A starring slot at Harry and Meghan’s wedding this year has turned Karen Gibson’s south London ensemble into the Pentecostal choir du jour, earning them a record deal with Sony, a starring role in a forthcoming Coke advert and a large-scale national tour (which kicks off next May to coincide with the first wedding anniversary). This packed performance in a suitably devotional space – an active church meets gig venue in north London – is testing the waters to see if their devotional music could work for secular audiences.
They might be preaching to the converted in this show, but a canny programme of gospel-style pop songs has distinct crossover appeal. Some of their material is explicitly inspired by gospel (Beyoncé’s Halo, Jill Scott’s Golden, the Isley Brothers’ Harvest for the World, the Aretha Franklin medley); other songs are secular gospel anthems (Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love or John Legend’s All of Me). The most effective cover versions completely transform the originals – an arrangement of Coldplay’s Fix You is packed with audacious chord changes that Chris Martin couldn’t have dreamed of, while the devotional core of Stormzy’s Blinded By Your Grace is amplified impressively.
The 20 or so singers of the choir are backed by piano, bass, guitar and drums (and, rather cheekily on several tracks, some prerecorded strings), but the power really comes when the choir does the heavy lifting. For the few godless folks in this packed crowd, it is those full-throated, ecstatic harmonies on belters such as Let It Shine that really get the spine tingling and convey a sense of the numinous.
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