Live Review | Brooke Combe Live in Sheffield: A Soul Voice with Sharp Edges
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The Leadmill, Sheffield
At Sheffield’s Leadmill, Combe proved that soul music in 2025 doesn’t need to feel retro to honour its lineage. Her voice, expressive, grainy, full of nuance, was the main instrument, switching between delicate phrasing and open-throated power with ease. Each song carried its own pulse, but Combe’s emotional clarity threaded them all together, wrapping her stories in grit and glamour.
What stood out wasn’t just the vocals. It was how she delivered them. Guitar slung loose or tambourine in hand, she moved like someone who had studied stagecraft but found her own rhythm within it. The confidence was palpable but never rehearsed. Even her between-song patter, dry, sharp, sometimes disarmingly honest, felt in step with the music’s emotional range.
There is a distinct theatricality to Combe’s performance style, but it is one rooted in vulnerability rather than showiness. She let moments breathe, allowing quieter passages to stretch and settle before hitting with full force. Her band was tight but left room for spontaneity, a solo stretching here, a rhythmic shift there, and it gave the whole set a sense of life unfolding in real time.
- Leeds | Brudenell Social Club | 18 April
