THE emotional power of Elvis Presley can touch people in many different ways.

Gordon Hendricks who is a professional Elvis Tribute artist has seen first hand what can be dubbed as ‘the power of Elvis’.

Gordon was performing on stage as Elvis at a concert in Birmingham. One woman stood up while he was talking to the audience and asked if she could say something.

He said yes and the lady before the packed theatre said: “I saved all my money for two years to go and see Elvis in concert in 1977, but when I got there they told us he had died. “I never got to see him, but tonight I feel through you I have as you have made it so real.”

Gordon admitted this was one of the reasons he does what he does, which is being the best Elvis Presley tribute act on the planet. In 2017 Gordon was crowned the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Champion.

The other side of the coin for the power of Elvis came when Gordon took his mate to Graceland. His friend was a big U2 fan and only wanted to go to Sun Records (U2 had recorded there) but went with Gordon.

As they walked around his mate was tutting away and not having a good time. Then when they reached the graveside, he was crying and in floods of tears.

This is the ‘power of Elvis for those two, while for Gordon, the ‘power of Elvis’ is allowing him to be the best Elvis in the world.

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The qualities you need to be Elvis are he said: “The first thing is the voice. You have to sound like him. You have to be able to make people close their eyes and think they are listening to Elvis. After this comes the look, the movement, the persona, everything Elvis would have been on stage.

“It is like an acting role but it is more than that as you have gone beyond a character and people are looking at me, listening to me and believing I am Elvis.”

Gordon began his long journey to ‘become Elvis’ when he was five or six.

After discovering ‘The King’, he was living and breathing Elvis and when he was 20 years old started out as a performer.

Gordon said it took him 10 years of hard work to get everything right to be Elvis-to be the complete package.

He explained winning 2017 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Champion was a peak. It was something he had wanted to do for years.

He said: “It meant I had gone from playing pubs and clubs to the big stage and performing in front of 50,000 people.

“Winning this title certainly gets you noticed, it gets you known.

“It changed me as a person and now I am enjoying the experience.

“I always put on the best show. I have my costumes made by Bill Blue who used to make Elvis’s jumpsuits and costumes in the 1970s.

“It needs to be right, it needs to be high quality.

“When I get people coming up to me after the show and saying they saw Elvis in 1973 but what they saw tonight was incredible, that is the person I am doing it for and I know then I am doing my job right.”

As an Elvis Presley tribute performer, Gordon likes to keep the show fresh.

He likes to look through Elvis’s back catalogue of songs and find some obscure ones or songs which were in some his movies which people have forgotten about and incorporate them into the stage show.

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Two songs which he has found and sings on stage include Tender Feeling which comes from the film Kissing Cousins and Starting Today which is on the album Something for Everybody.

Gordon said: “I like to keep things fresh and develop the show. I just cannot sing Suspicious Minds for the 50,000 time. “It is a stage show and I like to add new songs. At one point I sit at the piano and sing gospel songs while my band leave the stage. Doing the gospel songs is very much in the spirit of Elvis.

“He used to sing gospel songs when he was at Graceland. If people can shut their eyes and think they are there then it works. In the whole of his career, Elvis won three Grammys and all of them were for gospel music.”

Gordon has had a tough journey getting to this point in his career but so pleased to have reached it.

I asked him which Elvis song would encapsulate him and he picked ‘You gave me a mountain’.

He said: “My journey has meant I have taken the long road around but I have got there. As manager said the cream will rise to the top and it has but it took a while.”

Gordon Hendricks is Elvis 2018 is at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre at 7.30pm on December 1.

Tickets: Standard £25.50 / Concession £24. Buy online at tacchi-morris.com or call 01823 414141.