The King and I: Glaswegian is Scotland's top Elvis Presley tribute

Jun 18 2009 By Ben Spencer

Elvis Presley

ELVIS is alive and well and living in Glasgow - sort of.

Springburn singer Malcolm King, 40, proved he really is "the king" last weekend after he was crowned Scotland's best Elvis tribute at a competition in Edinburgh.

Malcolm left an audience of 300 Elvis fans all shook up as he performed three songs on his way to winning the title.

And the achievement by the dad-of-three is made even more remarkable by the fact he scooped the king's crown during only his second ever public performance as the great man.

Malcolm will now travel to Elvis' hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, in January to perform with England and Ireland's best Elvis tributes at a special showcase event.

But former golf range worker Malcolm admitted he almost never attempted being an Elvis tribute because of the bad reputation so many other tributes have had.

He said: "For years I had always thought about doing an Elvis tribute but always held back from this because of the way people perceived them.

"A lot of them were scoffed at as almost caricatures or a joke.

"Then I saw The World's Greatest Elvis show on the BBC a few years ago. The guys on the show were doing a great job and I thought there is some credibility in doing this.

"I thought I had the look and the sound and could do it.

"My partner Paul Crosby, who does the sound and lighting, and I try to make everything as authentic as possible.

"We even brought the jump suits I wear over from America!

"But I've actually only been doing the tribute act for the past few months.

"We only did our first real gig a few weeks ago and technically the competition would have been my second gig.

"So it was incredible to go up and compete against some of the best tribute acts in the world and walk away with the title!"

Malcolm performed in front of an audience of 300 Elvis fans at Edinburgh's Corn Exchange in a competition organised by the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club.

He wowed the audience and a panel of judges with a rendition of three songs - Just Pretend, You Gave Me A Mountain and Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Glasgow's own "king" is now looking forward to travelling to Memphis for the first time at the start of next year.

The life long Elvis fan also now hopes to make a living from his talent at impersonating his idol.

Todd Slaughter, secretary of the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club, praised Malcolm.

He said: "It was a great competition at the weekend and everyone enjoyed it.

"I don't actually know too much about this guy. But we opened the competition up to anyone who came along and he was very good."