Elkie Brooks biography
Elkie Brooks (born 25 February 1946) is an English singer, a vocalist with Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 1980s and has been nominated twice for Brit Awards' top female singer.British Queen of Blues. She is known for her powerful husky voice and hit singles such as "Pearl's a Singer", "Lilac Wine" Don't Cry Out Loud, Fool if You Think it's Over,and "No More the Fool" and her top-selling album Pearls.
Life and career
Early career and Vinegar Joe
Brooks was born in Broughton, Salford as
Elaine Bookbinder to a Jewish father and Catholic mother and raised in Prestwich. She attended North Salford Secondary Modern School.
According to Brooks, her unofficial debut was a gig at a club called the "Laronde" on Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester when she was thirteen. A professional singer since she was fifteen, Brooks' debut, a cover of Etta James's "Something's Got a Hold On Me", was released on Decca in 1964. She spent most of the 1960s on Britain's cabaret scene, a period of her life that she did not particularly enjoy. In the early 1960s Brooks supported The Beatles in their Christmas show in London, then, as an established act, helped the Small Faces in their early career by introducing them at several venues. She went on to tour the United States with several bands including The Animals.
After she met Pete Gage, whom she would marry, she joined the short-lived fusioneers Dada before forming Vinegar Joe with Gage and Robert Palmer. Elkie gained the reputation as the wild woman of "Rock n Roll" due to her wild stage performances. After three albums, they split up in 1974, and Brooks and Palmer both went solo. After a time as backing singer with the American southern boogie band Wet Willie, she returned to England.
Solo career and Chart success
Her first solo album on A&M records was
Rich Man's Woman (1975). Released to critical acclaim, Brooks was given a hard time due to the album's cover, which was considered outrageous for the time.
It came before a run of sixteen albums in twenty-five years, starting with Two Days Away, produced by the legendary duo Leiber & Stoller, who had also worked with Elvis Presley and many others (1977). Brooks also wrote some tracks with them. The hits "Pearl's a Singer" and "Sunshine After the Rain" came from this album. The albums Shooting Star (1978) and Live and Learn (1979) also saw success along with the singles "Lilac Wine" and "Don't Cry Out Loud". In 1980 Brooks performed at the Knebworth Festival with The Beach Boys, Santana and Mike Oldfield. Pearls, released in 1981 achieved the biggest success of her career, becoming the largest selling album by a British female artist up to this point in the UK. "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" was a hit for Brooks taken from this album, written by Chris Rea. Pearls II (1982), Minutes (1984) and Screen Gems (1984), were all UK chart hits.
Biography from 
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