It felt absolutely incredible to start the UK tour at the Brighton Centre in Brighton. My first visit in Brighton and I loved being at the seaside and immediately wanted to be back even though I was still there and was happy to realise I can actually be back because there’s another gig at a Pride event in Brighton in August! Before this first gig of the UK tour I hadn’t even realised how much I loved seeing several gigs in row in English - finally - and being able to fully understand the chatting between the songs, it can spice up the gig in a very special way and we heard first an update how long it had been since Mika performed in Brighton (and yes, it had not been 5, 7, 9 or even 12 years, it had been 14 years!) and later for example little stories about his own experiences in the area and also a short song introduction about his role models before Good Guys which was my absolute favourite addition to the setlist and I spent a moment just thinking how much the song has evolved and how the thought behind it is so important and warm. 

As an example of Mika’s French music we heard Elle Me Dit and it worked well. To be honest I would have preferred hearing C’est la vie because it would have worked equally well and at the same time given a small taste of his new music  but for some reason that didn’t seem to be possible, maybe Mika was either asked or advised not to perform his new French music during the UK tour, I assume he wouldn’t voluntarily choose that way. However, even though I definitely missed the new French songs (and without them wouldn’t call the tour “Apocalypse Calypso Tour” but simply another “UK tour”) I still thought that the first gig of the UK tour in Brighton was absolutely a wonderful starting point for something amazing. The tour couldn’t have had a better start. The setlist was nostalgic, the atmosphere was loving and warm and everything worked smoothly. As much as I love the big sign for C’est la vie I was kind of happy it wasn’t used for Rain (maybe it couldn’t fit in) because it didn’t feel appropriate to me, even though it meant we didn’t get Rain at all and obviously I would have loved to hear it. A beautiful, beautiful show in Brighton, can’t wait to be back.