Elvis at The O2 exhibition

This weekend I went to see the new Elvis exhibition at the O2, apparently the biggest display of Elvis memorabilia ever put together in Europe with over 300 artefacts from the Presley archvie, some never seen outside of Graceland before.

Although I've never been as obsessed with him as some, I have still always loved Elvis and one of my life's ambitions has always been to visit Graceland in Memphis (along with Nashville and Dollywood of course). Since that's looking increasingly unlikely as time goes by this exhibition may well be the closest I'll ever get and there's no doubt it's a fascinating glimpse into the life of the King.

The beginning of the exhibition greeted you with a huge, wall-sized image of the gates of Graceland (by which you could have your photo taken - naturally I declined) and then notable eras of his life were divided into different rooms starting with his childhood (featuring his birth certificate, old school reports, clothes his parents wore etc) and running through various aspects of his career. 

One of my favourites parts dedicated to his early years was the display of all the merchandise fans could buy back in the 1950s with everything from Elvis lipsticks to scrapbooks. It reminded me of all the One Direction things you can buy these days and funnily enough Elvis was one of the stars who started all that. Of course the big difference is that Elvis was as much an idol to boys as he was to girls (shown by all the male rock stars who adored him growing up), similar to The Beatles. Now pop groups, and boy bands in particular, are created solely to be marketed towards young girls, which is the sad result of it all but really good music is for everyone, as Elvis more than proved.

There was quite a bit dedicated to Elvis' two years in the army, including a couple of his uniforms, his trunk and suitcase (with his name and address self-painted on top) and even some bongo drums given to him as a birthday present by Priscilla. The most dazzling items though came from the latter part of his career. There was a whole room dedicated to his movie career with scripts, costumes, posters and even a car from one film that Elvis had liked so much he bought it for himself (as you do).

There were a few cars in fact, the most fascinating for me was the long finned white Lincoln Continental, which just happens to be the vehicle Neil Young has used for his enviromentally friendly LincVolt car. It was a pretty magnificent beast to be sure, all chrome and shiny white paint, but damn was it huge. All I could think was what a nightmare it would be to park. I guess having a huge property like Broken Arrow Ranch or indeed Graceland would help though.

It was also incredible to see some of his most famous outfits, admittedly his more gaudy numbers but still instantly recognisable and impressive to see in the flesh. There were lots of his Vegas jumpsuits, all from when Elvis was still super slim judging by the size of them, decorated with dazzling rhinestones, fringes, ropes and beads. One with an impressive eagle design on the back of the cape was particularly awesome to see. It was also great to see the regal suit he wore to meet Richard Nixon, immediately recognisable thanks to the iconic photos of this historic meeting.

Sadly his black leather suit wasn't featured in the Comeback Special room but there was one the chair he sat on and the guitar he used as well as clothes he wore on the publicity photos. More amusingly there was some of his karate clothes and a hand-written treatment for a never-made karate film that Elvis wanted to produce. Such a shame! It sounded really fun.

Not surprisingly this all reminded me a lot of the David Bowie Is exhibition I went to a couple of years back - even the final big room with the revolving costumes in glass cases. Bowie of course is still here to ponder the brilliance and absurdity of it all and how little notes and other seemingly insignificant things from years ago eventually became of such interest to people. It would be interesting to know what he thinks of it all. Elvis obviously is long gone and even more iconic today. He may well have been used to the fame and the fact that even his sweat-soaked towels would drive fans crazy but even then he probably never forsaw that little ordinary things like his book collection, his wallet, even his personal keys to his home, would be in little glass cases and gazed on with such fascination and joy by people like me. I'm too young to remember Elvis alive but seeing these things did make him feel more like a real person, rather than larger than life, icon and that's probably the best part I took away from this wonderful exhibition.