The Choir Fellas

If you fell off a ladder in the old days of the shipyard, there was little ceremony. They'd check you for broken bones, dust you down and immediately, they'd send you back up those rungs. This was for your own good, mind. There was no time for fear or trauma. You had to beat that anxiety before it took root. Here was the tested solution.

I was thinking about this when I watched the Belfast Community Gospel Choir play live last night. I've seen this project grow from the scattershot beginnings last September and already the 60 plus posse is looking comfortable in their collective skin. This gig in May Street

Church is their first 'proper' event and understandably there is some nervousness there. During a version of 'Can You Feel It', this develops into a bit of disarray and the song shudders to a stop. The only thing to do is to start again and make it work. And that's what they achieved.

Their leader is Marie Lacey, who is pure energy and is clearly alive to the idea of voices massed together, bringing joy to the city. She has put belief in a collective that has members from Barbados, Poland and Enniskillen. They were recruited from churches, workplaces and the Kremlin nightclub. They rock, kinda.

There was original material from Ria Maguire, a towering Psalm, and a version of 'I Believe I Can Fly' that was sweetly airborne. The tune that really bit me was 'Something Inside So Strong' that saw these regular civilians stepping up to the front and changing into

thoroughbred testifiers - channelling out soul and resilience and new-found power. It was something.