Jacqui Brookes -

Jacqui Brookes is an English vocalist who cut a 1980 single with the minimal-wave trio Shox, followed by three 1981 singles with Siam. In 1983, she formed Intro with Fingerprintz mastermind Jimme O’Neill, who co-wrote her 1984 solo album Sob Stories, a demure art-pop set on MCA.

Shox

Jacqui Brookes formed Shox in 1979 as a trio with synth programmers Mike Atkinson and John Pethers. They linked with Axis, the upstart venture of Beggars Banquet employee Ivo Watts-Russell.

In January 1980, Shox released their lone single: “No Turning Back” backed with “Lying Here,” both Pethers originals.

Both tracks run on a tight programmed beat, dry synthesizer lines, and a restrained vocal line that keeps tension close to the surface. “No Turning Back” keeps the rhythm direct and compact, while “Lying Here” opens a little more space around the voice and synth figure.

A. “No Turning Back” (2:54) — Pethers
B. “Lying Here” (3:06) — Pethers

Pethers and Atkinson co-produced the single at Gooseberry and R.G. Jones with engineer Mark Lusardi. “No Turning Back” appeared in a monochrome picture sleeve as the fourth and final Axis release, following singles by The Fast Set, Bearz, and Bauhaus, the inaugural act of Ivo’s subsequent label venture, 4AD.

Siam

After Shox, Jacqui Brookes and John Pethers regrouped in Siam, a quartet with guitarist Chris Baylis and drummer Alan Hodgson. A&M signed the band in 1981 and issued three singles that year. The material placed Brookes in a cleaner keyboard-led setting, with guitar and live drums sharing the arrangement with synthesizers.

On March 27, 1981, Siam released “Déjà Vu” backed with “Blue Eye View,” both group-written numbers. The single sets Brookes against a bright keyboard backdrop and a compact rhythm pattern.

A. “Déjà Vu” (3:17)
B. “Blue Eye View” (4:13)

Siam recorded the single with producer Bob Sargeant, the one-time Junco Partner who worked on 1980/81 albums by The Beat, The Fall, Headline, Any Trouble, and The Monochrome Set.

On June 5, 1981, Siam released “Don’t Look Back” backed with “Sitting Pretty,” again joint-written songs. The A-side tightens the arrangement around a firm synth pulse and a direct chorus entry, while “Sitting Pretty” keeps a lighter surface.

A. “Don’t Look Back” (3:45)
B. “Sitting Pretty” (3:02)

Siam recorded the single with producer Wally Brill, who worked in sequence on albums by Karel Fialka, Henry Badowski, and The Spizzles.

On November 13, 1981, Siam released “Catrix,” which Baylis and Brookes co-wrote with Peter Bartlett and Al Hodgson, a subsequent collaborator with Annabel Lamb.

“Catrix” pushes the band into a harder setting, with sharper rhythmic accents and denser ensemble attack. “Lovers” keeps a more open contour with keyboards credited to one ‘Pie.’ The picture sleeve captures Brookes in mid-jump through a shattered glass window.

A. “Catrix” (3:02) — Hodgson, Baylis, Brookes, Bartlett
B. “Lovers” (3:27) — Baylis, Brookes, Pethers

Siam recorded “Catrix” with producer Colin Thurston, a recent Magazine and Human League soundman with earlier credits on the 1977 Bowie/Iggy Berlin albums Heroes and Lust for Life. He handled Siam in sequence with albums by Bow Wow Wow, Landscape (From the Tea-rooms of Mars…), and the self-titled debut by Duran Duran.

In 1982, VM issued Farewell Siam, a document of their 1981 live set at the Marquee in London.

A1. “I’m Alive Too”
A2. “Don’t Look Back”
A3. “Lovers”
A4. “Worlds Away”
A5. “Mind of a Child”
B1. “Daydream”
B2. “So Wrong”
B3. “Survivor”
B4. “Hello”
B5. “Phone for Contact”
B6. “The Runner”

Intro

In 1982, Brookes partnered with Scottish guitarist and songwriter Jimme O’Neill, who cut three prior albums in Fingerprintz, which moved from jagged post-punk to piquant Brit funk in their 1979–81 run. O’Neill wrote multiple songs for Lene Lovich, including her 1979 hit “Say When.” For Intro, he retained Fingerprintz drummer Bogdan Wiczling.

The Intro material placed Brookes in her most developed band setting, with hard-edged electronic songs, dramatic arrangement detail, and a colder emotional surface than the earlier records.

On March 23, 1983, Intro released “Haunted Cocktails,” an O’Neill composition backed with the Brookes number “Departures,” their first of two MCA singles.

“Haunted Cocktails” leans on a slower pulse, synth tension, and dramatic string detail, with Brookes fixed at the center of a bruised late-night arrangement. “Departures” points toward the emotional climate of the album that followed.

A. “Haunted Cocktails” (Version Longue) (7:05) — O’Neill
B1. “Haunted Mix”
B2. “Departures” — Brookes, O’Neill

In June 1983, Intro released “Lost Without Your Love,” an emotive number with fretless bass and exotic flourishes reminiscent of Tin Drum era Japan. Brookes co-wrote the b-side, “Epic,” which keeps the same stark pressure.

A. “Lost Without Your Love” — Wiczling, O’Neill
B1. “Lost Mix (Muzak Superior)”
B2. “Epic” — Brookes, O’Neill

In the “Lost Without Your Love” video, Jacqui wanders through the emptiness of the present-day Colosseum with visions of onetime matador spectacles.

Intro recorded both singles with producer Mike Hedges, a recent soundman for The Associates, Thomas Dolby, Diamond Head, and Siouxsie & The Banshees.

MCA issued “Lost Without Your Love” (b/w “Epic”) in the Netherlands on March 23, 1983 and in the UK in June 1983. In some territories, the releases appeared under Brookes’ own name in advance of her album.

Sob Stories

Jacqui Brookes released her singular album, Sob Stories, in 1984 on MCA. An extension of Intro, the album features their two prior a-sides and “Departures” along with six new originals and one Sixties cover.

Sob Stories builds its songs from tense drum programming, fretless bass, sharp guitar lines, synth undercurrents, and selective orchestral detail. Brookes holds the center with a cool, bruised vocal tone that keeps its poise even when the arrangements rise in scale. Jimme O’Neill and Bogdan Wiczling anchor tracks around the supple work of bassist Pino Palladino, whose fretless lines graced recent albms by Gary Numan and Paul Young. Intro also employ violinist Graham Preskett (Mott the Hoople, Gerry Rafferty), keyboardist Ian Kewley (Samson, Strider), and The Venomettes, a violinist duo (Anne Stephenson, Gini Ball) associated with The Glove and Marc & The Mambas.

“Lost Without Your Love” opens with immediate pressure through tense rhythm, high strings, and cutting guitar lines under a poised lead voice. “The One That Got Away” adds seaside effects, lurching bass movement, and a stronger late-song release, while “The Cold Light of Day” sets calliope and violin against a brittle rhythmic surface. “Another Place for a Dreamer” opens a lighter passage without loosening the album’s central tension, and “Trains and Boats and Planes” slows the pace through low synth weight, backing harmonies, and heightened string writing.

On side two, “Haunted Cocktails” pulls accordion, strings, and synth bass into a stark chanson-shaped setting, “Just Another” returns to fretless movement and clipped restraint, “I’m Not Ashamed” delivers the sharpest jolt of defiance, “Thin Air” drives tension upward through slurred bass and hard drum accents, and “Departures” closes in a damaged state with pizzicato violin and crashing synth percussion.

A1. “Lost Without Your Love” (3:57) — Wiczling, O’Neill
A2. “The One That Got Away” (4:27) — Wiczling, O’Neill
A3. “The Cold Light of Day” (3:44) — O’Neill
A4. “Another Place for a Dreamer” (3:45) — Brookes
A5. “Trains and Boats and Planes” (4:23) — originated as a February 1964 track by Burt Bacharach and His Orchestra & Chorus, co-written with Hal David and covered soon after by Dionne Warwick and Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas.

B1. “Haunted Cocktails” (5:16) — O’Neill
B2. “Just Another” (5:05) — Brookes, O’Neill
B3. “I’m Not Ashamed” (4:07) — Wiczling, O’Neill
B4. “Thin Air” (4:48) — O’Neill
B5. “Departures” (4:59) — Brookes, O’Neill

Jacqui Brookes recorded Sob Stories with Laurie Latham, a prior soundman for like-minded French singers (Armande Altaï, Sapho) who produced the non-Intro tracks in sequence with albums by Anthony Moore and The Stranglers (Aural Sculpture). Preskett wrote string arrangements for A3–A5 and B5. The Venomettes arranged strings on A1 and B1, and Ian Kewley arranged strings and horns on A2 and B2.

The Dutch graphics firm Cream designed the Sob Stories cover with snapshots of the singer by fashion photographer Mike Owen, who captured Brookes in yellow mesh drapery, clad in a black beret, shades, and opera gloves that, upon closer look, left impressions on her face.

MCA lifted “Trains and Boats and Planes” as a February 1984 single (b/w “Departures”). The release recast the Bacharach-David song through low electronic weight and ornate arrangement detail.

Postlude

Sob Stories remained Brookes’ only solo album. A later two-disc REVO remaster gathered the album and associated singles. She later surfaced in Australia.

In 2019, the Shox track “Lying Here” appeared on Electrical Language (Independent British Synth Pop 78-84), named after the pioneering 1978 electro-pop single by Be-Bop Deluxe. The 80-song set (four discs) also contains cuts by Fad Gadget, Fiat Lux, The Mobiles, Eddie + Sunshine, Schleimer K, Camera Obscura, Poeme Electronique, The Normal, Thomas Leer, Section 25, The Passage, Pink Industry, Freeze Frame, Eyeless In Gaza, and Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark.