It was singing Ella Fitzgerald’s Lullaby Of Birdland that got shy teenager Elaine Bookbinder noticed.

The 15-year-old landed her first paid gig, at a Manchester club, then joined a pop package tour led by impresario Don Arden.

That was in 1960. Five decades later Elkie Brooks, as the shy teenager became known, is back on the road.

Now 67, she’s at Ilkley’s King’s Hall next week, performing the hits along with some blues, jazz and songs from her new album, Powerless. “There are some numbers I’d get lynched if I didn’t sing,” she smiles. “I’ve been singing Pearl’s A Singer nearly 40 years. I like to keep it fresh.”

In 1963 Elkie landed a deal with Decca Records and went on to tour with the Animals and support the Beatles.

“I was shy and wasn’t confident about my looks. I was too timid to speak to the Beatles,” she says. “They probably thought I was unfriendly but I just didn’t push myself. These days young female singers seem so confident.”

Her confidence grew in Vinegar Joe, which evolved from rock fusion outfit Dada. Sharing vocals with Robert Palmer, Elkie morphed into a sexy rock chick. “I loved it because I’d felt so inhibited for such a long time,” she says.

She was devastated when Palmer left. “After one gig he decided he wasn’t going be part of the band anymore. Turns out he’d been planning it for 12 months. I didn’t talk to him until after he’d recorded his first album. I was later blamed for breaking up the band – it was ‘Elkie wants to go solo’ – but things had fallen apart with Robert’s departure.”

In 1977 came her solo break with the album Two Days Away, featuring hit singles Pearl’s A Singer and Sunshine After Rain. Follow-up hits included Lilac Wine, Don’t Cry Out Loud and No More The Fool.

In the Nineties, with Humphrey Lyttelton as her mentor, Elkie recorded an album of jazz standards by the likes of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

“I’ve never had tunnel vision with music. I love jazz and admire great rock artists, too, “ she says. “I’ve been accused of being ‘too eclectic’ but with a good voice you should be able to sing anything.”

She lives in North Devon and says keeping busy got her through some tough chapters of her life, not least discovering she owed a quarter of a million pounds in tax.

In 2002, she and husband Trevor sold their beloved country home and, with youngest son Joey, moved into a motorhome.

“It was hard going,” she says. “I should have asked more questions of my accountant. I guess I was busy. If I wasn’t on the road, I was in the studios or bringing up a family.

“The most important thing when you’re depressed is to keep going. I’d get the hoover out and do the housework. It’s great therapy.”

Now running a fruit farm with her husband, Elkie has few regrets: not even turning down Andrew Lloyd Webber for Evita. “I hate musicals with venom,” she says.

But she wishes she hadn’t done 2003 TV show Reborn In The USA, which saw her compete against the likes of Sonia and Dollar to reignite her music career in America.

“My old man said I should never have done it. It was a very classless show. It’s put me off reality TV, I don’t need the money that bad!”

While she’s still happy performing, she says she’ll know when the time is right to take a bow.

“I can’t do it for ever and there are other things I want to do, like aikido and surfing,” she says. “There will come a time, but I can’t see it happening for at least another five years.”

Elkie Brooks is at King’s Hall, Ilkley, next Friday. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.