The singer marking 50 years in showbusiness

Further down the bill was a shy Lancashire girl, known to family and friends as Elaine Bookbinder.

Little did Elkie Brooks know back then that one day she’d be celebrating half a century in the business. “I was a shy teenager starting out and didn’t push myself, but the music was important to me,” she says. “These days it’s all about the fame, and young female singers seem so confident. The one I adore is Lady Gaga, she’s gone through a lot to get where she is.”

Salford-born Elkie, 65, is bringing her 50th anniversary tour to Bradford next month. Audiences can expect old favourites and material from her latest album, Powerless.

“Diehard Elkie fans like a bit of rock and there are some numbers that I’d get lynched if I didn’t sing,” she smiles. “But I’ve been singing Pearl’s A Singer for 33 years, I like to keep it fresh.”

It was singing Ella Fitzgerald’s Lullaby Of Birdland that led to Elkie’s first paid gig, at a Manchester club. In 1960, aged 15, she joined a pop package tour led by formidable impresario Don Arden, father of Sharon Osborne.

Three years later Elkie was spotted singing at a Soho club, leading to a deal with Decca Records. She toured with The Animals and supported The Beatles but, with a hint of regret, says she didn’t make the most of the experience.

“I wasn’t confident about my looks and was too shy to speak to the Beatles,” she says. “They probably thought I was unfriendly but I just didn’t push myself. I don’t think I really asserted myself until Vinegar Joe.”

Rock group Vinegar Joe developed from rock fusion outfit Dada, which Elkie joined in 1969. With Elkie and a young Robert Palmer sharing vocals, Vinegar Joe carved a reputation for sexually-charged live performances.

She reveals that working with the late Batley singer wasn’t all plain sailing. “After one gig, when the audience wasn’t great, Robert decided he wasn’t going be part of the band anymore. Turns out he’d been planning to leave 12 months previously. He left us in the lurch,” she says. “When I left, I was blamed in the press for breaking up the band – it was ‘Elkie wants to go solo’ – but things had fallen apart with Robert’s departure.” Elkie launched her solo career with the album Rich Man’s Woman, and says going it alone was daunting. “I’d enjoyed being part of a team, then I was on my own again,” she says. “It’s only over the past five years that I’ve got that old team spirit back. I have lovely people around me now.”

The turning point came in 1977 with breakthrough album, Two Days Away, featuring hit singles Pearl’s A Singer and Sunshine After Rain. Follow-up hits Lilac Wine and Don’t Cry Out Loud established her as a household name. In 1986 came her biggest-selling single to date, No More The Fool, and a platinum-selling album of the same name.

In the Nineties, Elkie fulfilled a lifelong ambition, recording an album of jazz standards by singers she’d grown up listening to, including Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. “I’ve never had tunnel vision with music. I love jazz and admire great rock artists too,” she says. “In the past I’ve had to fight against being pigeon-holed, then I’d get accused of being ‘too eclectic’. If you have a good voice you should be able to sing anything.”

She speaks fondly of her idyllic life in North Devon, where her husband teaches paragliding and hanggliding – “you must try hanggliding on those lovely Yorkshire moors of yours” she gushes – and her sons Jermaine, who produced her recent albums, and Joe, who’s recording his own album. “I always took my kids on tour, with a tutor, so they know what it takes to be on the road,” she says. “If you’re young and starting out you have to think about whether you want to be a serious musician or you just want fame.

“I didn’t read the small print when I was younger so I’m not the wealthiest woman in the world, but I have a creative freedom that a lot of younger artists don’t have.”

* Elkie Brooks will be at St George’s Hall on Thursday, July 22. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.