Brooke Combe at Neon 194

During the London stop of her tour to promote her breakthrough album, Dancing at the Edge of the World, the up-and-coming neo-soul artist Brooke Combe performed at the Neon 194 bar in Piccadilly Circus.

The singer opened the night with an energetic and engaging performance of Intro/Prelude while playing the tambourine; her stage presence was masterful and set the tone for the rest of the evening. After playing Prelude, she followed it up with the song called The Town where she showed off her repertoire as a musician with her masterful playing of the guitar. Combe then showed off her soulful voice when singing the song Guilt.

Taking a detour from performing songs from her latest album, she sang one of her most popular songs called A Game and proved her vocal prowess with her powerful belts, which earned a large round of applause from the audience. Not one to shy away from the crowd, Brooke enjoyed bantering with fans by telling jokes about being Scottish, which therefore makes her more liable to using expletives, and even sipped a glass of beer before continuing her performance. The funniest moment of the gig was when someone made a comment and she asked if the person was Scottish and when the gentleman replied by saying he was Irish, she said they were the same people. This charisma is what makes her beloved by her fans.

During the performance of her song L.M.T.F.A. (abbreviation for Leave Me the F*ck Alone), a slow acoustic song, which got the room singing along with her masterful melismas, she told the story of how the song came about: a dispute with her stepmum, which resulted in a fractured relationship, and the emotions of her vocal performance resonated with the crowd.

Other highlights of the night included a cover of Angie Stone’s Wish I Didn’t Miss You and Summer Breeze; the singer demonstrated her vibrato, and the electric guitarist in her band wowed the crowd with energetic riffs.

To nit-pick some faults in the performance, when singing more softly, some of Combe’s words were unintelligible, and the sound engineer could have done a better job of mixing, especially with the percussion. Despite these minor drawbacks, Brooke Combe was able to put on a fantastic show.

Glory Matondo
Photos: Mike Garnell

For further information and future events visit Brooke Combe’s website here.

Watch the video for the single The Edge of the World here: