Elkie Brooks to appear at the Apex in September
Elkie Brooks and her band is set to take to the stage of the Apex next month.
She is to perform some of the songs that made her into one of the UK’s most successful singers; including “Lilac Wine”, “Fool If You Think It’s Over”,”Don’t Cry Out Loud” and her signature hit “Pearl’s A Singer”.
She began singing professionally in 1960. Born Elaine Bookbinder to a Jewish baker in Manchester, at 15 she won a talent contest at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, judged by the infamous Don Arden (manager of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and The Small Faces, and father of Sharon Osbourne).
The next few years were an education. She sang in cabaret clubs up and down the country and found herself supporting the Beatles at their 1964 Christmas shows at Hammersmith Odeon.
Her first hit, in 1964, was a version of Etta James’ “Something’s Got A Hold On Me”, on which a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page played guitar; she toured with The Small Faces and The Animals.
By the end of the 60s, she was singing jazz with Humphrey Lyttelton’s band and a few short years later had channelled her inner rock chick and was now co-fronting the band Vinegar Joe alongside Robert Palmer.
Shortly after the band split, she was a newly minted, grownup solo singer.
Her solo debut album “Rich Man’s Woman” was banned in some quarters because of its raunchy sleeve, but it was her 1977 album “Two Days Away” that lit the blue touch paper on Elkie’s career.
The album featured her signature song “Pearl’s A Singer”, which was co-written and produced by Elvis stalwarts Leiber & Stoller.
The hits kept coming: “Fool If You Think It’s Over”, “Lilac Wine”, “Sunshine After The Rain”, “Warm And Tender Love”, “Don’t Cry Out Loud” and her highest charting hit “No More The Fool”.
Her 1981 album “Pearls” was in the charts for 79 continuous weeks and went on to sell over a million, making Elkie Brooks the biggest selling female album artist in the history of the British pop charts at the time.
Over the course of the next 25 years, she has released some 20 albums. By 2012, she had more chart albums under her belt than any other British female artist.
Elkie Brooks is at the Apex on Saturday, September 10. See www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 578000 for tickets or more information.