Hooked on Elvis ... by ... David Reynolds

We finally landed at a freezing Memphis airport in the early hours of 29 November 1976 - the best part of 24 hours after leaving London. It was my first trip to America, and I was exhausted, but immediately revitalised at the thought of the purpose of the trip - to see Elvis in Las Vegas.

The Fan Club flight had left Heathrow on time the previous day, but we already knew that it would take longer than scheduled. There was a strike at Heathrow, which meant that, after boarding our flight, we had to pop over to Paris to refuel. This turned out to be only the first delay on our flight. We had got about as far as Iceland when one of the engines developed a serious fault, so we had to turn around and go back to Paris. This time, we were kicked off the plane for several hours while they sorted out the problem. By the time we passed through immigration at Chicago, it was already past midnight local time. We then staggered onto another plane for the final leg to Memphis.

What had brought me to this point? I remember a boy at my boarding school getting into trouble for having 100 Elvis pictures under his pillow! At the time I could not understand what all the fuss was about - either his or the authorities'. The first Elvis record that made enough of an impression on me to buy it was Crying in the Chapel (1965). I had begun to succumb to the Elvis magic, but I had no inkling then that eleven years later I would be impatiently travelling to America to see Elvis perform live.

After leaving school I joined the Fan Club and the Appreciation Society and subscribed to Elvis Monthly. I read with envy of Fan Club trips, conventions and local gatherings. I later joined the Fan Club record service, which automatically supplied members with every new Elvis release from the US.

Returning in 1973 to London after four years in Scotland, I kept my eye on the capital’s cinema listings, on the lookout for Elvis films that I had missed or wanted to see again. When my local Classic put on a double “singing cowboy” bill of Charro and Roy Orbison’s 1967 film The Fastest Guitar Alive, I went every night for a week, seeing Charro twice nightly, with Fastest Guitar sandwiched in between. Ironically, Roy Orbison sang a number of songs in his film, while Elvis only sang the title song in Charro. I had certainly had enough of Roy Orbison by the end of the week.

I started regularly attending Fan Club events in the London area. This was a fantastic way to make friends with folks of a like mind, while enjoying great nights out. I then broadened my outlook by going on Fan Club trips to Europe, usually linking up with a local Fan Club over there, meeting and befriending fans from all over Europe. I really looked forward to reunions with the fans at these European jaunts.

On such a trip to Hamburg in October 1976, I was urged by friends to join them on the December trip to see Elvis in Las Vegas, for which they had already booked. At first I said I could not afford it, but then bit the bullet and said what the heck, live now, pay later.

Immediately on return to England I had to get cracking, booking time off work, sending off my application to the Travel Service, getting a US visa and some dollars - those were the days of currency exchange controls which made it a laborious process. With all this organised, I could sit back and try to relax with the mounting excitement of the imminent departure date at the end of November.

So, a mere month after one Elvis trip, I was off on another one, but a very special one this time. Arriving in Memphis severely jet-lagged, we snatched a couple of hours sleep and then set off for Graceland the same frosty morning. I have pictures of myself by the front gates, and "ringing" the front door bell, which I do not think was actually connected - in any case Elvis was apparently already in Las Vegas.

Because I had booked at the last minute I could not officially arrange to room with my Danish friend Poul - he had already been allocated another room-mate. We had to travel on our assigned coaches, but we just swapped room-mates at each hotel. This was fine until we got to Tupelo, where we were in two different hotels, on opposite sides of the freeway! My room-mate was not amused. From Tupelo we moved on to New Orleans before finally arriving in Las Vegas, anticipation building all the way.

Those who had booked the trip early had already got their tickets for the Elvis shows too. However, when we got to Vegas, all shows were sold out, so I had to beg tickets from our group. One or two fans who had block-booked the whole week were kind enough to pass on a couple of tickets to me at face value. So I saw Elvis twice in December 1976.

For the first show I was in the balcony, and did not take my camera with me as I anticipated that I would be too overcome by emotion to function as a photographer, which turned out to be spot on. Starting with the opening bars of "2001", I turned to jelly as Elvis strode onto the stage. The performance was all I had expected and more, an incredible high.

On our final night in Las Vegas I was downstairs, and I smuggled my camera in - there did not seem to be any attempt to prevent still photography, but I was not taking any chances. Also, by not using flash, I avoided drawing attention to myself, so I got a good number of shots. My favourite one is of Elvis sitting relaxed on his stool, singing Softly As I Leave You. A selection of my pictures was used in the Fan Club magazine and Elvis Monthly.

After the elation of seeing Elvis in Vegas, I just had to go and see him again. The Fan Club had been taking groups to Vegas for a number of years, giving fans the chance of seeing Elvis a number of times in one week. The decision was made for 1977 to go and see Elvis instead On Tour - fortuitously, as we then saw his last two concerts. I promptly signed up for the trip, knowing that I would be seeing Elvis again in less than six months.

June 1977 and we were off again. I had read about a new, faster Kodak colour film, which had come out in the US, but was not yet available in the UK. At the hotel in Cincinnati I asked for a photo store and was told I would find one at a "nearby" shopping mall. Americans do not describe distances in miles, they use as their measure the time it takes to get from A to B by car. So I was glibly told the mall was fifteen minutes away. When I pointed out that I had no car and would be walking, I got a funny look and was told it would probably take me half-an-hour. It actually took me nearly two hours to get there, with more funny looks from passing motorists. However, it was worth it, as I did get a supply of the new film, which I put to good use that evening at the show in the Riverfront Coliseum, and again the following day in the Indianapolis Market Square Arena.

At both venues I had front row side-block seats, in front of the stage, slightly raised and looking out across the stalls. The Colonel had come through with good tickets for us. Elvis was in excellent voice and gave his all, but looked decidedly overweight and under the weather – a worrying change over a mere six months. I took lots of pictures both evenings. I could not wait to get home and have the films developed (digital cameras were only science fiction then). When I reviewed the proofs I was particularly struck by one 36-frame film from Indianapolis of Elvis in action with his guitar - this immediately gave me the idea to turn it into a poster, which I promptly set to work on. I designed the poster using 30 of the shotsand published it three months later. Some of the other shots showed how overweight Elvis was, but the advantage of the shots with the guitar was that they helped to disguise this fact. Individual photos were again used in the Fan Club magazine and Elvis Monthly.

Reflecting on my experience of seeing Elvis those four times, especially his last two performances, made me thankful for the friends who had persuaded me to make the initial trip to America. I look back now and compare my experiences to those of another friend who had spent a lot of money on original Sun singles and other rarities, but never saw Elvis in person. I have my memories, while he has his records: which would you prefer?

First published in the UK in The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club Magazine October/November 2006 ... © DAVID REYNOLDS  2006