The next big King: Elvis impersonators compete at European championships

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/04/elvis-impersonators-european-championships-birmingham

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The cab driver who took me from Birmingham International to the Metropole hotel said: "Are you one of those Elvis impersonators?" and I was offended.

Needlessly, it turned out, because when I got there, I realised I looked easily as much like Elvis as anybody else. No, that's not true – but I'm in the top 30%. A lot of people just look like men with really black hair.

Impersonating Elvis is a complicated business, it's not like being a Kate Middleton lookalike. Gestures are more important than features, the voice is more important than either, and the King himself, as I believe has been well-documented, spanned a range of dress sizes.

"For me, it's somebody who goes on stage, and for that split second you think it's Elvis. I get pins and needles all over. When someone's that good – and some of them are that good." Paul Bulmer is one of the judges. In his day job, he runs an IT company. He mentions the far-flung Elvises (Elvi?) that come to this, the European championships: there's a guy from Egypt, apparently who believes Elvis has come back from the grave and spoken to him. "What did he say?" "He told him to tour the world, as Elvis." (As they say in Call the Midwife: "He would, wouldn't he?")

But Bulmer underlines that – as a nation – we are the true contenders in this. "We're better than the Americans. Literally." I ask him what they think of his passion at work, and then realise that, as he owns the company, he probably doesn't know. "You get the usual. 'I bet that computer has made you all shook up'."

Inside the hotel, they're soundchecking in corporate surroundings of ballroom proportions. Elvises-in-waiting break into Mexican waves at the smallest provocation. There is no shortage of sequins, and the first King I meet, Emanuel Febbo, is an Italian policeman, which seems obscurely fitting. But I think Rosie, a fan, sums up what a regular person (who really liked Elvis) would make of it. "I've been an Elvis fan all my life, but I've always been a purist, I've never liked the idea of ETAs [Elvis Tribute Acts]. I just didn't realise how good they were. The calibre, the attention to detail, is excellent," she said.

Embodying her point, Ryan Reno, 21, is standing next to her with his girlfriend, Jodie. He was raised by his grandparents and has always loved Elvis. "I mostly do the 50s, when Elvis was first starting. In the 70s, his moves have slowed down a lot, but when he was younger, he was more nervous and anxious on stage. That's what I specialise in."

Jodie is smiling at him, bright red lips, hair in curlers. She says she likes Elvis too, but who knows? She might just be in it for the awesome 50s hair. This fandom is kept alive by the same thing that killed bingo – interests need young people, otherwise they die.

Ben Thompson, 19, whom everyone tips as the next big King, has been competing since he was 15. He turned professional-Elvis three months after he left school. "Doing 50s Elvis is very eye-catching to the audience, because they've seen a lot of 70s Elvises. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

There's an under-14 category too. Elias Boswell, 11, nips off to change and comes back in an original BK Enterprises Hawaiian shirt, looking probably as much like Elvis-minor as Elvis did.

There's something incredibly kind-hearted about it, a full-blooded passion for the music of your parents and grandparents, just to see them happy. Elias's parents, Sean and Rose, look glad and proud, and as they're only 37 and 35, they probably got into this to please their parents.

Your classic 70s Elvis men are characterised by a <em>carpe diem</em> outlook that only a hunk of burning enthusiasm can keep alive. Anil Vasisht is an IT consultant. After a lifetime of loving Elvis, he performed for the first time this year, in the novice category, and was hovering by the other novices, trying to figure out how it went.

"You get to a certain age where you think, I've just got to give it a go."

Jimmy E, standing nearby, is a cab driver in London, but does enough Elvising that he thinks about making a living from it. "But I'm not the youngest guy out there. I'm going to do something really brave tonight. I'm going to do GI. A lot of the older guys are all, 'you've got to be really slim for that'. But I'm going to do it."

Teresa Winston has a stall selling her own realistic oil paintings of the King. "The main thing for me is keeping his memory alive. These people put 110% into everything they do, and that's what does it."

It's true, but it also makes these contestants sound a bit lame. When actually, they are brilliant.