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Top Elvis star from Belfast still enjoys career that started from a "prank"

Jim `The King' Brown will mark the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death with a special concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Saturday night. Picture by Hugh Russell
Jim `The King' Brown will mark the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death with a special concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Saturday night. Picture by Hugh Russell Jim `The King' Brown will mark the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death with a special concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Saturday night. Picture by Hugh Russell

ELVIS tribute singer Jim Brown will perform a special concert in Belfast this weekend to mark the anniversary of the singer's death.

The concert, The Two Sides of Elvis: Elvis Gospel & Rock & Roll Show, will take place at The Waterfront Hall on Saturday night.

Jim `The King' Brown, who hails from north Belfast, has travelled the world for more than two decades with his tribute act.

He first performed as the singer at the The Dockers Club after his wife and aunt signed him up as a prank. But the performance led to a meeting with the late Belfast singer/songwriter, Bap Kennedy, who invited the father-of-five to London to record an album. He later signed a record deal with EMI records.

In the past 23 years, the former Post Office worker has seen his new calling take him all over the world, including being invited as a support act on Robbie Williams' first US tour.

After more than two decades on the road the 49 year-old said he still enjoys taking to the stage paying tribute to his musical hero.

But while he says his stage act took him off on "a completely new road in life, a new path he never dreamed off", he admits that the curtain will inevitably come down on his Elvis act at some point.

With turning 50 next year Jim said he may "come out from the cape" and trying something new and is even considering an album in his own name.