Neil Sedaka

November 2014

 All photos: Kevin Cooper

NEIL Sedaka was – and still is – a huge fan of Elvis Presley but he stands by his criticism of the King’s version of one of his classic songs.

“He did it wrong, he did it off beat,” says the 75-year-old New Yorker of Solitaire, which was one of Presley’s standards during his live shows in the 70s.

“I’ve had much better versions – Shirley Bassey did it beautifully and there was Karen Carpenter’s and Andy Williams’ versions.”

He adds: “Although I certainly was a fan of Elvis. He was a phenomenon.”

Sedaka and his wife saw him perform the song in concert in Las Vegas in 1975, two years before his death at the age of 42.

“We went backstage and he told me he used to play me on the jukebox when he was in the army in Germany. He admired the high tenor male voice – he was a baritone.”

Adds Sedaka: “He was sick and very bloated but this was a legend so it was very exciting for us.”

Solitaire is among around 25 of his 700 songs that Sedaka believes will outlive him.

Others include Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Calendar Girl, (Is This The Way To) Amarillo, Love Will Keep Us Together, Oh Carol, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and Little Devil.

“They have become standards and I do them all in concert, of course,” he promises, talking about his latest tour which comes to the Royal Concert Hall next week.

Songwriting has earned Sedaka millions during his six-decade career, which started when he was just 13. He’d shifted over 25 million records before he was 23 and more than 50 years later his songs are still selling – (Is This The Way To) Amarillo, sung by Tony Christie, is the best selling single of the 21st century thanks to its re-release for Comic Relief in 2006 (and the Peter Kay video).

It took him six years to become a recording artist and he feared it wouldn’t last.

“My second record was a flop and RCA were going to drop me. It was called I Go Ape. Although it was a top ten record in your country because you have good taste,” he laughs. “In fact, it was a hit in many countries but because it flopped in the US I was about to be let go. Then the third record was Oh Carol, which sold three million copies. And there were ten top ten records in a row after that.”

The UK has been important for Sedaka during his career for a number of reasons.

“I had a remarkable comeback the 70s when I was living in England, thanks to Elton John. I’d been out of work for 13 years – I was a family man and did a limited amount of performances.

“Then I met Elton John and he turned out to be a big Neil Sedaka fan. He signed me to (his own label) Rocket Records and I came back to No. 1 with Laughter In The Rain.”

It has been ten years since he last played Nottingham, so what has he been doing?

“Twiddling my thumbs,” he jokes.

“I’m still writing, recording and performing at 75 years old,” a birthday he celebrated in Los Angeles with his children and grandchildren.

“I’ve been doing this for 61 years and I could have retired but I love what I do. There’s something about being in front of an audience that shoots adrenalin through you.”

This tour follows the release of a new album King Of Song, which plunders the demos he made in the early 60s.

“I made them in a small studio in New York and we’d make the demos hoping we could get a big artist to record them. Some of them became big hits but others I refer to as my forgotten children because they were never recorded.”

As well as Elvis, Shirley Bassey and The Carpenters, Frank Sinatra, Cher and Petula Clark enjoyed hits with Sedaka’s songs.

Who would he like to record one of his songs these days?

“Snow Patrol. I love that song,” he says, referring to Chasing Cars, the band’s only US hit. He also likes John Mayer.

So how does he write a hit song?

“I’m like an interior designer. I take different textiles, different fabrics, I listen to people I admire.... and I put all these fabrics together and make them Neil Sedaka.

“I usually start at the piano with a tune. It’s a little more difficult to write the lyrics but I’m fascinated with lyrics. They are like puzzle pieces and they make me work but I like a good challenge.”

Lyric writing is only a more recent pursuit having had the likes of Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody co-write most of his hits.

“It’s more real when I write my own lyrics because it comes from me,” he says.

“It’s like a look into my soul. Nobody puts words in my mouth anymore.”

Neil Sedaka, Royal Concert Hall, Tuesday November 4, £45 and £50, 0115 989 5555, trch.co.uk.

Tony Bennett

June 2010

HE has been crooning for 60 years, which means he predates rock ‘n’ roll. So what did Tony Bennett think when Elvis et al., came along in the mid-fifties?

He takes while getting there but the punchline is a surprise.

“Well, there was a gentleman by the name of Epstein who wrote a beautiful book eulogising Fred Astaire,” says Bennett.

“Of course he was a dancer but he introduced so many great songs from the American songbook. Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter would not make a move unless Fred Astaire introduced their songs.

“Mr Epstein said in this book that when Elvis Presley became famous good music died.”

He’s chuckling now.

“I think that’s pretty accurate,” he adds.

Eh!? Do you?

“Yeah, really.”

But that’s dismissing the past 55 years of popular music.

“I don’t like it. I’ve always kept the integrity. I don’t like to do something that’s just slam bang noise. People say I’m not with it if I don’t start screaming but I don’t scream, I sing properly.”

He may not have enjoyed his music but Bennett did like Elvis.

“I got along well with him. He was a very nice person and so handsome. I met him at Paramount Studios when he was in real top shape and he looked gorgeous. And he was a very genuine person.”

Did you tell him you didn’t like rock ‘n’ roll?

“I didn’t even bring it up,” he laughs.

Tony Bennett is the son of a grocer, born Anthony Dominick Benedetto 83 years ago next month, in Queens, New York.

“It was tough, “ he says.

“We grew up during the depression. My father died when I was ten and my mother had my brother, my sister and myself to raise. She’d work for one penny a dress. We were barely existing. It was unbelievable. I felt so bad for my mom who I loved so much. I vowed to go in to show business and somehow become famous enough to afford to buy her a home in the country. And that happened. Toward the end of her life she had a little peace in the country.”

As a teenager he’d sing while waiting tables, then performed with military bands throughout his overseas army duty during World War II.

The big break came in 1949 when Bob Hope noticed him singing in a Greenwich Village nightclub.

“He liked my singing so much that after the show he came back to see me in my dressing room and said, ‘Come on kid, you’re going to come to Paramount and sing with me.”

It was Hope who’d rename him.

“He didn’t care for my stage name (Joe Bari) and asked me what my real name was. He said, ‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett.’”

Bennett’s initial fame came via a string of Columbia singles in the early 1950s, including chart-toppers Because of You, Rags To Riches and Cold, Cold Heart.

He has since sold millions of records, sold out concerts worldwide and won fifteen Grammy Awards.

His latest album, Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook: Vol. 1, is the first of a series in which he has compiled some of his favourite recordings of songs by US songwriters.

“I learned from Sinatra to always do good songs. Don’t do any cheap songs. Don’t look down at the audience like they’re just imbeciles. So, I’ve always had the philosophy of giving them the best songs that were ever written. I’ve always delved in to the great American songbook.

“Columbia now want me to put out an album every year from the great American songbook.”

He adds: “In the United States we have a tradition like the French had with the Impresisonsits, with Ravel and Debussy, and in the painting world you had Monet and Van Gogh. In my country we had George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, a renaissance period during the twenties, thirties and forties which was tremendous and the songs will never die.”

What about us Brits, can’t we write a song?. What about The Beatles?

“Oh yeah, Paul McCartney is doing fantastic, he’s a great friend of mine. There’s the fella who wrote The Very Thought of You and Cherokee in the twenties and thirties, I forget his name (Ray Noble) but he was from Britain and wrote those beautiful songs. And, of course, there was Noel Coward.”

There are photographs and reviews in the Post files from previous visits he’s made to Nottingham. One headline, from a show review in 1986, reads ‘Bennett’s still on song after 37 years.’

“(Laughs) And now that’s 60 years.”

“Isn’t that wonderful that I’ve been playing there so many years? I love it.”

And no-one else has lasted so long.

“I don’t think anyone has. I’m just so fortunate, I’m in very good health and I’m completely active. It’s a blessing. I like to entertain people and make them feel good. It’s such a nice occupation.”

Retirement isn’t an option.

“I learned from the old masters. The Charlie Chaplins that I had read about, the people I met like Jack Benny and George Burns, the old timers. Their philosophy was, as long as the audiences are coming, never retire.”

Doesn’t the travelling get on his nerves?

“Not all all. Years ago it was very tough but I was young enough to take it. Now I fly on private planes and it’s very comfortable for my musicians and myself. We get right to whatever city we’re going to. It saves hours and the service is great.”

Frank Sinatra famously said of Tony Bennett: “he’s the best in the business.”

Quips Bennett: “What did he know?”

“His audiences came to my shows to find out why he liked me and that created full houses for me. He changed my life. And he was wonderful to me until the day he died. His last interview was with the New Yorker magazine and the woman said to him ‘When we make love we listen to your records, who do you listen to?’ and he said ‘Benedetto’”

He adds: “He was the sort of guy who, if he liked you, he always liked you, and if he didn’t, he’d tell everybody he didn’t like you,” he laughs.

“He was certainly one of a kind.”

Let’s have a Sinatra story...

“There was one time when Judy Garland was in trouble. She was at a hotel. I was playing the Waldorf Astoria and it was my opening night when Judy Garland’s son calls me up saying ‘my mother’s being beaten up’. My ex-wife said ‘call Frank’ who was in Florida finishing up a movie. So I called and said Judy Garland’s being beaten up and I’m about to walk on stage, I can’t leave the theatre. Maybe you could help her out. He said ‘I’ll get back to you’. 15 minutes later Judy Garland called me and said ‘I asked for help, now I have four lawyers in my apartment and 300 policemen down in the street.’”

He adds laughing: “Then Sinatra called me up and said ‘is that all right for you kid?’”

Gig

Who: Tony Bennett

Where: Royal Concert Hall

When: Tuesday, 8pm

Tickets: £60, £46, £39, 0115 989 5555

Mary Wilson (The Supremes)

January 2009


SHE has been known to give Diana Ross a good verbal hiding when recalling her days with The Supremes but sadly Mary Wilson is steering clear of the subject today.
"I'm not going to get into that," she says, matter of factly.
How about the story of you dating Tom Jones?
"Oh my God, you've been reading my books. I can't talk about it – you have to read the books."
Hate it when that happens.
She will admit they used to hang out in Las Vegas with Tom and Elvis Presley.
"Unlike a lot of us he was not as partying as people thought," she says of The King. Some of us enjoyed what we were doing. I think maybe he wasn't having as much fun as we were (laughs).
"People think he was this wild guy but I think he was kind of shy, an unassuming guy. Whereas some of us were just crazy wild and loving it all."
Did you ever sing with him?
"No. I didn't get that opportunity."
You were too busy partying, weren't you?
"(Laughs) That's right. Somebody had to."
One of her books – Dreamgirl: My Life As A Supreme – was turned into the hit movie Dreamgirls. Sort of.
And this is another touchy subject.
"The film was loosely based on The Supremes but it's not the story of The Supremes," says Wilson. "I think the guys were inspired by us but they took A LOT of our history. They should have paid us," she adds with a manic laugh.
As a result she describes its success – the film starred Beyonce and Eddie Murphy – as "bittersweet".
Did they mislead people about the real story of The Supremes?
"Well, that's hard to say and I'm not going to get into that. It's a little too legal. I'll just say they should have paid us. But it still was a beautiful piece, it really was."
It was in 1958 that Mary Wilson met Florence Ballard while at school. The pair were recruited by Milton Jenkins, manager of male vocal group The Primes, for a female spin-off called The Primettes. It was Wilson who invited Diana Ross to join. All three were living in a housing project in Detroit.
As The Primes became the Temptations, The Primettes moved to Motown and turned into The Supremes, and for the next 15 years would enjoy huge success with hits like Stop In The Name Of Love, Baby Love, You Keep Me Hanging On and I Second That Emotion.
Up until the Spice Girls they were the world's most famous and best-selling girl group.
But their story wasn't that simple.


The Supremes with Mary Wilson (left)

Encouraged by label boss Berry Gordy, Diana Ross was pushed forward as a group leader and from 1967 they were renamed Diana Ross & The Supremes. Ballard, unhappy with the change, quit and died in poverty nine years later.
Her replacement was Cindy Birdsong, formerly one of Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles but by 1970 Ross had left for a solo career.
Since then Wilson has pretty much been living off her time with the group, even touring an exhibition of Supremes gowns around the UK last year.
"It's not just the gowns. It's the memorabilia, video footage and audio, so it's really about the time."
So were you the hoarder of the three?
"I inherited them. Everyone left so I inherited everything. I kept them in my garage."
So it's a lot of short dresses?
"No, long gowns. We have a couple of short ones in there, too. We were into hot pants back then, too. We have minis, maxis. All these things are coming back."
Her latest step into the past comes with a tour to mark the 50th anniversary of Motown. Billed as Once In A Lifetime – Motown Legends Live 2009, it'll arrive in Nottingham this summer.
Wilson has worked with all of her co-stars in the past but, with the exception of her and Martha Reeves, they're really background players. The Commodores are without Lionel Richie. Jr, Walker's All Stars don't include their leader (he died in 1995) while The Miracles are minus Smokey Robinson.
Lionel and Smokey are busy doing their own tours.
"Oh, he's fabulous," she says of Robinson. "He's a fun guy, he's great looking, he still sounds wonderful and he puts on a fabulous show."
I tell her that he came to Nottingham two years ago.
"I hope that after I do this particular show with all my friends that I'll have the chance to come over and do my own show because obviously then you can do more of what you really do now. On this particular show I'll probably just do all of the hits, which is fun, you know."
So what would her own show include?
"It's really a variety of things. I still do all of The Supremes hits. That's a given. But then I do some Sting songs, some Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder."
The last time she came here was on the Dancing In The Streets tour with Reeves and Edwin Starr, who lived in Chilwell up until his death in 2003.
"We started out in the early days together, back in the 60s so I knew him very well. We were kind of like family. Everyone pretty much kept up with each other throughout the years. Whenever we'd get back together, like on that tour, we all went over to Edwin's place and had dinner and talked about the old times."
"I just love it," she says of the touring.
"You're very lucky when you find a job or a career that you really love and you can do it all your life. You don't have to be at the top of the charts for it to be enjoyable."
What does she think of current girl groups? Not so much the Spice Girls as they're dated now...
"(Laughs) If they're dated then what am I?"
You're classic.
"I'm timeless. That's what it is. In terms of the newer groups, I'm 64 years old so my children who are in their 30s and my grandchildren are the ones who listen to the music. They're really up on it. When I get in the car I turn their music off and turn on the soft stations (laughs). That tells you where I am."
She adds: "I am very proud when the girl groups are there because that's what I represent. They're doing a good job of representing."

Once In A Lifetime – Motown Legends Live Tour 2009 comes to the Arena on Wednesday June 24.

Diary

Laughing boy Lou Reed - "I don't think you understand much"


MONDAY Andy Abraham is to release a Very Best Of album after the Eurovision debacle. Horse, A, Dead, Flogging...

TUESDAY Apparently the Dalai Lama was queuing up for a take away in town on Friday night. Almost as bizarre as this afternoon's protests in the Market Square against his visit... by BUDDHISTS!? Called mid-afternoon to see if I wanted to talk to Russell Watson ahead of his summer date here. Sure? At 8am tomorrow. Oh dear no.

WEDNESDAY Lou Reed proves to be the nightmare interviewee. As expected - despite reassurances from his 'people' that he's a "nice guy" and a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm - hence, a sense of humour. Sadly that was absent and he spent 12 minutes refusing to give an opinion on anything. "I don't think you understand much" he growled.

THURSDAY
Chris Rock is as good as the hype at the Royal Concert Hall.

FRIDAY Tommy Steele's interview went in EG today minus any reference to the "I showed Elvis the sites of London in the fifties" material. Steele refuses to talk about it. Probably because it's nonsense and a PR stunt for his latest theatre show Dr Dolittle that has backfired somewhat.

Listening to: Al Green; Dolly Parton; Radiohead; Sonny J; The Chameleons; Wedding Present

Alice Cooper

November 2007

Every night, you'll find Alice Cooper in a straitjacket swinging from a noose. It's the end of a typical evening that has seen him abuse his bride with a rapier knife. There are disappearing coffins, electric chairs... and Hillary Clinton doesn't fare too well either this time. The next morning, without fail - even on tour - he'll be up early for a round a golf. By teatime he and family will be gathering round the TV to watch Deal Or No Deal.
The lives of Vincent Furnier - a married (for 31 years) father of three - and his sociopath alter-ego, are worlds apart.
Not that it was always the case.
"I came so close to destroying myself so many times because I didn't know when I was supposed to be Alice, I didn't know when I was supposed to be me," says the 59-year-old from his Albuquerque hotel room.
He admits that there were many times he could have gone the way of many of his rock star friends.
But golf saved him. Sort of.
"There's a time when you draw the line in the sand and decide - am I going to die or am I going to live? Iggy, Steve Tyler, Ozzy all did that. I decided I'd rather make 20 more albums."
And play golf.
"Yeah, that had a lot to do with me living. I had to find something that was going to take that time up. In the business I'm in, you really only have to be responsible from nine to 11 at night. The rest of the time you can do what you like, which is horrible for an alcoholic."
While most of his contemporaries are dead - he still wears a friendship ring given to him by George Harrison in 1972 - Cooper continues to play arenas. Getting off the booze is one thing but to still be on top after four decades... is that down to the theatrics?
"I honestly think it's more about the music. The theatrics are the icing on the cake. People want to hear Billion Dollar Babies, Eighteen, Poison, School's Out, Elected and all those songs. We're doing 28 songs in this show, including all the hits. When I go and see The Who or the Rolling Stones, I want to hear those songs."
That said, he'll never take the guillotine, noose and general gorefest away.

"I think people would hate it. There'll never be an unplugged Alice Cooper. I could very well do that but I'm never going to."
The theatrics have, he admits, overshadowed recognition of his songwriting for the most part.
"I think I've battled that all my life. The theatrics are certainly more sensational but if you take the theatrics out of it and just listen to the records... you know even the critics that hated us at the beginning came around and said 'you know what, these are really good songs'".
John Lennon cited Elected as his favourite song at one point and Bob Dylan once described him as "an underrated songwriter".
Says Cooper: "That was one of the great compliments of my life. For somebody like Bob Dylan to have ever even have listened to any of my songs..."
The Pyscho-Drama Tour is a horror fest that includes a gallows, straightjacket and a Hillary Clinton parody. Two years ago, when he last played Nottingham Arena, it was Paris Hilton going under the knife. Prior to that Britney Spears - he'd decided to give her a rest as she was pregnant.
"Who knew she was going to be so worthy of inclusion in the show," he laughs.
"I didn't see the nervous breakdown coming.
"This year, because we have the elections in the States right now, Hillary Clinton seems to have walked in to our path. Though the Spice Girls are so tempting. You might see a little take-off of them."
Has ever gone too far?
"In the beginning we didn't know what too far was but really Alice has always been a gentleman. There's a certain elegance about the character. He's very much like Hannibal Lecter. He'd slit your throat but he'd never swear at you."
On the other hand, the most damage Vincent Furnier is likely to do you is to sit you through episode after episode of Deal Or No Deal.
"My family got so addicted to this," he says of the US version of the show (though he is well aware of Noel Edmonds).
"We have a friend who is living with us at the moment because she's at college and she's in the second stages of becoming a contestant. If she gets through, we'll be the family in the audience going 'Take the money! No, don't take the money!'.
"It is the most exciting thing in our family right now."
There's no new album to plug with this tour but there is a book, Golf Monster: A Rock 'n' Roller's 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict. Rather than be a tutorial it mixes his passion for the sport with a few stories. Like the time he worked with Salvador Dali.
"Dali hands down," he says when I ask who was the barmiest, Dali or Frank Zappa.
"He was totally unpredictable. He spoke six languages and when he was talking to you one word would be in Portuguese, one in French, one in English... you could only understand about one in every six words. On top of that he's speaking in some sort of surrealistic imaginary language.
"At one point during the Press conference when we worked together they asked me what it is like working with Dali? And I said 'I've no idea. I haven't understood a word he said for all three days'
"He used to call my manager, Shep Gordon, Mr Blemmings.
"And we never figured out who Mr Blemmings was."
He had the same trouble with Peter Sellers who always referred to Cooper as Inspector Maurice Escargot.
"It was at the time he was doing Clouseau when I'd dressed Alice as a kind of 1940s detective for the shows, like a Sam Spade character. He'd call me that at every show. He'd come to them all. I just adored the guy. I never saw his dark side. It was hard for me to understand that there even was a dark side. But I didn't see a dark side to Keith Moon, either. Only the insanity."

The book also recalls the time he ran against Nixon for president - a PR stunt and nothing more, he says.
"I hate politics with a passion. I don't understand how rock 'n' roll got in bed with politics."
I blame Bono.
"But Bono does things that are kind of social. I don't understand how rock 'n' roll or acting gets in to 'hey, you should elect this guy'.
"Because, honestly, we're rock stars because we're morons.
"Rock 'n' roll should be pretty mindless as far as I'm concerned."

Possibly the best story is the time he pointed a gun on Elvis. How so?
"I was invited up to see Elvis," he says.
"We all get in an elevator and there's Liza Minnelli, Chubby Checker and Linda Lovelace and the next thing I'm standing there with a gun on him. He was trying to show me how to take a gun out of somebody's hand.
"So I'm standing there with a loaded .38 on Elvis and a little guy on my shoulder is going 'shoot him! It'll be the greatest Press you'll ever get'."

Scotty Moore interview

March 2004

IT was a Sunday morning and the 22-year-old guitarist was waiting around his apartment in Belz Avenue, Memphis, TN, for the arrival of an auditionee for his band the Starlite Wranglers. They were signed to local record label Sun Records but needed a new singer.

When the 19-year-old finally arrived, Moore was taken aback by his look. “He had on black pants and a pink stripe down the legs, a see-through shirt...” It was all topped off with long greased-back hair. “He was taking after the New York boys, with those ducktails.” It’s fair to say he was a bit odd looking. “For the time he was, yes. He was just a wild and crazy kid.” But not overly impressive.

After running through every song he knew, Elvis Presley went home. Moore would later tell Sun Records boss Sam Phillips that he was just an OK singer, though his sense of rhythm was impressive. The following day, on the insistence of Phillips, the trio went in to the studio after work and tried out a few more numbers. During a break, with everyone feeling discouraged, Elvis suddenly launched in to a hectic version of the blues hit That’s All Right. Moore and Black joined in with this “goofing around” and inadvertently created the sound that Philips said he had been looking for.

Moore remembers: “Just a couple of days later, Sam had took the cut of the song down to a local disc jockey, Dewey Phillips. He liked it, so he started playing it and started getting calls for it.”

It was July 1954 and popular music would never be the same again. What the trio created that day was wild, sexy and — most importantly — mums and dads hated it. “We didn’t think about it at the time,” he says of the significance of those days. Does he now? “Well, yeah, but you look back on a lot of things.” Is he proud of what he was part of? “Oh yeah.”

Scotty Moore, now 72, will be reliving those sessions at the Rescue Rooms next week. Against doctors orders. In December he had brain surgery to remove blood that was trapped between his brain and skull (subdural hematoma). Physically he is fine, but until he is fully recovered Moore has trouble getting his words out. For parts of the interview, his long-term partner Gail Pollock takes over. “I can listen better than I talk,” he chuckles after one such incident.

“We knew what we were playing was different but we didn’t figure it was anything spectacular. As far as we knew it was just going to be a flash in the pan.” As it took off, Scotty signed up as Elvis’ manager and was, he remembers, the band’s leader. Under the name of The Blue Moon Boys the trio played across America for the next year, eventually adding DJ Fontana on drums.

Soon after Colonel Tom Parker began managing Presley, he signed to RCA and in March 1956 Elvis Presley’s first single on the label was released. With Heartbreak Hotel the names of Elvis Presley and rock ’n’ roll became international phenomena. Moore played with Presley for a total of 14 years, right up to the famous 1968 Comeback Special, which helped Presley shake off the years of poor movies and regain his status.

Had he changed? “Not really. He was pretty much the same guy. People always change as they grow older, though.” Was he arrogant? “Oh no, he wasn’t arrogant. Maybe a little more settled. Until he got that whole group around him. Before he got cut up.” He means the Memphis Mafia, the dozen or so men that surrounded Presley everywhere he went for much of his career. Many blame them for failing to protect Presley from self-destructing. Moore blames them for keeping him away.

The ’68 Special was the last time he even spoke to Presley. “I couldn’t get to him. If I called I would never be able to speak to him. It’d be the people around him. And they wouldn’t let you talk to him.” Why did they do that? “Protection. I might get in his pocket book (wallet).”

Moore had already been working as a record producer and boss of his own studio throughout the 60s and 70s. He was in the studio when a secretary told him of Presley’s death in the summer of 1977. Even though he’d neither seen nor spoke to him in nine years, Presley’s failing health was common knowledge. But Moore says he wasn’t expecting it. “Of course not. I wasn’t with him so I don’t know what he had in his mind, what he was thinking, what he was doing.”

Moore continued to work as a recording engineer — he worked on Ringo Starr’s 1970 album Beaucoup of Blues — although he was enticed into recording himself once again, first by Carl Perkins in 1992 then five years later by Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Jeff Beck. The trio were among the guests on his album with D.J. Fontana called All The King’s Men. In recent years he has been happy to take part in Elvis events, particularly revisiting the original 50s material on which he played such an important part. Asked for one moment that stands out, all he says is: “I’m proud that the music has held up all these years.”

Scotty Moore facts:
Born Winfield Scott Moore III December 27, 1931 on a farm near Humboldt, Tennessee. Began playing the guitar aged eight. At 16 joined the Navy serving in Korea and China. Set up his first record label/recording studio in 1958. First solo album, The Guitar That Changed the World, released 1964, featured instrumental versions of early Presley hits. Gibson Guitars produced a limited edition Scotty Moore ES-295 guitar. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Recorded an album in Nashville with Nottingham-born guitarist Alvin Lee, due for release next month.

The tattoo studio

I really thought I was going to faint. I'd already had an Elvis signature done on the left arm around four years ago and not batted an eye-lid. It had felt like someone scraping their fingernail on my skin - not pleasant but not what you'd call painful, either. This time round the blood had drained from my face, I was covered in sweat and felt as limp as a dunked digestive. A six-foot fan was blowing in my face, with wet towels and water to drink.
Don't stand up, I was told - the last bloke that did keeled over and smashed his chin open on a coffee mug.
There you are ladies and gentlemen. A grown man, 33 years old, 6 ft 1 and 15 stone, acting like a big girl's blouse.
The tattoo was a Japanese symbol for my wife's name (I know, sweet) - it wasn't exactly a big job.
Feel no shame, says Danny Hawkin, 42, he of Danny's Tattoo Studio just off Sneinton Market, as I remind him of the incident last year.
"Ninety per cent of it is nerves," he says. "Even if you've had 20 tattoos as soon as you sit in that chair, bumph, your stomach goes.
"I've drawn a design on somebody in the waiting room with a pen. Next minute he's passed out."
Dutch courage doesn't help either. Call me a big girl if you will - it would have helped if I was one.
Women have a higher threshold of pain, says Danny, who has been tattooing in Nottingham for 20 years.
"The average guy will have it on his arm and it progresses on to his chest, on to his back, on to his whatever, as he gets covered.
"Women will come straight in and have one at the bottom of their spine, which is one of the most sensitive areas. And they don't bat an eyelid.
"You have some great big bodybuilder come in, he has a little thing on his arm and bumph, he's out."
Andy Cole, the Manchester United ace born in The Meadows, was man about it when he called last year to have a cross tattooed on his arm with In God We Trust written underneath.
"He phoned his mate up while he was having it done and offered him £10,000 to come down there and then and have one as well," says tattooist Joey Lawn, 44. He didn't show.
You see, some will and some won't - it's just that more and more of us are going under the needle.
The stigma - that tattoos mean biker, skinhead or just plain old nutter - has clearly faded.
The tattoo is more fashion accessory than war paint.
"When I first started 20 years ago the average person you'd tattoo would be the bikers, skinheads and punks," says Danny.
"It's totally changed now. You couldn't say that we get any certain type of customer any more. Fifty per cent of customers are women, 18-25 is probably the average age.
"But we have tattooed barristers, solicitors, bank managers, a mortician, doctors, police and quite a few footballers.
"The oldest woman was 74, the oldest man 86. He wanted a tattoo all his life but his missus didn't like them. Then she died so that was his chance to have a tattoo.
"He had about three done in the period of two weeks."
The popularity of tattoos during the 20th Century exploded with rise of rock music.
"I remember the Rock City crowd coming in and getting tattooed. Then it was the punks"
Marc Fairburn, 41, tattooed members of heavy rockers Iron Maiden during the late seventies.
These days it's not just the rock stars doing it - pop groups, film stars, footballers have all added to the boom on body decoration.
David Beckham is perhaps the best known of recent years.
"Times have changed and it's more acceptable. Because Beckham has done it, everyone wants one.
"The amount of people that have had their kids' names in old English across the bottom of the back is incredible."
By far the most popular tattoos are black tribal designs and Celtic symbols.
Joey: "Some days you will do nothing else."
Danny: "I hate em, they bore me silly. I didn't come in to tattooing to do thick black lines."
But names are still popular - of wives, girlfriends and pop groups. Not always a good idea.
"We will cover over half a dozen names every week," says Danny.
"I'd say 50% will have names covered over again. You will still get people who will come in for a tattoo with a group's name, like Steps or something stupid like that. But in ten years no-one will have heard of them.
If you drive past the National Ice Centre the studio is distinctive for the Honda VT1100 American classic motorbike sat in the window.
There are a thousand and one designs on the walls in the reception, although, says Danny: "We encourage people to bring their own designs in. It's a personal thing."
To the rear is the studio, which looks more like a hairdressers - all black and white tiles, clinical and clean. As they should be, says Danny.
Each tattoo studio is regulated by the local health authority and inspections are regular.
It is a long way from the grubby seaside parlours that were so common in the post-war years.
"Years ago people had a tattoo at the coast and not every city had a tattooist. Each city now has at least a dozen tattoo studios in it."
Nottingham has 11.
Tattooists Danny, Joey and Marc, (the fourth, Paul Polowski, is upstairs in the body piercing studio) certainly don't look like hairdressers.
Each, of course, has countless tattoos.
Danny says: "I think whether I was tattooed or not I've gone bald and I can look intimidating."
He doesn't know how many tattoos he now has but he remembers the first, aged 13.
"My earliest memory of wanting one was when I was six.
"I was in Hyson Green and there were some workmen outside on the roads and one of them had one. That was it for me.
"You could have stick-on tattoos that you got with bubble gum but I wanted a real one.
"At 13 I had a scroll with my name on and Elvis written underneath it.
"My dad wasn't too pleased. He went barmy. But there was nothing going to stop me having more. I just hid them."
He started tattooing as soon as he could.
"You can practise on pig skin but it's not like the real thing. The best way is to practise on your mates."
No college course exists, it is still a case of do-it-yourself.
But not everyone is suited to the trade.
"They've got to be very level-headed," says Danny.
His only visible ones are on his ear lobes and 'love' and 'hate' on his hands - something he advises against.
"We will try our hardest to talk them out of visible tattoos. Ninety per cent of the people in my experience that have had their hands tattooed have regretted it."
The increase in popularity has grown in line with an increase in skills, with more colours and sharper designs. Portraits of pets, pop stars and people now commonplace.
"We had a couple that travelled from Halifax, their son had died of meningitis. They both had a portrait of him on their backs. It was a difficult thing to do because you are dealing with someone who has just lost their son."
In the UK it is illegal to tattoo anyone under 18. Each of Danny Hawkin's seven children will wait until they are 18, but many won't.
"There are a lot of 15-year-old girls out there who look 20 and that's a hell of a responsibility.
"You can be married at 16 so you should be able to get tattooed at 16.
"The only problem is you'd end up tattooing somebody even younger who looked 16. So I'd say keep it at 18."
Racial tattoos are another big no-no.
"We never have done any in 20 years though we have been asked plenty of times.
"They get a bit funny actually when you say no, but it's wrong. Simple as that. "In fact, there should be a law against them."