Original subtitles

I'm Marie Lacey.

And I'm the director of the Belfast Community Gospel Choir.

It came out of a passion that I had to have a community choir

that, through the genre of gospel music, would just spread joy.

I feel that people in 21st-century life are desperate to

feel part of a community,

because we're all rushing around doing our own thing

and sometimes we're just not connecting with one another.

Two weeks or so after arriving in Northern Ireland, I started

talking to my wife about gospel choirs, are there any gospel

choirs in Northern Ireland? And I was like, yes,

this is the one!

This is the choir I want to join.

They were lively and they moved

and they were really happy

and I loved the music that they sang.

# How long... #

It was the start of a new season

and we always work towards our big annual concert.

I guess you've been building up for it for months.

Year on year, selling out the Waterfront. That still astounds me.

Anything can happen in that concert.

So I've got things up my sleeve for this year. Uh-huh.

# We're not gonna sit in silence

# We're not gonna live with fear

# Ohhhhh

# Ohhhhh! #

I kind of grew up with gospel music in the home.

This is a really old album of my mother, Margaret Leebody,

and she was a very well-known gospel singer in the province.

And my mum played an accordion.

Ah! Terrible instrument.

So I followed in my mum's footsteps and then,

in the late '70s...

..ta-da! I made my first album.

And I don't know if you can see the back of that, look how young

and fresh I am! The budget for this album was £500.

Erm, which wouldn't even get you a cover now.

When I got to my sort of early teens,

I heard Oh Happy Day.

And I just was completely bowled over with the sound of the choir

and that somehow touches the soul.

It's soul music.

Look! Oh, look at all those, see, that was January 2011.

We really only got up and running in 2010. Yeah.

There's only one person in that whole photograph that's

still in the choir. Without exaggeration,

hundreds have gone through the choir.

It's like a school where everybody does their four or five years

and then goes on. Look at those photographs of us in New York. Yeah.

Do you not think that just completely sums up... Oh, aye.

Yeah. ..the joy that I experience. I know.

You're a very joyous woman, Marie!

That's why I love you so much.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We love Culture Night!

CHEERING

Because we love our city.

We love our province.

We love this island. We love the world!

CHEERING

So here's a song that you can sing with us.

CHEERING

Yeah! Here we go.

# Oh, happy day Oh, happy day...#

Marie Lacey is a force, she's a force to be reckoned with.

She's choir mama, what can I say?

She's so authentic, what she says is what you get.

Marie is the big force behind the choir

because she's such a big personality.

I'm not hearing it. Is this actually playing?

I'm going to slap your head!

Marie is a legend.

When she opens her mouth the voice that comes out is like

a soulful black woman from the Motown era.

It's incredible.

CHOIR SINGS OH HAPPY DAY

Two weeks or so after arriving in Northern Ireland my wife

immediately got in touch with Marie.

Hey, my husband is from South Africa. He wants to join a choir.

He's a singer.

And Marie was like, "Sounds good but he has to come and audition."

She was so chilled about it.

I was like, I'm from South Africa. I'm black. I can sing. Let me in.

And that's us at the farm.

We were just getting to know each other.

As you can see, she has her arm around me so she was very keen.

Right here. She knew what she wanted.

I was travelling around South Africa and my wife was based in Cape Town.

There was this one time when we had, like, a family dinner

and there was a lot of us - maybe, like, 10 or 15 of us.

And my wife decided to ask me, out of everyone, to come

and help wash the dishes. I think she had a plan.

And it worked.

Because we washed dishes and then we got to know each other.

And then I booked a date, like, an evening walk with her, by the beach.

You know what I mean?

And, you know, after that,

I kind of knew that there was something there.

If you think - now that I'm thinking about it,

it was a big decision and it was a decision that didn't just

involve me, it involved my family, my mom

and my aunts.

But I moved anyway.

Now I'm stuck. No, not stuck! I love being here, now I'm here!

Nowadays, I don't do face-to-face auditions.

I just ask people to submit a video of themselves singing.

And it really is all that I need.

So here we go. Let's have a listen.

She is gorgeous.

I love her.

# Amazing grace...#

Yep.

I need people who are not only great singers, but they're animated.

They're fun.

So, you could sing like Beyonce but if you stand there like a pole,

no emotion, you're just going to stick out like a sore thumb.

# Sun in the sky...#

She is amazing. Let me just make a note of her name.

The combination of a brilliant voice and a brilliant presentation,

just makes me go, yes!

And I get goose bumps.

# ..new life for me. #

So I would be drawn to the people who are showing me

they're desperate, they love the choir

and they want to be part of it.

This is the perfect crop of singers.

This is just amazing.

MARIE MURMURS DISTRACTEDLY

I am so excited about tonight.

Because it's like first day of school,

where, you know, all the kids are really excited and they've

got their new uniforms on and they're just...

And new books and everything.

So it's like us, we've got a new song to start learning tonight.

But also, they've to catch up with each other

and all the stuff they've been doing throughout the summer, and so

there's a lot of activity.

There's always babies being born, I'm telling you.

It's the most fertile group of people in the country!

I created the baby boom!

EXCITED CHATTER

OK, OK, OK, OK, everybody.

Shhhh!

So we need to get started.

We've lost 15 minutes.

Message about name badges.

Have them where they're visible.

Don't be hangin' them on your crotch or somewhere.

It's awful, especially the guys.

We do not want to look in that region!

Right. On your feet.

I'm a bit late.

But that's cool. Hey!

DISTANT SINGING

Choir runs on a cup of tea.

Absolutely. They need their cups of tea.

# Great praise

# Great love, great praise... #

If Marie's happy, I'm happy

and if Marie's not happy, I'm not happy.

# You deserve it

# You deserve great praise.

# Just you and me against the world

# World

# Gonna leave this life behind... #

This is the night that I... It's a terrible photo

but it's the night I decided I was going to audition for choir.

So BCGC were the entertainment

and, like, I was on my feet being a total king bean.

Knew all the parts and all the harmonies because I had seen the

choir so many times.

Three months later, I auditioned. And the rest is history.

So, that's what? Like, five, six years ago now.

Vamoose!

Like, I would have loved to have joined really young

but I was just too damn petrified.

If it had come a year earlier I probably wouldn't, but because

I've been working through stuff in counselling or therapy or

whatever, then I was like, this is the right time, I'm going

to actually be brave and audition, and if I don't get in,

then hopefully I'll not die.

Being a teenager's hard for everyone.

And early 20s are hard for everyone.

But then, add on

some crappy mental health into that,

it's just a bit...shit.

I, like, had constant shakes, was constant...

I was in therapy for years and years.

Like, different forms of counselling and things for years.

And I did things that I loved and I was at uni and training

for a career I loved and then it all just...

..totally hit the pan, as it does.

Like, life is good and life is now free of all that,

but choir was very much at the start of that.

And, like, I remember my dad talking to Marie one day

and being like, "You've done wonderful things for our daughter."

I was like, oh, he notices it, too!

Erm...

..yeah!

# I don't get lonely

# Don't get sad... #

To dress the Waterfront stage I think is quite a tricky thing.

It needs to all fit in with what Marie's theme and vision is.

Hopefully I will get the green light to go ahead

and start cutting fabric and threading pom-poms and all of that.

Papa Bear! What's happening?

Seeing the choir for the first time, they weren't a normal choir.

But there was something about the joy of the choir that made me

just want to be a part of it.

Jenny, did I ever tell you about my mug drawer?

Right, people need to know this.

Never mind the choir, this is very, very important.

If you're planning your kitchen, don't do mugs in a cupboard,

where they're all packed up on top of each other and they fall out...

No.

May I present the mug drawer?

Where everything sits beautifully, where you can lift out a mug,

it's not knocking anything else over, it's beautiful.

Yeah...

My background is architecture

and I have always been really interested in stage and set design.

Marie gave me the opportunity to get involved with dressing

the stage every year.

We all fit together on stage at the Waterfront

and it is an amazing sound when you get all the choir together.

OK, what I want to do is see if it ties in with your vision.

I can't promise a winter wonderland,

but I think if we use the trees again...

So last year this was them, and then we use fabric cut like snow

that I can then staple around the trees.

We don't go over the top

but we do want to kind of frame the choir as best as possible.

Do you worry about the show, Marie? Do you get anxious?

I think I'd rather use the word apprehensive.

Will the sound be right?

Will the lights be right?

Will the set be built?

I don't know if you can see the snow or not.

You know, we are going to get there and think, "What's that?"

Or it might work really well.

I totally trust you

to bring that to fruition,

because I know that you know what you're talking about.

That's brilliant.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having us.

So we've nine days to go until the Waterfront concert,

so there's a lot to do.

So basically we are going to hang, like, a snow curtain.

Aw!

But what you need to do is thread all of the pom-poms on to the line,

so that's what we're going to do tonight. Cool.

Only about 39 to go.

It's fiddly.

It is fiddly, but not bad.

# God's sweet grace

# Thank you, Lord, for your amazing grace. #

ALL: Yeah!

Oh, yes. Who needs tenors, girls?

I've only ever dreamed of using a string quartet,

and last year was the first time we did

and I just knew I could never do a concert without them.

It's just so exciting, you know, I just...

It gives me such a buzz.

STRINGS TUNE

PIANO PLAYS

# O little town of Bethlehem... #

A bit high for me.

# How still we see thee lie. #

I wanted a choir that would be excellent

and would strive for excellence.

I'm easily pleased and I appreciate the work people put in,

but when it's excellent, I'm beyond pleased,

I'm just ecstatic.

# O Little town of Bethlehem. #

He really loved it.

LAUGHTER

I get nervous a lot when I'm going to sing a solo every time.

There's no pressure, really, from the choir -

it's just pressure from oneself.

I'm doing the solo...

Cool.

That's good. What song?

..at the Christmas concert.

Sanctuary. That's good.

You nervous? I'm a little bit nervous.

I think it's like the song before, you're kind of aware

of everything, aware that there's 2,000 people in the audience.

You always come across as really confident, so to me,

I feel nervous watching you.

I'm a good actor.

I feel nervous watching you because I'm like, "Oh."

But then you sing the first line and everyone's like, "Oh, yeah.

"You've got this." Yeah.

That looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Yeah, that's...

How many rows is that?

I try not to get stressed,

cos it's not in my character to be stressed, but I am only human.

Before such a huge show, the panic kind of sets in.

I had to take two people out of those two top rows, so...

It's like making sure the band are definitely all

available for a particular rehearsal, making sure

the string quartet have their arrangements done, going down to the

Waterfront and making sure we have the right space for 135 singers.

So there's lots of little things like that all going on.

I wanted to say about my dress - no, I haven't got a dress yet!

# Yes, I'll be right on time... #

Best not to ask.

We will do the same thing by dressing it,

lying down at the side then stand them up.

Can we lift in this last one?

Sorry, we'll just get this out of your way now.

These are the tree frames we used last year, but this year

we're using them again but just dressing them differently.

So we'll put bases on them to make sure they're stable,

then dress them so hopefully it doesn't take too long to do.

I would leave it a bit less because that one I probably started too low.

When you look at them from the back, they kind of disappear,

the frames just disappear into the back cloth.

Here we go, here we go! Show time!

And it's like going to the ball and the girls go crazy.

There'll be girls getting their make-up done, spray tans,

hair done - not looking too bad myself.

It's lovely, because I just feel like a mummy watching all her kids

attending a big party.

It's so cool.

BUZZER Hello, Security.

Hi, Marie Lacey from the choir.

Come on in.

This is me here.

Let's get some sweet fragrance in here.

KNOCK ON DOOR

The stage is a little behind, so...

That puts us back a lot then.

I think we're back about an hour.

Oh, stop it!

Is Linus down there?

Yeah, he's down there.

Right, well, I'll go and catch up with him.

I've loads of messages here.

Now you see that we're running late,

that puts me under pressure.

We are way behind time.

About an hour.

We'll be all right.

It's very far behind, isn't it?

Yeah.

I have to say, this has never happened in previous years.

The stage is usually all built by now.

But, you know, there's nothing you can do about it -

you just have to remain calm.

# Wash me in the water

# Cleanse me in the mercy of your love

# I need a heavenly touch... #

Should we get ready now?

7.10, I want everybody lined up.

What time is it now?

It's early yet, but I'm just letting you know.

I'm doing the solo, a song called Sanctuary,

that's why I'm, like, fidgeting, moving, dancing.

Really nervous. Pissing myself.

# ..a helping hand

# It's gonna help me stand

# It's gonna help me stand

# Cos I just need a helping hand. #

THEY CHEER

Let's go.

Let's get the choir started.

PA: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Waterfront Hall

and Belfast Community Gospel Choir...

CHEERING

# We lift our hands in the sanctuary

# We lift our hands to give you the glory

# We lift our hands to give you the praise

# And we will praise you for the rest of our days

# Yes

# Yes, Lord, for the rest of our days

# Hallelujah Hallelujah... #

When you grow up in a township, you have two options.

It's either you go the route of prison or death,

or you go a route of bettering yourself.

# We praise you, Lord, today

# Yes, Lord, for the rest of our days

# You're good and perfect in all of your ways

# Yes, Lord, for the rest of our days

# Hallelujah... #

And music was kind of like my saviour.

So instead of going outside and, you know, being with a gang,

I would lock the door, close all the windows and throw

in a cassette, a gospel cassette and just get lost.

# Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

# Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

# Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# For the rest of our days

# And we will praise you for the rest of our...

# ..days

# Hallelujah, hallelujah. #

CHEERING

What about the dress?

Oh, my goodness, I was in New York.

You need to know that when you're a plus size, you don't get sequins.

And I was in New York and went into Bloomingdale's, I said,

"I'm looking for plus-size ladies."

"I'm sorry, madam, we don't have plus sizes.

"We do have some expanding sizes."

LAUGHTER

"How far do they expand?"

So I went to Macy's, and look what I found in an expanding size.

Sequins! I can't believe it, I've got sequins on.

Anyway, you're the voice.

# This time, we know we all can stand together

# With the power to be powerful... #

There have been times when the choir have just nailed a song

and I have just burst into tears.

Because I just can't believe this is my choir,

sounding like how I imagined it would sound.

# We're all someone's daughter We're all someone's son... #

You can come to a BCGC gig - even as a choir member -

sad, homesick, whatever the case may be,

and then when you leave the concert, you just leave feeling relieved.

# You're the voice Try and understand it... #

It's almost like you've just took off whatever was burdening you

and you just go home renewed and full of joy.

# We're not gonna live in silence... #

BCGC to me is more than being in a choir -

BCGC is a huge part of my life.

# Oh-wo-wo-wo

# Oh-wo-wo-wo Oh-wo-wo-wo

# We're not gonna sit in silence... #

I know for one I'm so grateful and so thankful for having my place in

the choir for what it has brought to my life and for what it does for me,

and I'm so thankful to Marie for giving me that

because she didn't need to.

There's just been amazing friendships formed

and I love knowing that I created that place for that to happen.

# Oh-wo-wo-wo

# You're the voice Try and understand it

# Make a noise and make it clear

# Oh-wo-wo-wo Oh-wo-wo-wo

# We're not gonna sit in silence We're not gonna live with fear

# Oh-wo-wo-wo Oh-wo-wo-wo... #

I'm a very contented choirmistress.

I want to create an experience for the audience, not just a concert.

They said it was the best show we've ever done.

There was one point during You're The Voice,

I got goose bumps all up my arm and it was just like,

"This is some kind of weird magic going on."

Oh, it was good, it was good.

The atmosphere was just perfect and I just let go.

The choir has given me a lot of sense of feeling welcome,

and family - it's definitely helped me feel at home.

I'm already moving ahead, I've had new songs arranged

and a set list in my head put together for the summer.