Elvis fans strike back

Elvis fans are beginning to flex their muscles as a potentially powerful lobby group.

Elvis fans are beginning to flex their muscles as a potentially powerful lobby group. Fed up with the gratuitiously belittling put-downs of a great man who isn't here to defend himself, they are becoming increasingly belligerent and ready to rise in defence of their hero.

Some keep a blacklist of magazines they won't subscribe to. Others boycott online merchandising sites which include a demeaning biography of Presley. Yet other web sites actively encourage people to send comments in reaction to what they consider to be unfair media articles. One such site is the news digest "Presleys in the Press" at <http://www.geocities.com/ep_first/mediaf/mediaindex.html>, maintained by the Elvis Legends Social Club of Canberra, Australia.

"There have been many rumours and inuendos about Elvis' life, behaviour, attitudes, and the reasons for his untimely death", say Club officials. "Noone claims he was a saint, but he wasn't the monster some people make him out to be. He was a human being who was also a good singer and entertainer, which is all he ever wanted to be. The pressures he was under were enormous, and he didn't cope well with fame and fortune. He wasn't helped by a greedy manager who ripped off other artists and Elvis himself. During the last two years of his life, Presley was a genuinely sick man, suffering the effects of a hereditary disorder inherited from his mother's side of the family.

"Presley, who had both Cherokee Indian and Jewish ancestry, was actually a religious, compassionate and very generous person who had great talent and a distinctive singing style. For his time and given his background, he was remarkably unfree of prejudices. He loved people - all people - and they loved him back. The intensity, love and longing in his voice still come through even now, a quarter of a century after his death. His appeal is ageless, timeless and international. Look at a balanced biography. In the end, deeds speak louder than words."