Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Return of the King..
Local Elvis superstar Jim Brown back home for a spectacular show
In a world already fairly well populated with Elvis impersonators it’s a wonder how Jim “The King” Brown manages to stand head and shoulders above the rest.
His versions of rock songs in the style of the great hip-shaker – from Nirvana to Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix to Frank Sinatra – set him apart as something a little bit different.
“When EMI started promoting my Gravelands album,” he explains. “They said, ‘Jim, you’re not an Elvis impersonator. You’re an interpreter – the world’s first Elvis interpreter’.”
If that sounds a bit pretentious don’t worry, it isn’t. It’s bang on the money. Jim backs it up by his actions, recording only songs he thinks people would love to hear Elvis sing: “What’s the point of recording Elvis songs, record what? The master has already recorded all the masterpieces.”
And anyway, Jim is one of the most down-to-earth characters you are likely to meet, certainly in showbiz.
He’s an accidental entertiner performer – despite of being of a “born worrier” who suffers from pre-show nerves and who only made it to the stage on the back of a prank by his aunt and sister.
Jim says: “It was the first time I was in the Docker’s Club, and the only time I’d ever sung was at private family gatherings, like a wedding or a wake, so it took me by surprise to hear the MC Brian Mccann calling out my name and I was thinking ‘what the hell?’ and those two were sitting on the other side of the table laughing their heads off.
“I’m not getting up there, I said, you must be joking but they pushed me up... I’ve always been into music and as a child I loved Elvis so I just belted out The Wonder Of You and Suspicious Minds.
“I remember afterwards running out the door and going straight to the cigarette machine – I didn’t smoke but I needed a cigarette, and I dropped all these pound coins and loose change over the floor.
“The blood drained from me, I was white as a sheet and I nearly slid down the wall, shaking hands lighting the cigarette and Brian came out and said, ‘Kid are you a singer, are you in a band or anything? Kid, you tore that place apart in there, raised the roof. You learn half a dozen numbers I’ll stick you on on a Saturday night in here and I’ll pay you – and that’s basically how I got started in music. And then I left the Post Office, I did 14 or 15 years in there straight out of school.
“Then the next thing Bap Kennedy was home from London – I worked with his dad Jim Snr and his brothers at the sorting office – and Jim told Bap (inset), there’s this guy I work with sounds like Elvis. Bap told me later he told his dad, ‘f*** away off – nobody sounds like Elvis’.
“But Jim took him to the Dockers club – and after I did my bit Bap stuck his hand out and says, ‘my name is Bap Kennedy, will you come to London with me to do an album? When I heard those songs the hairs stood up on the back of my neck’.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Jim joined Bap in London and recorded the album Gravelands – the premise being that all of the songs were by artists who had died. So there’s Come As You Are by Nirvana, Love Will Tear
Us Apart by Joy Division, All Or Nothing by The Small Faces and No Woman No Cry by Bob Marley in an impeccable selection. Soon John Peel got involved as did Chris Evans, Chris Tarrant and Bob Geldof and Gerry Anderson back home. Since those heady days, Jim has forged a great career, travelling the world and wowing fans and was planning a new album – until, of course the pandemic struck.
But like so many in the industry he just had to get on with it. “I was really worried,” he says. “Unemployed for the first time ever – I’d worked since leaving school and and that’s the way I wanted it – and tried getting jobs to tide us over...”
Thankfully, things are looking a little bit brighter and Jim is back and raring to go.
He added: “Yes, the first two gigs we played were in Bad Nauheim, Germany, the European Elvis Festival, a big outdoor thing. That was a great way to resume duties... I worked here in September, October, played the Clayton Hotel with JP Mac – Cash Returns – for the King and Cash show. It was an amazing night, not just saying that, but the atmosphere was electric in the room.
“The audience, I don’t know whether that’s to do with the pandenic, whether everyone is hungry to get out and enjoy themselves. But people were coming up and on Facebook they were saying, ‘Do it again, do it again’ so we stuck two dates in at the end of December and they’re already starting to shift...
“Of course, yeah, I was nervous, I’m nervous anyway – my wife would tell you – my stomach turns, it’s already started knowing I’m doing a gig on Saturday night, the oul butterflies in the stomach any time I think about it.
“But nerves are good, as long as it’s not bad nerves, they keep you on your toes, make you more determined to give your all, make sure the punters are satisfied...
“You’d think with me being experience, 25 years later, it would have settled a wee bit but it hasn’t – it’s just me, I’m a bit of a worrier and I’ll continue to worry, make sure everything’s right.”
We’re pretty sure it will be just fine... Jim ‘The King’ Brown and Cash Returns play the Clayton Hotel on December 27&28. Tickets available from eventbrite.co.uk...
Jim took him to the Dockers club – and after I did my bit Bap stuck his hand out and says, my name is Bap Kennedy, Will you come to London with me to do an album?.