Since I first heard Mica Millar's single Girl, I've been dying to see her perform live. It's been a long wait but by Christ was it worth it!
On Sunday night it was Mica's home-coming launch; following the previous weeks show at Jazz Cafe in London. My contacts who were in attendance in London, told me I was in for a treat and whilst I absolutely believed them - I hadn't quite prepared myself for one of the best vocal performances I've ever witnessed.
I got to the Albert Hall on a drizzly autumnal Manchester evening at around 7:15pm and despite having to queue I was in the venue within 10 minutes. I was surprised to see the downstairs area was all rows of seats, but it added to the overall grandeur of the occasion (more on that later).
On the decks in the pulpit when we arrived was DJ Chaise (God is a DJ right). She was belting out the perfect tunage to get us in the mood for this evening's entertainment and to be honest if it weren't for the chairs, despite my being alone for this gig I would have bust some moves on the dancefloor. Perhaps it was serendipity for everyone else that this wasn't the case.
There was a change of support the day before and fortuitously for us a gentleman I'd not even heard prior to the day before was supporting, Gavin Holligan.
Now you know when a singer opens their voice, and the hairs stand up on the back of your neck? Well, this is the effect Gavin's voice had on me.
Imagine a cross between Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke and Bill Withers. I kid you not, his voice had me swooning from the lofty heights of the balcony. There's an unbridled joy to be had when you're in the presence of a performer who not only can play an instrument effortlessly, but they can also sing with a voice that makes you lose all sense of time and space. I was mesmerised. What a performer!
I loved him so much that I've gone and bought his CD 'I Need A Song' from his website, I'd recommend you do the same. Not only so you can experience some of what I did that evening. But so, you can bask in the warm fuzzy glow of supporting an incredibly talented musician.
After a half hour of more top tunes from Chaise, the lights dimmed as the band took to the stage and the atmosphere was as positively charged as a proton about to fly around the Large Hadron Collider.
I mentioned the layout of the venue for tonight's show - well if you know anything about Mica (read here if you don't), you'll know she writes, produces, directs and has the main creative control in all of her art. So, what you're experiencing when you see Mica is her unfiltered representation of her art.
The Albert Hall lighting, stage rigs and everything you normally see at gigs in this venue, were all stripped back. In all honestly, in all of the gigs I've been to at this iconic venue (and I've been to a lot), I've never seen the pulpit until this evening.
But in creating an environment that was that stripped back and with the seating as well, it meant that the main focus was the stage (sounds obvious) but without the other distractions all we had were the performances on the stage.
The synergy between the venue and Mica's performance is only really dawning on me as I'm typing this, but the rawness, the realness, the authenticity of the whole evening.... it was all there.
Since the release of her debut album the plaudits have been coming in thick and fast for Mica and rightly so. She opened with 'Girl' and then went straight into 'Preacher Man' before speaking to us. By then we'd all settled into what can only be described as a magical evening of music from one of the hottest voices in music right now. Looking around during this gig from my vantage point, all I could see were faces with grins as wide as The Arndale. The whole venue was enthralled, and I was loving every second of it.
I recorded a lot of the tracks, (you can find them on my YouTube channel) but her first single 'My Lover' with just her and the piano was something else. I was in heaven!
For the encore she performed the album's title track as well as another song, which I will leave to you to find on my YouTube channel. It's the one in the all-white dress.
Mica's voice has always been one of those that when I hear it, I get goosebumps. On vinyl 'Heaven Knows' is a record that in years to come, people will be looking at through the same misty eyes as they do with records like Marlena Shaw's, "The Spice of Life" or Minne Rippertons "Come To My Garden".
This evening was definitely one of those "where you actually there" moments, in Manchester's illustrious musical history and I'm so damned glad I was.
Mica Millar
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