Up until three years ago, Jim Brown had never sung publicly in his life. Now the 31-year-old Belfast man is one of the hottest Elvis Presley impersonators around. Calling himself The King , Jim Brown s alter-ego is blazing a new trail in the transglobal culture of Elvis adulation. And here s the reason: he s got that edge without which originality is impossible a new take on a very old thing.
Instead of straight Elvis covers in the Elvis persona, The King s live act and first album (rather wittily entitled Gravelands) comprises a range of cover songs, from Kurt Cobain s Come as You Are to Frank Sinatra s New York, New York to Bob Marley s No Woman No Cry , sung in The King s best Elvis style.
The choice of tracks on Gravelands seems totally random, but the album s title holds a clue. All the artists whose songs appear on Gravelands are dead. Was this criteria, I ask The King, not a little macabre? Or were you taking the piss?
No, says The King, sounding a tad defensive. From my point of view the album is genuinely a tribute, straight from the heart. I ve loved Elvis Presley since I was 7 years old, since the first time I ever saw him on TV. So if anyone accuses me of taking the piss, they re wrong. I wouldn t want to do anything derogatory towards Elvis Presley.
Whew! Glad we got that cleared up. The King tells me that far from being appalled by his innovative impersonation album, die-hard Elvis fans around the world are delighted with his work. So The King is also touring Gravelands extensively, though he s found out that this has its downsides. Jim Brown is a family-man, and misses his wife and five children terribly when he s on the road.
I would like to be established as an artist, he muses, and still do a bit of touring, maybe once a year for three or four months, and then take the rest of the year off, and do some TV work or whatever, if I m lucky enough to get it. If I earned enough money I d take my kids on the road with me.
Before he became The King, Jim Brown worked as a postman and a dad. He relates how his new persona came into being.
I was at a club about three years ago on a Sunday afternoon in Belfast, where they have a band and a bit of a sing-song and people from the audience get up and do a couple of songs. I was there with my wife, it was our local. And the next thing I heard my name being called out and my aunt, she burst out laughing, she d went behind my back and played a little joke on me. I got up and did The Wonder of You and Suspicious Minds and there was a great response in the club. And afterwards the owner of the club approached me and asked would I be interested in performing regularly.
Next thing Jim found himself being signed to major label EMI, who have already commissioned his second album.
It s just something that was done purely out of fun at first, says the amazed-sounding Jim. And now it s snowballed I m flabbergasted by the whole thing.
Are you enjoying it?
Well, I m scared shitless. I can t eat, I can t sleep, it s nervewracking. I m stressed out 24 hours a day. But I m hoping Bono will hear this album and ask me to make a record. I ve loved U2 for years.
I listen to all kinds of music, continues Jim enthusiastically. My record collection s even got Pavarotti and classical and movie soundtracks and everything. But one of my favourite records of all time is Bat out of Hell. It s fantastic!
With that I say bye-bye to Belfast s Elvis, and wish him all the best. n
Gravelands is out now on EMI.