Elvis Is Dead, Long Live The King!

Up until three years ago, Jim Brown had never sung publicly in his life. Now the 31-year-old Belfast man is one of the hottest Elvis Presley impersonators around. Calling himself "The King", Jim Brown's alter-ego is blazing a new trail in the transglobal culture of Elvis adulation. And here's the reason: he's got that edge without which originality is impossible — a new take on a very old thing.

Instead of straight Elvis covers in the Elvis persona, The King's live act and first album (rather wittily entitled Gravelands) comprises a range of cover songs, from Kurt Cobain's "Come As You Are" to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" to Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry", sung in The King's best Elvis style.

The choice of tracks on Gravelands seems totally random, but the album's title holds a clue. All the artists whose songs appear on Gravelands are dead. Was this criteria, I ask The King, not a little macabre? Or were you taking the piss?

"No," says The King, sounding a tad defensive. "From my point of view the album is genuinely a tribute, straight from the heart. I've loved Elvis Presley since I was 7 years old, since the first time I ever saw him on TV. So if anyone accuses me of taking the piss, they're wrong. I wouldn't want to do anything derogatory towards Elvis Presley."

Whew! Glad we got that cleared up. The King tells me that far from being appalled by his innovative impersonation album, die-hard Elvis fans around the world are delighted with his work. So The King is also touring Gravelands extensively, though he's found out that this has its downsides. Jim Brown is a family-man, and misses his wife and five children terribly when he's on the road.

"I would like to be established as an artist," he muses, "and still do a bit of touring, maybe once a year for three or four months, and then take the rest of the year off, and do some TV work or whatever, if I'm lucky enough to get it. If I earned enough money I'd take my kids on the road with me."

Before he became The King, Jim Brown worked as a postman and a dad. He relates how his new persona came into being.

"I was at a club about three years ago on a Sunday afternoon in Belfast, where they have a band and a bit of a sing-song and people from the audience get up and do a couple of songs. I was there with my wife, it was our local. And the next thing I heard my name being called out and my aunt, she burst out laughing, she'd went behind my back and played a little joke on me. I got up and did 'The Wonder of You' and 'Suspicious Minds' and there was a great response in the club. And afterwards the owner of the club approached me and asked would I be interested in performing regularly."

Next thing Jim found himself being signed to major label EMI, who have already commissioned his second album.

"It's just something that was done purely out of fun at first," says the amazed-sounding Jim. "And now it's snowballed — I'm flabbergasted by the whole thing."

Are you enjoying it?

"Well, I'm scared shitless. I can't eat, I can't sleep, it's nervewracking. I'm stressed out 24 hours a day. But I'm hoping Bono will hear this album and ask me to make a record. I've loved U2 for years."

"I listen to all kinds of music," continues Jim enthusiastically. "My record collection's even got Pavarotti and classical and movie soundtracks and everything. But one of my favourite records of all time is Bat Out Of Hell. It's fantastic!"

With that I say bye-bye to Belfast's Elvis, and wish him all the best.

Gravelands is out now on EMI.