mid November 2007
- Council looks to leave lasting legacy with Graceland plan
Reported by Andrew Douglas
(wmctv.com / Daily News Online & Chandler Reports, November 30, 2007)
Elvis Presley, an icon in his time and the most famous person to come out of Memphis, would no doubt be excited about future plans for his former home. New Yorker Bob Sillerman wants to make Graceland into a mega-resort like Disney World- or maybe Elvis World. To support his idea, Sillerman is pumping more than $200 million into the area around Graceland mansion.
Next week, the Memphis City Council hopes to pass a resolution showing support of the project. "Perhaps streetscape, trees, lighting, banners..that have different messages to talk about things that are Elvis like," said City Council member Tom Marshall.
Right now, the plan calls for a hotel and convention center, a walkway to the Graceland mansion, retail shops, and restaurants on more than 100 acres Sillerman's group bought from owners of properties surrounding Graceland. "I know they have been pretty fair about what they bought this property for," said Baba Makki, who leases property near Graceland. "I know the owner of this place. I think they paid him a good price."
Marshall is enthusiastic about the project. "It's going to be a rebirth of the Whitehaven area," he said. Marshall insists the City Council has studied the issue and wants to be the first to pass a resolution supporting it. Future councils will have to discuss zoning, tax abatements, and incentives, but the current crop of city leaders want to be the first on-board. "That is the greatest draw to Memphis from an international point of view, and I think it is going to be extremely exciting," Marshall said.
Exciting for Memphis and the millions of fans who visit Graceland each year. Marshall said Memphians should not expect to see the project funded by a tax hike.
- Elvis Presley Enterprises Buys 9.5 Acres in Whitehaven
(Memphis Daily News / Daily News Online & Chandler Reports, November 30, 2007)
Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. has bought two parcels totaling 9.5 acres near Graceland in Whitehaven through two transactions. The first was the purchase of 5.53 acres from Roluwa Realty Co. for $661,856. The vacant land is on the north side of Craft Road east of Masonwood Lane and west of the Graceland mansion. The second purchase was 3.98 vacant acres bought from William Rowe Carrington Jones and Lucy Lanier Carrington Jones for $476,531. The parcel is adjacent on the north to the 5.53-acrew site. ... Redevelopment plans for the Graceland acea are in the works. ...
- Judge rules Wecht's jury to remain anonymous
(phillyburbs.com / Associated Press, November 29, 2007)
A federal judge says jurors will remain anonymous at the trial of former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht. U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab isn't saying why, but defense attorneys objected, saying it's not necessary and raises constitutional issues. With an anonymous panel, names are withheld from the public and attorneys. Neither the defense or prosecution made the request.
Wecht is scheduled for trial in January on charges he used his county staff to do work for his private pathology practice. Wecht, who has consulted privately in the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and others, resigned in January after being indicted on 84 counts by a federal grand jury. Motions on the issue must be filed by Dec. 11.
- Musicians Hall of Fame honors the players behind the hits
(Buffalo News, November 29, 2007)
They helped make some of the bestloved songs in popular music with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley, but they were content to let the stars take the spotlight. But on Monday, artists including Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Peter Frampton, Amy Grant and Roger McGuinn paid tribute to some of the musicians who played behind the big names, as the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum honored its first class of inductees.
These are the players who’ve been making music for America for many years,” said Harold Bradley, a guitarist for The Nashville A-Team, an inductee who has played for Cline and Brenda Lee. “If you take us away, you won’t have anything but the voice in the song, and as great as they are, we are the setting for the diamond.”
The Hall of Fame opened last year just south of the city’s honky-tonk district. Founder Joe Chambers wanted to honor the musicians who help create some of the most memorable recordings in popular music but who often get overlooked. Inductees included The Nashville A-Team; The Funk Brothers; The Wrecking Crew; The Memphis Boys; The Tennessee Two; and The Blue Moon Boys.
The musicians played on hits for artists including The Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, George Jones, The Supremes, Frank Sinatra and others. “For just about every recording artist, they couldn’t have made it without the musicians sitting behind us,” Lee, who cohosted the event at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center with actor Creed Bratton of “The Office,” told the crowd.
Vince Gill paid tribute to Presley’s Blue Moon Boys with his version of “That’s All Right,” while Frampton honored the Funk Brothers with his performance of “Signed, Sealed and Delivered.” “The music the Funk Brothers made was a real education and it’s one I’m not done with yet,” Frampton said.
Funk Brothers drummer Uriel Jones was moved. “I’ve been choked up all day. All the great musicians up here; I’m just excited to be among them,” he said.
The Nashville A-Team consists of Bradley, Ray Edenton, Charlie McCoy, Bob Moore, Hargus “Pig” Robbins and Jerry Kennedy; Jones, Joe Messina, Eddie Willis and Bob Babbitt are The Funk Brothers; The Wrecking Crew is Billy Strange, Don Randi, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, Hal Blaine, Lyle Ritz, James Burton, Jim Horn and Mike Deasy; Bobby Emmons, Bobby Wood, Gene Chrisman, Mike Leech and Reggie Young are The Memphis Boys; The Tennessee Two is Marshall Grant and Bob Wooten, who replaced the late Luther Perkins; and Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana are the Blue Moon Boys.
The nominees are chosen by other musicians rather than industry executives, with a new class of inductees expected each year.
- Elvis bidders, it's now or never: Museum items up for auction on eBay
By Joe Scott
(Warrenton Journal, dated November 7, found November 28, 2007)
Outside, the paint is peeling and the facade needs repairs. The 16-foot wooden Elvis is worse for wear, like the real Elvis late in his career.
Rust is showing through the paint on the white 1974 Cadillac limo outside. Owner Bill Beeny says the King of rock 'n' roll once rode in the car.
The Elvis is Alive Museum could pass for the Heartbreak Hotel. Still, there's something alluring about the Wright City building that pulls passing motorists off Interstate 70 just to look. Maybe it's the same thing that causes us to sneak peeks at the tabloid headlines.
When motorists or locals do stop by, it costs them nothing to look around at things such as the FBI files on Elvis, a replica of Elvis' casket, complete with a fake Elvis mannequin, and his tomb.
He sells Elvis and '50s memorabilia along with two books he's written on why he believes Elvis is alive, including "Elvis' DNA Proves He's Alive."
The entire Elvis museum - from the rights to the Elvis DNA study to the Elvis paintings - is up for auction on eBay. Beeny said he decided after much prayer that he would sell it all to help fund a mission that would help poor and underprivileged people.
Since that decision, Beeny has given more than 50 interviews, including one with a reporter from the London Times. He's going to switch full time from the Elvis is Alive Museum to a "Jesus is Alive" mission.
Beeny maintains that Elvis is alive and well to this day. He's as convincing as any evangelist at a tent revival.
It all started with a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation into physicians giving performers prescriptions for drugs they didn't need, Beeny said. There's a static-filled tape recording in which someone who sounds like Elvis seems to be explaining to a family member why he faked his death. There's 2,900 pages of FBI files on Elvis, part of which Beeny said he gained after they became declassified.
"Most people think his title with the DEA and FBI were honorary," Beeny said. "The files show a completely different story." Beeny said Elvis took part in a sting operation on a Mafia organization based in the Caribbean called "The Fraternity," which had been [m]ilking banks and celebrities out of billions of dollars. It led to some arrests, and after that Presley began receiving death threats and feared for his life and his family members, Beeny said. "That's why he had to fake his death," Beeny said.
Beeny also said he gained access to Elvis' DNA, originally taken from liver biopsies in 1973 and 1975, as well as tissue from the man buried in Elvis' tomb. He said he got it from a prominent physician who had the biopsies and a copy of Elvis' autopsy, which had been sealed. The doctor was a friend of the pathologist who performed the autopsy, Beeny said. When they performed a DNA test, Beeny said the biopsy tissue didn't match the autopsy tissue. "The autopsy said the body buried weighed 170 pounds," Beeny said. "It's well known that at the time of his supposed death, Elvis weighed well over 250 pounds."
There is a host of other evidence he cites, including a tape recording of Elvis' voice made after his alleged death, which he plays in the museum.
But the recordings and DNA, FBI files, posters, photos and the 16-foot Elvis could be gone from Wright City as soon as Thursday, when the bidding on eBay ends. As of Tuesday evening, the bidding was at $7,500 after 36 bids, but the reserve had not been met.
Beeny said the final date for the Elvis is Alive Museum is up to whoever buys the museum exhibits - if anyone meets Beeny's reserve figure, which is being kept secret. He's giving them at least through the month of November to pick up any material they want. "If it's not sold, we'll just pack it up and put it in storage and maybe someone down the road will be interested," Beeny said.
Here's hoping that someone meets Beeny's asking price and buys the exhibits. Who knows? Maybe it will be Elvis himself. "If I get a million-dollar check, I'll know where it came from," Beeny said.
- JAY-Z TOPS ALBUM CHART
(groovevolt.com, November 26, 2007)
Jay-Z topped the Billboard 200 album chart for a 10th time after American Gangster debuted at No. 1 after selling 425,000 copies in its first week of release and, in the process, tied Elvis Presley for second place for the most No. 1 albums on the chart, second only to the Beatles, who had 19. ...
- Remarkable tribute that's fit for a King
By BARRY GORDON
(scotsman.com, November 26, 2007)
THIRTY years after his death, people are still getting All Shook Up over Elvis Presley. Or in this case, Lee "Memphis" King, whose remarkable tribute to the King of Rock and Roll earned him a standing ovation last night at The Playhouse. Granted, the Welshman is not as tall as the real Elvis, he sounds like Pierce Brosnan when he speaks, and looks more like a young Clint Eastwood than the greatest entertainer the world ever saw. Nevertheless, for those with failing eyesight, you could have sworn it was the great Pelvis himself: sneering, gyrating his hips, ad-libbing jokes, and karate-kicking his way through the Sun Records era, the '68 Comeback Special and the jumpsuited Las Vegas years.
Of the many well-known songs on show, Hound Dog attracted the most wolf-whistles of the night. Some people may require hip replacements after the boogie-down of swamp-blues classic Polk Salad Annie, and even a rendition of American Trilogy would have brought a tear to a Republican politician's eye.
It wasn't all plain sailing, however. The ten-piece backing band appeared a little stiff and lacking in animation in the early stages, and the giant screen visuals, displaying images of Elvis before the cheeseburgers took hold of him, stuttered with some annoyance. Minor griping aside, this was a high-octane show that wonderfully encapsulated all that was once great about Elvis Aaron Presley. 2500 Elvis fans inside the Playhouse can't be wrong. Can they?
- Elvis Presley Leads the Early Voting for the Greatest Rock n' Roll Artist of All-Time
(elitestv.com, November 26, 2007)
With a little over five weeks remaining to vote, Elvis Presley has an impressive lead in RockinTown.com's annual poll of the Greatest Rock n' Roll Artist of All-Time. The King leads Led Zeppelin and Evanescence, who are virtually tied for 2nd and 3rd, in the most recent tally. Last year's winner, Pearl Jam, is fourth while the 2005 winner, Nirvana, sits at 7th. Fans have until New Year's Eve to vote for their favorite artist.
"The 30th anniversary of Presley's death was this year," said RockinTown editor Mark Clinton. "Elvis has been gone a long time. So it's pretty amazing he still has a hold on a sizable audience." Led Zeppelin has consistently placed in the survey's Top 5 while Evanescence is the most current band to land in the Top 10.
Presley is the only 1950's star to make the survey's Top 50. 1960's legends The Beatles and Rolling Stones are at #12 and #22, respectively. "Whether you are talking about his '50s rock or legendary comeback, Presley's music and image obviously has enormous staying power," added Clinton.
There might also be another reason. The 1950s are seen as a peaceful and optimistic era (even though that's not entirely true). "And after the tumultuous '60s, the '70s were practically docile, or as close to the '50s as we'd ever get," said Clinton. "Elvis reached iconic status in the '70s performing sold-out shows in Vegas when he wasn't touring. So he's directly associated with two of the better decades - at least in memory. When times are uncertain, people get nostalgic."
A complete list of the Greatest Rock n' Roll Artists is available at www.rockintown.com.
- Elvis Festival: Long live the king
By Simon Usborne
(Online Recruitment, November 24, 2007)
The King has left the building for good. But thirty years after his death, the legend lives on in the unlikely surroundings of South Wales
For die-hard devotees of other legends of pop it is enough to command an exhaustive record collection and to scour obscure websites for kitsch memorabilia. But for a select band of fans who worship the blue suede shoes of the King of Rock'n'Roll, collecting just won't cut it; they must inhabit the jumpsuit, curl the lip and grow the sideburns - they must become Elvis Presley.
Even before the King's sorry demise on 16 August 1977, aged 42, in the bathroom of his Memphis mansion, there were as many as 150 Elvis impersonators, or ETAs (Elvis Tribute Artists), as they demand to be called. Thirty years on, there are more than 30,000 in the US alone. Add to that thousands-strong detachments in Asia and Europe, and fans optimistically predict that at the current rate, one in 10 people on Earth will be an ETA by 2020.
In Britain, Presley-mania thrives at convention centres and themed restaurants (ETRs?) from Greenock to Greenwich, but its unlikely centre is the flaking seaside resort of Porthcawl. Yes, Elvis has entered Glamorgan. On an autumn weekend for the past four years, the former miners' retreat has been transformed as a glittering army of 60 sequinned and coiffed ETAs strut their stuff at the Porthcawl Elvis Festival, hoping to walk away with a coveted Elvie award.
Joining the jumpsuits and medallions this year was the London-based photographer Paul Rider, best known for his work with more mainstream pop acts. For this project, Rider shot 24 ETAs beneath leaden skies on the seafront overlooking the Bristol Channel. "I loved the incongruity of the location," Rider says. "Porthcawl is one of those seaside resorts that aspires to glamour yet is so unglamorous."
For Rider, the shabby backdrop fitted with the public image of many of the ETAs as slightly sad characters. "One of the strange things about many of them is how muted their personalities are when they're not being backed by an Elvis track," he notes.
Peter Phillips, who organises the Porthcawl Festival, is quick to defend the image of his ETAs. "They come in for a lot of parody and piss-taking," he says. "There's an image of a fat guy in a dodgy wig who gets up in the British Legion on a Saturday night and belts out 'Suspicious Minds', but some of these guys are quality acts. People who saw the real thing say some of these acts are as good as Elvis."
But not all the acts at Porthcawl, where anyone can take to the stage, were as accomplished as this year's Elvies winners, Reverend Steve Caprice (Best Gospel Elvis), Paul Thorpe (Best '68 Elvis), Paul Larcombe (Best Vegas Elvis), and Ben Portsmouth (Best Gold Lamé Jacket). "Not many of them have Elvis's pharmaceutical support, so they run out of energy pretty quickly," says Rider. Indeed, Time magazine observed in 1956 that the real Elvis moved "as if he had swallowed a jackhammer".
For Phillips, who says running the festival is like "opening a door to a parallel universe", it is the very amateurishness of the tribute industry that makes it such a hit in Porthcawl, where more than 30 venues stage events during the festival weekend. "A lot of pubs deliberately aim at the amateur end of the market and that's where some of the best parties are," he says. "People come up to me, pissed out of their heads wearing dodgy wigs and jump suits, and say, 'What a great weekend, and I don't even like Elvis!' "
But what is it that drives the ETAs seen in these pictures - builders, shop assistants and social workers, as well as a handful of pros - to devote their waking hours to emulating The King? "Elvis is the most iconic entertainer of the last century," says Phillips, "you couldn't see an industry of this scale building up around Frank Sinatra or Freddie Mercury."
A fair-weather Elvis fan himself, Phillips got the chance, at a recent publicity event, to dress up as Presley. "It was almost spooky," he recalls. "When you put on that jumpsuit this strange feeling just takes you over. It's magic."
Karaoke Elvis
This is the first time that DJ, from Rhonda, has taken part in the Porthcawl Elvis Festival. "I've always been a musician, in brass bands and things like that. I started doing Elvis when I was MC at the Labour Club. It was a bad time and we didn't have money to book acts, so I got in a karaoke machine. I did a couple of Elvis songs and that was that. I've been Elvis ever since"
Karate Elvis
Johnny Elvis - "as everyone calls me" - is 41 and from Pontypridd. A self-confessed fanatic, he has attended the festival every year since it began. But though he's a keen participant, he doesn't expect to win any competitions: "I'm not the greatest singer," he admits, "but I love Elvis. I even took up karate because he did"
Welsh Elvis
Dave Smith, who is 21 and lives in Porthcawl, has performed all over Wales and northeast England, and was voted Best Welsh Elvis 2005. To do Elvis, he says, "you have to have the voice and the style but also have to try to get the charisma and the look, too. You have to get the sideburns right"
Elusive Elvis
Twenty-eight-year-old Emma is a regular participant at Elvis events, both in her hometown of Porthcawl and further afield. Beyond confirming her obvious love of the King, however, she is reluctant to give many details about herself. "Just call me Emma Elvis," she says mysteriously
Young Elvis
Matthew Fletcher, 17, lives in Barry Island and works at WH Smith. His real passion, however, is for dressing up as the young Elvis. His favourite song is "Suspicious Minds", and like many ETAs, he became a fan after watching the King's movies on TV as a child
Busker Elvis
Jerry Forrest, who is 60 and from Porthcawl, uses his costume to raise money on behalf of his local branch of the Victim Support charity. He performs mostly in clubs and old people's homes, and though he has a wide repertoire of hits, his favourite is "All Shook Up"
Maltese Elvis
Gordon, 26, travelled specially to the UK from his home in Malta for the festival with his girlfriend. "My parents dressed me up as Elvis to go to school from the age of three," he recalls. These days, he is keen to stress his respect for the King: "I'm not an impersonator," he says, "I'm a tribute artist"
Vintage Elvis
Keith Moore, a mental health support worker from Caerphilly, bought his Elvis suit for £50 from his mate Terry. "My dad was a rocker and in a band called the Alleycats," he recalls. Keith performs mostly at the hospital and for his mother and the nurses at the home where she lives
Vegas Elvis
Fourteen-year-old Darren, who has Downs Syndrome, travelled to the festival from Swansea with his mother Joan and his aunt, who also made his costume. " He saw Elvis on TV and just wanted that outfit," recalls Joan. It was Darren's second year at the festival, and his all-time favourite song is " In the Ghetto"
Reverend Elvis
Steve Caprice, the Rocking Reverend, aka Rev Steve Bull, hails from Humbleton, near Hull, where he works for UK Outreach Ministries. Voted Best Gospel Elvis, he raises money for charity as an Elvis tribute artist and also uses his music in services. Not surprisingly perhaps, his favourite song is "How Great Thou Art"
The People's Elvis
Craig Jefferson, 34, lives in Portsmouth, where he works as a host at a conference centre. Voted Porthcawl's Best Festival Elvis 2007,he has been a tribute artist for two years performing at Butlins among other venues and his favourite song is "Suspicious Minds"
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