Mika, Leeds Cockpit, 28/2/07
Rating: 
Lets get one thing straight: Mika is going to be absolutely huge. Huge like a mountain or the sky or some other traditionally large concept. You might have heard his single ‘Grace Kelly’ - not released until the 29th January, but currently riding high in the charts due to those handy new download rules - on the radio, or, as I did last week, over the speakers in HMV. But if you haven’t, it places him as the British answer to the Scissor Sisters and is the pop single of the year. No question. With a relish of retribution, this tour comes after years of rejection. Mika himself admits, “too weird for the record companies but too commercial and melody based for the Indie crowds”. Those musical parameters seem to have turned to his advantage, his Myspace plays rose from 400 to 45,000 in a week after a mention in the Popbitch newsletter and now he has a major label deal with Casablanca (ex-home to Lindsay Lohan, fact fans!). Oh, and he’s just been revealed as the BBC’s ‘Sound of 2007’. This is why it is so fantastic that he is playing a venue like The Cockpit; this is a night that promises either to be wonderfully intimate or like having a full-on pop band at a house-party. This could be the gig that you dream about in that ‘wouldn’t it have been amazing to catch (insert name of huge band now playing only stadiums) on their first tour?’ fantasy.
