Elkie Brooks © Neil Kirk 2024
ELKIE BROOKS
AFTER MORE THAN SIX DECADES IN MUSIC, THE ‘BRITISH QUEEN OF BLUES’
ANNOUNCES HER ‘LONG FAREWELL TOUR’
+ HEADLINES THIS YEAR’S SHREWSBURY FOLK FESTIVAL (ON 26th AUGUST)
“Still one of the great British voices” (The Guardian)
Having originally started her career in music in 1960, and after a remarkable 64 years of performing live, Elkie Brooks has today announced her ‘Long Farewell Tour’.
A celebration of her illustrious, award-winning six decades in music, Elkie will be performing some of her biggest hits with her incredible live band including ‘Pearl’s A Singer,’ ‘Lilac Wine,’ ‘Fool (If You Think It’s Over),’ ‘No More The Fool’ and ‘Don’t Cry Out Loud’ in a remarkable, career-spanning show which touches on blues, rock and jazz. Fans will also be able to hear material from Elkie’s eagerly anticipated forthcoming twenty-first studio album for the very first time at these new UK live dates.
An exceptional performer with an unmistakable voice which has earned her the moniker ‘British Queen Of Blues,’ Elkie Brooks never fails to captivate her audience.
In addition to her own forthcoming UK tour, Brooks will also headline this year’s annual Shrewsbury Folk Festival on Monday 26th August – further information here.
Talking about her forthcoming farewell tour, Elkie said today;
“I love performing live. The audiences are always so appreciative, so full of energy, and after 40+ long years of performing a well-worn repertoire both myself and my band really feed off the vibrancy of the crowd. And believe me – the British people know how to have a good time! When an audience brings their A-game, I’ll certainly bring mine.”
A Bookbinder & Joyce Production (in association with Backline Studios & RLN Music), the full list of Elkie Brooks’ ‘Long Farewell Tour’ UK live dates is as follows;
2024
7 September Buxton Opera House
12 September Leeds City Varieties
21 September London Cadogan Hall
27 September Whitley Bay Playhouse
4 October Bury St Edmunds – The Apex
13 October Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
27 October Scunthorpe Baths Hall
2 November Guildford G Live
6 November Shrewsbury Theatre Severn
9 November Swindon Wyvern Theatre
16 November Fareham Live
2025
9 January Dartford Orchard West
17 January Yarm Princess Alexandra Auditorium
8 February London Cadogan Hall
15 February Gateshead – The Glasshouse
21 February Northampton Royal & Derngate
28 February Birmingham Town Hall
2 March Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre
7 March Worthing Assembly Hall
16 March Salford Lowry
20 March Southend-on-Sea Cliffs Pavilion
28 March Torquay Princess Theatre
11 April York Barbican
2 May Blackpool Grand Theatre
Tickets for all shows are on-sale now via https://www.elkiebrooks.com/elkie-brooks-tour-dates-2024
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Elkie Brooks – Biography
Elkie Brooks 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, 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.
At Vinegar Joe’s dissolution, she found herself joining southern American boogie band Wet Willie. But this was a temporary diversion, because shortly after she was back on home turf, 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 saw the blue touch paper truly ignite on Elkie’s career. The album featured her monster hit and signature song ‘Pearl’s A Singer’, which was co-written and produced by Elvis stalwarts Leiber & Stoller. The song lit up the charts and gave Brooks her first timeless classic. It wouldn’t be her last.
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.
And the work rate didn’t let up: 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. Not only has she been prolific in the studio she has also continued to tour, performing live in almost every major UK theatre with sell out runs at such prestigious venues as the Palladium, the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, Ronnie Scott’s and she even shared the bill with the Beach Boys and Santana at Knebworth in 1980.
