April 01 - A New Gold Single Award

The British Phonographic Industries certified the single 'If I Can Dream' with a Gold Single Award for selling over 400,000 copies (streams plus digital downloads plus physical sales) since November 15, 2004. This is the 6th B.P.I Award for Elvis Presley in 2023.

Red Robinson Died

Legendary Vancouver DJ Red Robinson passes away. He was 86.

His family said in a post: With deep sadness and broken hearts, we bring the news that our beloved Dad, Red Robinson, passed this morning at 8:15 am after a brief illness.

Robinson had Vancouver’s first rock and roll radio show on November 13, 1954, when he was just 17 years old. He was the MC of the first rock and roll concert in the city, featuring Bill Haley, on June 27, 1956. He also was the MC of the Elvis Presley show at Empire Stadium on August 31, 1957 and the Beatles gig at Empire August 22, 1964.

The old bootleg 'Got A Lot O Livin To Do', that contained the few recorded snippets of the Vancouver Elvis concert in 1957, were from him. As was the dressing Room press conference recording released on 1977 LP 'The Elvis Tapes'. 

These recordings were re-issued by the Blue Day record label on clear vinyl in February 2023.

(Source: B.P.I. / FECC / Vancouver Sun  / Paul Sweeny)