|
Hi Everyone, this is Paul Smith from the Association of Professional Elvis Presley Tribute Artists UK.
Many of our ETA's took part just recently in 2 great Elvis events.
Sunday April 17th, Selfridges Department Store (Selfridges is the UK’s largest store) London England.
The sun shone on this Sunday morning (the same day as the London Marathon) and early in the morning crowds started to gather outside the department store in Oxford Street, many people dressed and looking like Elvis, some even entertaining the crowd with some singing.
There were some interesting looks from passers by!
Press and TV crews were already getting in on the action taking pictures and doing interviews.
What were we all here for well.......Selfridges was celebrating 100 years of Las Vegas www.selfridgesvegas.com and what better way to start the celebrations than to have an ETA contest, with the first prize of an appearance on a show in Vegas, the second prize of an appearance at The London Palladium, and the third prize a holiday in Vegas !! Wow! What great prizes and no wonder it attracted the best ETA's from all over the UK.
But if that was not enough, on the same day all the ETA's attending were going to set a new Guinness world record for the greatest number of Elvii in the same place singing the same song at the same time.
Just before 11 am all the assembled ETA's were given a briefing by the officials of the Guinness world records organization. The rules were that every Elvis taking part in the record had to be suitably dressed as an Elvis performer, everyone had to sing the same song at the same time in the same place, without accompaniment. Each performer was then checked and counted by the officials and then made their way and took up their place on the escalator system.
TV and press were in position to record this historic event and at 11 am the sound of 77 Elvii singing Viva Las Vegas echoed through the famous department store.
Then came the formal announcement that a brand new Guinness World record had just been set. So, boys, the record stands at 77! How long will it stand and who will break it ???
A presentation certificate was made to "Selfridges Vegas Supernova" to commemorate this great event.
It was time now for a lunch break, and it was quite a sight for the customers of the store to see so many Elvis performers making their way through the store and into the restaurant.
After lunch it was time now for the competition itself. 58 ETA’s had entered, and it was going to be a tough job to reduce them to a final 10. Myself, Paul Smith from A.P.EP.T.A, and Martin Fox fellow ETA and organizer of Elvis Contest UK) were judges, along with the head of marketing for Selfridges.
Michael King (fellow ETA and co-organizer of www.elviscontest.co.uk ) kept the contest in order as Master of Ceremonies.
The competition itself called for each ETA to sing a song of his own choice un-accompanied for about a minute in front of the panel of judges. After hearing all 58 we, the judges, took some time to count up the points we had awarded to each performer and came back with the top 10.
The top 10 were announced and had to get themselves ready to now sing 2 songs with backing tracks. We, and the audience, were treated to a fantastic selection of songs from a great selection of the best ETA's in the business. The ten finalists were Gary Gibson, Memphis King, Neil J Duncan, Patrick Byrne, Leigh Casling, Paul Molloy, Peter Sisman, Dean Lee Vegas, Paul Rouse and Joel Ewans.
We, the judges, had now been joined by Jarrett and Raja ,the 2 stars from Las Vegas, and it would be their show the winner would perform in. It was so tough to judge. Everyone deserved to win and had done themselves and the Elvis world proud.
But in 3rd place and a newcomer to the ETA world, with what a voice and what a look, and watch out for him in the future was Joel Ewans.
In second place with another excellent performance, with the looks and voice was a very popular ETA, Paul Rouse.
And in first place with a vocal performance of 'How Great Thou Art' that had the whole room standing and applauding was Neil J Duncan.
All we can say is “well done” to all who took part. The standard of performance was excellent and everyone was a winner on the day.
Thanks for reading and from us at the www.apepta.co.uk association and Elvis Contest UK and all your fellow ETA's in the UK, keep on 'Taking Care of Business.”
Paul Smith
Check out our website at TCEB and A.P.EP.T.A.
|
