GATEHOUSE THEATRE, STAFFORD (2008)


STAFFORD SENTINEL (28 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.