Until yesterday, there had only been two acts to have been number one this year in the popular music charts. For most of January, we had to listen to the gawky-looking lass from X Factor. Maybe it’s our judgement, but she seems to have faded into the hole she crept out of.
Knocking her from number one was the guy who we would compare to Marmite – Mika. You either love him or hate him so much you want to start some kind of violent fight. Before approaching the gig, we did wonder what it would be like. After listening to the album a good few times, we came to the conclusion that it was at times sickly sweet but also full of Mika’s personal feelings. Hecklerspray approached with caution.
We realised the gig was going to be popular when we arrived at the venue printed on our tickets – Newcastle Union – and were then told by the gormless-looking staff on the door that it had been moved to rival Northumbria Uni down the road due to popularity. Brilliant, we thought, as we legged through the pissing rain to get to the venue on time. Well we say that – we wanted to get our watered-down pints from the student union bar before the rush.
After battling with posh-sounding students at the bar, we were ready for Mika. Now, if you’re not aware of Mika, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that that he sounds like a fusion of the late great Freddy Mercury and Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters. Have you ever tried singing along to one of Mika’s tracks? Just try it next time Grace Kelly comes on the radio – it’s bloody impossible without knocking your throat in. With such a high vocal range we were curious to see how his voice would hold out with his hour-long set.
The gig cost hecklerspray ?8, and for such a high-profile star who has topped the single and album charts, we couldn’t complain. Only the bell-end touts outside could complain as everyone walked past them and gave them no business. So for ?8 we expected two support bands and no extras. How wrong we were. Throughout the night, some random girl was dolled up as one of the characters from the artwork of Mika’s album Life In Cartoon Motion and was handing out lollipops to the crowd. But why was she doing this? Well using our mass intelligence, we gathered it was because one of the tracks on the album is called Lollipop. Really, we should quit our jobs and become detectives.
Fifty minutes after the support band finished, on came Mika who pranced around before breaking in to Relax. The near disco of the song got the crowd ready for the evening with everyone in the room showing how badly they could dance. With the exception of hecklerspray of course. When it comes to dancing, we are the daddies. Mika wasn’t scared to show what he could do either with an arse-shake now and then; he kept the spirit of the gig alive throughout the night and prompted the women in the crowd to exercise their own vocal chords with his saucy antics.
As mentioned, Mika's album is oozing with so much sweetness that you could literally drown in it. While it doesn’t go overboard and enter the realms of cheesy shite like past evil popsters like Steps, 5ive and S Club 7 have done, it does come across totally different when done live. Maybe the album was over-produced, but some of the songs remind us of being trapped in a club which we’ve been dragged to and can’t escape from. One thing we didn’t think would be associate with a Mika performance would be drugs! Yes, drugs. During the course of the night, hecklerspray made friends with two girls who shall remain nameless and, throughout the night, we watched them snort bottle upon bottle of poppers. Did hecklerspray do any when offered? Of course not, we had crack cocaine and heroin waiting for us at home.
The gig was short, due to the lack of material Mika has written, but it was still enjoyable. Mika’s music can basically be summed up as stuff that that will make you dance and sing along to. Just general happy music and that’s what you want really, as no-one wants to really listen to drivel like My Chemical Romance who tell us how shit the world is. With the crowds responding to everything he sang, Mika definitely did the job of entertaining tonight. Even his band were at the top of the game. Whilst most bands are made up of kids who decided to make music after getting bored one afternoon, Mika’s backing group were all clearly professionals. The music was tight and nothing was out of place. You know a band is good when the various members can all swap places and continue to rock out.
After hassling the bloke on sound, we also recovered the set list. And just like the football results on a Saturday, if you don’t want to know what was played, look away now! Relax Intro (Which was strangely Dolly Parton v Royksopp from a 2 Many DJs mix album) Relax, Love Today Big Girl, Over My Shoulder, Billy Brown, Ring Ring, Everybody’s Talking, Stuck In The Middle, Grace Kelly, Lollipop.
Boo, he didn’t do our favourite track. Well there’s always next time and, based on tonight’s performance, we’ll be back.
Dan Teatree says
This review neglects to mention one very important fact – Mika is fucking bobbins
Matthew Laidlow says
What does Bobbins mean?
Im not down with my young and trendy slang terms
Kaitlin Davis says
well you can love him or hate him? I LOVE HIM.