Blues singer Elkie Brooks has been confirmed as the headline act at this year’s Marlborough Jazz Festival.
Famous for her 1977 Top 10 single Sunshine After the Rain, 1981 hit Fool (If You Think It’s Over), and her Top Five 1986 smash No More the Fool, Brooks has appeared on more Top 75 albums than any other British female artist.
Known as The British Queen of Blues, she supported The Beatles and the Small faces in the 1960s, before enjoying a solo career which included a run of 16 Top 25 albums.
Her life has been a tale of rage to riches, and back to rags again. The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, she grew up in Salford, Manchester.
Her success in show business saw her living in a North Devon mansion, but in 1998, when her accountant informed her that he hadn’t been paying her taxes, Brooks found herself in severe debt and was reduced to living in a mobile home.
She’s since released four studio albums – Shangri-La, Trouble in Mind (with Humphrey Lyttelton), Electric Lady, and Powerless. Her autobiography, Finding My Voice, was published in 2012.
Now aged 70, she continues to tour extensively.
Festival convenor Nick Fogg told Marlborough News Online: “We are thrilled to have Britain’s Queen of the Blues here at the Marlborough International Jazz Festival. It shows, as if anyone could have doubted it, that we’re up there in the big time.”
For more about the festival, log on to www.marlboroughjazz.com