Totem Gospel Choir- Pizza Express Holborn 03/02/2019

The Totem Gospel Choir gave a superb performance across two forty -five minute sets at Pizza Express.
I had not heard of Totem Gospel Choir before I booked, so I arrived at the gig full of hope, but not with high expectations. They boldly started with Ben E King’s ‘Stand By Me’ which put Kingdom Choir on the world map last Summer. This version was superb. The choir had just six vocalists, a keyboard player and a conductor but the voices were so good. Members took turns singing lead, whilst the rest harmonised beautifully. The second song was Kings of Leon’s ‘Someone Like You,’ which was equally good and during the set, they covered more great songs including ‘Oh Happy Day’, ‘ Halo’ and ‘Natural Woman’. The stand out song of the set was ‘Hallelujah’. The lead vocal sent singles down my spine, which with the beautiful harmonies was one of the best versions of Leonard Cohen’s song that I have heard.
The second set saw the keyboard player replaced by a backing tape and featured, ‘You’re All I Need,’ followed by gospel classics, ‘Shackles’ and ‘Joyful, Joyful’ then ‘Diamonds In The Sky’ with a touch of ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, ‘Human’ and ‘You Got The Love’.
The choir took on some classic, well-known songs and performed them extremely well. I would certainly not hesitate in booking to see Totem Gospel Choir again. The only disappointments were that the group did not introduce themselves and that less than thirty people were there to enjoy a performance deserving of a full house.