Top Las Vegas Elvis Presley tribute act comes to Birmingham
The ‘Number One Elvis Tribute Artist In The World’ is heading this way. Andy Coleman spoke to him.
The glitz and glamour of Las Vegas is on its way to Birmingham with the gambling resort’s longing running Elvis tribute act performing at The Drum in Aston next Monday and Tuesday.
Darren Lee, who was named Number One Elvis Tribute Artist In The World at a contest in Memphis in 1997, is temporarily leaving the American Superstars show at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino to sprinkle some showbiz stardust in Brum.
If the Birmingham gigs are a success he plans to quit his Vegas job of ten years to tour the UK and Europe.
‘‘My plan is to do a Las Vegas invasion of your country,’’ 43-year-old Darren tells me. ‘‘The world’s largest Elvis fan club is in England and you guys never got to the chance to see Elvis. Hopefully this’ll be the closest you’ll ever come to having Elvis in town.
‘‘It’s all down to the performance. There has never been a tribute artist that has put as much work into learning the Elvis moves, they’re very difficult and a lot of work has been put into it.’’
Born in Edmonton, Canada, Darren says his looks come from his dad but his musical ability is inherited from his mum.
‘‘Dad couldn’t sing a note to save his life but mum sang on the radio when she was a kid and that’s where the voice came from.
‘‘My goal in the future is to play the LG Arena. I want to do the biggest show you’ve ever seen. I want to combine Kiss and Elvis. We want to eventually have smoke and fire and explosions and do something more than the 50s, 60s and 70s.
‘‘If Elvis was alive today what type of show would he do for the English people? That’s what we want to do. And the start of that is what’s going to happen in Birmingham next week. We don’t have the explosions yet but the entertainment value is going to be exactly the same.’’
While Darren is in England his place in the American Superstars show, which also features tributes to Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson, will be taken by his younger brother Robin Kelly.
‘‘He won the Canadian Elvis tribute contest in 2002,’’ Darren reveals. ‘‘He was the one that taught me all the Elvis moves when I first started and we’ve tried in the past to get a show together called The Presleys.
‘‘He began when I did a show in Canada just before I moved to Vegas and he got it into his head ‘this is a cool job’. So he went on to become a very successful tribute artist himself.’’
Darren heard his first Elvis song at the age of three. ‘‘I thought that Hound Dog was the best thing I’d ever heard. I had no idea that at that point it was ten years old. But my mum played Elvis records all the time and when I tried to sing it was always Elvis songs.’’
You could say it was divine help that put him on the path to being all shook up as an Elvis tribute.
‘‘I was ten years old, in grade six, and I had a Catholic nun for a teacher. She knew that my mother had a guitar so she persuaded me to learn to play it so I could accompany the choir. She was the coolest nun you’ve ever seen – she played guitar, she smoked, she drank, she swore, she wore blue jeans! I didn’t want to learn to play guitar at first but it’s the best thing that I’ve ever done.
