Elkie Brooks has been a rock, blues and jazz vocalist since the 1960s, and is best remembered alongside Robert Palmer in Vinegar Joe, the cult favourites who released three albums in the early 70s, and then as a successful solo artist. Salford-born Brooks is currently engaged in a ‘lap of honour’ tour billed as The Long Farewell.
New dates have just been added to The Long Farewell. How much further will it run?
I would like for the tour to run on for many, many years but it’ll depend upon my fitness levels. I’m all fine at the moment, but I’m going on eighty so we’ll just have to see. The voice is still there, but it’s like anything – you must practise. If you don’t use it you will lose it, babe.
- “How dense was I, singing those songs and not realising those things were happening to me?” Linda Thompson on struggling to sing, struggling to perform live and why her kids aren’t her greatest achievement
- “I don’t believe I have to forgive them. They replaced me when I was sick. They even said I had ruined the band”: Styx fired Dennis DeYoung in 1999, but he still wants a reunion for the fans
After more than six decades in the business, the cessation of touring must be bittersweet.
I don’t really think that way. I just get on with it. The singing is great but the travelling can be exhausting. It used to be night after night [in succession], but we don’t do that any more.
How does the epithet ‘British queen of blues’ sit with you?
Of course, it’s lovely to hear praise like that. My world changed on the day that I heard Ella Fitzgerald for the first time, and then I discovered Dinah Washington and Billie Holliday, so I’m very, very influenced by black music.
What a storied career you’ve had, from supporting The Beatles to duetting with Cat Stevens on Remember The Days Of The Old Schoolyard, and receiving two Brit Awards nominations.
Oh, Cat Stevens is wonderful. He’s a great writer, a lovely musician and a really nice person. It’s so rare for one person be all of those things.
How positive are your memories of Vinegar Joe, a band that really should be far better known than they are?
I loved being in Vinegar Joe. We became quite big on the live circuit, but never really sold too many albums. Like I said earlier we were worked to death. Sometimes there would be two shows in an evening. I recall one being in Sheffield and another in London. I don’t know how we did it. Well, I do actually. We snorted a lot of cocaine [laughs]. But I haven’t done anything like that for almost fifty years.
In Vinegar Joe you were known as a wild woman of rock’n’roll. Confess please, what’s the most rock’n’roll thing you ever did?
I thought I just told you: I did a few lines of coke [giggles]. Back then I drank a lot of brandy before I went on stage to calm me down a bit, but now I don’t drink it at all. I haven’t had a drop since my son, who is now forty-five, was nine months old. I do like a glass of wine, but not until after the show. It’s probably why I’ve lasted so long.
Besides drinking in moderation, is there a secret to carving an enduring career in music?
You must keep on working. Become complacent and you’ll never make it. It’s important to practise. I’m not the greatest singer in the world. I sing quite well and in tune, I’ve got nice phrasing. I try to entertain, I’m happy within myself, and that’s what it’s all about.
Your biggest hits were written by the likes of Chris Rea, Leiber & Stoller and Russ Ballard. Have you been a reluctant writer?
I wouldn’t say that, but I never really thought of myself as a very serious songwriter. Lyrics, to me, are so important, and I was lucky to work with Jerry Leiber, who is one of the all-time greats. I listened to him and Mike [Stoller] and I learned an awful lot from them both.
Covering Stairway To Heaven, which you did on Bookbinder’s Kid in 1988, was a brave thing to do.
Well, I’m like that. When I cover a song I listen to it around a hundred times and decide what to do with it. There’s no point in copying the original.
What can you tell us about your imminent twenty-first studio album?
We’re hoping to release it by the end of the year, but right now I’ve got an unplugged album [Live And Acoustic] out. It’s me singing with just piano and saxophone as accompaniment, and we’ve changed a lot of the arrangements. People seem to really like it.
Apparently you intend to preview some new songs on these dates.
One or two of them, yeah. But not until we are completely comfortable with playing them.
These days society is increasingly obsessed with youth. In music, as well as everyday life, are we guilty of writing off artists of a certain age before their time?
That’s a very difficult question. I mean, the Rolling Stones are still doing pretty well. God, that guy [Jagger] can still move and he’s in his eighties! And look at Paul McCartney. These are all great, great artists and wonderful people.
Who has the right to tell them to stop?
Exactly. Look at Eric Clapton, he’s still incredible. However, I understand your question, and there are several people that I won’t name who should have hung up the microphone a long time ago and stop embarrassing themselves. I personally won’t allow myself to reach that stage.
Elkie Brooks' farewell tour ends in Glasgow on May 29. For dates and tickets, visit the Elkie Brooks website.
