Birmingham City Council The Choir

find their voice.

This is Gareth Malone here and I'm here to start a choir.

Are you interested in joining a choir?

Maybe, yeah.

In search of hidden talent,

he's creating choirs in five of Britain's biggest workplaces.

I would like you to be in the choir, please. Yeah!

Whoa!

Yay!

This proves that bankers can rock!

If you were ever going to have a fire-fighting calendar,

we've got them in the choir.

As they compete to be this year's best workplace choir,

Gareth's demanding musical excellence.

Going to sing real music!

Crescendo. Diminuendo.

# La, la, la... # Mmm!

all those horrible things that I see at work are kept.

You've got to step it up one notch.

The choirs will face huge public audiences...

The appetite to win is now on.

Bricking it at the moment.

..and be judged by three world-class musicians.

You are never together.

Wonderful, wonderful tuning.

Judgment day is coming.

This means that I will sing for the rest of my life.

Other than getting married,

it is one of the best experiences in my life.

The Workplace Choir of the Year is...

My impression of a council worker is performing very important tasks

but doing it a little bit joylessly.

Gareth's visiting Britain's second city to set up a choir

for the staff of Birmingham City Council.

I don't know Birmingham Council

A pioneer of local government, Birmingham now has

the biggest local council in Europe.

It runs nearly all the services in the city,

supporting the community at every stage in their lives.

Use your arms.

The council employs over 40,000 staff, but times are tough.

It's in the midst of managing a ?400 million reduction in its budget.

This could be a perfect storm of awfulness.

Budgets are being cut, money's been lost,

it's a difficult time,

and that's got to affect morale.

I'm amazed they want to do it!

The first stop is city hall, known as the Council House.

Hello. Hello.

Nice to meet you. That's an unbelievable moustache.

Oh, you're getting there soon. Thank you. I'm working on it.

so they're excited and a bit nervous. Yeah.

I'm getting the accent already.

Terrible. It's so infectious.

Gareth has less than two months to recruit and train his choir

up to contest standard.

His first task is to find the very best voices

the council has to offer.

I'm looking for 22 people for the choir, which is small.

It's a small choir but I think that's good.

It puts more pressure on each individual.

It puts the pressure on me now.

I can't put anyone in who isn't absolutely able

to hold their own, because it would be unfair.

First day, first audition,

HE SIGHS Here we go.

The auditions take place over two days, with hundreds of workers

turning up from every corner of the council.

There's a lot of changes at the moment in the council,

It's excitement.

OK, Monique, what's your job?

My official job title is cab customer advisor.

I'm essentially a receptionist, in layman's terms. Oh, OK.

I'm a peripatetic community officer.

I'm a Bikeability instructor.

Pest controller.

A ranger support officer.

Wasps, bed bugs, cockroaches, rats, fleas, you name it.

Chef. Trampoline coach.

Grave-digger. Chief executive, Birmingham City Council!

You're the man in charge.

Well, allegedly, yes.

I'm a children's social worker.

Children's social worker? Yes. That must be a tough job?

It's a really tough job, actually. Really, really tough,

but very, very rewarding. Is it? Love my job. I've been there 12 years.

I hadn't appreciated until now just how much a local council does

right across our society.

ALL: Ah...

Gareth's using a familiar song to test everyone's vocal range.

Got it. OK, thank you very much. Here is Mandy. Here we go.

# When you're alone and life is making you lonely

# You can always go

# Downtown... #

There's more in there, isn't there? A little bit.

Shall we go higher?

Two, three and...

# When you're alone and life is making you lonely

# You can always go... #

Well done.

# ..Downtown... #

Thanks very much Mandy, you may sit down.

What do you do, then?

Assistant centre manager and I teach fitness classes.

Can you give us a little demonstration of that?

Squatting. All the way down, sitting down, all the way up.

I won't do that in front of these good people here.

I'll save that one for later.

Two, three and...

CROAKY VOICE: # When you're alo... #

Good. Thank you, Idu, you may sit down.

So many people turn up to audition

that Gareth has to start making on-the-spot decisions.

SHE SINGS SCALE

OK.

You have to be kind of cruel to be kind.

There's no point building people up for hours and hours.

You've just got to, "Sorry, you're not going to make the grade."

Cheryl, a little bit too soft.

Likewise Margaret.

Chantelle, up you get. Hello, Chantelle. Hello.

What do you do?

Morale's low, we've got lots of changes going on,

so I go out and help teams

and we actually come up with ideas of how we can actually help

other services to get through the bad times and turn that around.

I've got an idea. Mmm-hmm? A choir?

We could start a choir! Yes! Oh, yay!

Yeah, let's do it! Good. Thank you very much.

Well done, everyone.

The next morning, Gareth's on his way to deliver some good news.

This is a nice part of my job,

going to tell people that they're in my choir.

It's really nice.

Gareth's tried to pick a choir that represents all parts of the council.

I've got to be the only person in the country

actually looking for a traffic warden.

This kind of job we do

is a job whereby you interface with people,

you meet different kinds of people,

so you don't have any choice than to be happy about it!

Go out with a smile so that you can have a fun-filled day.

Firstly, madam, I've given you five minutes before I gave the ticket.

If you check to be sure it's five...two minutes,

then you can appeal it.

Idu!

You made it through. You're in the choir.

Ah, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

You did a great job. Wow, that's lovely.

I'm very proud, you know?

I'm very, very proud, I'm excited and I'm looking forward to it.

Yes.

OK. Thank you. Bye.

Oh, my God. Morning. How are you doing?

Good morning! I've got some news. OK.

You are in. Thank you.

Congratulations. Well done.

I've never been in a choir before

and I've never sung in public before

so it's like,

"Oh, my God, me of all people."

I definitely think the person I'm going to go and see now has no idea

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Good!

Gareth's picked Stephen for the tenor section.

He's in charge of the fitness and swimming classes

at the leisure centre.

There's a lot of services that are central

to a good quality of life, and this is definitely one of them.

Definitely.

I don't understand some of the cutbacks everyone's experiencing

and stuff like that.

We've just had to cut down on equipment and stuff

and when we used to get things fixed when they're broke,

wear and tear, we're doing mending things ourselves

and stuff like that.

There's an argument to say why not cut this?

Why not get rid of the leisure centre?

You know, it's not essential in the way that a hospital is essential.

I think it's really important that the leisure centres are about,

especially the ones that are for the community

and the 20 schools who come in a week

to learn to swim

and I think, to take that away from the community,

I think it would be a real disaster, I think it would be a real shame.

Did you learn to swim in this pool?

It's really lovely, it's a real sort of...

This is the fabric of life.

Give me five. You can have a rest now.

That was good work, man.

The choir's first rehearsal is held

in the banqueting suite of the Council House.

I feel like this year the contest is bigger.

Here we are, right in the centre of a huge organisation,

Birmingham City Council, the largest council in the whole of Europe,

and we're right in their headquarters.

I think it's really good to make them feel

like they're representing this organisation and that's a big deal.

Gareth's choristers come from all areas of the council

and today, most of them are meeting for the first time.

Hey, guys. How are you?

Good, good, good. Good to meet you.

How you doing, mate? You OK? All right? How's things?

In under two months,

the choir must perform before the world-class contest judges.

Just a handful have sung before.

How you doing, mate?

Come on, Gareth, where are you?

Yeah, we want to get singing.

Shaking. Shaking.

Hello, Birmingham City Council!

WHOOPING AND CHEERING

Come on up! Let's get on with this. How are you doing? Let's do it!

I think every choir is different, it has its own unique footprint,

and I don't really know what that is here yet.

I will after this rehearsal.

That's what today is all about, it's just getting to know you.

OK, good afternoon!

ALL: Afternoon!

I've got some news which is that I have a new job title.

I am now the director of harmonic integration

and strategic vocal performance officer.

I love it. Do we all like that? Do we all know it?

The director of children's services would not forgive me

if I didn't say What Have You Done Today To Make Yourself Feel Proud?

by Heather Small... Yeah, that's a good one.

..cos it's his favourite song.

I'm coming out in a rash.

I wouldn't want to prejudice you against a song, but...

(I hate it.)

Rachel's a soprano and the choir's most senior manager.

Gareth being in charge, it's quite traumatic.

There's always a little bit of me that,

you know, will have to sort of catch myself and go,

"You can't boss everyone around all the time."

But I do a little bit because it's just...

Just who I am.

Just a little bit bossy.

Is it really? Is it like your children's services anthem? It is.

So, all those in favour of Let's Work Together

put your hands up.

That feels like a unanimous decision, more or less.

OK, it's Let's Work Together.

I'm going to go and print the music off and the words

and then we'll have a sing-through.

OK, one, two, three and...

So round about now. Two, three and...

# Together we stand Divided we fall

# Come on now, people Let's get on the ball

# And work together

# Come on, come on Let's work together... #

And that's it.

It's a new choir, basically, of new people,

all from different sections of the council,

so there's a lot of lessons going on.

We're all on a very steep learning curve.

It's probably one of the best things I've done in a long time,

it really is.

I've got a lot of work backing up and this is a real release.

You didn't turn up for the last one

My job, in a way, is standing between

the perpetrators of abuse and the child.

So you're going to...

..absorb all the bullets, I suppose, aren't you?

It's essential work, but even Siobhan's department

has felt the impact of austerity.

She has more work to do and fewer colleagues to support her.

I mean, we work with the police a lot and they said,

"We wouldn't go there without a bulletproof vest,

"and you go there with a notepad and pen."

And it's true. That's a reality.

We're meant to go out on visits in pairs.

That's what we're meant to do.

But have we got the money to employ that many people?

No, definitely not.

Do I go out on visits on my own?

All the time. All the time.

Today, Siobhan's got an appointment

with a young mum who needs her support,

but she's been left waiting on the doorstep.

No answer. I did text her as well, so...

So the fact the pram's not there, curtains open,

from six o'clock in the morning one day

till midnight, where I had to stop myself,

I had to stop and think, "Right, I've got to stop now."

Obviously, days like that, I think I need to think about leaving.

But then the next day something will happen and you think,

"Ah, I love my job," so it's like that all the time.

Yeah, ups and downs. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I mean, if I have a bad day at work, the choir sounds out of tune.

It's very different for you, very serious consequences.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I really admire Siobhan's strength.

I don't think she realises quite how strong she is,

because she's doing it every day and she has to be that strong.

I don't know if I could be that strong.

# Come on, come on Let's work together

# Because together we will stand

# Every boy, every woman and man... #

Ready, and...

ALL: # Together we will stand... #

And in between his visits, Gareth's recruited a local choirmaster

to run rehearsals. THEY SING

In less than two months, the choir needs to be ready to sing publicly

in front of the contest judges.

They've got their work cut out.

A week after his first visit,

Gareth's back in Birmingham to check on progress.

Well, today is really critical for me

because it's the first time I get to see what the work ethic is here.

That first rehearsal, I didn't hear them sing an arrangement.

I don't know what it's going to sound like!

Hello! ALL: Hello! Good afternoon.

OK, on your feet, please, let's get ready to sing.

Good. From memory, please, here we go.

One, two, three and...

THEY MUMBLE THE WORDS

Not totally together!

And the point of the song is, "Together we will stand."

# Together we will stand... # Two, three...

ALL: # Together we will stand Every woman, every man... #

Altos.

# ..Together we will stand Every woman, every man

# Together we will stand Every woman, every man

# When things go wrong as they sometimes will

# And the road you travel it stays all uphill

# Together we will stand

# Every boy, every woman and man

# Together we will stand Every woman, every man... #

I mean, it really is...

It's foul at the moment. It's really terrible.

What I'd really like to do is to get everyone lying on the floor

so that your heads are in the middle, like this, OK?

To create a better blend of sound,

Gareth sets the choir a vocal exercise.

They're over-singing a lot of the time. It's far too loud.

They're just shouting.

Ooh. Two, three and...

ALL: # Ooh... #

Can you hear? Just the difference when you're close like this,

and you're singing at a good dynamic where every voice can be heard,

the difference is like chalk and cheese.

OK, on your feet, please. Let's get ready to sing.

# Together we will stand Every boy, every woman and man

# Ooh, ooh

so I want these songs to be performance-ready.

The best way to do that, I think, is to get in front of an audience.

So it just so happens that Birmingham City Council

has a dementia care place just next door.

It'd be a lovely, generous thing for our choir to go and perform to them.

Why don't we go and do it right now?

WHOOPS AND CHEERS

Come on. Follow me!

It's perfect timing, actually,

cos they need to shape up and get serious about it.

I think they've done some rehearsing

but they weren't really rehearsing with any great focus.

What I need them to do now

is to try and retain everything we've done in rehearsal.

I don't think they will.

I think they're going to screw it up royally.

Hello.

HE MOUTHS COUNT

# Together we will stand Every woman, every man

# Together we'll stand Divided we'll fall

# Come on now, people Let's get on the ball

# And work together

# Come on, come on Let's work together

# Together, together

# Together

# Because together we will stand

# Every boy, every woman and man

# Ooh, ooh, ooh... #

RIPPLE OF APPLAUSE

Thank you for that warm reception. Thank you very much.

I don't think they'd really thought, "Oh, we MUST learn this music,"

to the degree that I was expecting.

I want them to be performance-ready when I return, and they weren't.

Yeah, I mean, you've got to have your first performance, haven't you?

And, you know, it wasn't perfect.

There are lots of things we need to work on.

Gareth said earlier, "How hard did you work?"

and I was like, "I worked hard!"

And then I realised, really, doing that performance

that, actually, that isn't working hard.

Very honoured to be able to come and sing for you guys...

To make amends, the choir goes back inside

and takes some requests from the floor.

You like Singin'...?

Singin' In The Rain.

Oh, Singin' In The Rain! I love Singin' In The Rain!

# Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

# Let the stormy clouds chase

# Everyone from their place... #

And they were a very forgiving audience. They were very kind.

They did that naturally because they're caring

and I think that's a real asset for them as a choir.

They do have bags of heart.

But the choir's strength of character

is about to be severely tested.

RADIO: 'Good morning.

'Birmingham City Council's facing another 10% cut

'in funding from central government.

'The move comes despite the government promising to spend

'another ?3 billion on social care.

'Ministers have backed an IVF technique...'

Another government spending review

means the council must reduce its costs even further.

More services will be scaled back and some discontinued altogether.

I mean, it's so miserable reading this.

I mean, now that I know people who...

I've seen articles like this for the last couple of years

and not batted an eyelid,

but now I actually know people that work in leisure centres

Gareth goes to visit some of the members.

Lee's a tenor and he's worked for the council's parks department

for more than 20 years.

He's worried the city's green spaces will start to disappear.

Where did most of us learn to ride a bike?

Yeah, in the park.

Where did you first run after a duck by the lake?

It was your local park!

Where did you hang out with your friends when you were little?

In the park. Yeah. Is this the toughest time you've seen?

Definitely, yeah. Is it? Definitely.

And there's no sign of the tough times going to go away.

How are you?

Gareth's next visit is to Rachel,

a senior manager in family and children's services.

If there are redundancies in her department,

she'll have to break the news to the staff.

I think, until I came to Birmingham, I didn't really understand

the human cost of the cuts, you know?

Could be their swan song. Could be their swan song, yep.

People feel so passionately about it because, you know,

we want to do the best for Birmingham and show how great

the staff here are, even faced with everything that they are.

It's sobering, isn't it?

It's sobering to think that some of the choir might not

be around in six months, but that is the reality of this place.

Nobody is safe.

?650 million worth of cuts is so serious that anything could go.

Rachel could go!

It makes the performance that they're going to do

feel rather poignant.

HE PLAYS HARMONICA

The next time Gareth calls his choir together

there's just two weeks to go till they appear before the judges

from the performance that they did at the care centre.

This is serious now.

Enter!

Hello, Stephen. Come and join us. Morning.

Hi! The song I've had arranged for Birmingham City Council,

it's got the spirit written through it, I think.

Just a positive outlook despite hard times.

Good morning, everyone! ALL: Good morning!

Excited? Yes.

You should be because now the contest really begins.

You've done your first preliminary performance,

but everything you do from here on in is going to be judged.

At your next performance, there will be judges in the audience

and they will be watching you.

Let's talk about your song for the next stage.

The song is...

Da-da-da-dah!

..the Only Way Is Up by Yazz And The Plastic Population.

Yes! Ah! That was the first single I bought!

So I think it's worth just looking at the lyrics first.

I think these are perfect for you, actually.

simple song, but a good song, I think, a good song for you.

Gareth's also looking for someone to put themselves in the spotlight

at the start of the performance.

I would like the beginning of this to be a solo.

I'm going to put up a notice in the council building

and you can come and sign up

and next time I will hear everyone who wants to go for the solo.

So shall we have a little bash through? Two, three...

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

# Hold on

# Ah

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

So blinking obvious.

You've only got one note to sing.

It must be the same note all the way through, it cannot move.

It's going to take them a long time. I worry that they're not going to be ready for the contest,

cos they took quite a long time to settle on things.

The discipline in rehearsal

is what really needs to get sorted out for next time.

I did set you homework.

Sopranos, how many times have you got together?

About six. About six? At least six.

Six? Oh, my gosh. About, yeah.

Six, OK. I would say.

Tenors, have you managed to get together?

Four. Four or five. Four?

It's just like...

I don't believe you! I don't.

You do not have the face of a liar. Brilliant.

No. Sorry, mate. We spoke on the phone a few times.

Oh, that's good. Touching.

So, no, tenors, you haven't managed to get together? No.

Just to organise it, or my secretary will organise them for you.

Can you be our secretary? OK, Dawn, will organise them.

The sopranos and altos all stick to Rachel's timetable...

# The only way is up... #

..but she's worried about the tenors' work ethic.

# California...

# Check it out, check it out, yeah

# In the city... #

Did you manage to get anything to the tenors about choir practices?

I did, I sent them an e-mail,

and I've set them all up with practice sessions

all the way up till the end.

We've got a new manager.

Rachel has, um...

We didn't rehearse, basically.

We was just listening to the discs at home,

Gareth still needs to decide who he wants to sing the solo.

Today, he's auditioning the 13 members of the choir

who have put their names forward.

Hi! Hi.

Everyone I've spoken to at the council says

that they've been through very, very difficult times, so I want this solo

to have a sense of that, whilst yet being resilient and positive.

# We've been broken down... #

Hello!

Hello! Judy, you're next. Come on in.

Go for it!

# We've been broken down... #

Hi, Jamila. # To the lowest turn... #

Come on in. You're next. How you doing? Yeah.

# And being on the bottom line

# Sure ain't no fun

# But if we should be evicted

# From our home

HE STRAINS

HE SIGHS

# Life on the bottom line

# Sure ain't no fun... #

How do you feel about the song?

Yeah, the words are good.

It fits with the scenario that we're in.

That you're in at the moment.

Really is the lowest turn, whatever that actually is.

What, for you, has been the lowest point of all these cuts?

We've had to re-apply for our own job.

Go for psychometric testing.

What's that?

Testing to see how you tick.

Jeez.

So difficult.

And how do you bounce back from that and stay positive

and keep coming to work

and being cheery with all the people you work with

when you know some of them might go, and you might go yourself?

and some local leisure centres will be closing down.

Really? So more cuts to come?

More cuts to come, I'm afraid.

Not out of the woods? No. No. Mmm.

Well, I think, you know, if somebody can come in here,

having thought about what the song means, really understanding

what the council's been through, they're going to ace it.

Hi! Mandy, how are you doing? Good, thanks.

Mandy has two young children and a part-time job in business support.

I've been singing since I was seven years old, probably younger.

Over the last ten years,

since I've had children, it's sort of taken a bit of a back seat.

This could be the last opportunity, at 43 years old,

that I'm going to have.

OK, Mandy, are you ready? Yes.

You're a confident singer. I am.

This will be fine. It will.

# Sure ain't no fun... #

Thank you. OK.

Well done, Mandy. That's very good. See you later.

She was the first person I thought, "OK, now we're talking."

Siobhan. Yes.

Hello. Come in. You are the last one.

I am indeed. How are you doing?

I'm OK, thanks. You? Yeah. Thanks for waiting. Come on in.

Thank you.

You ready for this?

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

# We've been broken down

# To the lowest turn

# And being on the bottom line

# Sure ain't no fun

Later that day, the choir meets at the city hall,

all waiting to find out who Gareth's picked to sing the solo.

Righty-ho, then, I'd like to talk about the auditions

and to say thank you very much.

A really good turnout. Some great voices, actually.

Really, really good voices. Some good solo potential there.

The person who I thought did a fantastic job

and I would like to do the solo is...

..Siobhan.

WHOOPING

SHE MOUTHS

Well done, Siobhan.

SHE MOUTHS

# We've been broken down

# To the lowest turn

# And being on the bottom line... #

There's something about Siobhan that is so right for this company

because she's just got this inner calm.

I mean, she's great and I thought

that choice went down really well with the rest of the choir.

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

# The only way is up... #

You probably want to hear what I think, right?

I genuinely think you sound like a different choir,

and I mean that as a compliment.

Sounding really much better, much more considered.

There's potential to really get some spine tingles going with this.

is that the judges will be there grading your performance

so this has got to be really, really good.

It's got to be your best performance ever.

With their soloist in place and extra rehearsals under their belt,

the council choir is growing in confidence

as the final performance draws near.

# The only way is up... #

Gareth's focusing on the start of the performance.

He wants to make sure it's pitch-perfect.

How's your solo coming on?

So with less than a week till the big day,

he visits Siobhan at home.

# We'll just move somewhere else

# And still carry on... #

That's good... It's not making enough impact, is that what you mean?

Look, what does the song mean to you?

I think it means, you know, the families that I work with.

I think the song is about asking them to trust me

and everyone in the council to...

You know, there are better times, you've got to come with us.

It's definitely worth having something to latch onto,

like a moment that you're going to use in that song.

I have loads of moments. Do you? Yeah.

What's your moment? Erm...

I have lots of moments at work. Yeah.

Sorry.

No, it's OK, because...

I suppose if I'm going to sing this song,

I have to, erm...

..tap into that part of my mind where...

so we see some horrible things.

And it's very, very upsetting but you haven't got time

to deal with those emotions so, you know,

you have to stand there in hospitals

when there's children with broken limbs

and, you know, you have to fill out forms

and you have to liaise with all these professionals,

you have to have meetings and you have to do all this

and there's that child lying there

and you haven't got time to have a good cry. No.

Because you can't.

I think, for it really to work,

you've got to wear your heart on your sleeve a bit. Yeah, OK.

# We've been broken down

# To the lowest turn

# And being on the bottom line

# Sure ain't no fun

# But if we should be evicted

Siobhan is one of those rare people who can sing,

but who can also perform a song.

She's the perfect person to do the solo.

I think it's going to be...

It could be breathtaking.

The next time we meet, it will be your performance

so you need to be absolutely ready for show time!

Are you ready? ALL: Yes.

I think you almost are, actually.

With just a few days to go,

Gareth's come to give the choir

one last pep talk before they perform for the judges.

And who'd have thought that such a silly little plastic song

would actually be so moving?

It's really good and it's testament to how you've embraced it

and we've got a good message with it

and we've got a cracking solo at the beginning as well

so I think it's going to be great.

But Siobhan's gearing up to deliver some dreadful news.

Is there a chance you might not be there on Wednesday?

Yeah, well, what can I... No, no.

There's nothing I...

No, there's nothing you can do. Oh, shoot!

I'm concerned that Siobhan's not going to make it.

Obviously, her job comes first.

She has an incredibly important job.

She's got a court case coming up.

She has to prioritise that.

But if she possibly can be there, it is essential.

It's the day before they sing for the judges

and the choir is rehearsing with its choirmaster for the final time

whilst Siobhan's on her way to give evidence in court.

I'm really hoping that it will be finished today

and that I can do the solo tomorrow,

but I can't think about that at the moment.

I've got to put myself into this case and these children.

The day of the final performance has arrived.

The choir begins to gather at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery,

which is being used to stage the event.

Oh, God, it's time!

Mmm-hmm. It's time!

I think it's a really fascinating moment

when a choir first performs on stage in a formal setting like this,

cos you get to see what they're really made of.

You're looking in the whites of their eyes

and you can see who's got it and who hasn't.

In fact, Siobhan's case has been adjourned.

Hello!

THEY CHEER

Why am I being applauded?

Hello, Gareth. I've got to say, I'm pleased to see you. Yes.

Are you all right? Yeah, fine!

Good. Out of breath from running, but, yeah, I'm here.

Well, you made it. That's good.

Thanks. Good. How did it go?

OK, yeah.

Yeah, come on, let's go.

The three contest judges are making their way to the venue.

They're all internationally renowned musical heavyweights.

Welsh composer Paul Mealor came to prominence

with his choral composition for the Royal Wedding.

He's also topped the charts with his hit for the Military Wives.

whether it's a choir, a soloist, orchestra, whoever.

People often think you mean smiling by that.

It's not smiling, it's the energy that they give every word

and every meaning.

Award-winning conductor Ken Burton is not only known for gospel

but classical too,

including work with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

It's really important how the choir blends.

They must all lock in to that central sound.

The choir's colleagues, friends and families

have come to see them perform.

My sister's coming tonight and she's bringing my daughter Roisin.

I'm always, always saying to Roisin,

"You've got to do the things that frighten you.

"You've got to get up there and do them because the only way

"you'll overcome your fears is if you put yourself out there,"

and I'm doing that tonight.

You know, we've got that one shot to do the performance

making sure all the four parts are secure and balanced.

And that's the one thing, really the main thing,

that I'm going to be looking for.

The main thing is that they just get out,

enjoy it and they don't have stage fright. Yeah. Yeah.

# And now the end is near

ALL: # And so I face the final curtain.... #

I'm absolutely petrified,

but I'm not going to show anybody. I can't.

I've got 22 people that I can't let down tonight,

and that's 21 members of the choir and Gareth.

# And more, much more than this

# I did it my way... #

I know, as an organisation, you've had a tough time recently,

I think, really, actually, you need an audience now.

Yes. Mm-mm. Let's go.

Ladies and gentleman,

it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you

the Birmingham City Council Choir!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now, a contest wouldn't be a contest without judges,

and we have three judges today who I'd like to introduce to you.

They will be ably led in a solo at the beginning

by a children's social worker, Siobhan, at the front here.

So, ladies and gentlemen,

with pride I give you the Birmingham City Council Choir.

# We've been broken down

# To the lowest turn

# And being on the bottom line

# Sure ain't no fun

# But if we should be evicted

# Ooh

# Hold on, hold on Hold on, ooh, ahh

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

# Hold on, hold on, hold on Ooh-ooh-ooh-wah-wah

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

# The only way is up

# Baby

# For you and me now

# The only way is up! #

Well...

Well done, everybody.

It was a stunning performance.

Siobhan, where are you?

You are a legend.

I think I can quite honestly say that that performance

was really above my expectations.

However, I'm here to look at the technical side of things,

and you have to remember that this is a knockout competition.

This song, it builds.

It's so beautifully written. It builds and builds and builds

and I want to feel...

I want to be standing up and shouting at the end of it,

so you've got to convince me and you've got to sell it.

and you are right up there with the rest of them.

I think it was a really, really good performance.

Now, what I want you to work on is, think of different ways

in which you use your voice on a daily basis.

You know, sometimes you whisper, sometimes you shout,

and you all have the capability of

producing those different dynamic levels in your voice

so that's what I really want you to work on.

We've given you a lot of praise this afternoon

and it's well deserved,

but remember, this is a competition.

So you've done well tonight, but you've really got

to up your game next time because judgment day is coming.

Thank you so much to the judges.

Thank you very much, Birmingham!

CHEERING Thank you, everyone.

this is exactly the timing of it where we needed something

to lift our spirits.

When I listened to the harmony of the song, man,

I mean, it was really moving, you know what I mean?

Yeah. I love it. High-five. Yeah!

It felt like everyone in that choir had got behind the idea

of the song, they understood why we were singing it and they knew

that that audience needed the lift that that song provided.

It was moving. Hey, my baby!

And I tell you, for one,

I, for one, I'm pretty proud today that I'm part of it. Yeah.

It was fantastic feedback today, but the one thing that worries me

is when they get to the knockout stage,

they've got to produce something even better, and the competition

is going to be very stiff, and they are on a high at the moment.

This is just the start.

Next time you're going to be face to face with another choir.

It's going to be a very different feel

It will be very interesting to see

if the other choirs can match that, because I feel like,

if they do, the competition is really going to hot up this year.

Next time, Gareth's got a treat in store.

He's checking out the talent in a supermarket.

Would you like to be in it? Yes?

I'd like you in the choir as well.

SHE SCREAMS

Look how much stock there is. It's mind-boggling.

But can he make them sing with one voice?

Not together, is it?

I don't know if I've crushed them.

WHOOPING AND CHEERING

Right, are you ready! ALL: Yes!

Apparently so. Come on, then!