ELKIE Brooks has been forced to postpone tonight’s concert at the Grand Opera House, York, until the summer through illness. She will now play the Cumberland Street theatre on July 20 with tickets remaining valid for the revised date.

The Salford-born blues singer, who will turn 72 on February 25, had been nursing a cold when her interview with The Press was put back to January 10, but she was in chipper form that morning on the phone from North Devon as we discussed the importance of maintaining good health for a concert tour.

“It’s all down to your fitness level,” she revealed. “I exercise a lot; I’ve done Aikido since 1988 and I now have one-to-one sessions where I live in Devon with a woman coach, who used to run a club. It’s a Japanese martial art, where working on your balance and your co-ordination is a big part of it, and I really started to get it together in 1995. Like with anything, like with being a musician, you never stop learning.”

Elkie has been known to defy injuries to carry on singing on tour. “I’ve performed with a broken arm, a broken wrist and twisted ankle, but if anything affects my throat, no way would I do a show,” she said.

“You have to get plenty of rest and eat properly to perform at your best. If you’re going to do physical exercise, which singing is, it’s advisable not to eat an hour before a show, but two or three or four hours beforehand, to allow you to digest it. Any athlete will tell you the same, and singing is very athletic if you're to sing and project properly.”

Singing is a joy for Elkie, who released her aptly titled autobiography, Finding My Voice, in 2012. “I thoroughly enjoy the music side of touring, though I could do without all the travelling, but that goes with the job,” she said.

“I love performing on stage but I also enjoy just singing at home. I have a wonderful baby grand [piano] that my family bought me for my 70th birthday and I’m very happy singing and playing at home.

York Press:

Elkie Brooks: "Like with anything, like with being a musician, you never stop learning"

“I’ve been working on my fourth album with my son Jay, who has his own studio, with lots of home-grown material and some off-the-wall covers that you wouldn’t expect from me. That will hopefully be out at the end of this year or early next year.”

More immediately, said Elkie, Virgin/EMI are working on a re-issue programme of Elkie’s albums with bonus tracks, possibly for release as a box set in May or June.

When she plays her rearranged York show, Elkie will draw on five decades of making music that took off when she left Manchester for London in the 1960s. “We formed Dada with my husband at that time, Peter Cage, in 1969, and from 1971 to 1974 I was in Vinegar Joe, with Robert Palmer of course,” she said.

“I owe Robert’s mum a call: I’m hoping she can come to the York show; she usually does when I play York or places not too far from where she lives in Scarborough.”

Elkie will now have to issue that invitation for July 20, when no doubt she will sing such hits as Pearl’s A Singer, Fool If You Think It's Over, Sunshine After The Rain, Don't Cry Out Loud and Lilac Wine in a night of vintage hits, blues and jazz.

“My attitude to singing those songs is that we tend to change the arrangements, not only to keep me interested but also the band interested,” she said.

“If you’ve been singing a song for 40 years, as I have with Pearl's A Singer, you have to treat it with the right attitude and you have to respect that the audience want to hear it.”

Elkie Brooks plays Grand Opera House, York, on July 20. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york