Faith

Perhaps you've seen a gospel choir on X Factor or heard gospel performed on Last Choir Standing.

But did you know that gospel has inspired not just Motown and artists such as Stevie Wonder, but singers as diverse as Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley?

On Friday (November 14), key figures from the gospel community will meet at a Grand Gospel Summit to discuss how to work together and create a strategy to enable gospel music to have a greater spiritual and cultural impact on British society.

Noel Robinson, a  leading gospel artist who has worked alongside artists such as Chaka Khan and Mica Paris spoke to BBC Berkshire in the days running up to the gospel summit.

He said: "In Britain most people's faith is quite hidden. It's very personal thing. What you find in gospel is that faith becomes a very exuberant, a very visible music.

"In the majority of our Christian communities people hold their faith close to their hearts. I'd like to see a lot of people really expressing it. It's not just about the gospel choirs you see on TV. Gospel music is involved in so many different factors of community. Gospel choirs do a lot of work in schools.

"Most of the black-led churches in this country, their faith is a very visible thing.

"What a lot of people don't realise is that gospel music is involved in so many areas - the mother of most of the contemporary music that you hear. It didn't inspire just Motown, but singers such as Dolly Parton.

"We have the whole country and western scene that comes from the root of gospel. Even Elvis Presley talked about his roots being in the church."

Juliet Fletcher is one of the organisers of the Gospel Summit.

She said: "We are really trying to bring gospel to a wider audience. There are plans to have a gospel music charts.

"This is what the summit is about, we want to explore what we can do to make a difference. Gospel music has meaning to people from a musical and cultural perspective."