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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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MIKA The Borderline, London,
August 30th, 2006 |
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| “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’”?
(continued...) |
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| 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. (continued...) |
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| 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.
(continued...) |
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| 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) |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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