late September
- A whole lotta fakin' goin' on! At the Porthcawl Elvis Festival anyone can be the King for a day
By Jane Fryer
(dailymail.co.uk, September 30 2008)
The first 'Elvis' I spot is at Bridgend railway station. He's sporting a shabby black jumpsuit slashed to the waist and a matted quiff, and is standing outside the ticket office drinking Special Brew, chain-smoking and muttering obscenities into his mobile phone.
The next - sleek and dark and dapper in a crisp GI uniform - is chatting politely to a couple of pensioners in a petrol station forecourt.
Ten minutes later, as we drive into Porthcawl, they're everywhere. Thin Elvises, fat Elvises, Hawaiian Elvises, knackered-looking Elvises, swarthy Elvises, bickering Elvises . . . all hurrying along the seafront towards the Seabank Hotel and a big, wobbly-lettered sign that reads: 'Elvis is Here! September 26-28. Free Entry.'
Welcome to the Porthcawl Elvis Festival - now in its fifth year, Europe's biggest Elvis festival and, according to all involved, a key event on the international Elvis calendar.
This one-time miners' holiday resort might be light years from Memphis, Tennessee, but it's bright, sunny, the streets are buzzing and, 31 years after the King's sad demise in his bathroom, the spirit of Elvis Presley lives on.
It survives in the hundreds of performing Elvises at 30 venues around the town, the Elvis Gospel show, the Elvis movies that are screened all weekend, the Elvis open mike, the Elvis merchandise, the Elvis-style wedding blessings, the full body submerging baptisms that take place at the Happy Valley caravan site and the lamb chop sideburns sitting furrily on every other face.
But for most people it's all about the Elvies - the hard-fought awards for the best ETA (Elvis Tribute Artist), as they demand to be called.
Don't, for goodness sake, call them impersonators!
There are many categories: the Best GI Elvis, the Best Vegas Elvis, the best Gospel Elvis, the Best Young Elvis, the best Welsh Elvis, the Gold Lame Jacket Award and - the big one - the Best Festival Elvis, judged by a panel of four and taken very seriously indeed.
As festival organiser Peter Phillips puts it: 'I used to think I was a pretty keen Elvis fan until I met his lot. They're not your average fans, so it's less like a festival and more like opening a portal to a lateral universe.'
The weekend-long festivities kick off with a champagne welcome reception at the Seabank Hotel - hence the hurry along the seafront.
Within minutes the function suite is rammed with sweaty ETAs - the outfits are rather tight-fitting - and a lot of very jolly women.
'Let's have a big cheer for Elvis G . . .' shouts the compere (also dressed as Elvis).
'They call him the human dynamo - just watch him go. . .'
Thrust thrust thrust, goes his crotch. 'Whoo, whoo, whoo!' shout the women.
By 1.30pm the champagne's all gone and everyone's on lager. One by one, the different Elvises belt out the King's classics and then retire outside for a fag (they all smoke), a pint (they all seem to drink) and to discuss their hero.
It's not just about being a fan (which they all are), or collecting Elvis memorabilia (which they all have), or putting on a drawly Elvis voice when talking about him (which they all do).
For these professionals - yes, for many of them it's a full-time job - it's about actually becoming Elvis Presley for that brief moment up on stage.
'It's far more than a tribute. We dress as him, sing as him, dance as him and become a sort of conduit for him,' explains an earnest-looking Elvis in a red flouncy shirt called Dave.
'It's as if he's living all over again, through our acts.'
Elvis Presley
The crowd certainly loves it - the ladies' loos are buzzing with critical analysis.
'Oh my God! Did you see the biker Elvis? He's come all the way from Spain, or somewhere - he's a bloody dreamboat.'
'You can keep him. I fancy the GI one in that lovely uniform . . .'
There's certainly no shortage. Even before Elvis died, there were 185 Elvis impersonators worldwide.
Thirty-one years on, there are more than 200,000 and the numbers are rising.
As the Reverend Steve Caprice - winner of Best Gospel Award 2007 - puts it: 'If things carry on like this, by 2020, one in four people will be an Elvis Tribute Artist.'
All good news, of course, for this contest which, after a few teething problems with the sound system and a lot of backstage nerves, finally gets underway in the main hall of the Porthcawl Pavilion.
Antonio Capone, 51, is one of the four judges watching very intently as a big fat Elvis in a blue Hawaiian shirt belts out Suspicious Minds.
'The first thing we look for is the vocals - how good they are and how much they sound like Elvis,' he explains. 'It's no good getting up there and sounding like Matt Monroe, is it?
Then it's their outfit - how well they're dressed . . . Then stage presence. And, finally, audience participation.
If it were actually Elvis up there - which sadly it isn't - he'd get 100 points. The highest they're likely to get is in the 50s.'
And can anyone take part? 'Yep, that's the beauty of it. A lot are professionals, but some are complete amateurs. You just turn up and perform. Anyone's welcome - the question is, how good are you?'
And women? 'No problem. . .' Craig Jefferson won Best Festival Elvis last year.
'Winning is more about the glory than anything else - there isn't a big money prize here. But part of the prize is you get your own show the year after. And you get to cut your own CD.'
Of Elvis hits? 'Naturally.' For such a hard-fought competition, it's all very friendly. There's a lot of admiring of each other's outfits - particularly Steve Caprice's stretchy white get-up, hand-sewn by his wife Barbara.
'We call her "the head of the rhinestone club",' he says proudly.
'It takes me six or seven weeks to make a rhinestone jumpsuit,' she explains cheerily.
'It's more complicated than you'd think - the fabric has to stretch, so he can do all the thrusts. But it also needs to cling in all the right places. It's all quite time-consuming, but it'd cost £2,000 if he bought it new.'
And it's not just the jumpsuits.
The attention to detail's extraordinary. There's the jewellery, the ornate belts, the stacked heels and the sideburns (which must be real, if you want to be taken seriously on the ETA competitive circuit).
They've come from all over - Sweden, Germany, America, Australia.
Elvis Presley
'All shook up': Elvis impersonators try to emulate the King's thrust
Gordon Elvis, 24, who wears a gold lame jacket, is from Malta.
'He's not nervous because he believes in himself,' explains his girlfriend. 'Elvis is very big in Malta - Gordon was "Elvis of the month" in November.
He's travelled all over the world as Elvis - Cyprus, Blackpool, Porthcawl (last year he came third, so we're hoping for big things this weekend) and Ashton, near Wigan. . .'
According to Antonio Capone, we've got some serious homegrown talent in Britain.
The judge says: 'Some of ours are recognised in America as being highly talented ETAs. Though there are also a few who're tremendously deluded.'
But why Porthcawl? 'Why not?' says Peter Phillips. 'It was originally just an informal get-together that sort of grew and grew.'
Certainly, it couldn't look jollier on a bright sunny day. And the whole town mucks in. So the pensioners on the seafront are arguing over their favourite Elvis song.
And the cafes are all doing 'Elvis Special of the day' - thankfully not deepfried peanut butter sandwiches. And every pub seems to have its own event.
Even the town mayor, David Newton Williams, is a fan - tapping his foot in his mayoral finery.
Four years ago, his predecessor Phil Rixon and his wife renewed their wedding vows in a recreation of the wedding scene from the film Blue Hawaii.
Indeed, it's such a pleasant atmosphere and everyone's so friendly - if rather well-refreshed - that it's difficult to imagine any of the Elvises getting out of hand.
Although last year one was arrested for attacking staff at the temporarily renamed Heartbreak Hotel - he bit one woman on the arm.
Elvis impersonators
The great pretenders: Impersonators from all over the world descend on Porthcawl for Europe's biggest Elvis festival
And then there was poor Geraint Benney, 34 and from Aberdare, who performed his tribute act completely bald and received death threats from extreme Elvis fans who claimed he was showing disrespect to The King.
And the million-dollar question - what drives all these otherwise rather quiet men (and the occasional woman) to spend their lives emulating The King? What's the appeal?
'The lifestyle, the music, the clothes, the lifestyle . . . everything,' says one called Paul who, apart from rather short legs, does actually look very like his hero.
'There's never going to be another Elvis, so we're keeping his memory alive.'
And according to Peter Phillips, who only very occasionally dresses up as Elvis, there really is something about that jumpsuit.
'When you put it on, this strange feeling just takes you over. It's magic.'
But - and I hardly dare ask it - aren't they all just the teeniest bit mad? Or sad? 'Don't be daft,' snaps Antonio Capone.
'Think how many people go fishing - that's pretty sad.'
Also, they claim it is a surprisingly lucrative business.
'You'd be looking at maybe £450 for a quietish night midweek, and up to £7,000 for a Saturday night,' says Capone.
'There's good money to be made as an ETA - if you've got what it takes, which a lot of these guys have.'
And finally, what would Elvis himself make of it all?
'He'd be thrilled,' insists Capone. 'That's the great thing about Elvis. He bought people together with his music. He's made us one big happy family. And you wouldn't get that at a Cliff Richard convention, I tell you.'
And I can't help thinking he's right. Granted, it might be a while until I'm ready to hear another rendition of Suspicious Minds or Lonesome Tonight, but I've a sneaking suspicion I'll be back next year for the full experience.
For now, however, Elvis has left Glamorgan.
- Bid for Elvis museum turned out to be child's play
By Joel Currier, Jessica Bock
(stltoday.com, September 29 2008)
For a little while, it seemed Wright City's former Elvis museum had found a new home. But a young Elvis Presley fan apparently made a boo-boo when he clicked an important button on eBay last week, placing the winning $15,000 bid on all contents of the Elvis Is Alive museum in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Museum owner Andy Key said the boy's mother called him over the weekend to tell him the bid - the only one Key received - was a mistake. "She said her little boy had gotten on the computer or whatever and bid on it," he said. So Key said he let her out of the deal, but now finds himself in a bind. He has relisted the museum on eBay and must sell the museum before he leaves Oct. 14 for five months of military training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. The new auction ends Friday. Key dropped the minimum bid to $13,500.
"Something's got to happen pretty quick," said Key, 39, of Laurel, Miss. "There's a deadline, and the rent's got to be paid."
In November of last year, Key bought the collection on eBay for $8,300. It had been owned by Bill Beeny, a Baptist minister, who has since turned the building off Interstate 70 in Wright City into a mission for the needy. Key moved the museum to Hattiesburg, Miss., but announced last week he was selling it because is he leaving for National Guard basic training. The collection includes hundreds of photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, copies of FBI files, a drivable replica of Elvis' Cadillac, and a full-size bronze casket with a wax Elvis head attached to a fake, stuffed body.
Key said he doesn't know what he will do with the contents if he can't find a buyer.
- McDowell employee marks 50 years in the job
By Ephraim McDowell
(amnews.com, September 29 2008)
Fifty years ago, Elvis Presley joined the Army, the Hula Hoop hit the scene and Sweet 'n Low was introduced as an artificial sweetener. That same year, Harrodsburg resident Betty Brinkley began work as a staff nurse at what was then Ephraim McDowell Memorial Hospital. The hospital's name has since changed to Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, but there's one thing that hasn't changed. Brinkley still is working at the place that has been a second home to her for 50 years. ...
- Technology opens doors for Martina McBride
By Kellie B. Gormly
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 25 2008)
Country queen Martina McBride has gone into the studio with the King of Rock 'n' Roll to record Elvis Presley's famous yuletide tune, "Blue Christmas," as a duet with him.
Well, it didn't exactly happen that way. McBride, who comes to the Post-Gazette Pavilion on Friday, sang her part of the duet several decades after the late Presley did his part in the studio. But that's the brilliance of modern musical technology, which can insert McBride's powerful voice into the track, as if she were there with Elvis.
The result, "Elvis Presley Christmas Duets," will be released Oct. 14, and includes several duets sung by Elvis and contemporary country artists, including Sara Evans, Gretchen Wilson, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood. McBride says her father played "Blue Christmas" every year when she was growing up, and it's a favorite holiday song of hers.
People will love the album because "it's Elvis, first of all," McBride says.
"I just think it's neat to hear other people singing with him, his classic ... songs," McBride says. "It's just an interesting idea." ...
- The king comes to Arcade Theater
(Natchez Democrat, September 25 2008)
Having grown up watching the real Elvis Presley perform, it's sometimes difficult for me to get excited about watching someone impersonate him. After all, anybody with dark enough hair can put on a high-collared, sequin-strung white shirt and call themselves Elvis.
The King had a lot of looks; the hip-grinding, greasy-haired, edgy rocker, the fresh faced kid in the bit-too-tight army uniform, the cool, womanizing movie guy, the '68 Comeback black leather and of course, that high-collared, sequin-strung white pants suit of the 1970s.
Most Elvis impersonators I've ever seen can pull off one or two of these, but Todd C. Martin, the actor/singer coming to the Arcade Theater today, does them all - and he's impressive. Todd (what kind of name is that for an Elvis impersonator?) has been performing his "Tribute to Elvis" for 10 years. In August, the "Images of the King" Elvis competition in Memphis, Tenn., found his act so extraordinary they voted him No. 3 in the world!
He has performed to accolades in Hugh Hefner's Playboy Casino, Legends Nightclub in Memphis, and the Rhodes, Greece Hilton. Todd has even performed his high class act in Las Vegas - with The Jordanaires, Elvis' legendary vocal group.
Todd's show usually includes several costume changes, as he covers every era of Elvis' career. The show at Ferriday's Arcade Theater will cover two of those changes. ...
- Aurora woman remembered as Elvis's biggest fan
(thestar.com, September 24 2008)
Shirley Deasley was Toronto's biggest Elvis fan when she was a teenager and, thanks to the cult of celebrity that still surrounds the King, that's how she will be remembered.
She was still Shirley Harris when she sparked a 2,000-name petition that spearheaded the push that brought Elvis Presley to Maple Leaf Gardens on April 2, 1957, for his first Canadian appearance. She got to spend an hour backstage with her hero and presented him with a hand-painted banner of the signatures she gathered. When the screaming died down, she put away her 1,000 Elvis photos, resumed life as a 13-year-old, eventually married Harry Deasley, gave birth to three sons and became a grandmother to five children. Harry died three years ago after 40 years of marriage.
Only in recent years did she let her Elvis fascination out of the closet, making her an instant hero among modern-day worshippers as someone who actually met the King. Just two months before her death from cancer last week at the age of 65, she was guest of honour and a judge at the annual Elvis tribute artist contest in Collingwood, where she was regarded as an icon. "It was great watching as fans realized who Shirley was and started lining up for pictures and autographs," says Wendy King, chair of the judging committee for this year's festival. "She did a lot for Elvis and his fans and I think the Elvis world did a lot for her, too."
On Saturday, two of the tribute artists sang Elvis Gospel tunes at her funeral service in Aurora.
- Dallas Convention Center Arena may get a makeover
By DAVE LEVINTHAL
(Dallas Morning News, September 21 2008)
Elvis Presley. Frank Sinatra. Ray Charles. The Beatles. The Doors. The Grateful Dead.
They're names on a roster that reads like an American music retrospective . And they're united in all having once played the 51-year-old Dallas Convention Center Arena, a storied but increasingly obsolete facility that today is more likely to host a high school graduation than an international musical act.
But some Dallas City Council members are bent on reversing the arena's decline, suggesting that the government explore wholesale renovations that range from reconfiguring its 9,816 bolted-down seats to erecting a fixed stage suitable for large-scale performances. ...
- Movie review: Hounddog
By Lisa Schwarzbaum
(Dallas Morning News, September 16 2008)
Elvis Presley. Frank Sinatra. Ray Charles. The Beatles. The Doors. The Grateful Dead.
There's no way Hounddog ain't a greasy gumbo of a mellerdrammer (sorry for the language, that's just the effect of too much Southern Gothic cliche gettin' to me).
But Deborah Kampmeier's pulp fiction - about a country girly devoted to the music of Elvis Presley in a 1950s backwoods located somewhere near Tennessee Williamsland - might have stood a shot at being judged on its own Black Snake Moan terms had it starred some interesting, unknown girl, and not the famous young phenom Dakota Fanning.
Then again, would this arthouse goo have gotten made if Fanning's adult team hadn't agreed it was a fine idea to let their champ wiggle in her underpants?
As it is, Hounddog is destined to be described in shorthand, now and forever, as the one where Dakota Fanning Gets Raped. Even so, that violence is only a small, relatively tastefully handled episode in a drama heaped with clichés like...like a big ol' plate of grits. Here, in one swamp, is a drunk, brain-damaged Daddy (David Morse); a twisted, sin-patrolling Granny (Piper Laurie); a battered, sad, sexy lady (Robin Wright Penn), a Wise Black Man (Afemo Omilami) who teaches our heroine about the real, black man's blues music (none of this Elvis hooey); and lots of snakes. Under the circumstances, Fanning is remarkably collected and even dignified. As for the rest of the gang, they ought to be returned to sender.
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