Our Dementia Choir: Chris Connell, Julie Hill, Ahmed Pochee Interview Part 3
Title
Our Dementia Choir: Chris Connell, Julie Hill, Ahmed Pochee Interview Part 3
Date
19 October 2022
Description
Oral history interview with Chris Connell, Julie Hill, Ahmed Pochee, members of the Nottingham Our Dementia Choir about their performance at the Royal Concert Hall in May 2019
What's the story?
‘Our Dementia Choir’ began as part of a documentary created for BBC1 in 2018. Local Nottingham actor Vicky McClure formed a choir of people all living with dementia to see whether music can make a measurable difference in their lives. Joining forces with some of the country’s leading experts, the choir took part in ground-breaking scientific studies to measure their emotional and physical responses to singing over three months of regular sessions….proving that people living with dementia can still achieve something truly remarkable.
In this interview Ahmed, Chris, Julie talk about remembering songs; the song choice for RCH; Kingdom Choir; personal appearance for concerts.
Transcription
[Ahmed]: You know, normally I’m not very good. I need the script, I need the words. ([Chris]: Well, Ahmed, I think we all do), but “You Are My Sunshine” came to me like that. One of the songs we sang today. And it came just like that. I knew most of the words. Otherwise I need the script in front of me. Even songs that I’ve been singing for years.
[Julie]: I think that’s like for all of us though, isn’t it? Modern songs, I couldn’t tell you. Songs from way, way back, even listening on the radio, the old songs, I remember.
[Chris]: Last time we had to do a big performance, Mark De-Lissa asked us for lots of ideas and well, they’re all the ones we ended up singing. They’ve just done it again today, haven’t they?
[Julie]: They have ideas of what they want us to do and then we either pick or say, no we don’t want that, but mainly they come with an idea of what they envision.
[Chris]: There were suggestions, but they took no notice of them really [laughter]. The Beatles song we did, Vicky chose and I didn’t realise that for ages. “My Life”. And “Stand By Me” was just this one that Mark’s famous for from the Royal Wedding. Do you remember? Prince Harry and Meghan got married and the Kingdom Choir did “Stand By Me”. [Julie]: Was it Harry or was it William and Kate? [Chris]:It was Harry and Meghan. That must have been 2017 because we were doing it in 2018. And that’s a special version of it that Mark De-Lissa arranged, so it’s quite different from the original.
[Julie]: It was nice that some of the Kingdom Choir actually came and sang with us and I thought that was really nice and not only did they come, but came before, didn’t they, and helped us in practice and stuff. They made time to come and that was really nice.
[Ahmed]: What I liked about them when they first came was that they had groups of three or four and then individual ones and I liked that, whereas before, in the whole group you get lost.
[Chris]: Yeah, there were five of them that came the first time. It was about 3 or 4 weeks before we performed, they came and did a couple of songs for us. Then they stayed and actually helped us with harmonies and gave us a few tips about being more relaxed and things on the stage. It was wonderful.
[Chris]: Ahmed and I had stylists, but you did your own! [Laughter] [Julie]: Yeah, I had to do my own! We had to wear red, because that was Vicky’s Nana’s favourite colour. Hence why we wear red now. It was her favourite colour.
In this interview Ahmed, Chris, Julie talk about remembering songs; the song choice for RCH; Kingdom Choir; personal appearance for concerts.
Transcription
[Ahmed]: You know, normally I’m not very good. I need the script, I need the words. ([Chris]: Well, Ahmed, I think we all do), but “You Are My Sunshine” came to me like that. One of the songs we sang today. And it came just like that. I knew most of the words. Otherwise I need the script in front of me. Even songs that I’ve been singing for years.
[Julie]: I think that’s like for all of us though, isn’t it? Modern songs, I couldn’t tell you. Songs from way, way back, even listening on the radio, the old songs, I remember.
[Chris]: Last time we had to do a big performance, Mark De-Lissa asked us for lots of ideas and well, they’re all the ones we ended up singing. They’ve just done it again today, haven’t they?
[Julie]: They have ideas of what they want us to do and then we either pick or say, no we don’t want that, but mainly they come with an idea of what they envision.
[Chris]: There were suggestions, but they took no notice of them really [laughter]. The Beatles song we did, Vicky chose and I didn’t realise that for ages. “My Life”. And “Stand By Me” was just this one that Mark’s famous for from the Royal Wedding. Do you remember? Prince Harry and Meghan got married and the Kingdom Choir did “Stand By Me”. [Julie]: Was it Harry or was it William and Kate? [Chris]:It was Harry and Meghan. That must have been 2017 because we were doing it in 2018. And that’s a special version of it that Mark De-Lissa arranged, so it’s quite different from the original.
[Julie]: It was nice that some of the Kingdom Choir actually came and sang with us and I thought that was really nice and not only did they come, but came before, didn’t they, and helped us in practice and stuff. They made time to come and that was really nice.
[Ahmed]: What I liked about them when they first came was that they had groups of three or four and then individual ones and I liked that, whereas before, in the whole group you get lost.
[Chris]: Yeah, there were five of them that came the first time. It was about 3 or 4 weeks before we performed, they came and did a couple of songs for us. Then they stayed and actually helped us with harmonies and gave us a few tips about being more relaxed and things on the stage. It was wonderful.
[Chris]: Ahmed and I had stylists, but you did your own! [Laughter] [Julie]: Yeah, I had to do my own! We had to wear red, because that was Vicky’s Nana’s favourite colour. Hence why we wear red now. It was her favourite colour.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Diane Jones and Jennifer Sherwood
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
