Notes on A profile vol 1 box set

[kelvin]

I was reading the booklet that came with this box set written by W.A. Harbison. It gives an account of the Elvis show in Summer 1974 and makes interesting reading - 'He looked and sounded terrific and also looked suspiciously like he'd just stepped out of the shower - his hair appeared to be wet and mussed up'. Im a little confused though as i did not know that the British fan club travelled to Vegas in 1974. Ger wrote a very interesting account of the August '75 Vegas season in which the British fan club travelled to Vegas only to find that the shows had been cancelled due to illness. Couple of questions here....1) Does anybody know the full dates of all the gigs the British fan club attended? 2) In W.A. Harbinsons text he confirms that he was at the final show in Indy with the Dutch Fans. Has Mr Harbinson ever written any articles on the Indy show?

[TALLHAIR 2]

You sure Kevin, Harbinson claims he was on tour
with us, the Dutch, in 77?!
The story on Vegas 74 originated from the UK "Disc"
magazine, from that same year... I remember handing
over xerox pages from the Disc pop tabloid to the
type setter, who worked from them for inclusion in the Profile
booklet.... How can their be mention on Indy 77 in
a 1974 written story? Or did Harbinson, at the time of
Profile, added another chapter to his story? I dont
remember, and cant locate the original Profile bonus
booklet... Anyway, I knew Harbinson pretty well, but
dont remember him on the Indy trip. But some parts in
my memory are hazy...
The UK fanclub started going to Vegas as early as
72 ( Elvis meets Tony Prince, Slaughter, ao) , as can
be seen on photographs printed in the Monthly that
particular year...

[TALLHAIR 2]

a story I remember, Kelvin, Harbinson told me
about the 74 show he attended. The group of
fans had only just arrived that night in Vegas,
and had to rush to the Hilton to catch the show
in time. Exhausted from the flight, Harbinson
dozed off during the lenghty Karate ramble,
and his mate, seated next to him, had to kick
him in the leg, to wake up, when our hero
went back to singing songs....

[Johanesson]

Interesting stories,Ger,keep them coming!

[kelvin]

You sure Kevin, Harbinson claims he was on tour
with us, the Dutch, in 77?!
The story on Vegas 74 originated from the UK "Disc"
magazine, from that same year... I remember handing
over xerox pages from the Disc pop tabloid to the
type setter, who worked from them for inclusion in the Profile
booklet.... How can their be mention on Indy 77 in
a 1974 written story? Or did Harbinson, at the time of
Profile, added another chapter to his story? I dont
remember, and cant locate the original Profile bonus
booklet... Anyway, I knew Harbinson pretty well, but
dont remember him on the Indy trip. But some parts in
my memory are hazy...
The UK fanclub started going to Vegas as early as
72 ( Elvis meets Tony Prince, Slaughter, ao) , as can
be seen on photographs printed in the Monthly that
particular year...

Thanks for your input Ger as always. Well Harbinson originally seems to imply that it was the closing show in summer 74 but your first trip to Vegas was the ill fated Aug 75 stint yeah? Anyway from the Harbinson notes:
'I was therefore paticularly lucky in that for the final show i was invited to join a group of Dutch fans, led by one Ger Rijff, in seats right up at the front of the showroom, right beneath the stage'. 'Better still, Elvis did the longest show i had seen to date and was absolutely terrific'.

Reading the full text again it seems that Harbinson was hitting the bottle big time on this trip so perhaps his memory was faulty??

[Chris Black]

This is obviously a reference to the last show in Vegas that particular season. He even uses the word "showroom". You've obviously misread this and thought he was talking about Indy. Though why you'd think he should jump from one subject to another totally unreleated one in the course of the same article is beyond me.

[kelvin]

This is obviously a reference to the last show in Vegas that particular season. He even uses the word "showroom". You've obviously misread this and thought he was talking about Indy. Though why you'd think he should jump from one subject to another totally unreleated one in the course of the same article is beyond me.

Yes it seems he is talking about the closing show in Vegas. However he states clearly that he was invited by the Dutch fan club headed by Ger. I may be wrong but i did not think Ger made it to Vegas until Aug 75 when the gigs were cancelled. Ger finally got to see Elvis at the '76 Vegas stint and was also there for the Indy '77 gig.....hence the confusion.

[VEGAS74]

I was reading the booklet that came with this box set written by W.A. Harbison. It gives an account of the Elvis show in Summer 1974 and makes interesting reading - 'He looked and sounded terrific and also looked suspiciously like he'd just stepped out of the shower - his hair appeared to be wet and mussed up'. Im a little confused though as i did not know that the British fan club travelled to Vegas in 1974. Ger wrote a very interesting account of the August '75 Vegas season in which the British fan club travelled to Vegas only to find that the shows had been cancelled due to illness. Couple of questions here....1) Does anybody know the full dates of all the gigs the British fan club attended? 2) In W.A. Harbinsons text he confirms that he was at the final show in Indy with the Dutch Fans. Has Mr Harbinson ever written any articles on the Indy show?

I was on that trip with the fan club, This is my original list of Elvis shows for the fan club.

[kelvin]

Vegas74...........thank you so much for posting this. Would love to hear your stories of the trip and watching the shows

[TALLHAIR 2]

kinda weird my name turns up in Harbinson's 74
Vegas review. And even stranger it was printed
this way in my Profile booklet...? I never checked
the text after it was printed, maybe the typesetter,
doing a practical joke on me, changed the name
Marco van der Mey, who was in charge of the
fanclub in 74, into that of mine...? Weird!
But youre correct on the other years, Kelvin.
Did make it to Vegas in august 75, the night
he cancelled, came back in the winter of 76,
watched him 6 times, and the final 2 concerts
in june of 77... And I still rate the years 54 - 61
a zillion lightyears over those later years.
But you knew that already, didn't you, my
jumpsuit buddy...!

[LesterB]

I heard that there was some slow hand clapping between songs during the December 76 season. Did you witness this Ger? If you did, what was Elvis' reaction?

[kelvin]

kinda weird my name turns up in Harbinson's 74
Vegas review. And even stranger it was printed
this way in my Profile booklet...? I never checked
the text after it was printed, maybe the typesetter,
doing a practical joke on me, changed the name
Marco van der Mey, who was in charge of the
fanclub in 74, into that of mine...? Weird!
But youre correct on the other years, Kelvin.
Did make it to Vegas in august 75, the night
he cancelled, came back in the winter of 76,
watched him 6 times, and the final 2 concerts
in june of 77... And I still rate the years 54 - 61
a zillion lightyears over those later years.
But you knew that already, didn't you, my
jumpsuit buddy...!

So the Dutch guys were there in '74 but without Ger!!! That clears the error up then as Harbinson mistakingly put you there! Any reason why you did not make the trip in '74? ......let me guess money or women! Thanks for your replies buddy and of course 54 - 61 were THE years although some might disagree!

[TALLHAIR 2]

Lester, there was handclapping, booing, and
people leaving the showroom, demanding their
money back... but Ive told this story several times here,
and the use of drugs and fake limping by our hero
is not gonna make this into pleasant reading.
So... no more december 76 for a while from me.
Kelvin, the reason for not going to see Elvis in
Vegas before august 1975, was money. We
( my lady and I ) had to save up for 2 years
to pay for the trip with the UK fanclub. It was
much more expensive for people visiting the
US in those years, compared to the last 20
years or so. That's why it hurted like hell to
hear he flew back to Memphis, the night we
finally arrived there... Thanks Elvis, for not
even leaving a "sorry" message for your 200
stranded fans. Bugger, Im gettin' bitter again.
Wont write more on this subject. Ive said it
all before, here, and in various magazines.

[LesterB]

fair enough Ger

[kelvin]

Lester, there was handclapping, booing, and
people leaving the showroom, demanding their
money back... but Ive told this story several times here,
and the use of drugs and fake limping by our hero
is not gonna make this into pleasant reading.
So... no more december 76 for a while from me.
Kelvin, the reason for not going to see Elvis in
Vegas before august 1975, was money. We
( my lady and I ) had to save up for 2 years
to pay for the trip with the UK fanclub. It was
much more expensive for people visiting the
US in those years, compared to the last 20
years or so. That's why it hurted like hell to
hear he flew back to Memphis, the night we
finally arrived there... Thanks Elvis, for not
even leaving a "sorry" message for your 200
stranded fans. Bugger, Im gettin' bitter again.
Wont write more on this subject. Ive said it
all before, here, and in various magazines.

Yeah i bet it was one expensive trip back in the 70's. Thanks for your time Ger its much appreciated.

[Johanesson]

maybe the typesetter,
doing a practical joke on me, changed the name
Marco van der Mey, who was in charge of the
fanclub in 74, into that of mine...? Weird!

Who (or what) was Marco v.d. Meij exactly?
This name popped up in my life in 1992 when i received bad quality photocopies of fan-club magazines from 1989/1990. The magazine informed the readers that this label in Voorschoten,Holland issued concert recordings,including the 1975 march 30th D/S (labelled as TCB RECORDS,ITALIA),1974 febr. 7th Vegas show and the 1973 april 27th Portland concert. Plus "Hot &Tight" ('68 rehearsals) and the "Blue Hawaii" 3 LP-set. The price of the latter one was $100 which was unbelievable for me,as i was a primary school student,without any money. So i didn't have the opportunity to buy these but this was the first time i've heard about Elvis bootleg releases. However,i didn't know that the above mentioned concerts were audience recordings. I thought those were professional recordings.

[Chris Black]

Didn't I hear that Marco got busted for bootlegging about 10 years ago? I don't believe he has anything to do with the Elvis world these days.

[Johanesson]

Didn't I hear that Marco got busted for bootlegging about 10 years ago? I don't believe he has anything to do with the Elvis world these days.

No,i haven't heard it. I don't even know who he is.

[Z0S0]

The UK fanclub started going to Vegas as early as
72 ( Elvis meets Tony Prince, Slaughter, ao) , as can
be seen on photographs printed in the Monthly that
particular year...

wasnt TODD involved in the bicycle raffle thing in TTWWI (or was that tony prince???)

[Z0S0]

i absolutely love that story, it was a major surprise when i got the profile box & found such a lengthy & interesting recount in the great booklet - the tahoe poster is great in Vol 2 but it doesnt touch that story!

i love how harbinson openly admits hes hitting the bottle & expresses that thru his alcoholic haze, he doesnt know how to react to 'mountain' and 'its midnight' due to the fact his own marriage is breaking up etc

i think its a great story - really helps u picture that summer season in the dark days of 74

[Inigo Montoya]

Didn't I hear that Marco got busted for bootlegging about 10 years ago? I don't believe he has anything to do with the Elvis world these days.

His is a name I haven't heard in many years. I used to be in contact with him pretty regularly when I was in my teens and 20s, back in the '80s. Interesting dude!

[TALLHAIR 2]

Marco...
Started a new fanclub, at a time when the "official" one,
It's Elvis Time, had turned in to an absolute disgrace.
That was around 1973. When, in 76, the first boots
arrived from the US, Marco started his own little bizniz
on the side. Dealing worldwide, he became quite a big
name among dealers. Nothing wrong with that, as his
service was good. When, in the early 80s, boots became
readily available, almost in his own backyard, so to speak,
bizniz was gettin' bigger and bigger... So far so good...
But even though the money came by the truckload in
the 90s, it was never enough for mr Marco. Selling
Elvis boots, and even producing some himself, needed
expansion. He then got involved with real bad guys,
who were responsible for floading the market with cds
containing top 40 material... The police stepped in,
and that was the end of Marco - I want more - van der
Mey. Whats he up to now? Not the faintest idea?
Neither do I care. The fact he handed out names from
certain people, when put under a little preasure by the
police, and leaving others with unpaid bills, was a
good reason to tell him to go to hell.
The End.