Lochgelly man Richard Carroll says the new Elvis film is helping him pursue his dream job as a tribute act.
Richard, 55, took voluntary redundancy in January 2022 after 23 years as an offshore radio operator on a North Sea oil rig.
He has since been following his dream of becoming an Elvis Presley tribute act – and has secured his biggest gig yet due to the release of the Baz Luhrmann-directed biopic on the legendary singer.
The Bathgate Cinema in East Lothian has invited Richard to perform two one-hour sets of the King of Rock and Roll’s finest tracks straight after the 7pm screening of the film on Saturday, June 25.
“This is going to be the largest solo event I have done so far,” Richard says. “I am just hoping in the next few months that I will get a few more gigs because there is an escalation of people contacting me for work.
“I feel there is a little momentum and I want to use that to make a living.”
Richard’s long journey to becoming an Elvis performer is outlined in the following sections:
- Childhood heartbreak
- Offshore struggles
- Elvis transformation
Childhood heartbreak
Forging a career as an Elvis tribute came late in Richard’s working life, but he was always a huge fan of the former Graceland resident’s music.
“I have been singing to myself and to his records for 40 years,” he recalls. “I have forgotten more songs than I remember, which is about 200.
“I remember feeling crushed just four days before my 11th birthday when Elvis passed away. I felt this huge depression when he died. I was heartbroken.
“All of the way through my early years I was singing his songs and watching his movies.
“I didn’t so much want to be an Elvis tribute act but I always took my hat off to his tributes and I found my voice and vocal ability just with Elvis.”
Richard was content to sing Elvis songs to himself around the house. Prior to last year, his only public singing experiences were in bands at school in Livingston and at the Royal Air Force, for whom he served between 1984 and 1996.
Offshore struggles
Richard began working offshore in 1998 and eventually found it a challenge mentally.
“I felt my life was disappearing and, with spending half of my life offshore I felt I was in prison.
“I worked for three weeks at home and then three weeks away. For the time away you might as well have been on the moon, or you may as well be in a prison, because you never know if you are going to have Christmases off. You also miss birthdays.
“I became depressed. That was 15 years in and the more I thought about it the more depressed I felt.
“Covid made me realise how much I missed being at home and how much there was to be living for.”
Elvis transformation
Last year he found himself in a music shop on the hunt for a guitar for his son Mark’s 18th birthday.
“While he was busy with the guitar I was looking at this microphone underneath the glass counter so I thought I would give it a go and see how it sounded,” says Richard, who has lived in Lochgelly, Fife, since 2010.
“I got some Elvis backing tracks and sounded terrible to begin with but I persevered as I knew my vocal ability could return with a bit of practice. People began telling me I could do something with this.”
In November 2021 he purchased his first jumpsuit and his new career as tribute act Echoes Of Elvis had officially begun. Two months later he took voluntary redundancy from Transocean, his employer of 17 years, to give him the time and finances to pursue it.
‘I am not shy of getting up and singing’
Richard has sung at social clubs, weddings, funerals and competitions, including this year’s European Elvis Championships in Birmingham.
“I have done a wedding and a few other gigs and the people I have performed for have really liked it and have been very surprised,” he says.
“I have been to a couple of competitions but I have not been very successful due to a combination of a poor song choice and your face having to fit for a while before you get your feet under the table.
“It is a steep learning curve but I am more and more enjoying it. I am not shy of getting up and singing in front of people.
“At no point have I had cold feet. My brother Philip knew I could sing and asked me to sing at his wedding, which I did.”
‘There is a responsibility, it’s crazy’
Supporting Richard in his endeavours are wife Elena, 43, who works for Well Pharmacy across Fife, son Mark, now 19, and daughter Lara, 13.
“Elena is not a super Elvis fan, though she does likes him, and is supportive,” he says. “I am the one getting dressed up in a jumpsuit and I grow my sideburns so I don’t have to stick them on, so she is having to put up with that.
“I will be singing at home for two to three hours a day easy to keep my vocal ability.
“The difference between when I started to where I am no is like chalk and cheese. I have improved a lot.
“I can now see my wife nodding her head and tapping her feet when I sing.
When you put on a jumpsuit it is like putting on a superman cape”
“I am not one of these people looking for fame, notoriety and getting on the radio. I am just happy doing what I am doing. If I am earning a living I can’t ask for more and if this is singing Elvis songs then it is the perfect job for me.
“I can guarantee I am having more fun than anyone watching me because I am a fan.
“When you put on a jumpsuit it is like putting on a superman cape. You just feel like there is a responsibility, it’s crazy.
“My jumpsuits cost a lot of money from America; it is a proper suit – there is nothing Halloween about this.
“When you look at people and they can’t take their eyes off you it beggars belief what it must have been like to be Elvis.”
Elvis opens in cinemas across the country from Friday, June 24 2022.
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