SHAKE a leg, readers. Elvis is coming to Glasgow. Indeed, many Elvises are coming to Glasgow. In that sense, Elvis still lives, at least in a legacy of tribute acts based on love for the man and his music.
The Official Scottish Elvis Presley Festival celebrates the king of rock ’n’ roll with acts interpreting the great man’s performances at various stages of his career. These include Scotland’s Johnny Lee Memphis doing the On Tour era, England’s Simon Patrick covering 1969, and Germany’s Oliver Steinhoff interpreting 1970/71.
Unlike the man himself, alas, Elvis impersonation has shown remarkable longevity, clearly because the Mississippi-born singer tapped into something deep.
It was all before this writer’s time – though many of the performers look younger than do I – and consequently it’s difficult to grasp the revolutionary effect caused by a deep and tender voice combined with jungle drums and eye-popping gyrations.
Doubtless, it was all part of the post-war explosion of freedom from repressed attitudes and a desire to cut loose and enjoy life to the full. Disgraceful, really.
Youth culture was being born, and rockabilly provided the theme music for its first faltering steps. Despite his sexually provocative performance style, Elvis had a country-boy wholesomeness about him, not to mention a sense of patriotism, that must have confused the hell out of the older folks.
Then there was the fact that the tunes, as well as being catchy, dealt with important issues such as canine nihilism (You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog) and the inadequacies of the postal service (Return to Sender).
Fame brought pressures on Elvis that were overwhelming, and it is hardly surprising he succumbed to the twin evils of drugs and peanut butter.
Neither of these, we trust, will pass the lips of this weekend’s performers, who also include Juan Lozano, Chris Kelso, Mario Kombou, Matt King, Ricky Aron and Gary Gibson. Let their legs give it laldy.
The Official Scottish Elvis Presley Festival is at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Cambridge Street, Glasgow, this Friday , April 7, to Sunday, April 9.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here