Painting Elvis

All are oil paintings, based on a series of photos taken in 1956 . They each measure 114x146 cmsOn night in June 1977, i had a vivid dream of singing a duet with Elvis on stage. It was maybe triggered by seeing Elvis sing 'Witchcraft' with Frank Sinatra for one of Sinatra's T.V. specials . They were both dressed in tuxedo's and exemplified the epitome of 'cool'. As i lay there thinking about the dream , i suddenly realised that the 20th anniversay of Elvis' death , was only a 2 months away. How great it would be to make an exhibition of 20 images of early Elvis in a place where i could sing my favourite 20 Elvis songs with Pa amb Oli Band. The next morning i rang a friend Axel Schwarzberg, an influential lawyer/client/Elvis fan in Berlin. I asked him if he knew anyone connected with the Hard Rock Cafe , who might be interested in my idea. He said, " Forget it. It's too small, but you could show the paintings in The Chameleon Theatre, which i own, and sing there on the opening night for the Elvis Presley Fan Club ." So for the next 6 weeks i worked fast and furious , while simultaneously listening to and singing along with, Elvis' complete Sun recordings. The rest of Pa amb Oli didn't care for the idea, so the owner of the Chameleon, found a rockabilly band to back me. " They know every Elvis song. Don't worry , i'll fix everything. Just sing anything you want to do. " I arrived in Berlin the day before the show, with 20 large paintings crated up, and headed for the theatre. I started to hang the show, expecting my 'backing group' to appear . After an hour or more i saw a group of kids playing pinball. I explained why i was there, and if they'd seen or knew of the rockabilly band in question. " We are the band ," said a little girl who looked about 14 years old. I must have looked shocked and concerned , because they assured me they could play ANYTHING and we didn't even need to rehearse. I seem to recall we went through two numbers, and to me they sounded just as good as Scottie Moore and the boys !

Well, the rest of the story is predictable, but at the time , the whole experience blew my mind.

At the opening, all 400 members of the fan club turned up, and all 20 paintings sold within 2 hours. I sang 20 'Sun' numbers, 'That's Alright Mama', ' Trying To Get To You, 'One Night' 'Good Rockin' Tonight' , 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky', 'Tomorrow Night', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Milkcow Blues Boogie', 'Money Honey', 'Blue Moon', 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy', 'Hound Dog' ,

'Love Me Tender', 'Don't Be Cruel', 'Any Way That You Want Me', 'Long Tall Sally, 'Ready Teddy', ' Baby I Don't Care', 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Shake Rattle and Roll'. Everyone danced wildly. They were into it as much as i was....real gone !

Bob Dylan will celebrate his 70th birthday on May 24th 2011. I wanna do the same kind of thing, in a really groovy venue - but where ??