An American Trilogy

The UK's largest Elvis tribute show

 

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Interview with Alvin, by Pete Lucas of Elvis Now!

As some people know I am personally opposed to Elvis impersonators due to the crud we, as fans, have had to endure from media, depicting Elvis fans as a bunch of frustrated artists trying to recreate an Elvis image by dressing up in jumpsuits. However, I have attended many tribute artist concerts, mainly to subdue my dislike for the 'would be' performers.

I recently attended "An American Trilogy" production in the West End and was pleasantly surprised by the tasteful tribute given to Elvis by the impersonator, Alvin, and his crew.

"An American Trilogy" production is the largest Elvis tribute show to tour the UK with a 20 piece orchestra and backing singer group. It is the usual 70's concert recreation with top quality musicians and singers and a touch of the Elvis style humour, although this is a unique style avoiding the straight, all so often repeated, Elvis monologues that cheapen any act, specifically due to their lack of inspiration.

Alvin, a big Elvis fan since the age of 12, fronts the show for free on many occasions as he wants to perform for the fans and not just to line his own pocket. His unique performance captures all the main concert years' songs in the style that Elvis himself performed them. Wearing authentic jumpsuits, the audience wowed at, as the suits changed throughout the two hour concert.

His voice is strong which is refreshing to hear.

Alvin explains, he is no novice. "I've been performing professionally since 1981 and have always included a tribute to Elvis in my shows since that time. Due to the demand from the public I have concentrated a lot more on my tribute show which has really come into it's own in the last seven or eight years".

I asked Alvin about the detail that is required to recreate an Elvis concert years show that would satisfy the avid Elvis fan. "We knew want we wanted to do, paying attention to detail would be vital and it had to be done tastefully. With respect, there are a lot of touring 'Elvis Tribute Shows' (I am talking now about the serious players) and it can not be argued that for the most part, the Elvis characters appear quite good, but personally I feel that some of these shows overlook the finer details in respect of musical arrangements. Don't get me wrong, the songs technically, are played correctly but Elvis and his band adopted their own unique style, which we in "An American Trilogy" have worked hard to recreate (a James Burton guitar lick, a chord in a defined place, a double base drum riff from Ronnie Tutt, an 'ooh' from a female backing vocalist, utilising the male backing singers for the male vocal harmony recreated by the Imperials or JD Sumner's Stamps). We all know what a great looking man Elvis was, the guy with the super cool image one moment, the crazy joker the next and, of course, a well respected performer, but first and foremost he was a musician and singer and we really wanted to do justice to his music, we believe that An American Trilogy does just that."

"I have always strived to sound like my hero, as my voice has matured with age I have worked on it to sound as much like Elvis as possible. However, your voice is always your own, it has a kind of fingerprint within it, something that is totally unique to you, Elvis had a beautiful voice with it's own original 'fingerprint' which can never be recreated by anyone, so there will always be certain words or phrases that can not be reproduced, I have listened intently and done the best I can with what I have, I think a lot of Elvis stylists make the mistake of believing Elvis had a low voice, probably because he spoke fairly low, which they then try to emulate when they sing, Elvis in fact had a 5 octave range and for the most part sang quite high, and it is that feature of his voice that I tend to centre on.

As far as the moves go, you know that Elvis moved differently in 1957, differently in the movies of the 60's and differently again in the concert years of the 70's. He was always heavily into Karate and I too have studied marshal arts and never really forgotten. I therefore have a slight advantage, but the real secret comes from watching the movies and live footage over and over. I think that you probably take quite a lot in without realising it.

I said to Alvin that, like most Elvis projects, you have come up against the raff of the Elvis Estate. He replied, "We started celebrating the music of Elvis but we named the show 'An American Trilogy - The Concert'. Well Todd Morgan of Elvis Presley Enterprises heard about it and called to warn us that we could not call the show 'An American Trilogy - The Concert' as, 'Elvis, The Concert' was touring. We then were told that we couldn't use the name 'Elvis' or the King of Rock n Roll. We decided to name the show 'An American Trilogy' which seems to be okay so far".

It's a great show and I wish you success with it.