Just a baby.......
Bev Brookes passion for music begins when her mother, Eve, introduces her to 70's
band The Electric Light Orchestra. Being just 2 years old, Bev is sitting in her
pram opposite an old record player and some stereo speakers. She is crunching on
her penny sweets and she bops inside the pram - so vigorously that the vibrations
of her movements cause the needle to jump thus causing a nasty welt in the vinyl
and subsequently damaging the records. Eve must have gone through many copies of
ELO's Out Of The Blue because Bev still has a perfect copy under the stairs of her
house to this day........
Messed up Teenager
13! Ugh 13! Years of hating school and hating mum for sending her to an all girls
school, tomboy Bev retreats from the bullying to focus on her passion - the sound
of music through a mixing desk.( but not the movie!) Years of collecting tapes and
vinyl compilations of "Now That's What I Call Music" lead Bev to think she can do
just as good. The Eurythmic's "Be Yourself Tonight" is blasting in her bedroom and
she is singing at the top of her voice......oh no...is that mum back home? Oops turn
the music off and STOP singing - don't want mum to know about that cat wailing......
17 and thank goodness for that!!! Bev meets an nice boy called Chris who thinks he
is the next Jean Michelle Jarre. She is fascinated by that 'gadget room' of 4-tracks,
vintage keyboards and microphones. Bev waits till he goes to work and does a tape
of her singing to a tune she has cobbled together - it sounds really good! She hides
the tape when he returns home. Bev doesn't like people hear her sing you see.
18 and Bev has bought her own keyboard with a multitrack to boot. She can't play
keyboards well so she cheats by tapping in the notes slowly and then speeding up
the BPM after. Noone would know! Slap some lyrics on with a good melody and she writes
her first tune- cool! Still she won;
't let anyone hear it, they will only take the pish.
Fast Forward July 1997 - Bev is on a coach from Blackpool to Sheffield listening
to Texas's "White On Blonde". She is feeling angry because she doesn't want to leave
her hometown but knows there is nothing left in Blackpool for her. With an absent
father and a mother in remission from Cancer, this leaves Bev feeling lost and isolated...and
slightly mad to boot. Eve is now living in Sheffield with her partner and is worried
that her daughter's life is going down the plug hole. Within a few years, Bev has
settled into the new city and has two sets of friends - the gay crowd and the Casbah
rockers. She goes out alot, gets plastered and starts to write songs again.
One night Bev, mum and partner go out to a karaoke. Bev gets drunk and sings. Mum
can't believe it. Bev hates being in front of people sober.
Drat! Years of motherly nagging convince Bev that office jobs are not for her. However
Bev cannot afford the PA because she already has a loan to pay off her Apple Mac
and new guitar. Arghhh! So she keeps out of the limelight and focuses on her aspirations
to be a producer/songwriter.Oh and continues to work in her worst ever job - HSBC
bank.
1999 - Bev places an ad for a guitarist singer songwriter - she is sick of trying
to do it on her own. A week or so later, the door knocks, Bev opens it to find a
gorgeous green eyed dark haired young man on her doorstep - with a guitar over his
shoulder, "I can't bloody work with him - he;s wayyyyy too good looking!" Bev spends
the next few months in awe of Leigh Joynson as he plays to her some of the best songs
she has ever heard - with an amazing voice and axe talent to boot. His talent only
makes him more amazing but Bev knows she hasn't got a cat in hells chance - after
all - he likes beautiful blondes and Bev looks like a female version of Harry Potter....
Sooo, they put songs together on the Mac, Bev learns how to mix songs and it all
goes great until -
Leigh meet a girl and marries her - then Bev hears little of him thereafter. He cannot
be convinced to take the songs to a publisher, he would much rather work at McDonalds
and settle down to married life.........grhhhh! Bev is heartbroken - really!
November 2001 Bev's rocker mate Kevin introduces her to a guitarist called Steve
one night in the Casbah. He seems alright and they swap numbers. Fast forward a Sunday
afternoon at The Deep End and she has gained an alliance with him. They start dating
and then move in together. She wonders if it will work because - looking at the state
of his house, he is a complete slob - with every guitar book under his bed since
the beginning of time and a bathroom that has so many silverfish you could cook em
for dinner.....
Steve helps her buy some PA and Bev finds an agent -Pete Sadler. The problem is Bev
can't drive so Steve drives her to all the gigs. It drives him nuts after a while
so 4 fails later, Bev passes her driving test and Steve gets his weekends free -
at last.
Pete Sadler sends her to some pretty questionable venues - but at least Bev learns
the art of Stagecraft and not giving a damn about the clapless audiences she sometimes
gets. "I wish they would heckle - at least I would know that I was crap!" But she
learns that - sometimes there is nothing stranger than folk.
After a couple of years, Bev changes agents and finally finds one that is worth its
grain in salt - Ceebee Variety Agency. Now she really starts swinging and after doing
away with that horrible knackered minidisc player, she buys a laptop, goes wild on
the backing tracks and is away!
July 2005 - Eve dies of Cancer. This messes Bev up no end , and for a while - goes
off the rails. She is angry with the world once again but tries to get on with her
life without her mother.
Present Day:-
Bev and Steve live near Crystal Peaks, have their own project studio and Bev's album
" Moonlight Movie Show" starts to take shape. Bev has realised from the feedback
of many - that her voice is instilled with the blues and this strongly influences
not only the songs she writes but the cover songs she performs live. After singing
with John Reilly from Acoustic Angels/Boy On A Dolphin, Bev's confidence truly gains
some momentum.
It is here that we stop as the rest is yet to come. We can all look forward to some
new projects in the year 2010 - a new album, an acoustic duo with her partner Steve,
and a new live cover show highlighting and paying tribute to some of the best songs
and entertainers of the last 40 years - from soul, motown to classic rock, new wave,
rock and roll, blues, funk pop - Bev can and does sing them all.
