Celebrating the fan club’s 50th anniversary, president David Trotter compiled the book ‘200 Elvis Concerts - By The Fans For The Fans,’ filled with personal memories from fan-club members about the concerts they attended and, for some lucky ones, their experiences meeting Elvis in person.
The self-published book features a great photo by Judy Palmer Bendewald of Elvis on stage at the Las Vegas Hilton on September 3, 1972 (inside we can read how various fans experienced that show, which was released various times in 2024). It is the only picture in the book. This was a little disappointment, as I had hoped to find a few candids to go along with the personal stories in the book.
The pages are easy to read, but Trotter chose to write Elvis’ name and all song titles in capitals, which disrupts the layout of the page a bit for me.
Content
The book has 9 chapters, all with a fitting Elvis song as the title, and each chapter contains a selection of personal memories from 20 fans who shared them over the years through the fan club.
This book is a labor of love, and you can really feel it when you read the personal accounts of the primarily female fans. It is almost as if you are sitting there next to them, or experiencing the concert through their eyes. I couldn’t help thinking: what would I do when the lights went down in the showroom and I heard the orchestra play the opening notes of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ … what would I do when Elvis leaned over to me for a kiss - although I think I would probably get a firm handshake and a smile - and what would I say to Elvis when opportunity knocked and I had the chance to go backstage and meet the man? What would I do when I saw one of the members of the entourage walk by with a dirty jumpsuit on his way to the cleaners?
In this book, you read what the ladies did and how they experienced it, written down lovingly and dedicatedly on paper 50-plus years ago.
So don’t expect to read reviews from experts who completely dissect a concert, Elvis, his musicians, the orchestra, and the concert hall, sometimes placing them in a historical context with the knowledge on Elvis and the state of his life and career we have so many years later. And do not expect articles such as original reviews from professional journalists comparing the Elvis they saw with the young man from the fifties or with the man dealing with divorce, health, or drug problems as featured in the tabloids in the seventies.
Fans who made the journey to Vegas and Lake Tahoe describe what happened as it happened and how they saw or experienced it. It was fun to read what fans noticed; from the cold shivers they felt when the lights went out and the Opening Theme came on, to seeing Elvis for the first time: “He was smaller than I thought.” Some ladies noticed the texture of his face, his soft and wet hands when he touched them making the rounds, others remembered the light shining through his chest hair when he knelt for a hug or kiss. Others described his attire and suits (which didn’t have the names we use now), detailing design, textures, or the way the stones were attached. Apparently, he tore out of his suits more often than I thought, having to change and sometimes throwing clothes into the audience according to the reports.
We also read what happened on stage and how Elvis “had fun on stage fooling J.D. Sumner or Charlie Hodge, making Glen D. Harding angry after throwing too much water on him and his equipment. Some of the 'events' we know from records, like Elvis entering the stage on Lamar Fike's back, having fun with the plush monkey that joined him, or singing while lying on his back on a bed. Sitting in the front rows, some fans only saw the side of the bed but not what Elvis was doing behind it. First-row seats aren’t always the best seats in the house!
Others share how they managed to get a scarf. How they had to wrestle other fans for it or managed to simply slide it off Elvis' neck with his OK when he came close for a song or a kiss. Others kept track of the songs he sang, counted how many times he bent his knee during a song, or noted which one he sang the best.
All these reports were shared through paper fan-club newsletters over the years. It must have been great to read these “live” experiences through those newsletters! In today’s digital day-and-age, news and reviews reach us in real-time, which is fun, but reading these personal accounts gave me a completely different experience. Anne E. Nixon is one of the fans who contributed, so there may be some overlap with her 'King of the Hilton' book.
This book also made me jealous of all those lucky fans who were able to attend a concert, some of them attending all the concerts from an engagement or hooking up with Elvis several years in a row and some lucky ones ending up backstage.
Conclusion
I haven’t read too many books or old magazines with personal accounts like these. There are some good books out there like Donna Lewis' ‘Hurry Home Elvis’ trilogy or Virginia Coons book ‘… and Then There Was Elvis'. I think this one is a good addition to those books. Actually, this book will please many fans, as these warm and personal accounts of seeing and experiencing Elvis live in concert as a fan are priceless. These are the kind of stories that bring Elvis closer to us. Even though some describe an almost religious experience seeing Elvis in person, other stories make the man very real when we read about the tone of his skin, his soft lips and soft black hair, his smell, the details of his suits, or … Many of the big photo and fact-driven books we buy lack this personal touch.
That said, this book lacks two things: pictures from the fans, and if that wasn’t possible, a picture of the LP or CD that contains the concert whose experience we are reading about. Listening to those concerts with real-life experiences in mind will probably be a different listening experience.
You can contact author David Trotter by >>> email to buy the book, You can join his fan club's >>> Facebook group.