Elvis ain't dead, baby, he's just playing gigs in out-of-the-way places like, eh, Lucan. The Spa Hotel in Lucan, to be precise. Your intrepid office geek was there with his trusty digital camera to record the event. Not to see The King, you understand, but rather to get pictures of one Mr. Gordon Smith, bass player with Elvis' 11-piece backing band.

My friend Conor and I showed up at about 10:30, having driven around most of the roads surrounding the Spa Hotel because we couldn't believe anyone'd situate a hotel entrance at a point in the road where cars are cranking up to Warp 9 for the impending motorway. Duh. We met Gordy in the car park and ambled in, whereupon Mr. Smith got to use the classic "I'm with the band" line while us non-band folk tried to keep straight faces. "You won't see much of me during the set," said Gordy. In an attempt to prove this, he presented me with the pose on the right. This is probably the greatest amount of time he spent being invisible, since it's hard to not see much of someone who's standing just behind the lead singer and is thus getting much of the edge of the singer's spotlight. Nice try, Gordy. Muahahahahah.

Also in attendance from Team Scope was Gerard Kennedy. He, too, posed for the camera, resulting in the rather scary pic on the right. Conversation:
Ger: C'mon over and join us, we're over at the table there.
Me: Cool, are there seats?
Ger: Nope. You can steal someone else's.
Thanks, Ger!

The Guinness was good. Yum.

Given that I was well into the aforementioned Guinness at this point, I have NO idea what the opening track was. Despite the fact that we were standing right beside the sound desk, which had the tracklist taped onto the FX rack. So I'm a goldfish, or something. They played Love Me Tender, In The Ghetto, Blue Suede Shoes and so on (quick, Gordy, gimme the set list!) - a good dose of classic Elvis. The band were excellent, Mr. Smith and his rhythm cohort on the drumkit providing a good solid backing for the guitars, horn section, keyboard, backing singers and the Big Quiff out front. Plenty theatrics, including a seemingly inexhaustable supply of scarves attached to the drumkit which 'Elvis' would wave around briefly before someone would run up to the edge of the stage and grab it. And there was the obligatory band introduction, which even covered the sound engineer grinning happily next to us. At the end of it all, the bouncers reappeared and escorted Mr. Presley back to the dressing room.

And that was the gig. Below are the rest of the photos, less the out-of-focus-cos-they're-too-far-away band shot and some that need to be brightened up.