Elvisly Yours Restaurants

Some good news, we have a Bank willing to finance the first "Elvisly Yours Restaurant" and we are now looking for a top Restaurant Operator. We have started negotiations with one of the leading restaurant operators in the World.  Organising such a major operation as a £3 million Restaurant takes a long time. There must be agreement with the Bank about the suitability of the Operator, then the lawyers take over finalising the terms of agreement between all parties.

Elvisly Yours is part of a consortium of six companies and we will sub-license a new company called "Elvisly Yours Restaurants Ltd" that will offer the franchise for the Restaurant to probably yet another company that will be formed for the design, development and building of the first and future Restaurants.  Once there is agreement between Elvisly Yours Restaurants Ltd, the Bank and the chosen Restaurant Operator we can then start to look for a suitable location in Central London. Depending on the chosen venue the time frame is difficult to assess because at this point it is unknown how much building work will be required. If we are lucky we may find a suitable location which requires just redesign or another location may need to be gutted and completely rebuilt. 

Hopefully, by early in the New Year we will be well on our way to realising my dream of almost 28 years and open the first of many "Elvisly Yours Restaurants", honouring Elvis. We will attract the greatest Elvis Tributes in the world and the best country, blues, gospel and rock 'n' roll artists. We hope that the world's greatest stars will want to appear at "Elvisly Yours Restaurants" to do their own tribute to Elvis. Artists who are big Elvis fans like Elton John, Paul McCartney, U2, Robbie Williams,  Bruce Springsten will all be invited to perform their tribute to Elvis. Their fees could be met through worldwide television rights and sponsorship from major companies.

 The Final Straw for Elvis Fans in America

In the good old days before the "Blue Meanies" of EPE took over the shopping centre opposite Graceland fans could buy a wide array of Elvis memorabilia. With all the stores competing with each other there was an extensive choice of Elvis products, memorabilia, books, magazines, videos, t-shirts, photographs and clothing. Then, as stores had their leases expire they were forced out of the shopping centre. But, Les Tubbs of 'Souvenirs of Elvis' built a new shopping centre next door called, 'Graceland Crossing'. EPE built a wall to prevent visitors to Graceland seeing the new shopping centre from the old...what childishness? In Britain the local council would have heavily fined the owners of such a structure and had it torn down. Graceland Crossing was the only place where independent stores could operate. When I lost to EPE in the US Courts, after 6 years of being given the runaround with so many delaying tactics, they started to flex their muscles against the private stores. I do not know the full history but sometime EPE must have bought out Graceland Crossing and now after all these years the last two remaining private stores have been given eviction notices. Carol who has run her "Memories of Elvis" store since the 1970's has lost her lease at Graceland Crossing. Apparently, Carol used to organise special events each August for "Elvis Week" in Memphis. This is the final link to the glorious Elvis past in Memphis, a place not controlled by EPE where there was some individuality, a place for the older fans to hang out and not feel intimidated on the grounds of Graceland and their stores. Also, we believe "Loose Ends", another independent store has lost their lease and it won't be renewed.

It seems the same old mistakes are being made again and again. By alienating even more Elvis fans they will just stop going to Memphis, like me and tens of thousands of other fans. EPE have destroyed all the love that was characterised by 'Elvis Week' in those early years after Elvis' death and particularly in the early 1980's. I went there from 1980-1993, 52 times in total but I have no intention to go back while Soden and his cronies continue to ruin everything that was good and decent in the Elvis World in Memphis. 

There is now an alternative...American and International Elvis fans can book their Elvis holidays in Britain, there's the Porthcawl Elvis Festival, seven Elvis theme restaurants in London alone and Elvis gigs almost every day somewhere in Britain. Just today, an Australian Fan booked their VIP tickets for the Porthcawl Elvis Festival 2005, a 25,000 mile round trip.

ELVISLY YOURS Competition Winner
 Winner of the Elvisly Yours monthly draw is Hannah Ingram of Hull, England 
and she receives a computer mouse mat and bookmark

Jasper and Penelope

Penelope, Jasper and his mother

ETA Jasper Roberts gets married to Brazilian beauty

Jasper Roberts was one of the Elvis Tribute Artists that kindly supported us on July 5th 2004 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll in London. 

He recently got married (April) to Penelope, a Brazilian beauty who is an opera and classical singer. She is also his manager but there is one problem, she wants him only to wear his hair in its natural blond.     

In Jasper's own words, "as you can see, I have gone back to my natural blonde hair, I loved my blue/black hair but Penelope didn't. So I promised her I would revert back to blonde for our wedding! She says I could perform as "The Blonde Elvis" but I'm not really sure."

There's a black Elvis, a Chinese Elvis, a Jewish Elvis, a Muslim Elvis, a Calypso Elvis so why not a Blond Elvis? After all Elvis was almost blond as a child. Perhaps a compromise could be that Jasper wears a black wig when he performs then goes home to the wife with his natural blond hair.

We wish Jasper and Penelope Roberts our congratulations  and may they be blessed with health, wealth and happiness in the years to come. May they live happily ever after....  

What beautiful grounds and setting for their wedding !

Elvis clock "Comeback" £14.95
p&p UK £2.50, Eu £5.00, Ov £7.50 

Elvis clock "50's" £14.95
p&p UK £2.50, Eu £5.00, Ov £7.50

First memories of Elvis Presley

Elvis fans who lived in Europe and had radios in the 50's invariably first heard Elvis Presley on "Radio Luxemburg". It is hard to imagine for younger fans but there were no pop radio stations, no commercial radio there was just the BBC and Radio Luxemburg. If you were very lucky you could tune into Luxemburg on your small transistor radio and hear wonderful music and something they called "rock 'n' roll". I used to go to my bedroom late on Sunday night and try to tune in and hear Radio Luxemburg Top 20 with Barry Aldiss. You could listen to other DJs like Tony Blackburn, Alan Freeman and Jimmy Saville on Luxemburg. The signal was often bad, the sound would go in and out, so you had to keep on moving the radio around to get the best reception on 208 MW. 

Suddenly there was this weird sounding name of an American singer called "Elvis Presley" who sang "Heartbreak Hotel" and for me and millions like me life was never the same again...as they say, the rest is history. You never even knew what he looked like because papers in the UK did not pick up on Elvis for some time. But, then came hit after hit after hit. We did not have a record player when Elvis became an international star but the emergence of Elvis' through rock 'n' roll encouraged my family to get a record player, a  Dansette player. Mind you there was a big battle in my house because my eldest brother was a big fan of Frank Sinatra. 

Elvis in Japan

Running Elvisly Yours since 1978 has allowed me to travel to many countries in the world. In 1994 I went to Japan for the first time to try and find a promoter to book an Elvis Museum and to look for new customers for Elvisly Yours memorabilia. The British Embassy helped me set up meetings and found me an interpreter. Japan is so expensive but I managed to get some good deals for the airfare and hotel. Eventually after many meetings I found a partner where the company was owned by a British and a Japanese man. It took 11 months of negotiations, many phone calls and faxes. One fax was 92 pages long. The Japanese are very meticulous and they had so many questions, day after day after day.

Eventually, an Agreement was drawn up to Exhibit at the very prestigious "Mitsukoshi Store". Originally, the plan was to have a nine week tour of Japan, but sadly, the earthquake in Kobe meant the Japanese had to cut the tour to just six days in Tokyo in October 1995. We shipped some items ahead but most were carried in luggage on board the JAL plane, Elvis artifacts from the Vince Everett Collection. There was Vince Everett, me and Maureen flying Business Class, paid for by the Japanese. It was a 12 hour flight and when we arrived we hit the Japanese rush hour (more like five rush hours). It took hours to get to the city from the airport and we did not finish checking in all the artifacts with the Store until very late in the evening.

Eventually we got to the hotel, checked in then went to find somewhere to eat at midnight. We found a MacDonald's and as we were leaving the Restaurant all of a sudden there were some very loud chimes coming from somewhere high up in the skyscrapers. The tune sounded familiar and in fact it was "Unchained Melody", as quick as they started the chimes then stopped. 

The Exhibition proved very successful and 18,000 people visited during the six days including the now Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi. We also met many members of the Japanese Fan Club but sadly their President Tad Akazawa did not visit the Exhibition as far as I know and although previously we were in regular communication he stopped writing and buying our memorabilia, no doubt another fan club intimidated by EPE.

When we arrived home and as we drove off from the Airport in a taxi the driver had the radio on and "Unchained Melody" was playing...the song 'Unchained Melody' was the very last song Elvis performed publicly before he died. How weird, as if Elvis Presley was sending us a message? 

Harold Loyd, some more memories of Elvis' cousin

Harold Loyd was Elvis' first cousin and actually lived with Elvis in Tupelo after he had family problems as a child. Gladys and Vernon were like surrogate parents to Harold. He was always a good friend to Elvisly Yours. 

Harold would regularly come to the hotel where our fan club stayed on tours to Memphis and meet the fans. He never asked for a dime and was just too pleased to be able to share his wonderful memories of Elvis throughout the years. 

He worked on the gates of Graceland for many years and was even on duty the night Jerry Lee Lewis came to Graceland brandishing a gun. He recounted the story of his conversation with Elvis when he had to phone to tell him of the impending problem. Apparently, when Elvis got anxious his speech would get faster and faster.

 I recall Harold telling the story and talking like Elvis did that night, having me and other Elvis fans in fits of laughter. Oh, how I wished I had recorded that cute story…all I could remember was Elvis kept saying "keep that sonofabitch out of here" numerous times  and speaking faster and faster.

In 1984 we bought Harold to Britain and he was a judge in our competition to find the Best British Elvis. We took him to Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff where we held heats for a competition to find the 'Best British Elvis'. 

He related some wonderful and some sad stories about Elvis. When Gladys died Harold said Elvis kept on trying to wake her up, saying "wake up Babe, its Elvis" then having to be led away time and again from the coffin. 

Elvis offered Harold a job at Graceland for three weeks in 1961 and he stayed until the late 1990's, until he got too ill to work. Instead of giving Harold a prestigious job greeting the fans as Elvis' cousin, like nearly all the family, he was treated abysmally His job was tearing ticket stubs outside the Trophy Room in the heat, or cold or rain and he developed a bad condition in his hands. 

Visit the Elvisly Yours website 

Elvis shoulder bag  £12.95
p&p UK £2.00, Eu £4.00, Ov £6.00
 

Elvis handbag £12.95
   p&p UK £2.00, Eu £4.00, Ov £6.00
 

Elvis shoulder bag  £12.95
p&p UK £2.00, Eu £4.00, Ov £6.00