MIKA @ Sadlers Wells, London - June 8 2009 - Gig Reports, Photos & Videos

[miek]

Great work Rose!!

 

 

 

You'll have so many good memories Carlotta!

I hope you can enjoy and relive it many times, p.s your mum is cool too, great you could come:wub2:

 

 

 

The questions was fermented over our lunch!!!

So glad you got it asked Rose but i should have been next to you at that point ....i was somehwere as usual behind the crowds!!

 

It was a great night and Mika was his usual lovely self. I don't think i have too much more to add to the already very detailed reports ...

maybe:

Andy was pretty chatty to us in the lobby area and did say he had just sent an 8 page special to The Observer newspaper about the last few gigs and to watch out for it! Observer usually do a monthly special on music i think so should be next few days?? maybe weekend.....

not sure if this has been mentioned.

 

Marianne your doll was fab and i look forward to reading the reports.... so glad he loved it

 

The night was all in all very civilised i think, Mika was very happy!

 

MY EP has just arrived at the door!!!

Off to listen ...

 

Lovely meeting old MFC friends and meeting some for the first time....

 

seating is Def WAY TO GO!!!!

It was so nice being able to lunch, pee and move without fear of a loss of view...... especially for us over 30's!!

Finally for me it was xtra special as i thought i could maybe not go with my hubby not well, however i was do determined to enjoy every minute, and really did, even my journey on the bus, tube, train.... life is to be enjoyed .... won't last forever

I thought so too about the seating, much better for the older people like us I went to so many gigs needing to pee during the show because I wouldn't leave my spot to go to the loo

[scg]

It was Vickys idea, we couldn't go through with the original question, we decided it wasn't appropriate:naughty:

 

 

You know, now I am really curious about what the original question actually was...

 

knowing vicky im guessing the question to mika was going to be - whats your fav chicken position

[vickylovesmika]

knowing vicky im guessing the question to mika was going to be - whats your fav chicken position

Ah but no, you judge too quick!!

I came up with the cheeses question!!!!!

 

Not the OTHER one!!

[vickylovesmika]

I thought so too about the seating, much better for the older people like us I went to so many gigs needing to pee during the show because I wouldn't leave my spot to go to the loo

 

I know it is madness!!

 

Oh yes also saw Brian May too!!!

I am sure he was with Paul Gambaccini but i seemed to be the only person ( old enough?!!) to know this??

Yes it sure was .....

[sienna]

This is only a short report because so many of the MFC people were there in person and saw it all with their own eyes.

What is really the difference between this balloon and glitter show other than the colour theme?

I think he’s only joking when he’s talking about acoustic shows and I think he just wanted to play in smaller venues to rebuild his contact with the audience, which he has, as he faithfully has been coming out after every gig for a signing session and spent a lot of time talking to his fans.

I guess he wanted to practice, sharpen his teeth like he said in the interview.

But I don’t mind, he can do whatever he wants and I will still be happy listening to his beautiful voice and enjoy his stage persona and his enthusiasm, it can never go wrong.

 

To me another great experience was of course to meet so many of you guys, it was fantastic!

We were able to talk in piece and quiet, no stress, and walk around, almost like a cocktail party! I loved it!

I had the most fantastic seat, front row and I loved it when Aurelien after several attempts finally got us all to jump up and dance!

It had been sooo hard sit down, my whole body wanted to participate in the fun.

I suddenly realised how a 6 year old in kindergarten must feel when we expect them to sit still in a chair for too long!

 

Great show anyway, as always!

[scg]

Ah but no, you judge too quick!!

I came up with the cheeses question!!!!!

 

Not the OTHER one!!

 

och your boring so was the other question a lil crude ?

[willywonka]

knowing vicky im guessing the question to mika was going to be - whats your fav chicken position

 

OMFG!

 

 

I know it is madness!!

 

Oh yes also saw Brian May too!!!

I am sure he was with Paul Gambaccini but i seemed to be the only person ( old enough?!!) to know this??

Yes it sure was .....

 

Paul Gambaccini? Indeed??

 

He was already old in the 80's, must be old as Mathusalem by now!

[Gatagordinha]

 

I know it is madness!!

 

Oh yes also saw Brian May too!!!

I am sure he was with Paul Gambaccini but i seemed to be the only person ( old enough?!!) to know this??

Yes it sure was .....

 

Really?????? Now I really wish I had had my eyes open!

 

How come I can spot and identify Mika's father....but not Paul Gambaccini? In fact Mika's dad reminds me a bit of Paul Gambaccini LOL!!!

Edited June 10, 2009 by Gatagordinha

[Anzuzu]

Mika signing things in queue - looks happy to me

 

 

 

Oh but he wasn't signing anything when this photo was taken. No wonder he looked happy! This was my face at the moment:

 

 

Me & Marianne at that moment

[ewokwicket]

My Sadlers Wells gig report

 

........................................sigh

 

 

What more can I say that hasn't been said already, Mika was fantastic, he really does seem to get better. I thought he looked very relaxed on stage and seemed to be enjoying himself too and I know it's a new set but in a funny way I missed the Billy Brown story etc I'll get over it though! The gig went way too fast and if I could I could have sat through the whole exact same set over again as it's always so hard to take it all in. Mika's voice was just brilliant aswell.

He was very sweet after the show, taking time to talk to people, and sign things, I FINALLY got his autograph.

Not sure I can wait until he tours next year........

[Neiobi]

I'm still catching up..

Does anyone have the set list?

[Marianne84]

*Breathes*

 

I'm done! Six pages. I'll post my report soon. Be ready.

[CazGirl]

Mika BIG GIRL YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL (flowers and broken green umbrella)

If you hear me screaming, shouting and singing very badly, I hugely apologise.

 

Mika LONELY ALCOHOLIC

 

Mika STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

 

Mika TOY BOY

 

Mika TRASH CANS AND SILVER BALLOONS

 

Mika MEETING HIM

It's at the very beginning, I'm in the white hoodie. There's a better video of me meeting him on Facebook

 

Mika and Queue 1

 

Mika and Queue 2

 

Sorry the quality isn't fabulous but hey, ya get what you're given

[nico_collard]

I wish I could have showed him this but it took too long for the photo to show he was gone by then. Next time i´m taking it with me for him to sign

 

 

 

Awwwww wow! That's such a good pic!

[Miro]

Signing stuff after:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=93987375963&ref=nf

Is it a MFCer who filmed this one and has it on youtube or something? I can't watch it

[ewokwicket]

A couple of my pics. I can't believe that my camera battery died on me just as I was going to take a pic of him outside at the M&G!

 

[Wendi]

Thank you Blue Sky for posting that!!! I'm so glad someone got a really good shot!!!

 

 

YOU CAN SEE HIM LOOKING AT ME.

 

 

HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE UNIVERSE.

 

I was SO happy that you finally got to meet him - and seeing him signing

for you - the icing on the cake!!

Your report was brilliant!!!

 

it's a little card they give you, i've got it apart with the poster, and prob should be in the cd pocket (haven't bought another book NO! i'll wait my mailed one! )

it's a separate little card saying that with the purchase you've got 2000 points.

 

fd, i've got yours with the poster i bought in milan

 

I pre-ordered two - got one through the post this morning - but

no little card!!

[Naectegale]

A couple of my pics. I can't believe that my camera battery died on me just as I was going to take a pic of him outside at the M&G!

 

I think Mika gets his energy by draining people's camera batteries

[Gatagordinha]

 

I think Mika gets his energy by draining people's camera batteries

 

 

An interesting theory..and quite possible.

[Marianne84]

Here we go... Sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes.

 

 

Part 1: Pre-Gig

 

 

Anna (Anzuzu) and I were staying at Travelodge City Road from Sunday until Tuesday. I realized it would have been better to make a list of all MFC'ers who were staying there as well. But most of them were going to arrive on Monday and we didn't know what kind of schedules they had, so we made our own. We had requested a room somewhere up because of the night club, so we were on the seventh floor. Why do British hostels and hotels have announcements in the lifts? “Going up, going down.” As if we didn’t know which way the lift is going!

 

We mostly just stayed in the Old Street area on Sunday. We had loads of things to discuss, and I’m glad we had that time because it had been 14 months since we last saw each other at Rufus’ gig in Helsinki. Waiting for a Mika gig and the time right after it is always boring, but time seemed to pass by rather quickly after all.

 

On Monday morning we went to see what the gig place was like. We didn't go there to stalk Mika but to find out if we could collect our tickets already, so there wouldn't be rush later. Mika's truck was already there and so was Mika, I guess. We were told at the box office that Mika's gig was a private event and it had nothing to do with the theatre, and Mika's staff would be setting up their own box office once the doors open.

 

We decided to go to Baker Street to take funny pictures in front and inside of our favorite London boutiques. Anna bought a badge and photos in the Beatles shop and I bought a TCB necklace in the Elvis shop. We figured that there might be a Mika shop on Baker Street when we’re old. And we’ll still be Mika fans then! We then went to British Museum to see Cleopatra or whoever was laying in "her coffin" and other ugly mummies. We found a tame squirrel in the Russell Square park. We had never seen a tame squirrel before! It was fabulous. It hid all the nuts it collected, with such a rage – it was just too funny. A nice British woman handed over acorns to give them to the squirrel. We kinda chased the squirrel in the park, me trying to give it the acorns and Anna trying to photograph it! Two crazy tourists.

 

My original plan was to take photos of Mini Mika in different places of London, so I had him with me in my Beast bag that drew attention from passer-bys. But we didn’t want to walk too much before the gig, so I didn’t take many pictures of him in the streets.

 

We were heading back to our hostel when I got Mana's text. I had tried to contact her a day before but I thought she didn't get my message. It was about 2 o'clock and she and a few others were already in Greenwich. We didn't feel like going so far away because we were hungry and to be honest - we needed some time to rest our sore feet and get ready for the gig.

 

There was nowhere we could eat before five. Seriously: don’t you British people eat proper meals during the day? It seemed that all restaurants opened at 5 pm. There weren’t really restaurants nearby our hostel. We had ordered pizza in the hostel bar a night before because we couldn’t find anything else. We decided to get ready for the gig first and then go to ground floor to eat at 5 pm, just before heading towards Sadler’s Wells again.

 

The man at the bar thought we had come to see Britney Spears! ‘Cause of our colorful clothes, I guess. We told him about Mika, and he didn’t know what Mika looked like. I’m pretty sure he had heard about Mika ‘cause he was so interested in knowing what he looked like. Anna told him Mika looked good! Haha! His shift would end at 1 am, so we promised to show him some photos of Mika if we should come back earlier. He told our story to his work mates! The lady who served our food hadn’t even heard about Mika before.

 

 

 

Part 2: Meet-ups

 

 

We met Lillibet and Neiobi and her mother at the hostel bar before going to our room to gather our stuff for the gig. We both took umbrellas to prevent rain. And it didn’t rain! Anna had to be really careful with her silk dress. It could have gotten stuck between the steps of the stairs of some tube station. I was wearing a blouse and a skirt and the colors of our outfits actually matched! That was a pure coincidence.

 

We arrived at Sadler’s Wells at about 6:30 pm and surprisingly there was no queue outside. Most of the people there were inside. We soon found Sienna and Nika. I had reserved my spare ticket for Nika. There were three women there handing over the Mika tickets, so we got into the queue. We couldn’t fight temptation that was on the right, so we bought the EP even though we had pre-ordered it, because it hadn’t arrived yet.

 

After that I started to look around and saw many familiar faces. Anna and I saw Andy, so we went to talk to him. He remembered us from Stockholm! And he remembered that the weather was cold and rainy that day. I introduced Mini Mika to him and he absolutely loved that! He looked at the package closely and I told him that Mini Mika was my little toy boy who had his life long story with him. He asked if I was going to give it to Mika or just show it to him. I told Andy I was going to give it to Mika, but only if he liked it enough. To which he said Mika is going to love it! That put me in a really good mood.

 

I met so many people… Said hi to at least Aurelien, Victoria, Daisy, Bettasan, Allegra, Blue Eyes, Caroline, Jemma… Vicky who had come all the way from Edinburgh after all (so nice to finally meet you, too bad we both forgot our Palladium things ), Rose, Kata, Mana from Canada and Charlotte and her mother from the US and loads of other people. Sorry if I can’t remember some of your names. That was probably ‘cause we met for the first time. And some people didn’t even tell their names, although they said hi to me and Mini Mika.

 

We went back to Andy ‘cause I wanted to have a picture with him and Mini Mika. He didn’t want pictures of himself, poor boy. I said it’s all right and left him alone. He had said that he would be filming at the show though, and that the show would be somehow special. Andy was really nice. He told me many times how amazing Mini Mika was, and I got to hear that from all the other people I met as well. We wanted to sign the MFC flag but it was nowhere to be seen.

 

 

Part 3: The Atmosphere Thickens

 

 

We could go directly to the stalls area. No one even glanced at our tickets! Someone could have easily taken another person’s seat, and that would have caused a fight of course. Anna and I took our places in the second row and met up with a few more people, like Silver and Monie. We saw Mika’s family and Andy on the left side. I freed Mini Mika from his package so I would be able to make him dance to the music. He danced the Trepak dance to Rufus Wainwright. I’m now sure that Mika likes Elvis (whohoo!) as at some point Wooden Heart was playing in the background. A few people wanted pictures of and with Mini Mika. Anna and I also took pictures with the doll. We kissed a doll, we liked it!

 

The support act, Blue Roses, came on a little after eight. Their stage decorations looked beautiful - it was as they had diamonds in front of them. And their music was beautiful, too, even though a bit sleepy. There was a curtain down behind them, so I thought all the instruments were already on stage for Mika. Mini Mika was sitting in my lap during their show. They had some technical problems – the guitar was broken and the singer girl had to take another one. They performed about five songs and that was it. About twenty minutes to wait until Mika would come…

Edited June 10, 2009 by Marianne84

[miek]

 

 

An interesting theory..and quite possible.

Indeed! my battery was empty after the gig, eventhough i charged it before

[Neiobi]

I'm going to attempt and make a report soon... Also have some pics and vids that my mom took, I'll try and upload them:biggrin2:

Oh Marianne.. I absolutely blocked when talking to you:roftl:

Edited June 10, 2009 by Neiobi

[Naectegale]

Indeed! my battery was empty after the gig, eventhough i charged it before

 

Conclusive proof!

 

I've heard it said so many times that people's batteries run out when he is near them

 

And all that jumping he makes us do :boing: more energy generation for Mika's benefit

[Marianne84]

Part 4: Wobbling and Sparkling

 

 

We looked through the EP book. The best pictures have been left last! They’re for Lady Jane. The curtain arose and it revealed all the silver confetti on stage. There was A LOT of it! There where violinists in funny hats. Mika came on, started with Grace Kelly and the place was on fire. I took two pictures but gave up when they were blurry, and decided to concentrate on having fun instead.

 

I can’t remember the exact order of the songs, but the next song that was Lady Jane, made me gasp. It was incredibly beautiful. We think it’s one of Mika’s best songs. The story could be by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. It’s such an ancient story, timeless! And the performance… Mika seriously resembles an angel at times, and that was one of those moments. If you think the recorded version of Lady Jane is great, his live performance is incredibly beautiful!

 

There were some technical problems but I didn’t really take notice of them. They got fixed. Mini Mika was still sitting nicely in my lap or under Sienna’s chair when I was up dancing. I didn’t want to hold it up until Mika would play Toy Boy. The crowd acted good at this gig, at least we MFC’ers at the first few rows did. We sat during the slower songs and stood during the faster songs. There was no pushing at all… That felt a bit weird! Buahhahaa!

 

Mika played Lonely Alcoholic which I hadn’t expected to hear at this gig at all. I was really pleased! When he started Toy Boy it was finally time for me to hold Mini Mika up. I swung him in the air or let him sit on my shoulder for the rest of the gig. Mika and Martin gave us eye contact, lots of interesting smirks. What else? I loved all the songs. Mika is such a rare artist that he has nothing but good songs. I really, really love Love Today - it has always been my favorite from the first album. I loved the acoustic version as well. They had a simulated thunderstorm on stage. It sounded so real! The band were crawling on stage and Mika broke a green umbrella. We got ‘rain’ on us that was pieces of the same silver confetti they had on stage. We got it everywhere… Even Mini Mika got some of it on his hair. I didn’t remove it.

 

Mika started Any Other World, but soon broke it off and started My Interpretation instead. I think he didn’t remember the words to AOW. That’s too bad, as I really wanted to hear it. Oh well… Over My Shoulder made my eyes water, but I fought the tears as I didn’t want red eyes. Fortuné took photos of his brother in front of us. Mika sang Happy Ending with Ida (or Eda?).

 

The next song must have been Lollipop. This time all the band members were hitting trash cans. Mika was doing it on top of the grand piano. There was one huge grey balloon and lots of smaller ones that bounced everywhere on us. At one point, the huge balloon bounced back onto stage when Mika was sitting at the grand piano. The balloon blocked the view to Mika for most of the audience, but being on the left side, I saw his funny and annoyed face when he noticed the balloon and threw it away.

 

The band bowed and they where lowering the curtain when the band came back with Mika, so the curtain had to be lifted up again. They did a few encores, and the final song was Relax. It was slow at first and it became quicker. Mika made us sing along a lot during the show, and Anna and I had a really good view especially since the people in the first row were leaning on the stage. It was like we were front row too! There was a huge gap between the front row and us, so there’s NO way Mika could have missed seeing Mini Mika during the show. No way!

 

 

 

Part 5: The Chaos

 

 

The stage invasion… I don’t really know what to say about that. It would have been - once again - nice to go onto stage with Mika, as this was the third time I COULD HAVE done it. However, this became yet again one missed opportunity as I thought that only the first row could get up there. But it seemed like people from far back ran by the stage and climbed up as well. Oh well, too many people were there in my opinion. What annoys me is that those people who have already been on stage with Mika climbed there again. And I don’t need anyone of you telling me that you had the right to do it because you were front row and thus closer to Mika. All I say it would have been NICE of you to let other people do it for a change. But I understand if it’s impossible in a situation like this. Please don’t hate for saying this.

 

I saw someone grabbing Mika and my instant thought was: “Oh no, he’s NOT going to put up with that!” It seemed like Mika jumped onto the grand piano because he didn’t have anywhere to be so that the audience would see him. But that’s just my opinion again. And when he jumped down he had to push people aside. You guys were blocking his way out! He looked frustrated. I guess it was partly his own fault. I mean, who told him to encourage the fans climb up? He probably didn’t expect it to get out of control. From my point of view the stage invasion didn’t look nice at all, and I was happy to stay out of it. I stop now.

 

We went to the toilet where I carefully attached Mini Mika into his box again. There was this woman there who told us loud and clear that she had been on stage with Mika and Mika had hugged her! She was talking about it happily like it was the best thing in the world. We were like “Oh really?”, putting pieces together at the same time.

 

I can’t recall if it was her or someone else who told us that she had written to Mika’s management so that they would let her dyslexic son to meet Mika backstage. That woman told me that her son regarded Mika as his brother now and wanted to see him every time. I don’t know if she had the son with her. I didn’t see him. She said that she had told the boy that Mika has other fans too so it wouldn’t be possible all the times. I really can’t remember if it was the same woman or not? That woman talking about her son seemed nice and she complimented me on Mini Mika, whereas the other woman seemed a bit, eh, hyper. So maybe it was another person at a different time. My mind has blocked that memory pretty effectively.

 

I saw Fortuné, Allerga and someone who looked like he could have been their cousin. I wished I had seen Yasmine. I would like to meet her someday - not so keen on meeting the other family members. We were waiting outside the doors for a while and then went by the other door where we saw the queue. We had no chance but to go at the back of it. There where at least a hundred people there, probably more. And we were last! Great, I thought we would never meet Mika.

 

It was about 11 pm and we waited and waited in the cold. The people who were first in line cheered so I knew Mika had come out even though I couldn’t see him. I thought that he was going to go directly into his car and we wouldn’t even see him do that. But the queue started to move so I got my hopeful spirits back. I didn’t hear what the security men said to the people by the door. Some people left happy as they had met Mika. Some tried to meet him again – not fair! It seemed unlikely that Mika would meet everyone – he would be there for two hours if he did that!

Edited June 10, 2009 by Marianne84

[DANI56]

pics....sorry for watermarks