Elkie Brooks

Life and career

Elaine Bookbinder, known professionally as Elkie Brooks, was born in Salford to a Jewish family. Her father's grandparents emigrated to Britain from Poland at the start of the 20th century to escape the pogroms. She has two older brothers, Raymond and Anthony (Tony Mansfield of The Dakotas). Brooks began singing as a child at barmitzvahs and weddings; she considers her unofficial debut a gig at the Laronde club on Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, when she was 13.

At 15, she won a talent contest in Manchester, leading to a pop package tour promoted by Don Arden. Her first record, 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 she did not particularly enjoy. In the mid-1960s, she supported the Beatles in their Christmas show in London and later helped the Small Faces by introducing them at several venues.

She toured the United States with several bands, including the Animals, and toured communist Poland with the Artwoods (which included her then-boyfriend Jon Lord). In the 1960s, she sang jazz with Humphrey Lyttelton's band before changing direction musically. After meeting Pete Gage, whom she would marry, she joined the short-lived blues rock fusion band Dada, then formed Vinegar Joe with Gage and Robert Palmer. Her wild stage performances earned her a reputation as the wild woman of rock 'n' roll.

After three albums, Vinegar Joe split in 1974, and Brooks and Palmer pursued separate solo careers. After a stint as a backing singer with the American southern boogie band Wet Willie, she returned to England. Her first solo album, Rich Man's Woman (1975), was released on A & M Records to critical acclaim, though its cover—showing a naked Brooks with a feather boa—was considered outrageous at the time.

Personal life

Brooks was married to guitarist Pete Gage in the early to mid-1970s. On 1 March 1978, she married her sound engineer, Trevor Jordan, who had worked with Diana Ross, the Rolling Stones, Luciano Pavarotti, Sarah Vaughan, and many others. They live in Devon and have two sons: Jermaine (born 22 December 1979) and Joseph (born 31 December 1986). From 1981 to 2002, they lived in a mansion in a secluded area of North Devon.

In 1998, after her accountant informed her that he had not been paying her taxes, Brooks found herself in severe debt and was reduced to living in a mobile home. After four years of increasing interest bills and loans, she sold her home (after being threatened with repossession) and cleared all her debts. In 2000, her management and tour promotion was taken over by her son Jermaine and his wife Joanna.