images from the series The Kings Of England by @graemeoxby Elvis is still an important cultural touchstone in working-class communities all over the UK. It’s something to do with the story of a poor truck driver who rose to unimaginable fame and fortune. It’s about the songs, nostalgia and community. It’s also about love and faith, dressing up, and having a good time. A 2011 survey estimated that there were more than 85,000 Elvis Presley impersonators around the world. Elvis impersonation is a phenomenon spanning ages, cultures and countries. The man known as “The King of Rock and Roll” and often simply, “The King”, is proving immortal. The Kings Of England documents the remediation of a major element of the iconography of the popular culture of the 20th and now 21st centuries, and of Presley himself, the most photographed man on the planet. Through the series, It becomes clear that the influence in of Elvis runs wide and deep, despite the fact that for most people in Britain, Presley was a mediated concept that existed only in films, on television and on record. Only once did he set foot on British soil, and that was to re-fuel his plane in the dead of night en route from Germany back to the US. Yet the British fascination with Elvis lives on through the legions of impersonators or “Elvis Tribute Artists” (ETAs) as they are now known, who perform in pubs, clubs and theatres up and down the British Isles. #elvis #elvispresley