Elvis A Scot? Well, He Now Has A Tartan
The Age
Thursday August 16, 2007
IT MAY not match your blue suede shoes, but the Elvis tartan - which will be unveiled in the tiny Scottish town of Lonmay to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of the Pelvis - is just the latest claim to his ancestry.
The tartan is designed by the appropriately named Philip King Kiltmakers and will combine Presley's favourite colours: black, baby blue, pink and gold. It is understood the lightweight tweed will be strictly limited to kilts, not flared jumpsuits.Lonmay, in the north-east corner of Scotland, was pinpointed several years ago as the place of Presley's forebears by the writer Allan Morrison, for his book The Presley Prophecy. But a dispute is brewing as a former national golfer and keen saxophonist, Jack Pressley, 91, makes his own claim to "the king". According to Morrison, Andrew Presley married Elspeth Leg in Lonmay in 1713 and their 10th son, Andrew jnr, a blacksmith, migrated to the US. It was from him that Elvis was descended, despite the young Andrew never being recorded on the register with his nine siblings. This is what leads Jack Pressley, who lives in nearby Fraserburgh, to believe that Andrew was actually Andrew and Elspeth's nephew, making Elvis Jack's distant cousin.Mr Pressley's claim appeals to some Scots. But Morrison has dismissed the claim. "I've read in the local newspaper about Jack," he said. "I don't know where he's coming from with that claim. I'm coming from four independent sources with mine."Despite the ripples his suspicious mind may have caused, Mr Pressley never admits to being a fan. "The guitar's a great instrument, Segovia and all that, but not in the hands of these idiots," he told Scotland's Sunday Herald."A couple of guitars and a drum, this rubbish that Elvis came out with bores me to tears This business with the guitars and the Beatles and all that is just gruesome stuff. There's no tone or colour, you see. They're not listening to each other."
© 2007 The Age
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