[1] He became a disc jockey through youth club discos in his home town before he sent a successful audition tape created for him by George Wood (Judder) to his local station, BBC Radio Stoke.
[citation needed] He was recruited by BBC Radio 1, the national pop network, where he worked as a stand-in presenter before taking over the teatime show from Peter Powell in September 1984.
In April 1989, Brookes moved to the weekend breakfast show, co-hosting with Liz Kershaw, taking over from Mark Goodier.
[6] While presenting the Top 40, Brookes accidentally played the full uncensored version of "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine on 21 February 1993.
Brookes and his producer Simon Sadler were preparing a trail for the following week's show whilst the song played, so were unaware of what was going out on air.
[8] Brookes founded the corporate communications company Immedia in 2000, a provider of in-store radio stations including to HSBC, Ikea, and Topshop.
[12] Brookes was in a relationship for eight years with TV presenter Anthea Turner until the early 1990s, when she left him for fellow DJ Peter Powell.