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Born Elaine Bookbinder in Salford, Manchester, Elkie Brooks has become one of the most successful and respected singing talents in the UK. Her career has spanned nearly five decades, produced 19 studio albums, and earned her numerous awards and accolades.As a 15 year old with a passion for the blues, jazz and great artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Elkie left her childhood home to pursue dreams of becoming a singer. Early professional engagements included appearances with the Eric Delaney Band and British Jazz hero Humphrey Lyttelton, a relationship that still thrives today.On signing to the famous Decca label, Elkie released her first single Something’s Got A Hold On Me in 1964. Several more single releases followed but Elkie’s association with Decca soon ended and Elkie spent the next few years appearing on package tours with various artists including The Animals and The Beatles.In 1970, her career took on a whole new direction after meeting guitarist Pete Gage and together they formed rock fusion band, Dada. The group worked well but changes were brought about with the arrival of another future star by the name of Robert Palmer and Dada transformed into Vinegar Joe. Robert was to prove the perfect foil for Elkie - their raunchy, rocky and outright sexual live performances became legendary and secured them a record deal with the Island label. However, chart success eluded them and the band eventually dissolved in 1974.Disillusioned, Elkie took off to the States to decide her future. In 1975 she returned to the UK and signed a deal with A&M Records which saw the release of her first solo album, Rich Man’s Woman. The album had some critical success but this failed to translate into record sales.For her second long player, A&M recruited legendary songwriters and producers Leiber and Stoller to create the classic 1977 album Two Days Away. Finally, on her 32nd Birthday, after many years of glowing acclaim but limited chart success, the single Pearl’s A Singer was released providing Elkie with her first Top 10 hit. The song became an instant anthem, proving so memorable that even today it remains Elkie's most popular and enduring hit.Further success followed with the hit singles Sunshine After The Rain, Lilac Wine, the evergreen classic Don’t Cry Out Loud and the hit albums Shooting Star (1978) and Live and Learn (1979). During this period Elkie undertook major tours selling out each venue she visited including the Royal Albert Hall and a week-long engagement at the London Palladium. In 1981, the release of the Pearls album propelled Elkie into the realms of superstardom. This collection of past hits and new recordings shot to number 2 and stayed in the album charts for an incredible 79 weeks. At the time of release it became the biggest selling album by a British female singer in the history of the UK charts, selling over 1.2 million copies.Pearls II, released a year later was met with enormous success, reaching the top 5 and producing the hit singles Our Love, Gasoline Alley and a stunning reworking of Nights In White Satin.The hit albums Minutes and Screen Gems, her last for A&M and released only months apart from each other in 1984, could not have been more diverse. Minutes, a contemporary rock album, featured many tracks written by Elkie and appealed to her earlier Vinegar Joe crowd. Screen Gems, conversely, was a beautifully arranged album of Hollywood film songs performed with a full symphony orchestra. This album, the first to be released solely on CD in the UK before later appearing on LP and cassette, has proved so rare in the CD format that today copies can sell for prices in excess of £250.Elkie signed with new label Legend Records in 1986, in the process achieving her biggest hit single to date with No More the Fool. Such was Elkie’s chart appeal at this time, that in one week she had the number 5 single and two UK albums within the top 10. She also undertook a mammoth tour including nights at Manchester’s G-MEX Centre, the NEC in Birmingham and London’s Wembley Arena.Further hit albums followed with Bookbinder’s Kid (1988), Inspiration (1989), Round Midnight (1993), Nothing But The Blues (1994), Amazing (1996) and The Very Best Of Elkie Brooks (1997) earning Elkie recognition by the Guinness Book of Records as the most charted female album seller of the last 25 years.The new millennium saw Elkie release the albums Shangri-La (2002), a contemporary experimental body of work, and the pure jazz of Trouble In Mind (2002) with her old friend Humphrey Lyttelton. She also took part in ITV’s Reborn In the USA gaining her an army of new fans. The critically acclaimed album Electric Lady appeared in 2005. To celebrate it’s release and her 60th birthday, Elkie completed a sold-out week at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz club and began a monster 60 date tour which proved so popular that Elkie has continued to perform a similar amount of shows each year since.The public have been flocking to watch Elkie perform for many years, but those who have seen her over the last few have witnessed some of the most incredible performances of her career. The nightly standing ovations and delighted crowd reactions are testament to a woman who, like a good wine, has improved with age. Her passionate performances and her warmth with the audience have made her an unforgettable live experience and have gained her a reputation, both with fans and within the music industry, as perhaps the finest British female singer of her generation.
