this is elvis at darlington hippodrome 25 june 2018

I went to see 'This is Elvis' at Darlington Hippodrome on Monday, and l have to admit, it was pretty damn good, with Steven Michaels doing an excellent turn as Elvis Presley. It started with the '68 special black leather recording, and finished with a white jump suited Las Vegas performance. 

I've been to Gracelands in the past, but this is as close as l've ever got to seeing him, and much better than previous Elvis impersonators l have seen.

Despite the attendants trying to stop people taking photos etc, l also managed to film a bit, including a bit of funny banter from the audience.

Enjoy!

toodle pip

eating dangerously like elvis

 

Yum yum!
During Michael Portillo's TV programme about travelling around America by train, he stopped off in a diner somewhere for an all American breakfast, that consisted of a peanut butter, jelly (jam to us Brits) and banana sandwich. Despite much trepidation on his behalf, he tucked in, and then, to his obvious surprise, declared it to be delicious.
Knowing that this is also the kind of sandwich that helped kill off Elvis Presley, and never having had one before, l thought l'd give it a go last night.
Result - very tasty indeed, despite my Sun Pat peanut butter being more than two years out of date (although it was only opened prior to making the sandwich). Living dangerously maaaaaaan, and l'm still alive!.
However (and some might say it has already happened), it looks like it the gateway has opened to proceed down the Elvis route.
I'll have to be on my guard against my own laziness and greed, but I don't hold out much hope.

toodle pip

jimmy saville and elvis presley

This is a picture that caught me unawares.  I knew Jimmy Saville had led an interesting life, but l never knew he had met Elvis Presley.  I wonder what The King made of Mr Jim'll Fix it.  At least they both appear to be enjoying themselves (although l bet Jimmy thought of himself as the bigger star).

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elvis is alive!

Looking through some old photographs on the computer, l came across this one.  What a classic - it's as if Elvis Presley himself is still alive.  This is the Elvis impersonator that we hired when we renewed our wedding vows in Las Vegas.  He was excellent, off his head giggling crazy, and getting stuck into the ceremony like he was full of beans, probably because he was also doing lines of cocaine in his office, so he had energy to spare (although the photograph catches him looking as though he is asleep).  The thing is, because The King himself was so nutty at the end, it was better for us to have somebody like this, as it added to the Vegas Sin City and Elvis madness, which was certainly the vibe we were going for.  It's not like we were angels ourselves at the time, and all of our (touring) party went out and got wrecked pretty much every day we were there.  Happy times indeed.   I wonder if this version of Elvis is still alive?   I'll have to dig out his website and check.

toodle pip

rasta elvis

A rasta version of Elvis Presley.  Brilliant?, insane? (or both).  I'm not really sure, but l'd certainly like to see it.

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elvis and bolan

Elvis died in August 1977 and the same as now with Michael Jackson, people went out and bought Elvis albums and put them back in the charts, even though Elvis had been a joke just before his death.

The above is from a Sept 10th 1977 (my birthday!) copy of Record Mirror. Just look at those charts. Punk was just catching on, but there was a lot of Elvis because he had just died, and elsewhere, a load of crap. Christ, times were hard back in the day.

There is also Marc Bolan's thoughts on his death, from his weekly column in the same paper. Sadly, Bolan would die six days later, hitting that bastard tree in Barnes on 16th Sept (just before his 30th birthday).

Although The Marc Bolan show on TV at the time was embarrassing as far as Bolan's versions of his songs went, he had some great guests and and was looking good again, so at least he left a pretty corpse (if you ignore the damage from the crash).

The last show went out the week after his death, and the very last song was a duet with his old mucker David Bowie. Sadly, Bolan fell off the stage as they started and they could not do another take as the technicians were on a work to rule/strike at the time. The show also highlighted Bolan and Bowies different standings at the time. Bowie had come over and did a version of his new single 'Heroes' which he sang live and was fantastic. Bolan's stuff on the show was nowhere near as good. Plus when Bolan played his old songs, they were crappy versions of them. He had assembled a band that was full of great session players like Herbie Flowers, but they dressed really badly, looked like session players, and it lacked any soul or emotion. About the only decent thing they did was 'Soul of my Suit' which had extra emotional attachment to it once Bolan had died (lyrics include "l'm not such a bad boy").

In a way though, l am glad Bolan went when he was young, as he would probably have ended up like Quentin Crisp (although thinking about it, that's not too bad). Maybe l will end up like dear old Quentin myself, l'm halfway there already.

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