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Cyber Club |
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Newsletter 33 |
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sid@elvisly-yours.com |
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November 2005 |
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www.elvisly-yours.com |
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ORDER NOW FOR
XMAS
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Get your friends to join the Elvisly
Yours Cyber Club
and please
forward this Newsletter to your
family and
friends
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ORDER NOW FOR XMAS
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Just when you thought it couldn't get any
worse
after the official "Elvis Duck".....
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'Official' EPE Elvis Mask
(ugh-hhhhhhhhh!)
Elvis holding panties
on stage
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I rarely look at the website of EPE but I was checking on
jumpsuits for a tribute Artist who wanted a genuine replica
suit and by chance came across jumpsuits being sold by
EPE.
Yes, EPE are now in the tacky jumpsuit business (see COSTUMES)
but it gets a lot worse. They are now selling through their
official EPE website Elvis rubber masks !!!
This is the same company that claims to protect the name,
image and likeness of EPE and with whom I was in litigation
for 15 years and still being the subject of aggravation from
them.
I showed this awful Elvis mask to my next door neighbour
Howard Cohen of the London Beatles Store and he said if any
company had produced a mask of John Lennon, Yoko Ono would
have sued them immediately . What do they think they are
doing at EPE? I looked at more of their Elvis products and
came across their apparel range...
I was sued by EPE in the USA in 1985 for selling Elvis
ladies knickers, "Are You Lonesome Tonight, "It's Now or
Never" and "Love Me Tender" (called 'panties' in the US).
During the many Court hearings in America over and over
again I was harangued by the lawyers acting for EPE for
demeaning Elvis' memory by marketing Elvis ladies
underwear.
I got the idea of marketing Elvis knickers from the
Beatles Museum in Liverpool whose best line was Beatles
knickers in the mid-1980's and the Beatles never
complained. Of course, almost every show Elvis had
panties thrown on stage. He usually picked them up and
continued to sing holding them, as if it was part of the
show.
Now, 20 years after EPE sued me in US Federal Court, they
are marketing, "Love Me Tender" boxer shorts. Is EPE being
sexist marketing Elvis men's underwear while suing me
for marketing Elvis ladies underwear?
Why are
men allowed to have Elvis underwear but not women? I even
have a sworn affidavit from Colonel Parker stating he nor
Elvis would have allowed such a product, even though
unbeknown to me until more recently, Colonel Parker and
Elvis actually licensed Elvis panties in 1956 (see "Going
Down Memory Lane" below ).
Elvis rubber ducks, Elvis rubber masks...what wonderful
new Elvis products will EPE be marketing around the world,
next ?
The rubber Elvis mask is an insult to the memory of Elvis
Presley and finding the "official" Elvis Presley website is
marketing such a product is a disgrace.
I hope fans around the world will show their disgust
regarding this latest insult to our Elvis by Elvis Presley
Enterprises Inc. |
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Official EPE Elvis
men's underwear
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Special FTD
CD'S ONLY $20.00!!
Carol's
Memories of Elvis
SACK JACK & HIT THE
ROAD
badges available
from
Elvisly Yours
4 badges £3.95 plus
£1.00 p&p (order box)
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Carol's
Memories of Elvis
The final closing down sale is on at
'Carol's Memories of Elvis' at Graceland Crossing in
Memphis.
To quote Carol from her
website:
At this time we are offering to you
our merchandise at reduced prices. We will most
likely sell our remaining line to wholesalers or to
other retailers. We want to give you the
opportunity to purchase for yourselves the merchandise
we have so enjoyed offering you in the past.
Many of the items are exclusive to our store and will
not be offered by anyone else in the
future.
Visit Carol's website by clicking on the
link above.
Carol has had a shop opposite Graceland
for 27 years, well before Jack Soden drove into town,
in apparently an old Honda, to take over
EPE.
Now Carol is being driven out by Soden
while he is still employed by EPE even though the
company was $25 million in debt when it was sold by
Lisa to Bob Sillerman.
Why, oh why is Soden keeping his
job after such disastrous trading while Carol and also
Lisa of "Loose Ends" are being evicted?
The closing day for the last two
independent shops of Carol and Lisa is November 30th
2005. | |
Sorry we missed the October Cyber
Newsletter !
Many fans think Elvisly Yours is a huge
organisation but alas there is only me and my manager Sasha
that run the Elvisly Yours office in Watford, with
occasional help from Maureen. We get 10,000 emails a
year, have to run the website, handle all Elvis retail and
wholesale trade around the world, negotiate license deals as
well as planning for Elvisly Yours Restaurants, get
calls from the media, fans and traders all day and have to
do 1001 jobs to run the business.
Unfortunately, I was off work for a week
having torn a muscle in my back and then we had a VAT
inspection and I had to get all our books up to date for the
tax inspector and it was very time consuming. In Europe you
have Value Added Tax (VAT) and a mass of paperwork for bills
and invoices and it is 17.5% for all Vat-able products and
services. I just run out of time to write the Cyber
Newsletter for October 2005. It usually takes several days
completing the Newsletter. Please accept my apologies and I
hope you enjoy this belated Newsletter as much as past
Newsletters.
Elvis only no.2 in
UK
single sales in 2005
The year
isn't yet over but a listing of the top selling UK
singles artists has been released. Here is the top 5
and Elvis came second to Tony Christie whose catchy
"Amarillo" sold over one million copies,
promoted for charity with that fabulous video with
lots of British stars.
1
- Tony Christie - 1,093,458
2 - Elvis Presley
- 708,160
3 - Crazy Frog
-
552,152
4 - James Blunt
- 495,477
5 - McFly
-
459,990
When you consider Elvis was at no.1
three times in 2005 and had all the other 15 singles
in the charts he sold less records than probably just
one of his early hits in the UK in 1950's.
Trophy for
1,000 UK no.1 single presented to Sid Shaw by Rafael
of Coca-Cola with Elvis statue behind |
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Elvis makes Crime News
in
the UK and USA
Julie Wall, age 46, is a
British Elvis fan who will be spending the next three
years in prison. She worked for the council in
Sleaford, Lincolnshire and her job was to count the
coins from the town's parking meters, but instead she
stole millions of coins.
She managed to steal about
£10,000.00 a month and got away with it for almost ten
years until a recent audit.
Sam Robinson, prosecuting,
said that between January 1996 and July this year she
was estimated to have stolen more than £557,000
(nearly $1 million).
All of the money she
used for buying Elvis CD's, records and rare
memorabilia, mostly from auctions and record fairs and
on eBay. We have no record of Julie as a customer and
it would be very interesting to know who she bought
her Elvis collection from. I am sure she made some
Elvis traders quite rich. The Elvis collection will be
sold off next year to compensate the council for the
theft of the money.
Meanwhile in the USA, a retired Elvis
tribute Artist helped Las Vegas Police catch a man
suspected of stealing more than $300,000 memorabilia
from the Elvis-A-Rama Museum.
Duke Adams (age 62) was standing in
line at a pharmacy when the suspect offered to sell
him items once owned by Elvis. Adams said he
immediately became suspicious, and quickly linked the
man to last year's museum heist.
Duke told the police and set up a
meeting with the suspect, Eliab Aguilar to buy the
memorabilia for sale at $80,000.00 and the police
arrested the thief. Apparently, the owner of the
Museum, now sold to Bob Sillerman's company, has
collected insurance money and the memorabilia
will be handed over to the insurance company.
Everything was there except for one Elvis
scarf. | |
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Photo courtesy of Elvis
Express
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Our condolences to the
Lee Dawson family
Lee Dawson runs the first officially
independent Elvis Presley Fan Club called the "Elvis
Express". Sadly, Lee's father Barry Dawson suddenly
died on October 21st after battling cancer. Our
condolences go to Lee's mother, Lee, Lana and all his
family at this sad time. Lee's father was a huge Elvis
fan and no doubt was a driving force behind making Lee
the big Elvis fan he is today. Lee's father was a
paramedic and had enormous respect in his local
community in Brighton where he worked for 28
years.
When he was wheelchair bound and
was pushed down to Brighton beach for the first time
by a close friend there was a fleet of ambulances to
greet him followed by a fly past of the Sussex Police
helicopter flying just above the beach dipping down to
salute Barry. Fly pasts are usually reserved for the
Queen and for Barry Dawson to be so uniquely honoured
showed how much he was loved and
appreciated. | |
ROBBIE WILLIAMS BANNED FROM USING
IMAGES
OF ELVIS PRESLEY
I got a call out of the blue from a film production
company that wanted Elvisly Yours memorabilia for a TV
video featuring Robbie Williams. Robbie is a huge Elvis fan and I
was delighted to be asked to supply a range of our Elvis
memorabilia to decorate a film set in Blackpool where the secret
film shoot for his next pop video was going to take place. In the
video Robbie was to play an Elvis fan that had his home covered in
Elvis memorabilia. I had asked if I could meet Robbie and be
present at the video shoot and this was agreed.
I had not heard back from the film company to
confirm arrangements so I called them. I was told that at the last
moment a decision was made NOT to use images of Elvis for fear of
problems with EPE if the video was shown in the USA. They had to
rewrite the whole script and do a completely new production. In
effect, Robbie Williams was banned from using images of Elvis
Presley. Instead Robbie dressed up as Elvis. Some stupid lawyer
pulled the plug because of some imagined threat that had no
foundation. On what grounds could EPE stop a video being shot in
Britain featuring an Elvis fan having Elvis memorabilia in his
home? My memorabilia has appeared hundreds of times over the years
on US television and there has never been a problem. The same
thing happened last year with the BBC and "EastEnders". They
wanted my memorabilia for the set of a new character who was a big
Elvis fan. Again, another stupid lawyer got cold feet and the
producer had to stop using memorabilia they had already bought
from us.
So I contacted the local paper in Blackpool to tell
them about the story and Robbie's filming in the town. As a
result, Robbie was besieged by thousands of fans during the
shooting of the video and a delighted Robbie said: "It's
amazing the amount of people who have come down to say hello. It's
made my night. I haven't seen anything like this since my days
with 'Take That'. I feel loved."
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Diamonte necklace
£5.95
p&p UK £1.00, Eu £2.00,
Ov £3.00
Diamonte
brooch
£5.50
p&p UK £1.00, Eu £2.00,
Ov £3.00
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NEW ELVIS PILLOWCASE
D20. Elvis
pillowcase £8.95
p&p UK
£1.50, Eu £3.00, Ov £4.50
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Elvis sunglasses GOLD
£8.95
p&p UK £1.00, Eu £2.00,
Ov £3.00
Elvis sunglasses
SILVER
£8.95
p&p UK £1.00, Eu £2.00,
Ov £3.00
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Bill Burk's EW Lunch
It's scheduled for 1-3 p.m. Sunday, 8
January 2006 at Marlowe's, Elvis Presley Blvd.
$13, as always. HOWEVER, after a month of advertising the time and
date, Bill does not have enough reservations to fill Marlowe's
largest dining room table. Marlowe's usually
opens at 4 p.m. and Bill needs more fans to book.
Bill is going to put a 1st December deadline
to book. If reservations don't climb dramatically, he will
call off the EW Lunch and refund fan's money.
In fact ... he won't deposit EW Lunch
cheques until a final decision is made. TRUTHFULLY, he had
given serious thought to not having an EW Lunch this January
because of a feeling that very few fans will be attending the
birthday and Elvis Week events in 2006.
Everyone is saving up for the BIG ONE --
2007. So... it's up to you, the fans. American fans can send a
cheque and fans from overseas email Bill for
payment details: beb007@worldnet.att.net
BURK
ENTERPRISES
Box 16792, Memphis
TN
38186
USA
(he won't deposit cheques if cancellation is
in store).
Bill Burk's Elvis World Lunch is always a highlight
of Elvis Week and Birthday Week in Memphis. It has nearly always
been sold out early on.
The way EPE treats fans and the last straw, the
eviction of Carol and Lisa, seems to suggest Elvis fans are
starting to boycott Memphis. |
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Elvis Presley tops Forbes’ list of highest earning dead
celebrities...
for the fifth consecutive year by generating 45 million
dollars - 28 years after he passed away in 1977 (last year it
was $40 million). Elvis Presley remains the king even from the
grave, with him topping the “Forbes’ annual list of
highest-earning dead stars over the past year. Charlie Brown
creator Charles Schulz, who died in 2000, held the number two
position with 35 million dollars with John
Lennon third who earned $22 million.
The Top 10
highest earning dead celebrities rated by Forbes magazine:
| 1. Elvis
Presley |
$45 million |
| 2. Charles
M. Schulz |
$35 million |
| 3. John
Lennon |
$22 million |
| 4. Andy
Warhol |
$16 million |
| 5. Theodore ‘Dr. Seuss’
Geisel |
$10 million |
| 6. Marlon
Brando |
$9 million |
| 7. Marilyn
Monroe |
$8 million |
| 8. J.R.R.
Tolkien |
$8 million |
| 9. George
Harrison |
$7 million |
| 10. Johnny Cash |
$7
million |
N.B. This turnover is mostly generated in the USA
and is enormous despite the way EPE continually alienate Elvis
fans. Just imagine what the turnover could be if EPE treated
Elvis' fans, family and friends with care, understanding, love and
respect ? |
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New 2006 Elvis Calendar
(1)
£6.95
p/p UK £1.95, Eu £3.90,Ov
£5.50
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ELVIS CALENDARS
FOR
2006
Sadly, we will not have an
'Official' Elvisly Yours calendar for 2006 because the
company we licensed to publish the calendar was in breach of
contract and we withdrew their license.
You can
be sure that for 2007 there will be a new Elvisly Yours
calendar and indeed lots of new Elvisly Yours official
products that will be sold eventually in the Elvisly Yours
Restaurant. However we have new 2006 Elvis calendars that
you can order online NOW or buy in our Elvis shop at 233
Baker St, London NW1.
The retail price is only
£6.95 plus p&p |
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New 2006 Elvis
Calendar (2)
£6.95
p/p UK £1.95, Eu £3.90,Ov £5.50
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Elvisly Yours
Restaurants
For one year we have been negotiating
with potential investors to launch 'Elvisly Yours
Restaurants' in different countries in the world.
Negotiations are still ongoing in several countries,
however, in Britain, we wanted to find one investor
that would operate the first Restaurant planned for
Central London. Instead of finding one investor we
have had approaches from many small investors. Rather
than delay our Project any further the Consortium who
have designed the concept and produced the Business
Plan are now drawing up plans to find a group of
investors, although each share will probably be at
least £50,000.00. Information will be announced in the
next Newsletter, on our website and in the media when
we are ready to promote the investment scheme. In the
meantime, current negotiations will continue around
the world. |
ELVISLY YOURS Competition Winner
Winner of the Elvisly
Yours monthly draw is Oliver Ford of Saffron
Walden, England
He receives a signed copy of
the book "Rare Elvis,
Vol.1! | |
GOING DOWN MEMORY
LANE
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Colonel Parker lied in my US
lawsuit
In 1985 I was sued in America by Elvis
Presley Enterprises Inc in US Federal Court with their
main argument I was demeaning the memory of Elvis
Presley by selling Elvis ladies underwear. One of
EPE's lawyers had ordered a set of three pairs of
Elvis knickers (panties) and at the hearing in Memphis
in June 1985 their litigation lawyer was waving them
in court, suggesting I was some kind of
pervert.
During the Court hearing they
cross-examined me and I used the English term
'knickers'. The Judge did not understand what I said,
so he asked me to repeat 'knickers'. He still did not
understand so he asked me to spell it out -
"k-n-i-c-k-e-r-s". If this had been in a British Court
there would have been a riot with people falling over
themselves laughing. So I spelt "k-n-i-c-k-e-r-s" and
said I believe the lawyers for EPE "had their knickers
in a twist". I am told the US expression is "had their
panties in a wad". The hearing was like
something out of a Monty Python sketch. Later, I was
told by a friend sitting in the public gallery that
Judge Horton, who was black, did not understand my
English accent and thought I had said the racist
"n-word" and was relieved when I spelt out 'knickers'.
To support their contention that I must
have been some kind of pervert for selling Elvis
ladies underwear they submitted an affidavit from
Colonel Tom Parker that I more recently discovered was
a pack of lies. To quote from the Colonel's sworn
statement :
When a manufacturer sought approval
to use the name or likeness of Elvis I would normally
ask Elvis' opinion of the product and use. Neither he
nor I would have tolerated the use shown in the
advertisement in Exhibit A (the advert in my magazine
for the knickers). Use of the names and trade marks
Elvis, Elvis Presley or likeness of Elvis in the
distasteful manner shown in the advertisement would
have seriously injured the goodwill that was carefully
at great time and expense, built in those
trademarks...
I join Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc
in expressing my personal distaste for such offensive
use of the likeness and image of Elvis Presley and in
expressing my belief that the unauthorised use of
Elvis' name and likeness should not continue. Further
affiant sayeth not.
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Colonel Tom
Parker |
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signature of
Col
Parker |
Subscribed and sworn to me on
this 11th day of June 1985.
Col. Parker licensed Elvis ladies panties in
1956 !!
Elvis in Japan
Probably the second largest Elvis fan
club in the world is in Japan and I had the pleasure
of meeting its president Tad Akazawa in Memphis
several times and some of its members in Tokyo when I
went there twice, to first plan and then take an Elvis
Exhibition in 1995, owned by Vince Everett. I went for
dinner with a group of Elvis fans from the Japanese
Fan Club and it was so interesting comparing feelings,
thoughts and our mutual love for Elvis from such very
different cultures. The fan club publishes an
excellent magazine that has extremely high printing
standards and is probably one of the best Elvis fan
club magazines in the world. The quality control for
everything in Japan is of the highest standard.
Japan is a fascinating country and I
met some very interesting Elvis fans including the now
Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi. He
is such a huge fan that Mr. Koizumi was asked by BMG,
Japan to chose his favourite Elvis songs for a special
album. He not only marked his accession to the Prime
Ministership in 2001 by releasing a CD of Elvis songs
but burst into an impromptu rendition of "I Want You,
I Need You, I Love You" when meeting Tom Cruise in
2003.
I also met the Japanese World Champion
Elvis from the Memphis tribute Contest of Elvis Week
1995 and the man who really had the world's largest
collection of Elvis records. It always amazes me when
Elvis fans tell me they have everything of Elvis in
their collection. This man, whose names eludes me, had
10,000 Elvis albums and singles on vinyl alone. He
showed me just a fraction of his collection in special
presentation folders. He even had record sleeves that
were rejected by BMG for the final releases.
The Elvis Exhibition in Tokyo at the
Mitsukoshi Department Store October 1995 was attended
by 18,000 visitors over six days. Originally, the
Museum was supposed to tour Japan for nine weeks but
the Kobe earthquake earlier in the year meant they
could only organise a one week Exhibition. It was
interesting to find that most of the visitors to the
Exhibition were young and aged 20-35. Perhaps in the
1950's when Elvis first started Western culture had
not yet penetrated Japan, so soon after the war, and
it was only in the 1970's that Elvis first made his
biggest impact. I will have to ask the fan club
president, Tad, if most Elvis fans are under 40 years
of age and if so, why.
I was introduced to Elvis phone cards
at the Exhibition and we licensed Mitsukoshi to
produce 1,000 of each of three Elvis phone cards. I
thought I would buy 10 of each for my own collection
but at the end of the Exhibition I discovered they had
sold all 3,000 in days. All I have is one phone card
and two proof copies. Elvisly Yours released phone
cards in Britain in 1998 and sold most out in a few
days. I kept back 200 of each phone card and we just
have a few left for sale.
Wherever I have traveled in the world I
have found such love for Elvis and each country has
its uniqueness in celebrating Elvis' music. It is
interesting to find Elvis has taught so many people
'English' around the world as fans try to learn the
words of Elvis' songs.
Trying to get Priscilla to give
evidence in Court
During my lawsuit in America with EPE I
tried to take the deposition of Priscilla Presley. I
also wanted them to submit the Estate accounts since
they had claimed they were losing money because of
Elvisly Yours selling Elvis products in the USA. But,
they had been buying from us in 1982 when Graceland
opened to the public.
Yes, we were the exclusive suppliers of
Elvis Presley products to Graceland in August 1982 for
the first 'official' Elvis Week. But, they sued us in
1985 for selling Elvis products they had been buying
from us. You can read the sworn affidavit by Priscilla
by clicking on the link: deposition
You will find it fascinating reading,
from around the time Priscilla had her son and
was filming Dallas, the famous 'soap', in 1987. She
swore she was too busy feeding the baby, filming
Dallas and I would use the deposition to annoy and
harass her.
Even though she was President of EPE,
the plaintiffs suing us, we were not allowed to
question her or see the accounts. Even the US Court of
Appeal Judges decided she did not need to give
evidence. |
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Elvisly
Yours knickers
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A PAIR OF
ELVIS PRESLEY MERCHANDISING PANTIES, circa 1956
with colour picture of Elvis with a guitar, one
leg torn. Estimated sale price US
$2,500-3,000 £1,500-1,800.
Elvis
panties licensed by EPE in 1956 and auctioned by
Bonhams in 1997 (owner, Paul
Lichter).
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Leaflet for
the Exhibition in Japan
Elvis fans at
the Exhibition in Japan
 
Japanese phone
cards
Elvisly Yours
phone cards
 
Set of 2 original
Elvisly Yours phone cards (1998)
£25.00
p&p UK £1.00, Eu
£2.00, Ov £3.00
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Front page of
Priscilla's
deposition | | |
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Remember, each month a member of the
Elvisly Yours Cyber Club is drawn at random to win an
Elvis memorabilia prize from our catalogue. Get your family and
friends to join our FREE Elvis Presley Club.
They can simply join ONLINE at
http://www.elvisly-yours.com/
You must visit
The Elvisly Yours
shop!
We are open 7 days a week
10.30am-6.30pm
next door to the London Beatles Store
open 8 days a week
How to find
us:
233 Baker Street, London NW1 6XE
tel: 020 7486
2005
We are just 100 yards north of Baker Street
Station at the top end of Baker Street near Regent's Park, plenty
of parking in side streets or Regent's Park if driving.
COPY & PRINT THIS AD & GET A FREE
POSTER
WHEN YOU COME TO THE SHOP
  
Baker Street Tube Station ->
Elvisly Yours,
Sid Shaw
www.elvisly-yours.com
Please inform us
if you change your email address |
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Copyright (c) Elvisly Yours
2005
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