With an impressive 60-plus years in the music industry behind her and a phenomenal 20 albums under her belt, Elkie Brooks continues to hold (quite rightly) the title of British Queen of Blues. Kicking off her new tour, The Long Farewell, at Shrewsbury Folk Festival late this month, she recently took time out to chat to What’s On about playing live gigs, touring with the stars, and being a black belt in Aikido...

Singer Elkie Brooks is looking forward to headlining Shrewsbury Folk Festival this month, but she recalls that some of her early festivals were far from comfortable.

“Some places that I’ve done years ago were terrible backstage,” says Elkie, whose career has spanned more than 60 years. “I’ve been in the business a long time, and when I was in bands in the 70s, with Dada and Vinegar Joe, we were always doing festivals. You got used to the backstage, and I used to carry a little screen so that I could just go behind the screen and get changed in the same room as all the lads because they just never sorted out separate facilities. 

“And there have been times when I’ve done these festivals before as a solo artist, where I’ve actually changed in the van which belonged to our guy who did the PA equipment. That’s what it was like in those days.”

As a child, Elkie sang at weddings and bar mitzvahs, with her unofficial debut coming at a club in Manchester when she was 13. Her big break came at the age of 15 when she won a local talent competition.

She released her first single, a cover of Etta James’ Something’s Got A Hold On Me, in 1964 and since then has recorded a string of top-10 albums and singles, including Pearl’s A Singer, which reached number eight in the UK Singles Chart, and No More The Fool, which reached number five. Her 1981 album, Pearls, sold more than a million copies and charted for 79 weeks, making Elkie the biggest-selling female album artist in the history of the UK pop charts at that time. 

Known as the British Queen of Blues, her career has seen her working or touring with a host of top stars, including The Beatles, Small Faces, Cat Stevens, Robert Palmer and The Animals - so she’s had plenty of time to hone her live festival skills. 

“I have to appreciate that my fans will want to hear all my hits, and I’ll be doing most of them which are good live. I think I’d get lynched if I didn’t do Pearl’s A Singer, and Sunshine After The Rain, and Fool If You Think It’s Over, and Don’t Cry Out Loud. So I’ll obviously be doing all those, but I shall be incorporating a few other things as well which are good live songs to keep everyone going. 

“My attitude is one of complete and utter focus and concentration on the music, and if I deter from that I do not enjoy myself. That has always been my attitude. When you’ve been 19 years old and singing at The Beatles’ Christmas Show and having all these screaming girls just screaming all the way through your performance and wanting The Beatles and not really taking any notice of you, you become a bit tough about it all. My attitude is ‘I’m going to sing this, and if you want to enjoy it, then please, that would be wonderful, but if you don’t, I’m going to do it anyway!’”

Taking place at West Midlands Showground across the bank holiday weekend, Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2024 has a packed line-up which also features Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Gangstagrass and Eric Bibb, as well as a strong presence in terms of women performers; Jacqui McShee, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Kathryn Tickell, Mary Black, Ward Thomas and Mary Gauthier all feature on the bill.

Elkie admits that it wasn’t always easy being a female singer breaking onto the scene in the 1960s.
“Back in the day it was more or less what you looked like, and there is still an element of that now. But there have been, and there are, some wonderful singers who were incredibly talented, and their talent has seen them through. My first influences were women like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dakota Staton. They were extremely talented, with great voices, great phasing and great pitching, and that’s how they got through.

“To me, the music has always been the most important thing; that’s what I care about. I think it’s wonderful that so many women are coming through and have always been there.” 

Elkie’s 2024 tour, during which she plays Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn in November, is called The Long Farewell - a wry look at the fact she turns 80 next year.

“I’m thankfully at the moment reasonably fit for my age. I work out most days - I do a good hour. I’m a black belt in Aikido. I took my black belt when I was 50 and I have continued training.

“So I am quite fit, but then I’ll have to judge it year by year. I still might be doing lots of shows in a couple of years’ time... I just have to take it as it comes, but it’s going to be a very, very long farewell tour, I hope.”

Not only does Elkie work on her physical fitness levels, she also ensures she continues training her voice. “For my 70th birthday my wonderful family bought me this fantastic piano, a baby grand piano, and I sit and play every night - and the neighbours are very happy,” she laughs. “I practise most days; very rarely I don’t do at least an hour sitting at the piano and singing. I have the routine that I do because if you don’t use it, you lose it.

“I would say to people who are starting out and want to be singers in the business that it really helps if you can play an instrument like the piano or the guitar. I’m not bad on keyboards, I can accompany myself and I love it, but I’m absolutely awful at the guitar. You know Phoebe - the woman who tries to play the guitar in Friends? I make her sound like Eric Clapton!”

Elkie is also keeping busy with new material - and festival-goers may receive a sneak preview.

“My son Jay and his wife Joanna manage me, and we’re working on an album. We’re releasing the album in sections - three or four songs, and then a few months later we’ll do a few more, and the album in its entirety hopefully by the end of the year; if not, the beginning of next year. So at the festival I might do some songs from the new album - along with lots of hits.”

Elkie Brooks plays the final day of Shrewsbury Folk Festival, which takes place at the West Mid Showground from Friday 23 to Monday 26 August. Elkie then returns to the region with The Long Farewell Tour, performing at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn on Wednesday 6 November and Birmingham Town Hall on Friday 28 February