Young singer back at mic after hip surgery

A SINGER from Henley is to stage a new weekly karaoke night after recovering from hip surgery.

Georgia Michel, 25, will also be performing at the Jacobini wine bar in Hart Street.

She is getting back in the groove after having the first of two hip operations at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in August.

She says: “I had surgery for labral tears, the ligaments that go over the joints.

“I had tears on both hips so I had my left hip sewn up and then I’ve got to have the right hip done.

“It was due to be done in October but I asked if they could push it back because Christmas is obviously quite a busy time for me singing.

“It gives a bit more time to recover as well. Nothing really goes on in January anyway, so I don’t feel like I’ll be missing out on much.”

Georgia has hypermobility, which entails having very flexible joints with a wide range of movement that can cause pain and discomfort.

She says: “It’s funny when you’re young because everyone’s so surprised. When I had the surgery, I was the youngest in there by about 30 years.

“I was meant to have it in June but it got pushed back to August at the last minute.

“I had the odd thing here and there — I’d had a wedding booked at the beginning of June for over a year and for the platinum jubilee weekend, Maggie Atkinson had organised a big street party in Queen Street so I did a set there and got a few gigs from that as well.

“I played a couple of times at Upper Thames Rowing Club during the regatta and I played at the Harpsden Hoo-Ha in September.

“I did a private party in between but nothing too major and now I’m getting back into it and I’m booked up for this month.”

Georgia has suffered from chronic back pain since she was about 17. She explains: “I was doing dance at college and all of a sudden it got really bad. It has been a long struggle to find out what it was.

“I was managing it through visits to the chiropractor and the gym and I was okay but then I had these injuries and I think it just made it 10 times worse.

“I did a season as a singer in Tenerife a few years ago and there was a lot of partying.

“On a night out one of my friends sort of randomly jumped on me and something definitely happened to my hip then. I ended up going to accident and emergency.

“They say that it can happen easily without people knowing. I noticed it more because of the problems with my back.”

After her surgery, she was on crutches for several weeks.

Georgia says: “I still have a lot of physio to do. I’m a lot better than I was but I just take it easy and in between work and gigging I’m just resting.

“I released a song on October 28 with producer Sickrate called Thriller. We chose to release the song close to Halloween as the lyrics refer to getting revenge on an ex who has betrayed you and it references horror films and dark themes.

“I dressed up as Jigsaw from the Saw horror films to promote it as the main line in the chorus is about ‘Jigsaw behaviour’.”

Georgia moved to High Wycombe earlier this year but she still spends a lot of time in Henley.

“My mum Karen lives in Henley and I’ll often stay at hers as I’m in town at least once a week,” she says.

She already runs weekly karaoke nights at Magoos bar in Hart Street every Thursday and is now going to start doing the same across the road at
Jacobini.

Georgia says: “I took over Magoos’ karaoke about a year ago and I know Laurence Gordon Wilson, the owner, through music stuff that I’ve done there. I used to run the under-18s open mic night there and I ended up running the over-18s open mic night after I came back from uni.”

Jacobini is keen to showcase its new upstairs space that is available for hire for private parties.

Georgia says that it has a relaxed atmosphere while Magoos is great for younger people.

“Magoos is really popular,” she says. “I’m excited about doing Jacobini because of the vibe — it’s quite chilled and intimate.

“It would be nice to do more of the slower, acoustic songs that I’ve done. People might be a little more interested just to listen rather than get up and have a dance.

“They’re looking at making Tuesday nights a different music event every week and I’m looking at booking some more musicians for them.

“Hopefully there will always be something on a Tuesday as a new after-work night thing.”

Georgia will be kicking off karaoke night at Jacobini at 35 Hart Street tonight (Friday) by singing an hour of singalong party classics from 8pm. Karaoke runs from 9pm until late and there will be prizes for the best
performance.

Starting on Tuesday next week, there will be happy hours from 5pm to 7pm and an open mic night from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Music, comedy, poetry and spoken word contributions are welcome and audience support is encouraged.

On Tuesday, November 29, Georgia will present an intimate evening of acoustic live music, showcasing her voice and songwriting, from 7pm to 9pm (happy hour from 5pm to 7pm).

To reserve a table at the karaoke nights, call 07713 396578 or visit
henleyhouse.uk/karaoke

To book a space at the open mic nights, email georgiamichelmusic
@gmail.com