Elkie Brooks looks back: ‘Before I went on stage I used to drink Guinness and a few shots of brandy’

The singer-songwriter on her rock’n’roll past, playing second fiddle to the Beatles, and the key to being an energetic performer in your 80s

Born Elaine Bookbinder in Salford in 1945, Elkie Brooks is a rock, blues and jazz singer known as the British Queen of Blues. She spent much of the 1960s on the cabaret circuit, during which time she supported the Beatles. She joined Dada in 1970, before forming Vinegar Joe with Robert Palmer in 1971. She went solo after their split, breaking through with Pearl’s a Singer and Sunshine After the Rain, scoring 13 UK Top 75 singles. A celebration of six decades in music, The Long Farewell Tour, is now on the road.

This is me in a white jumpsuit outside the Royal Albert Hall in London. I have very few memories of the gig, but I know I would have felt daunted as it’s such a large venue. To overcome the nerves, I’d have tried to focus on the music and remembered, “It’s just another gig.”