Elkie Brooks Quotes on Prestwich, Cavendish Road and Life…

“My memories of our time at 119 Cavendish Road however are vivid as that’s where I grew up as a child – I say ‘grew’ but perhaps brought up would be a better phrase as I did my growing a lot later on. It was a very big house for the area: a four-bedroom, one bathroom, semi-detached house with leaded windows. It was pretty large but we weren’t that posh, although we did have a toilet, though in the cellar, full of coal and stinking of cat’s pee. It wasn’t very glamorous.” From Finding My Voice: The Elkie Brooks Story (The Robson Press 2012)

“When the family moved to Cavendish Road we had a black Vauxhall Cresta with white wall wheels but no garage so Dad decided to have a double garage built underneath the house. This was a first for the road and really very unusual for those days. With the garage under the house, we had a massive slope which my brothers and I used to use as part of a game. I had a pram, which being such a tomboy I never liked, so I would throw all my dolls out and my brothers would put me in and whizz me down the drive towards the garage. Luckily, they put cushions and an old mattress at the end of the garage so I had a soft landing…”

“The one thing I’ll always remember from 119 Cavendish Road is the mirror, which hung above the fireplace my mother had built. It was very kitsch, with lots of different coloured mirrored strips spiking out. In fact, we were in Manchester not so long ago and went to look at the house, and I swear I could see that mirror still hanging there above the mantelpiece sixty years on…”

“I was so thin I was nicknamed Olive Oyl after Popeye’s skinny girlfriend. In the winter my brothers would make fun of me by asking if I’d put bagels in my tights because they were always so wrinkly…”

“I was a little girl when I first started to sing. Every little girl thinks they can sing, don’t they? But I started taking it seriously when I was about 11 and would be invited to weddings and Bar Mitzvahs where I’d ask the band if they knew any songs of the day and just get up and sing. I supposed I started really wanting to be a singer aged about 13.” Interview in Northern Life

“My parents were always hard working so it was not a hard life. I had everything materialistically but not necessarily emotionally. It was a different time when you look back. Then you were seen and not heard which is probably why they let me go and be a singer so early. I do look back on it kindly but I have tried to bring my children up very differently giving them much more emotionally.” Interview in Northern Life