Green Green Grass of Hyde Park: Radio 2's Elvis Forever

Part 2: In which Moira Stewart appears, KT embodies the King, Big TJ plugs his new album, and Priscilla loves us....

And then... Moira Stewart. Sorry? Come again? MOIRA STEWART. Turns out Moira loves Elvis. Clearly she loves Chris. "Darling!" she says to him. "Everything is everyTHING!" she says to us. I had to shut Clare up with her Frank Butcher impression and avoided joining the naughtys with a chant of "Moira, Moira give us a song." Then Moira was busy loving Tony Hadley who loves Bridge Over Troubled Water. The man next to me said, emphatically, "Tony's not fat". It's true, Tony's not fat. I was there. Michael Ball however, who came on next to strut about delightedly while singing You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, opened his jacket seditiously to reveal a tummy. Just a little one. Some, not many, shouted "Off, off, off". Clare looked confused and slightly cross, "something's going wrong here". I'm inclined to agree. And then Marti Pellow came back. Chris said he was the star of the first half. It depends what you like. Everyone liked Marti's In The Ghetto. Then Scouting for Girls were back with Hound Dog and at this point I gotta say, why didn't they bring back Imelda May? Imelda's Hound Dog I would pay to see. Oh I paid to see theirs too. But Chris promised! I think we were over time and a couple of returns got cut. If one of them was KT Tunstall I'll be super cross because KT was tremendous. "She's the nuts," said Chris. I could have put it better but he's right. "Ah'right Hyde Park?!" says KT Scottishly, Quatro-attired. A Little Less Conversation even had the orchaestra's conductor, Mike Dixon, getting so groovy with his baton that he looked like he might spank her with the joy of it. Now, I like the JXL Remix, but the KT groove was just special, people. Special. I'd give her a picture but she wouldn't stand still. "Elvis was living through KT you can actually feel it!" says Chris. Amen, I shut my mouth and open up my heart.

Contactmusic.com

"Some know her best as Jenna Wade from Dallas. Some know her as Jane Spencer from the Naked Gun films. Some know her as an all round business whizz who can move and shake with the biggest and the best of them. We know her simply as Priscilla Presley". I'm sure Priscilla is used to adulation but she must have been quite surprised by the rapture (or not, she's a Scientologist after all). "Hello there, wow!" says she. The wave of people that she's talking about has grown - I guess latecomers and those floating about in the park on the last lovely evening of the year felt the call. Priscilla thinks Elvis might be a preacher if he were alive today. Priscilla is on to introduce the headline. She does so with the story of how Elvis wanted to hear the Green Green Grass of Home over and over. "Please, please, bring out Sir Tom Jones". Big Tom Jones bounces on with Run On. Run On is a traditional song, I'm not strictly sure it's gospel but happy to stand corrected. It is a fabulous song and Tom does it splendidly but can we just acknowledge it is an odd choice for Elvis Forever, unless, perchance, it happens to be on your new album, which in Tom's case is called Praise & Blame. Tom deserves another blog post and will surely get one sooner or later. In the meantime, I gotta tell you Jones the Rocker looks like a big curly-haired universal prophet. You can see his picture on Greek pots, Mayan wall-paintings, Benin bronzes, all in the British Museum. Tom loved Elvis and Elvis loved Tom. He strikes up "I've been travelling over mountains, through the valleys too". And the valleys cheer. Someone raises Y Ddraig Goch. Yay for Welsh Elvis fans. 

Tom pays tributes to his old friends, the TCB band. And then I think he's ready to go off, but the audience loves Tom and Chris suggests another song. "Tom, Tom, one more" says Chris. Tom sounds a bit shocked, "How can we do one more?" Tom chats with the boys and manages a respectable One Night ("What key? Whatever key Elvis sung it in"). My dad would say, unkindly, that Tom Jones isn't concerned with keys. It didn't sound unrehearsed, unless you count the conflation of the lyrics of both versions. The audience get the hang of it and we all sing along. We love our one night with Tom and Elvis. Chris sounds a bit sheepish. I think he might be in trouble ("he's gonna kill me afterwards").

Well where can you go from there? I think you can only go one step further. Enter the King. On the screens to the side of the stage is Elvis himself, singing the Wonder of You. Elvis in Vegas, "play the song James", and there's young James.... and young Glen... (echoes of Elvis at Wembley). And we are all singing. "I guess I'll never know the reason why you love me as you do". And you've got to wonder. When Priscilla says, "This is what a happening  is. I want you all to look around at each other, look in the back, look to the sides, and know that this is what happened in 1955, 56 57, whenever Elvis appeared." I look around, at the nine year old girl who knows all the words (including to Burnin' Love), the loved-up bikers, the four Geordies who are miles away, the ubiquitous Welsh women, the people in their stupid Elvis costumes, the good-looking rockabilly cats next to us, the bloke next to me who loved Suzi Quatro best.... Priscilla says "I want you to know that song really is for you. The Wonder of You! When he sang that song, believe me, he had all of you in mind". Priscilla gives Elvis's fans a little homage, and tells us that it was one of his dreams to perform in the UK, and that "he may not have fulfilled his dream of appearing here, but tonight he is here, with us in spirit". Someone unkindly shouts, you divorced him! (Let there be no doubt we all would have divorced him). Then we have fireworks and Elvis with Suspicious Minds (apparently a preview of Cirque de Soleil's Elvis show in Vegas which is coming here soon). Everyone comes on, KT is in a Tony and Suzi sandwich. Glitter explodes. And on the way out, everyone is pissed. There are stupid hats and a lot of hugging and bad wigs and light sabres. And you wonder what Elvis would have thought of it all. Or what he thinks of it, wherever he is. 

Thanks: Clare, BBC Radio 2
Pics: Pen77, Contactmusic.com, PA

Green Green Grass of Home (well, Hyde Park): Radio 2's Elvis Forever

Part 1: In which young men win over the audience, old men have already won them over, young women rock, Michael Ball undoes his jacket, Craig David wears aviators and Suzi Quatro zips up and unzips...

We weren't on time for Elvis Forever, Radio 2's electric-prom-fiesta-cum-tribute to the King in his 75th birthday year, but that's ok since it wasn't either. The crowd wasn't filling the arena, but there was no need for these four Geordies to set up camp quite so far from the stage. Even though the stage was the biggest outdoor stage ever built in Britain. Any minute it's going to have well over a hundred people on it. And for the next few days you lucky folk can hear them here.

The line-up was promising but I confess I wasn't at all sure it would be worth dragging long-suffering non-fan Elvisiate Clare to, but it just might have been the last Summer evening of the year, as if, I dunno, Elvis himself was shining down in his gold lame suit. 50,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong. Clare and I edged through the crowd as Scouting for Girls did a fairly faithful and perfectly respectable Blue Suede Shoes. Some of the more trad. Elvis crowd could be heard to mutter vague disapprovals of these young folk from South Ruislip. Then the personable Chris Evans, a cheeky and charming host, introduced Elvis' TCB band - Glen Hardin (piano) James Burton (guitar) Jerry Scheff (bass) Ronnie Tutt (drums), you know them, we met them before - in between eliciting Hallelujahs out of the audience. They were joined by Fran Healey, from Travis, I Can't Help Falling In Love With You. The next act, all George Clooney handsome ageing, already had a big fanbase in the crowd. Some of us still can't forgive that 18 week number one, but even Marti Pellow, reinvented as a crooner must have been taken aback at how well received his I Just Can't Help Believing was. Or maybe not given that he has the keys to the city of Memphis and an official Marti Pellow Day in Tennessee; May 9th in case you want to join in. After Marti, Imelda May. She deserves a new paragraph. And a picture. So here:

This Irish Rockabilly dude duetted with husband Darrel Higham at Elvis' actual birthday at the Ace Cafe last time Clare and I saw her, and has a new album, Psycho, out any minute. Here, with her band (including hubby) immaculately rocked out with trademark duochrome quiff, matching black and white stripes and red heels, Imelda brought some proper rock 'n' roll to the evening with My Baby Left Me. The half of the audience who had started to nod off to Marti Pellow woke up and whooped. She left a bit of a gap to fill for the sweet boy from the Guillemots, Fyfe Dangerfield, with a lot of hair and a lonely guitar. "Oh no, who's 'e?" said the fella next to me. I think you probably could quite easily make a mess of Always On My Mind - just you in front of thousands at Hyde Park - oh but he had the BBC Concert Orchaestra to back him up (which reminds me: if they were in Hyde Park being Elvisy, who was recording the Christmas edition of Songs of Praise in the Albert Hall?). Then comes a taxi driver, oh no, it's Tony Hadley. Nothing Spandau Ballety about his taxi-croony You've Lost That Loving Feeling and the Marti Pellow half of the crowd were happy again. Oh wait, who's this? Freddie Flintoff? "I just asked for a free ticket and I ended up standing here". Freddie introduced wee Jon Allen, no we didn't know either, and neither did the naughty element who chanted "Oo are ya? Oo are ya?". But the crumpled lad in his grandad's hat and cord jacket clearly meant that no one had to invite Rod Stewart. Uncanny. A whanged out Burnin' Love won over the unconvinced naughtys. I have to say the atmosphere was fabulous - good humoured Elvis lovers of all ages were very vocal. Perhaps something to do with the lax attitude to drink that the bag-checkers were operating. I suppose after you've tried to wrestle bottles of rosé from the first 50 nicely dressed 50-somethings form the shires you think you might as well let it go.

There was no mistaking the next dude. Are You Lonesome Tonight, the answer from many was, not anymore. Chris Evans, introducing the song, mentioned that Elvis recorded it because it was Colonel Tom Parker's wife's favourite. This elicited a big boo from the crowd, but it was all screaming and swaying for Craig David sporting big shiny Elvisy shades.

Elio Pace. I didn't know who Elio Pace was. Wikipedia informs me that he was born in Woking in 1968 to Italian parents. His Such A Night was fine. That's all I have to say. Then It's Now Or Never with Tony Christie. I was told to shush during this one by some older ladies. But surely not that much older. And to no avail because the other thousands of folk were singing along too. Then Tim Minchin came on. Unfortunately not to sing. He instead commented on Chris's shirt: "It's beautiful: it's Paisley, it's a shirt, it's everything a shirt should be. I agree. He introduced, autocued as it were, Nell Bryden. Nell Bryden is a trained cellist but realised after ten years at it that she was actually born to rock. She flogged a painting in the attic which happened to be worth a pretty penny and now she is on stage at Hyde Park looking rather fabulous also in Imelda May black and red and bequiffed. Her matching set has lovely big red fake flowers winding up her microphone and she has reclaimed for me the mid-life crisis song. It's much better sung by a fabulous lady. Yes, If I Can Dream, gender neutralised to "As long as I have the strength to dream..." followed by a raucous and rockin' Devil In Disguise with lovely male backing vocals. The rock 'n' roll fans woke up again.

She was followed by some a capella fellas who have apparently been the talk of Edinburgh this year, the Magnets, in all their beatbox glory. Return to Sender with a nice audience participation refrain and She's Not You.

And then Fyfe was back. Anyone he didn't win over in the first half must have found it hard to dislike his Love Me Tender. And if you were wondering whether the ubiquitous Welsh women were going to appear, it was here that one of their number shouted "Fyfe! You're gorgeous". Fyfe went down well. This time he was truly alone on stage apart from a big roady watching him dangerously. Alone? No! We were there. There were tears from the crowd and everything. He was quite pretty and looked ever so pleased with the whole of Hyde Park sweetly singing along with him. He jogged off with a big smile and a grateful wave. And entering stage left was Melanie Sykes. She of the Boddingtons. She won approval from the female crowd with her keen and slightly over-zealous description of Elvis' attractive assets. "And them eyes!" Calm down, says Chris, Priscilla's round there. "I know! She says he was better in the flesh!" Which was followed by the living legend Suzi Quatro. Who, can we say it on the BBC, is gonna kick some ass! She must have been quite pleased with the love. And she sure did rock, with the gents of the TCB band. Clad, as you'd hope, in the flesh, in leather and lace, complete with zip-up bum, the whole nicely set-off with a pink paisley guitar (which kind of matched Chris's shirt). Suzi is very little if you didn't know, but you'd hope her (un-gender reassigned) All Shook Up and Johnny B. Goode make some of the crooning retirees question their career decisions. I think Elvis would have been pleased (remember Suzi was a no-show at Graceland many moons ago). She even said "Play it James [for Suzi] one time!"

Press Association pic from the Daily Mail. It hurts but the pics are good.

Then there was a BBC interlude in which some radio 2 people had to guess the songs in the concert orchaestra's Leiber and Stoller medley. Clare got bored. I don't blame her. And then Jon Allen was back with his Rod Stewart-esque voice, gravelling a rocking Heartbreak Hotel. Clare's too young to remember Mica Paris. Mica Paris has an amazing voice and delivered a gospelly, soulful I've Lost You.

Help Me Make it Through the Night: Elvis saves the bedwetters

Today's Guardian newspaper contains an excerpt from American writer and comedian Sarah Silverman's memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, published by Faber & Faber. The book describes the trials and tribulations of a teenage (and pre-teen) bedwetter.

Writes Silverman:

On 16 August, 1977, Elvis Presley saved my life.

Poor Sarah, surprised into a sleepver at a friend's house, wakes up in her own customary warmth, but this time in her friend Heather's "way-too-sexy-for-a-six-year-old pyjamas" and sleeping bag.

I do the only thing a terrified zombie can do: I pretend it didn't happen. I get up with the other girls, take off my PJs like the other girls, and change into my clothes. They're so lucky to be able to move through life so effortlessly. I know at six how lucky they are – they probably still don't know.

Mrs Peters walks into the room, and before she can say anything, steps right on to the pile of my sexy urine-soaked pyjamas. My heart stops as I watch her face burn red like a Disney villainess.

"Who did this!?!?!" she screams, with a look of pure fury. I stand there, quietly enduring the world's youngest heart attack, wishing for my fear to somehow transport me. Am I supposed to answer? Is the onus on six-year-old me to fill this silence? And that's when it happens – Mr Peters comes in and grabs his wife, "Elvis Presley died!!!"

The news of the King's death overtook Mrs Peters, and I was spared. Somehow I got home without the other kids knowing what had happened.

In the same Guardian supplement, Enrique Iglesias invites Barack Obama, Michael Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Elvis to his dream dinner party. Peach ice cream is hard to come by so I hope he's not intent on serving it.

Help Me Make it Through the Night here.

Anyplace is Paradise: Celebrate Elvis's death day at South London Pacific

Yes, I'm advertising. But quite honestly there will be no better place in Britain to pay your respects to the King on Sunday 15th August, the day before his death-day, than South London Pacific - the finest Tiki establishment in all, er, South London (since the Blue Hawaii in Kingston closed). Every year the wondrous host prepares Elvis snacks, there will be Elvis dancing, and the closest you're going to get these last thirty something years to Big El, Black Elvis. Prepare to throw your knickers. I'll be away so if anyone wants to report, please do, and get me one of those dolls while you're at it.

South London Pacific 340 Kennington Road, London SE11 7SQ Tel: 020 8 672 5972(info) info@hulaboogie.co.uk

SUNDAY 15th August 2010   Roll up roll up for HULA BOOGIE!'s Annual ELVIS TRIBUTE NIGHT with live performance from the astounding tribute artist BLACK ELVIS PLUS Elvis & Elvis related vintage music all night to keep you on the dance floor from resident DJs the exotically glamourous MISS ALOHA         & the very REVEREND BOOGIE

PLUS FREE ELVIS SNACKS!: Authentically created from the Elvis Cookbook!   ELVIS RAFFLE: Buy a ticket an you have a chance to win all manner of Elvis related items .. as well as Blue Hawaii cocktails   and OUR STAR PRIZE: Collectable BARBIE LOVES ELVIS DOLLS

and there is more....

 

DANCE CLASSES!

 

JIVE:  7.30 - 8pm Get some moves down so you can rock n roll the night away!

HUKILAU HULA DANCE CLASS: 8PM - 8.10 join Miss Aloha's internationally sought after Hula Dance Class. (this is the only place in UK you can learn a hula dance regularly!)

 and by special request

 

HANDJIVE CLASS: 8.10 - 8.15pm - Reverend Boogie will guide you through the classic 1950s novelty dance.

 

   

MUSIC, COCKTAILS, KITSCH SNACKS,  BURLESQUE,

AND DANCING

'TIL PAST MIDNIGHT

 

 

WWW.HULABOOGIE.CO.UK

There Goes My Everything (or does it): August bits of Elvis for sale (or not)

Paddy Power gives these odds on the winning bid for Elvis' white piano with gold trim, which is to be auctioned on 14th August along with an array of other Elvis goodies:

11/4     Under $500,000
 9/4     $500,000 - $999,999
 5/2     $1,000,000 - $1,499,999
 5/1     $1,500,000 - $1,999,999
 6/1     $2,000,000 - $2,499,999
 3/1     $2,500,000 or over

Not quite what you're after? Pick yourself up a diamond ring, a Triumph TR-6 and many more bits of Elvis tat.

Doesn't tickle your fancy? How about disgraced former Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich's life-sized statue of the King in white marble, to be auctioned if he doesn't pay his bills by August 14th.

Not for you, having been withdrawn from yet another auction, are autopsy tools that were or were not used on Elvis' body at the Memphis Funeral Home. A senior embalmer apparently took home the tools and had given them up for auction by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, but following a threat of action by the funeral home, the tools have been returned. A spokesperson said that the tools had continued in use and it was not possible to verify the authenticity of these particular nick-nacks. Also in the lot was a replica of the 'John Doe' toe-tag, the original having been stolen by a fan. The tools were expected to have raised $10,000 - $14,000.

Thanks: Paul Graves-Brown
Pic: Ho/Reuters

Viva Las Vegas!

Tom & Tanya get hitched 

My friend and colleague Tom and the lovely Tanya have been immensely generous to my project by deciding to get hitched, in Las Vegas, by Elvis himself.

When I saw them on Monday night, Tanya was still unsure as to whether it would be young Elvis or Vegas Elvis who would do the deed. Tune in, tomorrow night at 9pm BST, to find out.....

http://www.702wedding.com/ 

Thanks: Tom & Tanya

Sing-a-long Viva to celebrate!  

Post-script:

You missed it? Nevermind! Watch it again here. Over and over again.


It was young Elvis in his gold jacket. Tom makes small talk with the preacher-man and then in comes the lovely bride accompanied up the aisle by the King himself. Elvis plays Love Me Tender, Tom joins in. The minister does his thing, Tanya's emotional - cryin' in the chapel - but Tommo has his blue silk hankerchief (another colleague enviously commented 'I forgot the hanky at my wedding'). Elvis sings Can't Help Falling in Love. Tanya's smiling.

They exchange rings. The kiss is one that Elvis would be proud of. They all sing Viva! Then Elvis gets the lovely couple to give his bespoke Elvisy vows:


I promise
To love you tender baby
I will never leave you with suspicious minds
I will never leave you at Heartbreak Hotel
Or any hotel.
I will never step on your Blue Suede Shoes
I will never let you have Blue Suede Shoes
For I will always be
Your hunk o' hunk o'
Burning love
Baby.


Elvis plays them out to Blue Suede Shoes. 


Ah, sweet sweet love. The lovely American trilogy are played out by Elvis to Blue Suede Shoes. Now, where can I find a pair of Blue Suede Booties? 

Follow that dream: Elvis invades the blogosphere's combined subconscious

Me and Sleep Talkin' Man face the facts....

This week, I woke up and mumbled that I'd dreamt that Elvis was dead. Then I fell asleep again. I don't remember the dream and my mumbling apparently wasn't very explanatory. I wouldn't have thought about it again had it not been for Sleep Talkin' Man. Yes, it seems that for Sleep Talkin' Man and I, the Sandman has been sprinkling a little bit of Dead Elvis into our dreams. Fortunately for Sleep Talkin' Man (an English man in the US) his wife, the wonderful Karen, records what he says during his sleep, and shares it with the rest of the world. STM (or Adam to his wife) seems to be taken over in sleep by either a foul-mouthed sociopathic narcissist, or his exaggerated anxieties. Makes great office reading if your colleagues don't mind hysteria. On July 7th, Adam mumbled,

"Elvis is dead. He is dead, I tell you! Buried and oh just a little bit smelly. Bad burger muncher."

Click here to hear.

And click here to Follow that Dream....

Thanks: Alice G

If I Can Dream (part II): El Tel off key but not as off key as England

It's the Sun what won it
Is no doubt what we would have been hearing had England been a bit more glorious in the last couple of weeks. That esteemed organ is behind the rather marvelous idea of putting the England football team's (semi-finals of Euro '96) most enigmatic, most wheeler-dealer manager, Terry Venables, in front of an orchaestra to 'croon' Big E's middle-aged-man-and-football song (see earlier post).

In the video (a one minute ad for the Sun) Big El Tel walks out of the shadows swankily clad in an Englandy grey suit. Deep in his heart, there's a trembling question.... Terry is positively beatific, because out there in the dark - he thrusts a 'go on my son' arm forward into the dark and lo! - is the Royal Philharmonic Orchaestra backing him up. And it's not just them, while he can think, while he can talk, while he can (very Dagenham) stand, while he can walk, camera pans across the choir of young female lovelies and middle-aged round-toned male lovelies, and oh, isn't that Ian Wright winking, and isn't that 'Arry Redknap chirping away? And aren't they in Wembley Stadium?

Although the Guardian website uses Tel's efforts to suggest that all singing-for-England should be put to bed, you have to hand it to Terry, he's got a lovely gravel-road voice, and who better to create positive waves with which to inspire Three Lion-ness into the likes of Rooney and Lamps? It might have been kinder to give him an easier key to belt out his final dream but we all have to suspend a bit of disbelief and have a little dream for the sake of England vs Slovenia tonight. See Terry rather charmingly learning to sing here.

Pics: The Sun
Thanks: Emma

Doncha Think It's Time?

35 hour Elvis isn't enough for Guinness   
A world record attempt at non-stop Elvis failed last Friday as the Big E in question was advised to stop singing for the good of his health. Simon Goldsmith was attempting the world record for uninterrupted Elvis songs at the White Lion pub in Ufford, Suffolk.

Simon, who sings under the name Harry Isaac Presley and describes himself as a "low-budget Elvis tribute act", planned to sing for over 43 hours, 11 minutes and 11 seconds. He stopped after 35 hours due to concerns about his wellbeing.

He was raising money for a local hospice, in memory of his father. The world record still stands, held by Thomas Gothje of Germany.

Still, a pretty good effort from a fine and funny dude, and if you'd like to sponsor him go to www.justgiving.com/elvisworldrecord.

Photos: BBC; http://www.harryisaacpresley.co.uk/

Brown Eyed Handsome Man

Elvis knows which side his bread is buttered on
So, our brief sojourn in an anarchic world where there is no settlement on who's in charge is nearly over. Yesterday, Gordon Brown announced his forthcoming resignation and it looks like the shiny faced blue one discussed in earlier posts is going to be the big man. Well, the Conservatives might have had some dodgy haggered geezer formerly of the Rolling Stones, and 'the fat one from Take That' but Gordon had Elvis.

Elvis, aka Mark Wright of Corby, Northamptonshire,  was the surprise guest at a gathering that Gordon attended to support local candidate Phil Hope, and to make a few points about the NHS. After Gordon had left the building, Elvis flew in with 'A Little Less Conversation'. As he moved on to 'The Wonder Of You', the Prime Minister came back into the hall. Sarah Brown sang along, and Gordon shook Elvis's hand.

Thanks: Emma Dwyer
Photos: Peter Macdiarmid

How Great Thou Art: The rise of the Christian Elvis

Apologies for radio silence. I am pleased to announce that Everyday Elvis has indeed been undergoing Elvisness, but without reporting. So to get back on the gravel road, I am delighted to introduce a guest post, by Elvisiate Clare, who accompanied me to see Elvis in Concert, at Wembley Arena, 27th February, 2010. 

I never thought I would be going to an Elvis concert so to go to a second one was inconceivable this time last year.

Here is my previous experience of Elvis:

1/ At around nine years-old I developed a habit of listening to my dad’s Elvis album and walking around the living room imagining I was Elvis’s girlfriend, miming the words back at him and twisting my ponytail around my fingers to titillate him.

2/ At around 14 years-old I had a party. It was very very good. My sisters bought me Hooch to escape the embarrassment of my mum’s very devious plan of saying she would supply the alcohol for the party - information I coolly passed on to the rest of the prospective guests – only to pull out of the bag 1% beer with only an hour to go before anyone arrived.

Anyway that has nothing to do with Elvis but everything to do with the difference between sisterly and motherly love.

I was not all that generous with the Hooch and Bacardi Breezers and got very drunk. I remember vaguely my sister dancing to dad’s same Elvis album with the boy I fancied. At such a young age it is hard to understand your emotions and I wasn’t sure why that made me like him more. Now I know it was because he liked Elvis and not because he fancied my sister.

3/ A few months ago Pen77 wanted to go to the Ace Café to celebrate Elvis’ birthday. I didn’t really want to go but everyone at work said I should. I’m glad I did. The fans were glamorous and the band was amazing, unbelievable. I thought I was in a film. I wanted to go home, put on some red lipstick, a fifties pony tail and mime Elvis songs to Michael the Lift. He wanted to go to sleep. He won.

That night there was a raffle to see Elvis with his original band at Wembley. I made Pen77 check her ticket. She won and she only knew because of me. I felt proud. But then I felt a sense of horror. She would invite me. I would have to go to another Elvis night and not one with young sexy people but one with old fat people.

I had underestimated how many old, fat people you could put in one place, but Wembley is a pretty large venue.

Apparently these were the more typical fans witnessed by Pen77 at conventions. Imagine a woman in her forties, the kind who thinks it is OK to wear pink furry headbands. Maybe I’m just being cruel. I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I am.

I wondered if there was something about Elvis that made women connect with him. These people were too young to have liked Elvis at the time he was famous. So did they, like me, like Elvis because their dad did? Although it was never a bonding point between me and my dad I know the feeling of clinging on to any common ground – for a period of around two years we had many many conversations about the film Donnie Brasco. I even bought the French dubbed version to impress him. He doesn’t speak French.

The concert was pretty much like any concert I’ve been to in a big venue – Elvis was on the big screen and the band played along. As I am short I normally don’t have the luxury of seeing the performer on stage so it was a relief to know I wasn’t missing out on the “experience” or “atmosphere” as the big screen was were it was at.

The band were truly talented - Elvis's Vegas and touring backing band and singers, The Sweet Inspirations, The Imperials and the TCB Band. The highlights of the night for me were when they got to do their solos. However, I was not among friends with this view. The fans weren’t interested. They just wanted more Elvis on the big screen. They couldn’t get enough of Elvis. As soon as it was the band’s turn to shine, they got up to go to the loo.

Little did I know that the shock of the night was still to come.

The song that brought the house down. The one that got their arms in the air, their banners waving. The one that got them on their feet, embracing each other in celebration of greatness. It wasn’t Hound Dog, it wasn’t Suspicious Minds. It wasn’t even I Can’t Help Falling in Love. It was How Great Thou Art.

Thanks: None of this would have been possible without Michael the Lift or Pen77

Pictures: Pen77

Suspicious Minds: David vs. David

Battle of the Elvisy poster-boys

Election time is approaching and airbrushed true blue Dave Cameron is starting to adorn billboards across the nation. You can tell he’s bad news from the fact that, given some sideburns and a quiff, he’s a bit more Gary Glitter than Elvis. The so nicely augmented billboard in question is in Hereford.  

And is it just me or is David Beckham just a little Elvisy in his Sport Relief beneficence? Let him adorn your chest by ordering here: http://shop.sportrelief.com/, or visit your local Sainsbury's or TK Maxx.

Made me wonder if Becks has consciously been Elvisy. I couldn’t find any evidence, but some folk out west have photoshopped him up nice and rock-n-rolly. No Gary Glitter there. Big Dave C's team could learn something.

Thanks: Gavin Moss

Pictures: Hereford Times, Sport Relief, http://www.freakingnews.com/David-Beckham-Elvis-Impersonator-Pictures-32143.asp

 

Elvis's 75th at the Jailhouse, Ace Café

The Ace Café was born and not made. In 1938, this archetypical motor café was built on the North Circular at the Stonebridge Park gyratory – where the North Circular meets the Harrow Road and the LMS railway. A pitstop for the new arterial road network that was transforming Britain. It was rebuilt in 1949 after the original building was bomb-damaged. Look at it, it’s a beautiful: utilitarian brick, 20^th-century transport trim, ocean-liner decorative, P&O smooth. It’s still full of hope for the future.  Its popularity as a 24-hour stop for bikers gained it a certain reputation for leather and 100mph. During the 1950s, it became a hit with leather-clad rockers showing off their wheels. It put on the rising stars of the time, of rock‘n’roll and racing. It closed in 1969, the North Circular was rerouted and the Ace became a tyre fitting shop, before Mark Wilsmore, a former frequenter of the old Ace, put into action a grand plan to restore it to its former glory. The plan worked and in the early 21^st century, the café was rebuilt from the inside out, retaining its 1949 shell, and restoring its interior – long since partitioned, concreted, and generally un-aced. The new design even featured ‘the jailhouse’, a space for live bands and their dancing fans.

The Ace Café had been a place where the cult of the teenager had flourished; where hip young things dressed like Marlon Brando (a hero of Elvis’) and listened to the new sounds that were so shocking their parents. It’s since kept that rockin’ alive. Where else should Elvis celebrate his 75^th? It was a freezing night, the snow had turned to ice and I gave up the notion of driving. Creeping round from Stonebridge Park station from the North Circular onto the old North Circular meant avoiding black ice. I met Elvisiate Clare, already propping up the long service counter where the black and white checkered staff were jumpin’ like catfish in a bowl. The clientele were fabulous: the same leather-clad rockers who had lived their teenage years belting up and down while the coin dropped in the jukebox, but mixed up with immaculately turned-out, ridiculously cool, tremendously good-looking hepcats, sportin’ fine 50s gear. DJ Bill Guntrip played Elvis’s early records and already the dancefloor was rocking.

At 10.30, a raffle took place. Clare suggested I might want to look at my ticket – something I wasn’t doing given that I didn’t know where I’d put it, and the last time I won anything was circa 1982 when I won a chicken for my dad. Eventually I found it and bizarrely, ticket number 121 (me and Elvis, we’re like that) was indeed the winner. Clare screamed and Jailhouse me went up to the Jailhouse to claim my prize. I rather incredibly have two tickets to see Elvis in Concert in February. I’m taking Clare of course.

The band, The Memphis Flashers, featuring Darrel Higham on guitar, were brilliant. Elvis, without the impersonator. Higham doesn’t try to be Elvis but he has a great voice, great energy, and is an excellent front man. Instead of getting into Elvis via a series of karaoke kindergartens, he looks and sounds like he’s made of rock’n’roll. He was occasionally joined by the very lovely leopard-printed, psychobilly quiffed, rock’n’roll voiced, Imelda May, and once or twice by members of the congregation such as one of the aforementioned (Johnny Cashesque) hepcats who grizzled out a corking Folsom Prison Blues while his companions jived away. Darrel and the Flashers were entirely about rock’n’roll and rockabilly, with proper early Elvis down to a T and the odd interloper – Johnny Burnette’s Train Kept A’ Rollin’ (a personal favourite) and Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire (least said, soonest mended) – thrown in to delight (or confuse). When the crowd called for Jailhouse Rock, Darrel sighed, Are you trying to kill me?, but got on with the job and pulled it off rather well. Jailhouse Rock is hard to pull off you know. It’s why so many ETAs stick to the late Elvis – after his voice was ruined.

Well. What a night. What a place. Super fun, super friendly. I shall definitely be returning when I’m hipper and hepper and altogether more of a cat. I advise you to do the same, especially if you have a classic sporty motor and are sporting a fine quiff (like I was).  17^th April for the Eddie Cochran tribute anyone?

Thanks: Elvisiate Clare (huge thanks), Mark Wilsmore & the Ace Cafe, Michael The Lift, James The Hair

Pictures: Pen77, http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/History.aspx, Clare

Happy Birthday to You: the King at 75

At around 4.30am on January 8^th 1935 Gladys Presley gave birth to Elvis Aron Presley, around a half hour after his stillborn brother, Jesse Garon, in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis is 75 today, Friday 8^th January 2010. At Graceland, Priscilla and Lisa Marie will be making the annual birthday declaration and cutting his birthday cake on the lawn. It's Elvis Presley Day in Memphis, and the Estate is hosting a four-day bash there which you can follow online.

Across Britain Elvis fans will be making their own celebrations: from Middlesbrough's own Niall Southall, to a bring your own party in Glamorgan with Kurt Tallon, to Blackpool's major Elvis contest. In London, the Charlotte Street Blues Bar has hired Ian Coulson as ETA for the weekend, while one of the burgeoning underground supperclubs is hosting an Elvis’s Birthday Special with a menu derived from Elvis's Southern favourites cooked by his Graceland cook. The supperclub cook quotes David Adler, author of The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley: "Coincidentally, Elvis's favorite word of endorsement was 'burnt'. 'That's burnt, man' he would say, which could indicate either a good steak or a good performance". I’ve already got started on Elvis's birthday with a similar but less advanced personal tribute with friends Cat and Chris. An apocryphal story has Elvis living off fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches for seven days so I assembled the ingredients – sliced white bread, smooth peanut butter, ripe bananas – and the delicacy was washed down with El’s favourite drink – Pepsi Cola. Although Elvis didn’t drink much, we added a tot of Jack Daniels for the toast. At least it's from Tennessee. All I can say is those seven days must have been desperate times for Elvis. Banana vom, as my friends have christened elements of this sandwich, is not nice. The bite-sized chunks make it more palatable. I'll be continuing celebrations at the Ace Cafe on the North Circular.

If you're in the US, those nice Elvis fans at the Independent (who did a magazine special last Saturday on people making a living from Elvis - hopefully to be revisited anon) have collected a few little Elvis activities for you to do this weekend, including what promises to be an awesome spectacle in Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil's compilation of Elvis toons and aerial daring Viva ELVIS which opens this weekend.

Happy Birthday Elvis, I love you, says Suzi Quatro at the end of her Radio 2 broadcast, part of the BBC's Elvis (radio and TV) Season. In Suzi Quatro's Elvis, Suzi visits Tupelo and audibly moved by Elvis’s humble beginnings, explores his Southern life, its sites, its people and Elvis's rise to fame, at the same time acknowledging her own debt to the King and putting right her 35-year-old regret at not accepting an invitation from Elvis himself (she didn't feel worthy). She ends with her new tribute single to the King, Singing With Angels.

Finally, Elvis as a living mega-star: Elvis Fantasay is one techno-geek's collection of Elvis assemblages that conjure a live Elvis into a 21^st-century mega-stadium. The marvelous birthday greeting from the crowd is seriously special. Imagine this at Anfield: http://www.youtube.com/user/elvisfantasay2010. Watch that space for a forthcoming interview with the King - his first in over 32 years.

Finally, finally, hear it here from the King himself. 

Thanks: ChrisCat (for the birthday party), Stan, and Dan.

Pictures:  Graceland lawn webcam

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4732-Celebrity-Travel-Examiner~y2009m8d14-Elvis-Presleys-birthplace-in-Tupelo-Mississippi-now-a-hot-tourist-attraction
Pen77

From a Jack to a King: Jailhouse Elvis heard in Jaxx Caff

6th January: Perhaps in honour of Elvis' 75th birthday on Friday, Kenton and Cathy chat over the background music in Jaxx Caff. Jailhouse Rock in Borchester!

The Archers is Britain's longest running soap. Daily on BBC Radio 4, farming folk converge and bore the pants off half the population while the others can't turn them off.

Merry Christmas Baby: Jailhouse Elvis found in crib

Wise men say....
Archaeologist Paul Graves-Brown, editor of the wonderful Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture, has kindly drawn my attention to his 'traditional' Elvis, posted outside the stable bare in the Graves-Brown Nativity scene. Jailhouse Elvis as Wise Man? (Incidentally, Paul adds, he would have made Elvis out of Fimo but he ran out).

Thanks & picture: Paul Graves-Brown
Merry Christmas Baby, I wish I knew the words: http://tinyurl.com/ComebackCrimboElvis

If I Get Home(ware) On Christmas Day

Vegetable Elvis: last-minute Christmas gifts for the discerning Elvis fan


Emma was looking for a last minute Christmas present for her brother and came across this fruity piece of Elvisiana. Those fancy folk at Joseph Joseph have Warholed a vegetable King for the cookin' and choppin' Elvis fan. Gettin' back to roots.

And for the lonely Elvis fan whose feet get cold in their draughty attic room (yes, that's me), what could be more warming this Christmas than a Love Me Tender hot-water bottle?

Thanks: Emma
Pictures: amazon.co.uk - click on links

If I Can Dream: Elvis as Everyman

6th December: John Bishop in Elvis Has Left the Building
Oxford North Wall

When Elvis Presley died in 1977, there were an estimated 37 Elvis impersonators in the world. By 1993, there were 48,000 Elvis impersonators, an exponential increase. Extrapolating from this, by 2010 there will be 2.5 billion Elvis impersonators. The population of the world will be 7.5 billion by 2010. Every 3rd person will be an Elvis impersonator by 2010. – Source: Caen, H., San Francisco Chronicle; October 27, 1993

Walking home on Hallowe'en night I saw an advert for John Bishop's touring stand-up show Elvis Has Left the Building. So on Sunday night, I was at the North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford for John 'Bish' Bishop. Bish is a Scouse comedian formerly Someone in Pharmeceuticals. He's been plying his new trade at Edinburgh for some time and this was his Edinburgh show. He's a chatty man and does a lot of audience interaction. A few too many jokes about porn for my liking. Unreconstructed is back I gather.

The show brings together a couple of strands - the idea of clinging to your dream and being middle-aged, through the McGuffin of Elvis at 42. Bish was presenting awards at an industry 'do' (Best Kitchen Utensils 2008 or some such) at the Dorchester Hotel in London. When his work was done he went to watch TV and drink nicked booze in his hotel room. A documentary about Elvis came on apparently citing the above statistic. One in three, says Bish, one in three, we're all Elvis.

But what hit him more was the fact that Elvis died at 42. Suddenly Bish understood why Elvis was fat. Because he was middle-aged and you get fat. And why Elvis wore jumpsuits. Because you're too old to wear fashionable gear and too young to dress like your dad. But why Elvis was still able to record with soul. When Bish shows his tour poster to his eleven-year-old son, son says 'Who's Elvis?' They don't have icons anymore, says Bish.

At the end of the show, Bish cuts footage of Elvis singing If I Can Dream, with the fulfillment of his own dream - playing centre-mid for Liverpool in a charity Reds all-stars match against a celebrity all-stars team. He gets to play in a team with Steve MacManaman, Jamie Redknapp and Peter Beardsley, take his dream shot against the goal at the Kop end, come off for Kenny Dalglish, and maybe, just maybe, impress his kids.

Reading the liner notes for From Elvis In Memphis, Elvis' 1969 home-coming come-back album ('Elvis gets soul'), I was amazed to read how the studio owner and house band, on learning that they would be recording with Elvis were underwhelmed to be working with a has-been, after all they'd just recorded Sweet Caroline with Neil Diamond. They proceeded to produce the album that contains Suspicious Minds, Rubberneckin', Long Black Limousine, In The Ghetto (if you like that kind of thing), and my own personal favourite Loved On Look. Elvis, returned to record in Memphis for the first time since the 50s.
 
Elvis as middle-aged hero - come-back kid - denigrated dad - poor second to Neil Diamond but still able to produce Suspicious Minds - Elvis as Everyman for those still dreaming.

 Picture: http://www.johnbishoponline.com/page/tour2009/

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

A Day In Hand reveal "The Tao of Elvis" and issue the Elvis Challenge (28th November)

Elvis as gay superhero. A Day In Hand is an organisation that encourages gay people (and straight sympathisers) to walk hand in hand with pride. Since homophobic attacks have seen a 14% increase in Britain since April and ‘gay’ has become a ubiquitous and seemingly acceptable term of abuse, A Day In Hand isn’t really the preaching-to-the-converted mission you might think.

This Saturday, 28th November, we are urged to listen to Elvis’s version of Joe South’s Walk A Mile In My Shoes and walk a mile hand in hand with someone of the same sex, bearing in mind the lyrics:

"Walk a mile in my shoes

Just walk a mile in my shoes

Before you abuse, criticize and accuse

Then walk a mile in my shoes"

A Day In Hand’s Tami Twarog describes her Elvis revelation:
When I drove across country to move to California I visited Graceland. Many of Elvis's favorite expressions were posted around the museum. One was “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.”

The expression stuck. I thought it is the perfect universal action towards peace. The first critical step in understanding another human being was to put yourself in their place. I bought an Elvis CD at Graceland and the song "Walk a Mile in my Shoes" escorted me for the rest of my drive across the USA.

Regarding A Day in Hand, I thought "What is the real goal?" Stop homophobia. Create understanding. We don't have to convert the LGBT community, or their friends. It's the stubborn bigots who need to come around. How do we do that? Pride parades? Maybe. That's good for us ... for visibility in the community. But will it make those who are homophobic come around? Probably not.

I once again thought of that Elvis quote. Maybe if they were to walk a mile in another man's (girl’s or trans’) shoes they would understand the plight and stigma that still permeates society today. Understand that for our gay brothers & sisters the simple act of holding hands can be a traumatic and even dangerous experience. Even to those who support the gay community, you can't really understand what it's like to live as a gay person until you walk a mile in there shoes. And so the Day in Hand Elvis challenge was born. Plus, says Tami, I love fat Elvis.

Gay Elvis is a multifaceted version. Not just sequins and tight trousers, no, but also embodying some kind of butch machismo (for some) while being the sympathetic comfort figure for others. Camp Elvis, butch Elvis, gay Elvis, lesbian Elvis. Here Elvis is a bridge to understanding, a dispenser of wisdom. More of this later.

For now, come Saturday, Walk A Mile In My Shoes!

Thanks: David Watkins and Tami Twarog of A Day In Hand, http://www.adayinhand.com/; and thanks Stan

Pictures: http://www.adayinhand.com/

Who Are You? (Who Am I?)

We are all Elvis now: 8th November

“Was Elvis Irish?” asked Mary Ellen Sweeney in web magazine BellaOnline (the Voice of Women), “With his blue-black hair and bedroom eyes, he could have passed for ‘Black Irish’ any day of the week” she continues. Sweeney cites the migration of Irish men and the difficulties of Ireland’s 20^th-century past as the reason that Elvis had such an impact on ‘yearning’ Irish hearts. I don’t think it’s just Ireland – I think that yearning is an important part of his continued success. Elvis seems to fill a hole. Elvis is comfort.

Orla meets me off the bus from Bundoran in Galway. We stop for a Guinness but I’m too hungover and have tea instead. The shop across from the pub is called Wooden Heart. It sells wooden toys. I’m starting to see Elvis everywhere. Walking down the street I see a poster for a chubby Vegas Elvis coming to Galway in late November. In the bar where we eat, Love Me Tender is playing.

In episode 4 of the first series of Father Ted, ‘The Competition’, Fathers Dougal, Ted and Jack win the annual priests’ lookalike contest as ‘the Three Ages of Elvis’ (against Father Dick Byrne’s hilariously disturbing ‘Diana Ross and two of the Supremes’). Ted says, “We are all Elvis now, that’s the problem.” Sweeney may have been writing rhetorically but Elvis genealogists answered her anyway. The Presleys seem to trace their ancestry back to Paisley in Scotland, coming to America in 1745, but then there’s some Irish, more Scots, Norman French, high-class English, Jewish and lest we forget, Cherokee. We are all Elvis now.

Thanks: Orla

Picture: homepage.eircom.net/~cubs/tedpic.htm