Fool If You Think It's Over - Elkie Brooks at the Stroud Subsrciptions Rooms
IT'S 35 years since Pearl's A Singer made Elkie Brooks a household name.
The song became something of an anthem for the gravel-voiced singer, and is sure to be one of the most popular numbers when she takes to the stage at Stroud's Subscription Rooms tomorrow night.
Like any star who finds themselves eternally connected to one hit single, Elkie admits it's no longer at the top of list of her favourite songs to perform, but fans needn't fear it being left off the set list all together.
"As long as people still enjoying hearing it, then we enjoy doing it," says the singer of herself and her band.
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"If everyone is honest, they'd admit that you can't get the same buzz from singing the same song after 35 years, but when you see the reaction from the audience, you can't help but enjoy it.
"It's about being professional and making sure it sounds fresh."
And if anyone knows about being professional, it's Elkie, born under the much less rock n' roll name of Elaine Bookbinder.
She began her career aged just 15, singing in the clubs of her native Salford.
"Looking back, it was incredibly young and I think my parents were a bit naive to let me do it," she said.
"But I learnt an awful lot and it gave me a great grounding which has served me well for the rest of my career."
Elkie later became a vocalist in the jazz-rock fusion band Vinegar Joe, with guitarist Pete Gage, who she later married, and another great British singer/songwriter Robert Palmer.
But it was as a solo singer she had the greatest success.
Pearl's A Singer was followed by a string of hits in the early 1980s, including Lilac Wine, Don't Cry Out Loud and Fool If You Think It's Over, and her 1981 album Pearls helped to make her the best-selling female album artist in the UK in the last 30 years.
Despite vowing never to record another album of love songs again, she's back with Powerless, on which she covers such classic tracks as Prince's Purple Rain and Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love, which Adele recently took to the top of the charts.
Whether it's in the old hits or hearing her unique voice take on the unexpected, tomorrow's audience is sure to be in for a treat.
Elaine McLaren
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