Elvis Lives!

Today is the 30th anniversay of Elvis Presley's death on a toilet in Memphis. This is not a fact I am particularly facinated by & to be honest, this time last week, that is not a fact that I would have been able to quote to you...

Since being rudely awoken by the morning blast of BBC Essex on the radio alarm, it has become a fact that I have been disappoinginly unable to avoid for the remainder of the day.

All morning, between (sadly, (although ironically pleasingly) inaccurate), reports of road closures at junction 19 of the southbound A12, I have been subjected to a parade of sad uninteresting individuals (the special type who feel the need to ring their local BBC radio station on such occasions) telling the county where they were when they heard the tragic news all those years ago. Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the media 30 years ago, the majority were able to enlighten me with the fact that `I was watching News at Ten' or `I was listening to the news on the Radio...' or `I was reading the newspaper', although one caller did enthral me with the story about missing the news altogether due to being on holiday in Spain.

I'm not a devout fan of `The King' but the blanket coverage has got me thinking of my own memories...

...I do enjoy the odd listen to an Elvis song, & earlier in the year, on one of our fairly regular weekenders to the `home of lovely beer' (Bury St Edmunds) with my long (well medium) suffering partner, I was drawn to the duke box in one of the local pubs. Me & The Missus were playing Pool in one side of the pub (The Dove) & I proceded to select an eclectic choice, based mainly on `stuff I don't actually hate' whilst The Missus was in the Ladies. One of my choices was `Always on my Mind' & we both laughed out loud when, the song came on, the chorus was reached & all of a sudden, the dozen or so locals in the other bar all joined in with the tag line. OK, its not a hugely exciting story, but I'm sure, had I the time or inclination, that I could have held the county in raptures should I have chosen to ring the radio station... I guess you had to be there. I may even have won a mug.

Whilst I don't know where I was when Elvis died (I was six, it was the summer holidays, there were more important things to worry about), I can tell you where I was when I watched my first Elivis impersonator. It was the Kings Arms, 26/3/05. Why am I so clear on that? It was the evening of the first episode of the newly relaunched Dr Who. Being unable to explain the importance of this to my (at that stage fairly new & therefore still trying to impress) partner, I agreed to record the programme & go on a night out to a nearby village (now our joint home) We left the house just after the programme started & to my Partner's increasing annoyance, the text messages started arriving immediately - was I watching, What did I think of it etc. I replied as fast as I could but once we had arrived & settled in the first pub of the evening I felt I should show a little more attention to my partner & a little less to the mobile. Also at this stage, `Wesley Presley' began his act - a `kareoke' Elivis singer & I felt reluctant to be texting in case it interfered with his radio mike! A very young chap, with the trademark sideburns & dressed in the early era black leather jacket, `Wesley' worked incredibly hard, setting up & monitoring all of the equipment himself. I've seen him once since at another local pub charity day & to be honest, would go out of my way to watch him again - if you see him advertised at your local, give him the time of day!

Anyway, the evening got me to thinking about how we associate certain things with certain people - Nick Hornby said in his book `Fever Pitch' that football had the capacity to make all the people who knew him think of him at certain times. I've asked friends since & its true. I know for a fact that pretty much every one that knows me thought of me when they heard the Ipswich result when we lost 9.0 to Man Utd some years ago & similarly when we beat Norwich 5.0 in a grudge local derby. The modern phenomena of text makes that all so much more evident & went some way to convincing my partner that I couldn't be as sad as all that if so many people were thinking of me all at once!

It's a weird feeling when you stop & wonder about it, to think that a single trigger can get all the people you know thinking of you like that. Makes me feel good anyway :o)

Always on my mind...