Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011

Rock in the new year with Elvis artists

Rock in the new year with Elvis artists

Courtesy photos

Rick Alviti plays his guitar during a tribute to Elvis Presley.

 

If you go

LEGENDS IN CONCERT

Who | David Allen as Elvis Presley, with other tribute artists to Buddy Holly, Liberace, Marilyn Monroe and Tim McGraw

Where | 2925 Hollywood Drive, Myrtle Beach, at U.S. 17 Bypass and 29th Avenue North, next to Planet Hollywood, at Broadway at the Beach

When and how much | Saturday:

• 6 p.m. - $37.95 regular and $42.95 preferred/VIP for ages 17 and older; and $14.95 and $19.95 respectively, for ages 3-16; and VIP table booth seats are $52.95 all ages.

• 10 p.m. – $47.95 regular, $52.95 VIP/preferred and $62.95 booth, all of which includes party favor with a telecast of the Times Square ball drop at midnight

Information | 238-7827, 800-960-7469 or www.legendsinconcert.com

ELVIS TRIBUTE NEW YEAR’S EVE GALA

Who | Rick Alviti

When | 7 p.m. Saturday-1 a.m. Sunday

Where | Sands Resort Pacific Ballroom (Ocean Dunes Resorts), 201 75th Ave. N., Myrtle Beach

How much | $85, including dinner and show; tickets with overnight stay $135 single or $220 double occupancy

Information | 692-5269, 800-260-8676 or sandsresorts.com/nye; also: www.rickalvitishow.com

NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY WITH THE KING

Who | Elvis & More King Shazaam Show and Elvis Fan Club of Myrtle Beach/Grand Strand

When | 8:30 p.m. Saturday-12:30 a.m. Sunday

Where | Beach Colony Resort, 5308 N. Ocean Blvd., Myrtle Beach

How much | $15.95, or for guests staying overnight, the party and breakfast for $21.95

Information | Reservations at Beach Colony at 449-4010; fan club at 424-9124, 704-545-1100 or www.kingshazam.com

Also | Fan club’s Elvis Birthday Party, Jan. 7 at Lulu’s Cafe, 1903 N. Ocean Blvd., Myrtle Beach. Dinner at 6 p.m., music at 7. Free admission. Reservations at 712-1890.

Elvis will be alive and rockin’ in at least three places in Myrtle Beach on New Year’s Eve.

Anyone who wants to rock in 2012 can celebrate it with tribute artists at Legends in Concert, and events at the Sands and Beach Colony resorts.

Spending New Year’s Eve with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll also gets a jump-start on the anniversary of his birthday, Jan. 8, when he would have turned 76.

Legendary approach

“I know that I’ve had really big gigs through the years,” said David Allen of Legends, “but who better to ring in the new year with than the king?”

Allen said the later show on Saturday at Legends will be the finale of its two-month long Christmas season lineup – with tributes to Buddy Holly, Liberace, Marilyn Monroe and Tim McGraw. However, this edition includes watching the ball drop at midnight on TV from Times Square and an “Auld Lang Syne” sing-along.

Allen said he began performing as Elvis in 2000 at restaurants and clubs in his native Dallas, but New Year’s Eve marked his first foray with a band.

“It was the first time I had gotten a big gig,” he said, so I’ll never forget it.”

A top-10 finalist in the 2011 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest in Memphis, Tenn., after winning a preliminary title in Myrtle Beach, Allen said being part of Legends “makes the Elvis act very authentic in itself.”

Still, it takes something internal to pull it off.

“Of course, I have to do my part in bringing that magic back,” Allen said. “And I’ve had to do it every night. It’s nice to be able to get that atmosphere before you go out there. It sets the mood, Elvis is already oozing even before I get into my act.”

Allen said he often spends Jan. 8 in Memphis for Elvis’ birthday anniversary.

“Before I’m an entertainer, I’m an Elvis fan, definitely,” he said. “We fans get together. I sing, and meet other guys who perform as Elvis. You get to meet and talk with them and get their stories.”

Any time another Elvis tribute artist asks Allen “how to do this” or that, he feels flattered. He said he also views Shawn Klush, the first Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest winner and an Elvis performer from 1997 through 2003 for Legends in Concert in Surfside Beach, at the time as the “heavyweight belt” holder for the genre.

Allen said paying tribute to Elvis doesn’t require a need to “overexude” or “make it raunchy.”

“Elvis did everything a certain way,” Allen said. “He didn’t have to overdo it because he was already sexy.”

To “be as true as you can” fulfills the formula for Allen.

He said the black leather, the rhinestones, jumpsuits, gold and the black sideburns made up only a piece of Elvis’ persona.

“He was an innovator of rock ‘n’ roll,” Allen said. “He had so many different musical influences, and he showed them all through his whole life. Blues, country, rockabilly …”

Allen remembered the roots sown for his own Elvis appreciation. He said his grandparents grew up right outside Branson, Mo., and after he was treated at age 8 or 9 to an Elvis tribute show, “I left and said I wanted to be Elvis when I grew up.”

Stirring memories

Rick Alviti of Greensboro, N.C., will headline the Elvis tribute at Sands Resort.

He said the role all year long entails “trying to bring back memories” for many people.

Every New Year’s Eve brings a different place for his act across the country, whether in his hometown of Niagara Falls, N.Y., or Los Angeles or Chicago.

Alviti, whose parents have a home in Longs, said every site brings “family and friends” together, and he’s looking forward to his first Myrtle Beach show in about five years.

Having built a fan base more than a decade ago at a former theater in downtown North Myrtle Beach, Alviti remembered his first New Year’s Eve as Elvis, there in 1999.

Previewing the event to shepherd in 2012, Alviti said he’ll recount Elvis’ early to middle stage years, then on to the Las Vegas era. He elaborated on the timeline for Elvis, using four chapters: early years, black leather/movie, 1968 comeback and Vegas.

Alviti said the ’68 TV special is “such a big time to emulate.” A DVD documentary of it, including the producers’ outtakes, fascinates Alviti, who remarked, “It’s really interesting to see how they did it.”

Such insight from a monumental moment on national TV also reminded Alviti of Elvis’ real-life side, off the stage.

“He was human, too,” Alviti said.

Echoing sentiment from Allen, Alviti said Elvis doesn’t deserve any stigma from his heavyset time when his life ended in 1977.

“He would want to be remembered from his heyday,” Alviti said. “He had it all: good looks, good moves, a good band and he was a good singer.”

That’s where Elvis tribute artists come in, and Alviti said he still picks up new biographical tidbits about Elvis when meeting someone who knew or worked with him.

Performances also generate a bond within fans, who also have a reunion with friends.

“They love Elvis, and they get to know you,” Alviti said. “They have memories with you. … It’s bringing people together.”

Alviti also said come New Year’s Eve, the time for Christmas songs has passed, and that the new year unfolds a new season.

Pretty soon, “I’ll start doing Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day songs.”

Fan club’s first year

Jeff and Anne Collins started the Elvis Fan Club of Myrtle Beach/Grand Strand in January, and they’ll wind up the year with a New Year’s Eve bash at Beach Colony Resort in Myrtle Beach.

Every month, the club has a dinner-out party, welcoming tribute artists and singers from any genre to perform as well.

Jeff Collins, also known as King Shazaam, said he not only will honor Elvis on Saturday on stage, but also Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, among his 55 “voices” mastered since his training in opera and theater.

The Collinses said Beach Colony contacted the club, inquiring about a New Year’s Eve party, a first for the hotel, Anne Collins said.

She said her husband of 30 years would not be portraying Elvis if not for Elvis fan clubs, and that they were members of three Charlotte-area groups, which “are all so supportive.”

The couple cited special, perhaps unsung, ways Elvis made other stamps in the music field, such as ensuring he had an outlet in his shows for including gospel music – for which he won his only Grammy Awards – as well as making sure his black background singers did not have to enter an establishment through different doors than him when civil rights were blooming, and with help from manager, Colonel Tom Parker, erecting speakers in the air on show sets.

“He changed so many things that people are not aware of,” Jeff Collins said.

The Collins pair said four club members competed this past summer in the regional round of the Elvis Tribute Artist Contest. The club also will have a party on Jan. 7, the eve of Elvis’ birthday, at Lulu’s Cafe.

Jeff Collins enumerated several similarities with his idol: a childhood of singing in church, growing up in a humble farming background, reaching 6 feet in height with size 11 shoes, coping with sinus problems and glaucoma, and bearing some distant Cherokee blood.

Performing in Elvis’ honor and celebrating his legacy fulfills a calling in Jeff Collins’ life

“I don’t ever want to lose the flavor,” he said. “It’s just me.”

He and Anne have coordinated birthday parties for people of all ages, from 6 to 95, and the Collins “get to see the ‘Elvis’ effect.”

Jeff Collins summed up “the ‘Elvis’ effect” that the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll shared in his 42 years on Earth.

“I believe God gave Elvis two huge gifts,” Collins said. “His musical talent, and the other gift was love. Elvis’ love for his fans – and for God – came to us through his music. When we share Elvis’ music, we receive that special love, and it pours out on us even today. Elvis might have left the building, but his music and love will never leave the planet.”

Contact STEVE PALISIN at 444-1764.