Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
Suspiciously Elvis
The King of Rock and Roll heads back to the Sussex coast, this time Worthing gets a visit! “Suspiciously Elvis – quite simply Britain’s finest tribute performer”, Suspiciously Elvis is highly respected for his amazing vocal quality and performance skill. He is guaranteed to get you dancing and Rock your night. Black Rabbit Productions brought Elvis to the stage in Worthing at The Assembly Hall. There was a palpable sense of excitement buzzing around the audience. The venue was pretty near sold out, with only a few seats in the balcony unoccupied.
Suspiciously Elvis ‘Blast Out The Blues’ New Years Concert
Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
The 9 piece band (Bass, Drums, Keys, Brass, Guitar and 2 Backing Vocalists) took to the stage, along with two dancers and two “Elvis” security guards ushering the man himself to the stage, all to the opening sounds of Also Sprach Zarathustra. The audience was mostly seated for the first part of the show. We were ready!
The Set
CC Rider was first in the set tonight, and an immediate crowd pleaser was second with Burning Love. I got a woman and You Dont Have To Say You Love Me were delivered next. Astonishing. The mix of songs and the full band sounded incredible with two incredibly talented and powerful backing singers. The recently added brass section gave the whole sound an uplift to something you would see and hear in a West End show, it was that good. Elvis tonight was dressed in a white flared jumpsuit, this was festooned with large red rhinestones, a gold belt with gold chains, white boots and those classic gradient tint ‘Elvis’ shades. Perfect. And yes, he did sound like the man himself. Ivor, Elvis, stood in the classic split-legged Elvis pose while performing the songs with an an impressive number of spins and gyrations!
Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
Ivor brilliantly and faithfully re-creates those tunes of the King himself right through the mans musical career and catalogue. The band all in matching shirts. Two tall dancing girls, dressed in black basques, with huge feather fans, gave a terrific performance that really helped to get the show off with a real Las Vegas flying start.
I am not going to list the entire set, it was huge! Some 40 songs included in the set list. Set one continued as “Elvis” delivered the goods. Love Me Tender was in there along side the classic Neil Diamond song Sweet Caroline which pretty much had everyone in the venue on their feet and singing along. Hound dog picked up the tempo again and brilliantly performed by everyone on the stage.
Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
The Wonder Of You saw part one come to a close. A short break and the guys would be back with some more rock and roll! I never saw Elvis and enjoyed a few of his releases. I remember the day he died in August 1977, it was everywhere on TV and all the papers for weeks after. The whole world seemed to be in mourning. I remember the release of Way Down, during the hey day of Punk, reaching number 1 in the UK charts, and kind of re-introduced Elvis to a new generation.
A Video:
Enjoy some clips along with the 600 people crammed into Worthing, Assembly Rooms.
Set 2
I have to say Ivor Potter’s charismatic performance as Elvis, which included plenty of banter, costume changes, chat with the crowd and audience walkabouts were delightful and hugely entertaining. Some seemed to forget this wasn’t Elvis, which indicates just how good Potter is at what he does. So many great performances of so many classic Elvis numbers in part one, what was next in part 2?
Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
Polk Salad Annie and Proud Mary were next. “Elvis” headed off into the crowd followed by his security team (brilliantly done fellas!), clutching their ear pieces and making it look as if they were clearing the way for The King. Elvis was mixing it up in the crowd, being kissed, dragged for selfies and then as he had promised he appeared up on the balcony. Fabulous stuff from the band filling in as he made his way back to the stage.
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- Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
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- Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
Lawdy Miss Clawdy was up and then the song I mentioned earlier Way Down. It was not long before the front of the auditorium was packed with dancing bodies! Potter by now had again got the audience eating out of the palm of his hand – “stand up ya’ll, dance and sing” and the crowd happily obliged! Blue Suede Shoes and the feather girls returned for All Shook Up.
Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
Suspicious Minds once again whipped the crowd into a frenzy down at the front as Ivor whipped his way through this fabulous song. The set was now heading towards it close and the three songs we were treated to were My Way, Viva Las Vegas and to end the show was A Little Less Conversation.
Suspiciously Elvis: Photo by Ian Bourn for Scene Sussex
This show was superb. I am guessing it ran over by about 20 minutes or so. The show had everything you could have wanted. Authenticity, dancers, a great band, a packed venue with plenty of room and last but not least a brilliant performance of Elvis from Ivor. This was a great night out for anyone of all ages and bang for buck was worth every penny of the ticket price. If the show returns I thoroughly recommend going to see Suspiciously Elvis.
The authenticity continued right through to the end “Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building”.
Suspiciously Elvis is on the WWW
Suspiciously Elvis on Facebook
Black Rabbit Productions hosted the evening. They work hard promoting live music on the south coast. They are a promotion company with years of experience putting on music shows. Tonight was superb. They have some great gigs lined up. You can find Black Rabbit Productions on the WWW
Please note all original images / video are copyright, please do not copy. If any of the featured artists/promoters/venues want copies of the images – or more if available – please just get in touch.
All original pictures / video – copyright to IANB/MEDIA WORKS/ SCENE SUSSEX – Ian “The Lens” Bourn 2018.
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