The King lives on (From This Is Wiltshire)

The King lives on

3:27pm Thursday 12th August 2010 in

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THERE is more to Elvis than rhinestone encrusted jumpsuits, snakehips and a curled lip.

That’s according to Michael King and he should know – he’s been an Elvis tribute act for more than 15 years and has performed alongside The King’s original backing group, The Jordanaires.

“The show tells the life story of Elvis through music, costume and video footage,” said Michael.

“We have eight or nine costume changes and cover different periods in his life, from when he started out in the early 1950s right through to the Las Vegas years and everything in between.”

Michael found out his voice sounded like Elvis’s while he was performing as a singer.

“I’ve always been into rock ‘n’ roll and was a rock ‘n’ roll singer,” he said.

“I performed an Elvis song and someone pointed out that my voice sounded a little bit like his and so I decided to work on it and train my voice to sound even more like Elvis and here am I.”

Michael said American fans seemed to take to the British Elvis tribute artists well – he was awarded the Las Vegas Elvis Icon award while performing in the casino city.

“It was quite surreal being out there, if you’ve been to Vegas yourself you know that it is totally different to anywhere else in the world,” he said.

“To play in the same place as Elvis did was incredible. That was something very special and is one of the highlights of my career.”

For the show the singer, who also organises the annual European Elvis Championships convention in Birmingham, will be joined by fellow Elvis tribute act Steve Halliday.

And Michael believes that fans of Elvis will love the show.

“It’s the closest you will get to seeing Elvis on stage. We try to recreate everything so it is as similar as possible to how it would have been back then and we do it with respect,” said Michael.

“I always say that if you’re an Elvis fan then no explaination is required and if you’re not a fan then no explanation is possible.”

For more information log on to www.elvismichaelking.com or www.stevehalliday.co.uk