Mica Millar

Mark Lear

Oct 6

4 min read

New Century Hall, Manchester - They say that time flies and for me it does, as I can’t believe that it’s over three years ago that I first saw Mica Millar, play at a packed out Band on the Wall, as one of the headliners of the Manchester Jazz Festival.

Her debut album, ‘Heaven Knows’ launched her on to the scene in a way that could only have been imagined, helped on by being awarded Jazz FM’s Soul Act of the Year, twelve months previously, but from then on, she’s gone from strength to strength.

Tonight it’s our chance to witness live the second album, ‘A Little Bit of Me’ released in June of this year and with the venue half-full way before showtime, the night promises to be something special

There’s a Support tonight too in the form of Simon Dale, so…

Let’s get on with it.

Simon Dale - There’s no introduction or fanfare to Dale’s arrival, the man just walks on stage, guitar in hand, as the lights dim and starts to play, but he is given a warm welcome by those who have come out early. There’s little chat or banter with Simon, but when you’ve only got thirty minutes to make it count and to grab yourself a new audience, you can’t hang around.

He did find the time though to tell us that he’s “been insular for eighteen months whilst he puts his album together, and going from his bedroom to the studio to live performances, is a beautiful thing”. There were a couple of real highlights to report on, his new single ‘Father Time’ and a cover of Bruce Hornsby’s ‘Just the Way it Is’, was deserving of the applause that Manchester gave him.

Dale was very well received by his ‘home town’ crowd and he must have been pleased with that. It’s hard when it’s not your audience and your music doesn’t fit with the style of the Headliners, but tonight that mattered not and Dale did himself proud.

Mica Millar – There was no announcement or fanfare here either. The band walked on stage, and a few moments later so did Ms. Millar, and the opening bars to ‘Flashlights’ hit hard and loud and carried on straight into ‘A Little More Time For Love’ and ‘Hard Times’ without anyone taking a breath in between.

The night was supposed to be more about the new album but Millar and the band weaved their way intricately through both albums at the same time, without skipping a beat. The backline of Marcus McNeish on Bass, Chrio Blake on Guitar and Emmanuel Antwi on Drums, who may all have been buried at the back of the stage where the lights rarely strayed, provided solid grooves throughout, with the odd bit of expressionism allowed to flourish like any backline should. Ben Lee Smith was on Keys and ‘Man Flu’ – which never affected his performance at all - and bv’s were provided by Amber Kuti and the delightfully named Grettel Killing. Together they blended everything into a silky smooth elixir that swept away all of life’s pains and was lapped up by a very attentive audience.

They say that the second album is often more difficult than the first, often dubbed ‘second album syndrome’, but Millar has had no such problems, as she’s carried on from where she left off, even though there’s four years in between them and everything on show tonight is effortless, as are her vocals, on point, controlled and embracing each song with passion.

As the clock began to run down there was some serious seat dancing going on to the second album’s title track ‘A Little Bit of Me’, which resulted in a standing ovation at the end which caught the band a little off guard as they were about to launch straight into ‘Smile’, but the applause was so well deserved that the music had to be paused and the appreciation acknowledged, for a moment or two at least.

No one was about to sit back down now and it was boogie time for ‘Hand on My Soul’ and ‘See You on the Other Side’ before an encore of ‘Oh Freedom’, as the clock ticked past the curfew, which no-one really cared about – well, you don’t when you’re having such a good time, do you ?

So, Mica Millar is only five years (ish) and two albums ‘in’ but this concert seemed more like a greatest hits tour. There are twenty-eight songs across the two albums and twenty-one of them were on show tonight, plus a new song, ‘Smile’. The audience knew the lyrics as well as she did and were more than happy to provide accompaniment to each song as well as a healthy supply of love normally reserved for someone who’s twenty years ‘in’. I said the night promised to be something special, and so it was. Long may it continue.

Mica Miller Setlist