to Whittard’s. One of my favourite teashops Buttttt pride was still happening so we were in for a bit of surprise 😆 Definitely been a while since I’ve walked in big crowds on a sidewalk. We finally made it to the shop. Got some new Rainforest Rooibos and I bought the Chelsea Breakfast tea 😊 I got Earl Grey for my sister.

Because it took us a while to get there, it was getting later. We took the metro back to the hotel and we dropped our stuff off. We then got to the party an hour later. And boy what a party! Good food, champagne and prosecco from Mika ❤️ Mika music alllll night and lots of dancing. Dep and Karin held a giveaway and there was a delicious cake. Truely, so good! I had two slices 😋 We took this time to also get to know other fans a bit more. The party lasted until 10pm, but we were allowed to stay until 11pm. So a few of us did, which gave us some time to chat a bit easier. And to finish dancing.

 

It felt good to sleep after that.

 

Gig day

 

Sunday morning we went to have breakfast at 9 at the same French bakery and we made our way to the roundhouse at 10. The plan was first to get there at 11 but we were quicker than I expected. At this point tho, no one had gotten their tickets from ticketmaster yet. Sooo there was that!

I got number 69. 

The weather was nice, and we walked around the venue to talk to people here and there. Also got to meet some new folks which is always nice! I feel bad, because at this moment while I’m writing this, I dont know the name of the girl we spoke to and took to the fish and chips place. Sorry!!😳 She wore a light green suit, had short hair and carried the pride flag. 18 y/o. If this was you, hiiii!! Sorry I forgot your name!

As I said, we went to get fish & chips around 12:30. And I’m glad we did, because once we came back, there were barriers and then the confusion and anger began. People with numbers were trying to form a queue because of ones without numbers were starting to swarm the front of the line. And I know the numbers system isn’t perfectly fair, but all of them were here earlier. 🤷‍♀️ But as we know, this is a forever ongoing discussion. I’m just glad I can go get food and come back and be in my spot. 

At some point one of the people behind us gave them an update about the security respecting the numbers, and that they’ll check for them when going inside.

Now for some reason, according to the ones behind me, people outside the barrier aren’t actually ‘queueing’ which is the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard 🙃

 

So anyway.

 

Around 4pm we all had to stand within the barriers in the right order of our numbers. And finally we sorta did and people calmed down. And around 4:30pm people started receiving emails about their tickets, which was a big relief. Especially since I had tickets for Ingrid and her friend, my Mother and Camilla. And Michelle had Camillas friend’s ticket. So we made a clear plan on who was using which page of the pdf file to get in.😆

The queue moved every now and then due to the barriers being moved, but after 5pm it was a relatively quick wait. It was nice that we could use the toilets inside the building, this definitelt made things more comfortable.

 

The last hours went by pretty quickly and soon we had to stand two by two to make the security line go faster.

Sadly the bastards took my camera in. So I had to walk with security to the wardrobe to leave it there. 😒

They also took the caps off our bottles, but they told us outside we could keep the caps. Anyways, some grumping later, we got up the stairs to the stage, where a dj was waiting for us. That seemed to take foreeeeeeever. When will Mika learn that DJs are boring as hell?👀

 

Oh and I was about 3rd row, right behind Michelle and Eric. Camilla and her friend were on my right, so we at least made it to the stage together. I lost Ingrid at that point tho, but she wasn’t too far away from us I think.

 

After the dj set the lights changed and regular music started playing. At this point they handed out cups of water, which was very good.

 

After a while, the music died, anticipation grew…. Aaand another song started playing.

 

In the meantime we had spotted Andy up on the balcony on the left of the stage. There were about 10 more people there, including two children that had home made signs. One of them said ‘I love Mika’ and the other said ‘I am Grace Kelly’. The child with the ‘I love Mika’ sign held it up, and I started making noise. Quickly the crowd joined in, as they noticed what happened up on the balcony. She held the sign up and down, and everytime she held it up, the crowd cheered. It was very adorable. 

 

Then finally, the concert started 🤩 The same intro sounds that played in Disneyland were also played, and he then started with Lollipop. You could really tell the crowd was ready for a party, because it took only a few seconds into the song for people to join in. Mika loved seeing it. 

 

I had brought my lightstick with me, just like I had in Disneyland, and at some point during the song, he noticed it and me and he looked me directly in the eye and pointed at me! 😍 Did he remember seeing it?? All kinds of questions came up.  

 

I’m trying my hardest to remember the songs he played, and I even tried making mental notes but yeah nope. Not enough sleep for that. 

I’ll try to sum my favourite moments instead.

I believe he continued into Tiny Love after Lollipop, which is when everyone grabbed their hearts and torches and created a see of colourful hearts. It was truely stunning, and Mika was very touched by it. 

 

He was incredibly chatty! I’ve never heard him talk so so much! And I really love it when he does. He told us about his long long journey to London (My guess is that he got stuck at the airport with insane delays as well), since it only had to take 1,5 hours for him. And he has talked about his new song, Who is Gonna love me Now? And he talked about the soundtrack he’s writing and the movie about the kid and the camel. The movie sounds really fun to me, and I’m starting to think it’ll be an animated film. Because he mentioned a bunch of animated feature films, but he also mentioned Never Ending Story. Whatever it will be, I’m sure I’ll love it, as it sounded magical, adventurous and wonderful. He said he felt insecure about it because it’s his first time writing a symphony, but I’m sure it will be stunning🤩

 

Origin of Love was also wonderful, the gal next to us threw her pride flag at him and he started waving and dancing with it, he also got some silly glasses from the crowd and in the end the flag ended up just chilling on the side of the piano. 

 

He also sang Rain, and I noticed the instrumental, as it sounded a bit different, but that could just be me or the fact that I wore my new earplugs. I really liked it! My poor voice tho, he repeated the chorus a lot. 

 

Underwater was also beautiful as always, all the lights in the crowd ❤️ And we all had to sing quietly and then super loud and it sounded really really pretty. Very magical moment.

 

Oh and Who’s gonna love me Now. Ugh I love it so much! It’s so so pretty! I seriously love the little sound effects that pop up in the background during this song. Really the goosebump kind. The crowd knew the song (ofcourse, the first four rows were all fans, but still) and we all sang along from the start of the chorus.

 

Yo Yo was super super fun. I loved seeing it live in Disneyland, but he now started with that slower piano intro, which was so good. He also told about the times of his first terrible kiss (I think), and where he got his heart crushed and broken. Which was in Camden lol. The crowd loved the story. 

It also felt very heartfelt because of that and I feel like it’s the perfect way to introduce the song, because it adds more meaning to an overall simple song. He’s a storyteller, and he now told the story. 

A lot of the people in the room knew the song by heart already, so you could just notice his happy surprised face when people sang along right away. This was very different in Paris, at least from where I stood that evening.

 

At some point he also started Big Girls, this was after his outfit change. And it got started by Max, who did the solo base of the song. Mika then joined him and told him he was showing off 😆 And he then started his story about turning the Roundhouse into the Butterfly Lounge. Having to close our eyes, he mentioned the smell in the room (sweat was one of them, he was right 😂). He went into the crowd again for Big Girls, but I’m always very wary of what happens to the crowd when he does. There’s this massive shift in where people stand and it honestly always makes me very nervous. Those that aren’t fair usually start to make a ‘run’ for the front rows and friends you had behind you start to shift towards the back. 

 

At some point Mika sat down at the piano, and he saw someone holding a sign asking him to sing Billy Brown. And to our surprise, he did! He told us about his friend Billy Brown and said ‘I haven’t sung him in a while. No that sounds weird, but it’s been a while’ 😆

I was happily surprised, because I really love Billy Brown live ❤️ And I was wondering if he’d remember how to play it 😆 But he did!

 

He also had a nice intro to Relax, where he talked about writing it in 20 minutes plus that it is a London song (we all know the origins by now), but that did make it extra special and touching. 

 

He also talked about his Mother. How they had a house in Earl's Court with a pink door, where he wrote a lot of his songs, including Grace Kelly. He told us the family made sure the house stayed in the family, but ever since his family left London and his Mother passed, it’s just an empty house. No one there. You could feel the audience swallow. Mika had it a bit difficult at that moment, and the crowd cheered for him to give him some spirit. It was a really good atmosphere. Joan would be so so proud of him. My Mum and I talked about it after the gig. We’ve seen him grow up and grow so much, we feel of a bit of that Motherly pride as well. ❤️ 

 

He also sang Tomorrow, and I always love love it when he hits those high notes, and he did it without hesitation, no faults. 

 

Happy Ending became an emotional one. Since it’s been a while since My Mother and I went to one of Mika’s concerts, it was quite special. She teared up and of course I did too as soon as I saw that and we held on to eachother for the remainder of the song. I guess that’s simply the magic of his songs, you start to feel things you usually simply push away. 

 

Ice Cream was a party like usual, love dancing to that one 👌👌

 

Another surprising song was Popular Song! That one came out of nowhere! I had kinda forgotten the end of the song, and so had the crowd, the chanting, but the crowd and I picked it up fast enough. 

 

Ofcourse his second to last song was We Are Golden. At this point I think, he asked for Erics flower crown. (Or it mustve been earlier idk) What’s funny is that at Mika gigs, there are very few dudes at the front row, so Mika was clearly pleased to see one. So he kept going back to sing to Eric lmao 😆 But hey, I ain’t complaining! I had my moment, and it just gave us some funny moments of Mika standing at our side hehe

 

His final song was Love Today, this was the encore. Thankfully I’ve finally mastered the skill to jump on two feet without falling over. (It’s all in the knees and flat feet. Don’t jump on your toes)

Mika was so busy with having a good time that he almost forgot to bring out his cape and crown! He quickly made a dive for the cape and put it on.

He then danced in circles on his piano, but it resulted in the crowd not seeing the ‘Resist’ text on the back, so he made a change in his swinging so the crowd belong could see. At this point Camilla had Eric throw the Italian doll that she changed into Mika with his cape onto the stage, but Mika didn’t see it because it landed under the piano.💔

 

After the song ended, the band and Mika made another bow, and Mika decided to stay for a bit longer to give his thanks to the crowd. We also discussed this afterwards. It’s like he doesn’t trust the people to still remember him. Love him. His music.. But they do! The crowd was so so good. He stood there for a bit and then the Yo Yo remix started playing. This was also when he decided to dance with the sound technician 😂 He ran around and danced around for a bit before making his exit while we all kept dancing in the middle area. The rest of the venue was leaving at this point. And what a way to finish a concert. On a very high high. With a tiny love. ❤️

 

I was about to leave, but saw that there were still setlists on the stage, so I made my way back to ask for one, but the stage crew decided to ignore us completely. Not even looking up. I get it that they gotta do their jobs, but I mean.. come on. No need to be so stiff 👀 Camillas figurine was also still on the stage. Which looked very sad. We asked security up front if there was any way to retrieve it, but ‘Everything thrown on stage is now on stage and will stay there. It’s part of it now.’ 🙄 But then another security guard told us that any gifts and such will end up with Mikas things so we decided to trust that and leave it. I still have my doubts but hey ho, what can you do?

There was also the ‘ no readmission’ issue. I just wanted to go get a glass of cola for my Mother and some water for me after we got out but wasn’t allowed to. 🫥 The sainsbury’s had closed (their store front is wrong. Says open til midnight on the front but nah ah! Closes at 11pm. Like it says on the side) 

So I ran to the next best place, which was a Chinese takeaway place, and I had a quick chat with two blokes that complimented my outfit 😊 They asked if I was at the Mika gig. I then ordered my bottle of water, but it was only cash 🙃🙃🙃🙃 Which I have not had to use at all! So I just had my euros. So one of the two guys offered to pay the 1,30£ for me, and then the lady at the counter said that 1£ was fine too. Super sweet ❤️ So I ran out with my bottle, back to my mother. At this point we saw Karin, and she told us that Mika had left already. He had been outside for 5 mins tops, and left. A bit sad, as I just wanted to show my outfit and possibly have him sign my lightstick, but such is life. 

 

Sadly Camilla had left already because they wanted to catch the last metro. I didn’t even know the last one had gone 😆 woops.

Thankfully our hotel was just uphill, 13mins, so it wasn’t bad.

We hugged everyone and said our goodbyes and made our way back. Back to sleep for 4,5 hours to wake up the next day to start our trip back.

I took the Eurostar home, and Mum is flying home, directly to Vienna. 

We took the first metro together, as it went into the same direction. 

 

I gotta say, it was quite relaxing to take the train home. Not a lot of stressing. I had my breakfast at Paul’s. The same place I went to in October in Paris last year. But this time I had an even better tea 🤤You gotta love the UK and their milktea. She asked me if I wanted milk instead of me forgetting that that’s a thing at all. I just love it.

 

I then made my way to security, which was super fast. Then passport check up. That was going kinda slower so we got moved to manual check ups. No stamp again dangit. We then allll waited in this hallway with a few eating facillities + one toilet area. Which was, honestly, disgusting. But if it functions, it functions.. The train got delayed by 14 minutes, which isn’t bad. 

We all got to board around 9:05. The station btw, is gorgeous. Beautiful light inside. 

The trainride was smooth and relaxing. We went 330ish km/h. The tunnel is 50,45km long, and we went 75m under sea level (don’t think too much about that). 

Within a skip and a hop I suddenly had French internet 👌

 

This trip was insanely expensive, and overall insane. So glad this got to be my first UK gig. I’ve been wanting to go for a literal decade, and I’ve now gone on my own terms 💪 The show was incredible, Mika was incredible. The crowd was incredible. 

[Maaikie...]

[Maaikie...]

Oh forgot to add! When we left to go out, Max was on top of the balcony, watching people leave. We waved at him👌

[Maaikie...]

Photos posted by the Roundhouse’s Instagram. Photos by @JustJohn on insta

[Mikasister]

More stories from Mika

 

 

[silver]

@Maaikie... Your poor mum - how did she survive all those travel problems?  Hope you gave her a big hug.

 

The gig sounds fantastic - a good mix of old and new songs.

[TinyLove_CJ]

I really don't know what to say at the moment. Mere words just don't seem enough to describe what I went through last night. Still feeling very emotional about it. I will write a proper report about the gig later.

 

I'm gutted I didn't get to meet people! Got to the venue just before 6pm and because my Mum has mobility problems we were taken straight to our seats at 7pm. The staff were absolutely wonderful!

 

Did wave to @Hero before and @Prisca after! 

 

He talked about camels! @Prisca HE TALKED ABOUT CAMELS!!! 😁 🐪

[Jojotje]

Hi Silver, I could survive it all just by the thought I would See Mika in a very Special Place! 
But my Energy has left me now! As soon as I sit still I Fall asleep!

still a 5 hours trainride  to Go! 

[silver]

27 minutes ago, Jojotje said:

Hi Silver, I could survive it all just by the thought I would See Mika in a very Special Place! 
But my Energy has left me now! As soon as I sit still I Fall asleep!

still a 5 hours trainride  to Go! 

 

Hi Jolanda   well you can sleep on the train (but don't miss your stop).

 

I hope you had a good time at the gig

[couldbepurple]

3 hours ago, Maaikie... said:

Best dress of the night

[teenagedreamer98]

Just got back from London and the concert was absolutely incredible!!! 

 

I really wish I could turn back time and relive it all again.  What a fantastic night and Mika was phenomenal!  Will write a longer report later once I've caught up on some sleep!

[Jojotje]

48 minutes ago, silver said:

 

Hi Jolanda   well you can sleep on the train (but don't miss your stop).

 

I hope you had a good time at the gig

It was an unforgettable Night! He truly  was amazing! 

[Jojotje]

[TTel20]

3 hours ago, Maaikie... said:

Oh forgot to add! When we left to go out, Max was on top of the balcony, watching people leave. We waved at him👌

We had a quick chat with him.

[BeccaStardust]

I do wonder what he would have sung instead of Billy brown someone mentioned they saw the setlist which had tiny love reprise on so guessing he cut that as he was running out of time.

I'm glad We got to hear Billy brown tho it was unexpected also I was nearly crying 4 songs in tiny love reprise would have set  me off completely.

[BeccaStardust]

1 minute ago, TTel20 said:

We had a quick chat with him.

Apparently max was in the bar oppersite after one of my friends was staying there and saw him idk if he chatted with anyone 

[TTel20]

Great concert! Mika seemed very very happy to be there and to perform. He stayed on stage at the end.

I couldn't believe how long the queue was and it took some time for everyone to be in (no issues for me due to my mobility, no need to queue).

He did sing a majority of songs from the first album. Is it because he was in the UK and doesn't't think we know all of his songs?

He interacted a lot with the crowd, sharing some personal stuff.