gatehouse theatre - stafford
stafford sentinel - January 2008
I am going to state a fact that may alienate some of Saturday night's audience - I am too young to remember Elkie Brooks from the majority of her career. I am not a total music imbecile, songs like Pearl's A Singer and Don't Cry Out Loud are songs one instinctively knows, but I'd have been hard pushed to tell you who sang them. But, occasionally, a singer will prick my Radio One-saturated brain and make me sit up and take notice. Elkie Brooks is one such singer. Her husky, soulful voice grabbed me from the opening notes and didn't let go - as soothing as honey and lemon but with a strong kick to it.
The Stafford Gatehouse was packed. It was a completely sold-out performance which always increases the atmosphere, but I suspect that the outcome would have been the same if the room had been only half-full. The atmosphere on stage was so potent that if I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine myself in a smoke-filled jazz bar. Elkie's vocal range is simply astonishing and she commands a room, holding the audience in the palm of her hand with a warm and engaging stage presence.
Stopping a song midway through to have a chat with the audience is, I'd imagine, not generally advisable, but does Elkie care about the rules? No, and it doesn't matter. Along with her band, she performed the classics I knew - Pearl's A Singer, Lilac Wine and Sunshine After The Rain to name but a few, and also a few that I didn't know but probably should. Lilac Wine in particular was a stunning performance, putting all other versions I'd heard into the shade.
The band themselves deserve a mention - Geoff Whitehorn, guitar, Andrew Murray, piano, Mike Richardson on drums, Brian Badhams on base, Steve Jones, saxophone and Lee Noble, backing vocals - more than proved why they have all had successful careers.
The audience at Stafford Gatehouse gave Elkie a standing ovation, plus cries for another encore long after the curtain had gone down. So, you can keep your wannabe soul, blues or jazz pretenders - and let's hear it for a woman who knows how to do it properly.
- Unknown
palace theatre - redditch
the beat - march 2008
The standing ovation said it all. Superstar Elkie's audience had enjoyed every single musical note, every song and every movement.
Elkie Brooks returned to the Palace Theatre in Redditch, after an 18-month gap, and was greeted by a packed audience full of enthusiasm for this artist who just seems to get better as her career progresses. After casually following her all-male six piece band on stage, she sang 'He Could Have Been An Army' from the 1978 album Live And Learn followed by a powerful performance of Love Potion No 9. Elkie, dressed in an elegant pale blue tight-fitting silky knee-length evening dress with shoes to match, churned out a good 20 top class tunes throughout the night. Most of the hits included Pearl's A Singer and Sunshine After The Rain, both Top 10 hits for Elkie in 1977.
Only Love Can Break Your Heart and Don't Cry Out Loud from 1978 were in the set. She sang a multi-million selling song from the Perry Como songbook called 'Till The End Of Time' written in 1945, "the year I was born, and introduced to me recently by my husband Trevor," she told us. Elkie's humour became evident a number of times, most notably in the song Lilac Wine. The line 'I drink much more that I ought to drink' raised laughter from the filled-to-capacity auditorium bringing a break to the song. Then, with a Gracie Fields sound-a-like mimic, she reminded us 'this is a serious song that I'm singing'. Of course, there was even more laughter from the audience.
The guys in the band were introduced in due course; and you could feel the camaraderie and
respect she shared with this talented bunch of musicians, notably Steve Jones on saxophone, Brian Badhams on bass, and Andrew Murray on piano. Multi-talented Lee Noble played piano as well as supplying lead backing vocals. He has also penned songs for Elkie. Lee was a part of Elkie's 2005 CD release Eiectric Lady.
After a 15-minute break and refreshments from the bar, all were eager to reclaim their seats for act two. No one was disappointed. Elkie, now dressed in a striking black outfit, kept the songs coming until sadly there were no more. She left an audience simply hungry for much more!
- Trevor Tapscott
theatre royal - bury-st-edmunds
bury free press - february 2008
Elkie Brooks may be eligible for her pension, but she still possesses an astonishing voice that most of today's young pop stars would be envious of. And while critics accuse many of her peers of 'going through the motions' in their stage shows, the 63-year-old singer, whose recording career has spanned four decades, showed no signs of being tired of performing when she appeared at the Theatre Royal on Friday, in the second show of a two-night run.
With the audience in the palm of her hand from the first note, she was clearly still excited to be on stage and thrilled at the reaction from her enthusiastic fans, who gave her a standing ovation. Although her big hits, such as Pearl's A Singer and Lilac Wine, went down a storm, her voice was best suited to the blues numbers, a fact recognised by jazz legend Humphrey Lyttelton, who has rightly credited her with having the best female blues voice in the UK.
Despite not being a fan of many of her songs, it was hard not to be won over by one of the most
impressive voices I have heard in a long time. It was obvious that Brooks was in her element - and certainly a long way from retirement.
- Kirsty Marias
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