My grandad loved to tell us about the night he met Elvis

One of the black and white photographs immortalising the King’s visit to Prestwick shows a journalist sitting next to him taking notes.

The reporter in the photo is Ed Hodge’s grandfather, Ian Nelson, believed to be one of only two journalists to have had an audience with the singer that night and the only one to be photographed with him.

“He did the west coast beat and knew a lot of the staff at the airport,” Ed explained.

“He would get tip-offs about people coming in and met the likes of President Eisenhower, and golfers Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player when the Open was in Ayrshire.

“He got a call that night, rushed to the airport and got the interview. He found Elvis to be really approachable and charming, like the kid next door.”

Elvis avoided questions about his teenage girlfriend, Priscilla, but when Ian asked him if he would perform in Scotland, Elvis said: “I kind of like the idea of Scotland. I’m going to do a European tour and it would be nice to come back here.”

He never did, of course, but the picture of Ian asking the question came back into the family’s life more than once over the years.

“We had it framed in our family home in Perthshire, as did my grandparents, who lived in Yorkshire when I was growing up.

“We would go down on holiday to visit and he would tell me the story. I would see him rattling away on his typewriter, phoning in copy. He inspired me to get into journalism.

“He was 89 when he passed away in 2009, in a Dunblane nursing home, and he still loved telling the nurses the story of the night he met Elvis.”