I WAS THERE: GEORGE MICHAEL CONCERT FOR NURSES
Retired nurse of 39 years, Sally Lyons, shares her experience of seeing George Michael live at the Roundhouse at his free concert for nurses.
Credit: Metro newspaper, under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
I’ve enjoyed many great nights at the Roundhouse but probably my most memorable was my first visit to this iconic venue.
I was working as a community nurse at the North London Hospice when we heard a rumour that George Michael was doing a free concert for nurses at the Roundhouse. We were all excited but we were only allocated six tickets, bearing in mind there were over 50 members of staff. Amazingly I was lucky in the hastily arranged lottery.
We’d had a very busy day and were all exhausted but we dragged ourselves to Chalk Farm where we found a huge queue of fellow nurses. Once inside, the thought of standing for the next four hours was quite daunting given that we’d been on our feet all day but suddenly Catherine Tate came on stage as the Irish nurse from her TV programme and was hilarious. She put us all in a positive spirit and the trials and tribulations of the day disappeared.
A nervous George Michael took to the stage with a bad cold and told us he’d played in front of crowds all over the world but was anxious because he’d never performed in front of so many heroes before. He went on to play an amazing set. Both me and my colleagues still talk about it and will never forget it. George has had ups and downs but as we were heroes to him, he will always be a hero to all of the nurses at the Roundhouse that night.
