Blossoms at Liverpool’s Mountford Hall

with support from

Brooke Combe

27/11/2022

It’s a cold winter’s night as I make my way into Liverpool city centre on Sunday and I’m happy that I managed to catch the student bus that drops me right outside (The guild of students, Mountford Hall) my favourite Liverpool venue.

I’m here to see Blossoms tonight as part of their tour promoting their recently released fourth studio album, ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb‘. As I take my seat in the viewing gallery towards the side of the stage I notice how quickly the venue is filling up, this is going to be a big night!

(Brooke Combe_Credit: Billy Vitch)

The hall is almost full as our support act arrives on stage, and our entertainment begins with ‘Brooke Combe‘. I’ve never seen or heard much of Brooke before and all I know is that she’s a soul singer from Edinburgh who has previously supported Miles Kane. She takes to the stage and is joined by her band and the 4-piece look cool and stylish up there. 

Brooke opens with ‘A- Game‘ and I’m enjoying her soulful, jazzy sound, Brooke delivers a cool vocal. Soon she’s into “Impress You” and I think, she’s definitely impressing us all tonight! She looks sassy in her dark shades, “Impress You” and “Miss Me Now” stand out from a powerful set. Brooke thanks us all for getting in early and as she puts on her Strat I’m getting a bit of a Joan Armatrading vibe, or Joan crossed with Sade, but a bit more streetwise, a little heavier and bit dancey in parts, actually, I’m thinking she’d be a great shout for a Bond theme tune sometime soon. Brooke and her band get a great ovation from the crowd and they leave us with “Are You With Me?” and this is her best song by a country mile and I’m a convert, I want to see her again, this girl is surely going to do amazing things in the years to come. She leaves the stage triumphantly, fist clenched in the, wow!!!

(Brooke Combe_Credit: Billy Vitch)

I go to the bar and I can feel a nice, happy “party atmosphere” in the air tonight, and as we wait for Stockport’s finest to grace us, we get some great songs over the PA system, we are treated to “Never Gonna Give You Up”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Mardy Bum”, and “Let’s Dance”, it’s an impressive scene down below as this rave is already rocking, everybody is singing along down there.

It’s not too long before our friends from down the road are on stage and they open with “At Most a Kiss” and immediately I’m impressed by Joe Donovan’s drumming here. 

They next go Into “Honey Sweet” and singer Tom Ogden is working the stage like the showman he’s renowned as, a stage that looks stunning tonight, by the way, the light show is amazing tonight and it sets a great “big band” backdrop for the lads up there. Tom, Charlie, Josh, Myles and Joe are joined by a couple of extra musicians up there making the magic happen and this is a big stage production that we are being treated to, Tom looks stylish and smart in his gold shirt.

(Blossoms_Credit: Billy Vitch)

The lads work through their four studio albums tonight, the album, ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb‘ was released in spring this year.

During “Oh No  (I Think I’m In Love)” Tom shouts to stop and the band all freeze like statues before going back in to finish the song off, impressive stuff.

Tom shows us that he’s a great frontman and his little stories/introductions before some of the songs are funny and interesting, before “Ode to NYC” he tells us that this was originally meant for a documentary movie, that never happened, but the band liked the song enough to use it and put it on their album anyway. It’s a good song with a nice melody,

Tonight we get a mixture of tunes and the band has the crowd in the palm of their hands.

In full we get 18 songs and the highlights for me are their new song “Big Word“, a big anthem with lots of synth sounds, “classic” Blossoms really and just before encore we get “My Favourite Room“, it’s another sing-along song and Tom and the crowd sing “Last Christmas” together in the middle of this tune. Is it Christmas already? It’s all good fun anyway.

The band leave to loud cheers and everyone is wanting more.

(Blossoms_Credit: Billy Vitch)

The band are back on soon enough and beer in plastic cups is being sprayed everywhere as the lads lead us into “Charlemange”, this is one of Blossoms oldest songs, but it’s a firm favourite with everybody here and I can see how loved this band are by their big following, everybody is dancing and singing and I’m not sure if ever seen this place so full.

It’s been a great night, everybody seemed to enjoy the party and I’m really struck by how professional Blossoms were tonight, they’re obviously a band that spends a lot of time preparing for their tour and stage show and it shows in their performance and their connection with their fans. 

Well done guys, please come back soon!

Words by Dave Clare

Photography by Billy Vitch

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