Interview by Andrew Marc
Lee ‘Memphis’ King performing on stage
“In a hundred years they’ll still be listening to his songs.”
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley. That name, perhaps more than any other in musical genre, invokes instant sound and imagery in your mind – of a man that helped define 50s American culture, re-imagined musical styles, fusing gospel, country and R&B; spearheading the fast emerging rock and roll movement that so embodied the USA in that period. He created a distinct powerful sound and persona that remains highly iconic today.
Nearly everyone loves at least one Elvis tune out of his astonishing repertoire of 700 songs recorded over his 23 year professional life. His fascinating and varied career, dramatically waxing and waning for periods in the 60s and 70s, earned him gold, platinum and multiplatinum awards for 140 different albums and singles – his total global sales are over a billion. He won 3 Grammy awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award, somewhat pre-emptively, at the age of 36. His flair, style, charm and delivery was unique, infectious and memorable.
Since his untimely death in 1977 his legacy continues undiminished, and whilst there are many pretenders to his ‘throne’, a myriad imitators, kooks & caricatures throughout the world (around 85,000), there are some genuinely talented and dedicated tribute acts about. One of them is Lee King (real name Roy Evans) from the UK. He’s been performing professionally as Elvis since 2005 to great acclaim, touring Europe with his accomplished backing band.
World Champion
“There’s something about him – the voice, his songs, the way he looks, his presence – just everything …”
Lee Memphis King is recognised as Europe’s most successful Elvis Presley tribute artist and also managed to win a best Elvis Tribute in The World accolade to boot, not an easy thing. His real name is Roy Evans, and he was born in Wrexham Wales. His Elvis idolisation began very young and the fascination never let up. Lee now tours to sell out crowds around the world. He admits that at his first public appearance as Elvis in 1998 he was “absolutely terrified”, but he carried on performing and went on to win numerous awards – first in 2005 for “Best Elvis Tribute in the World” at the Collingwood Elvis Festival in Canada, then “Best Vegas Elvis” 2008, South Wales and most recently “World Champion” at the Elvis World Cup in Wales, UK July 4th 2010.
Lee claims he first got hooked on Elvis at the tender age of five, when watching his film Roustabout on TV. Such was the impression, that he started mimicking ‘The King’, matching the moves, honing his voice, learning the lyrics. ‘There’s something about him – the voice, his songs, the way he looks, his presence – just everything really. Any time I could sing and there was no-one around, I would do so.’
I ventured to Lee that this sounded quite obsessional. ‘Yeah, it was an obsession. I had this obsession to perfect his voice from that moment on really, and I also wanted to go on stage and show off. All from that age. Even today its quite obsessive – if you listen to any song that Elvis did it sounds different in every song.’
It wasn’t until 2005, and the winning of the world Elvis tribute act championship that provided Lee with enough credibility and exposure to start touring. Though he had been performing since the late 90s, he found getting to the stage proper was not easy. It was very much a closed shop, he told me – and as a virtual unknown no-one was booking him. ‘It’s very difficult. It’s almost like a club, and no-one allows you in. Promoters don’t want to know, agents don’t want to know, and theatres definitely don’t want to know.’
With the proliferation of the internet in the early 2000s, agents and promoters became more accessible. Lee persisted – a “continuous searching”, and eventually had his break. One of the agents was looking for an Elvis show, he was available, and was booked on the back of his 2005 award … and hasn’t looked back since.
Being Elvis
“I’m basically showing off because I can do it.”
‘Each song that he did was different, it’s a lifetime’s work to try and get it right. My goal is to be him in every way when I’m doing a song – mentally and physically if I can. That’s my goal. I’m very lucky really in that I’ve got a similar range to Elvis. I haven’t got his full range, but I’ve got a similar range. I can do the higher voice early songs and I can go deeper for the later stuff … I’m basically showing off because I can do it … I just enjoy doing it.’
After so many years of intense impersonation and obsessional observance of Elvis, Lee is remarkably level headed about his career, whereas many other Elvis tribute acts are clearly not – many end up thinking they are Elvis.
‘I compare myself to an actor – you know, he gets into the part then afterwards that’s it. Go back to being yourself. I find it very easy to switch on when I go on the stage and then switch off when I come off.’
Elvis ‘ stage persona was partly exemplified by his flamboyant and extrovert signature costumes, vital to get right in any decent tribute act. They don’t come cheap – upwards of $1,000 dollars each. Lee has them personally made by B&K Enterprises in America, a bespoke clothing company which own the original patterns and copyright. The real hair wigs aren’t a snip either, each one (lasting around a year) costs $1,500.
The 2013 Elvis Tour
Lee has put together a highly talented backing band : Jill Schoonjans (vocals), John Pettifer (lead Guitar), Stephen Price (keyboard) and the Brass Monkeys (horn section) with many years experience between them.
We can expect, in his own words : ‘I would hope that people would leave thinking “that’s really, really authentic, Elvis and the band”. I want people to not only hear the voice but also the feeling – my interpretation because I’ve studied him so much.
‘You can only hope that you can understand what was going on and interpret it so I try to put that across as well as the voice and the movement, and get the attitude across as well. So it’s those really important areas that I try to put across and if people have got it then, yeah, that’ll make my day.’
Having seen him perform, I’m sure it will make your day too. He really is an exceptional talent.