Paul Sayers, 47, is the branch leader of the Memphis Mafia OEPFC in Edinburgh, and is a DJ. He is married and lives in the city. He will be marking the anniversary with a few drinks with his fellow fans but will also celebrate on the club's all-day 3
0th Anniversary Event in Winchburgh on 7 October.
"I remember having fights about Elvis in the playground when I was about ten," says Paul. "I'd seen the NBC Elvis special in 1968 and was instantly hooked, but it wasn't cool to be a fan at that time. He was fat and 40 by then and all my friends were into bands like T-Rex. I always used to say to them that in 30 years' time Elvis would still be bigger than all the musicians they liked. I guess I have been proven right.
"As soon as I had my paper round I started buying all these records and posters. I now own every single album he ever released in the UK but, back then, my bedroom was like a shrine to Elvis, filled with pictures and newspaper cuttings. I had just started saving up for a trip to Memphis when I heard that he'd died. I was so angry at him for dying before I got the chance to see him play live.
"After he died I thought 'that's it, you have to find someone else to like', so I took down all my posters and started to buy other records. However, what I realised is that once you get into Elvis he becomes part of your life, so it wasn't that easy. I'd grown up with him and deep down I knew he'd always be there - after all, he left so much behind him that it's up to the fans to make the most of his legacy.
"I respect Elvis for his music and for the performer he was, but I think people lean on him for different reasons. He was the world's first big superstar and a role model to many people. He came from nothing and worked his way up, he was always good to his parents, and was one of the first men to embrace black gospel music and culture.
"He got me into music and taught me to treat other types of music with respect. I think some people look to him for inspiration and guidance. However, the reason that he is still with us today is his voice. Unlike some of the artists today, he sounded fantastic live. If you listen to his early records it's just so raw and so energetic. For that reason I think that in another 30 years time he will still be the one that everyone remembers."
• For more information on Memphis Mafia's Elvis Convention call 0131-315 2427.
My grandpa met the 'kid next door' at Prestwick Airport
IT WAS like a scene from a Hollywood movie: big-time American makes brief stopover at a small Scottish airbase on his way home. Those 90 minutes were all Elvis ever spent on British shores.
Fearing a frenzy, personnel at Prestwick's US Air Force Unit 1631 tried to keep secret the fact that "The King" was landing there. But my grandfather, Glasgow-born journalist Ian Nelson, had his sources.
"I got it early that he would definitely be coming through Prestwick," he says of his unique evening meeting on 3 March 1960.
Screaming teenagers drowned out the noise of jet engines when the plane touched down. Sergeant Elvis Presley, handsome, broad-shouldered, every bit the icon of popular youth culture, emerged from the cabin after his military service discharge in Frankfurt.
He shook hands, signed autographs, posed for pictures - then bewilderedly whispered to a lieutenant: "Where am I?" before grandpa, a staffer for the Daily Mail, based in Prestwick, swooped.
In his distinguished 66-year career, he has always typically played it down as "just another interview, just another photo", but
his good old-fashioned scoop earned him the rare distinction of being the only British journalist photographed with Elvis on British soil.
"Girls were there, shouting," he remembers. "It was about 10 o'clock. Everyone was asking for his autograph and I recall my daughter, Nicola, saying later, 'Why didn't you go and get an autograph?'"
Presley was then only 25, but already a huge global star. However, to grandpa, he was just like "the kid next door". He said: "Luckily for me, I got over 20 minutes to chat to him, one-to-one in a small lounge, while the plane was refuelling."
Asked if he would like to perform in Scotland, Elvis, in his southern drawl, told Nelson, "Ah kind of like the idea of Scotland. Ah'm going to do a European tour and it would be nice to come back here."
But no dates were fixed. The only non-US concert Elvis ever did was in Vancouver, and the only other European country he visited during his life was France.
Elvis also kept his hat on throughout the interview. Without any prompt from my grandfather, he said, "I'll keep the hat on, if you don't mind, sir. It kinda breaks the uniform, if you know what I mean."
Presley avoided questions on his teenage girlfriend Priscilla, left behind in Frankfurt, crying her eyes out, but he was polite throughout, closing with a warm handshake.
My grandfather, now 87, has just one regret: "His parting words to me when his flight was called were, 'Well, sir, it's been very nice talking to you, hope we meet again some time.'" Of course, they never did.
'We both try to keep his memory alive'
Paul and Linda Downie (47 and 46 respectively) live in Irvine, Ayrshire and are both on the committee of The Elvis Touch Scotland Club, Glasgow's branch of the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club (OEPFC) of Great Britain. Paul, a blind fitter and Linda, who works for the NHS, will be spending today at Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Paul has his Elvis record collection, but my prized possession is a rose from Elvis's coffin," says Linda. "When Elvis died, I wrote to Graceland offering my condolences. Elvis's dad, Vernon Presley, sent me a hand-written card and the rose in return. To this day I keep it hidden, because it's so precious to me. I was absolutely devastated when Elvis passed away, but joining the club that same year really helped the grieving process, so I put all my energy into it."
Saddened by the death of Elvis, it was this event which pushed Paul to sign up too.
"When Elvis died the world lost the biggest entertainer there will ever be; there will never be anyone else like him," says Paul. "He was like a big, shining star and I, like a lot of people, didn't realise how much I loved him until he had gone.
"My earliest memory of listening to Elvis was with my parents when I was ten, but it wasn't until he died - when I was 17 - that I realised just how important he was. Everyone can remember where they were the day they heard the news. There was just this huge outpouring of grief and at this time I grew into a big fan and decided to go to an organised event."
It was in 1978, on the first anniversary of Elvis's death, that Paul went to his first Elvis dance. There he met Linda . They married in 1979, walking down the aisle to I Can't Help Falling in Love.
"Elvis has always played a part of family life," says Linda. "I have been a fan since I was seven and a member of the fan club for 28 years, so it made life easier that I married another fan. Even when we had children we always attended as many gatherings as we could. We even took them [Paul, now 27, Lisa Marie, 24, and David, 20] away on Elvis holidays. Our first one was in 1981, at Camber Sands in East Sussex. We got to meet various band members and there were Elvis films, competitions and dances."
"You've got to be careful that Elvis doesn't take over your life, though, so when we had children we did take a step back from the club," says Paul. "We still made sure that we introduced them to Elvis, though, and even now they'll come along to all the dances, especially the big dance I organise at Prestwick Airport every year on Elvis's birthday. "I've had some great nights out thanks to the club. I remember running home after that first Elvis dance to borrow money from my Gran so I could join the group travelling down to a convention in Leicester on the bus that night. People in the Elvis world tend to be very friendly - it's like a big family."
"We have a lot to be thankful to Elvis for," adds Linda. "I have met many of my friends, my husband and have had my children because of him."
"Our lives are consumed by Elvis, but we've had the opportunity to meet so many interesting people," admits Paul.
"I'll always remember meeting Scotty Moore [Elvis's guitarist in the 1950s and 60s] for the first time. I asked him if he missed Elvis. He just said, 'Yeah, like hell, man.'
"That just sums it up really. I'll be meeting up with him in Memphis this week. There's something about that place which calls you back. Linda and I went for the 25th anniversary of his death and vowed we'd go back for the 30th. It's important to keep his memory alive."
'Elvis has seen me through my ups and downs'
Helen King, 55, is a member of the Memphis Mafia OEPFC in Edinburgh. A retired care worker, she lives with her husband Denny and her son John Aaron, 25. She will be spending the day quietly at home, lighting a candle in the afternoon to mark the hour he died.
"I can't put my feelings for Elvis into words, it's just a deep love," says Helen. "He has been the one to see me through all my ups and downs. Whenever I was going through a tough time, I would put on a film or one of his songs... he just does something to me that I can't explain.
"I am Elvis obsessed. I have all sorts of memorabilia, from Elvis clocks and cutlery to lamps and bronze statues of him. I even have a piece of carpet from Graceland and several Elvis tattoos, including a big one of him all down my arm. I gave my son, John Aaron, the same middle name as him and I called my youngest daughter - who's now 18 - Elouise Lisa Victoria Irene Susan, so that her names would spell out 'Elvis'.
"I always find this time of year very difficult. I dress in black for the whole week and, in the afternoon on the day he died, I light a candle for him.
"Elvis is number one in my life, which is something my ex-husband could never understand. He hated Elvis and was jealous of him, but thankfully Denny understands - it was he who took me to Memphis five years ago. I always wanted to lay a red rose on Elvis's coffin because it was his favourite flower, but they wouldn't let me take a real one on the plane so I got a silk one specially made. As soon as I got to Graceland I could tell Elvis was there - I felt this cold, tingly feeling as soon as I walked in - but to put that flower on the grave of the man I have loved for 50 years was so emotional.
"I heard that the meditation area next to the grave opened really early, so the next morning, I came back at the crack of dawn and I just sat as close to the grave as I could, speaking to him. I was begging him for a sign he could hear me, when a single leaf fluttered down from a neighbouring tree and fell on the grave. A kind groundsman let me go to the grave to retrieve it and I lay there sobbing for a while. I now am certain that he was listening, and I know we'll meet one day."
ELVIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS
THE $16,000 SANDWICH ELVIS'S love of food was well documented. He once ate $100 worth of ice-lollies in one night and, on another occasion, is said to have flown from Memphis to Denver on the spur of the moment to get a particular peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, at a cost of $16,000.
ELVIS DISLIKED SEX DESPITE his sex-symbol status, former girlfriends have claimed that Elvis didn't enjoy sex, and in later life became impotent. Two early girlfriends, Judy Spreckels and June Juanico, both say they had no sexual relationships with Presley. Ex-wife Priscilla revealed in an interview that "Elvis was committed to my purity" and said he refused to have sex with her until they were married.
ELVIS WAS A COPIN DECEMBER 1970, Elvis is said to have had a meeting with President Richard Nixon, at which he stated his desire to join the Drug Enforcement Agency. Some fans believe he was hired as an undercover agent. Six weeks before his death, pictures were published allegedly showing Elvis with his DEA badge.
The full article contains 2259 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
