Elvis the Concert Years. at DVinfo.net

Allan Black · February 22nd, 2026, 11:32 PM

It is Tuesday 19th August 1977 and in the city suburb of Glebe Sydney, rock star Col Joye’s engineer Bruce Brown and I are walking down the narrow back lane behind Col’s ATA studio, coming back from lunch at the local Cooking Pot restaurant.

In the distance coming towards us we see Cowboy Joe, dressed in his white outfit and as he gets closer we hear him crying. As he gets even closer he cries out, “Elvis is dead!” and he stumbles on past us, I don’t think he even saw us.

SPOILER ALERT.

My wife and I recently saw the latest Elvis movie, Baz Lurmann’s Elvis the Concert Years. The first thing I thought was, how is Baz going hold our attention for an hour and a half with the often repeated story of one of the most famous concert performers in history. But as soon as Baz saw some of the old film footage, he knew he could.

All of MGM’s old film footage is stored deep underground in Kansas City in salt mines to protect it from moisture,” Luhrmann says. “We sent people down there to look, not expecting much. Then they kicked open this dusty storage room and found 67 boxes labelled Elvis – That’s The Way It Is, Elvis On Tour and more. It was like discovering buried treasure.”

A surprise in the movie is there are subtitles, all the dialogue is quoted below. Strange as first, but it keeps your attention, and you ‘hear’ all the off mic funny quotes. Elvis had a great sense of humour and surrounded himself with similar cohorts.

As one sample of the interesting content, in the movie Elvis says, “We have 150 songs, note perfect in our band book. If the concert is starting to sag, I can instantly call for any upbeat song, count it in and the band starts right on cue.” I thought hey! that’s one of Elvis’s tools, he can instantly read and stop losing an audience.

And that probably accounts for Elvis's concert durations. They varied significantly throughout his career, generally ranging from 25 minutes in his early years to about 60–80 minutes during his peak 1970s residencies. While the total "show" often lasted over two hours, this included extensive opening acts like comedians and gospel groups.

All through I looked for Elvis genius sound engineer Bruce Jackson, but I think the closest Elvis got was when he said, “The sound is 100% better now.” I know that one concert on Bruce’s birthday Elvis had the whole audience sing Happy Birthday to him.

Our theatre was 1/2 full with an audience of over 70s. So maybe it’s not for you, but it was for me.

Cheers.

February 22nd, 2026, 11:32 PM	#1
Allan Black Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sydney. Posts: 3,048	Elvis the Concert Years. It is Tuesday 19th August 1977 and in the city suburb of Glebe Sydney, rock star Col Joye’s engineer Bruce Brown and I are walking down the narrow back lane behind Col’s ATA studio, coming back from lunch at the local Cooking Pot restaurant. In the distance coming towards us we see Cowboy Joe, dressed in his white outfit and as he gets closer we hear him crying. As he gets even closer he cries out, “Elvis is dead!” and he stumbles on past us, I don’t think he even saw us. SPOILER ALERT. My wife and I recently saw the latest Elvis movie, Baz Lurmann’s Elvis the Concert Years. The first thing I thought was, how is Baz going hold our attention for an hour and a half with the often repeated story of one of the most famous concert performers in history. But as soon as Baz saw some of the old film footage, he knew he could. All of MGM’s old film footage is stored deep underground in Kansas City in salt mines to protect it from moisture,” Luhrmann says. “We sent people down there to look, not expecting much. Then they kicked open this dusty storage room and found 67 boxes labelled Elvis – That’s The Way It Is, Elvis On Tour and more. It was like discovering buried treasure.” A surprise in the movie is there are subtitles, all the dialogue is quoted below. Strange as first, but it keeps your attention, and you ‘hear’ all the off mic funny quotes. Elvis had a great sense of humour and surrounded himself with similar cohorts. As one sample of the interesting content, in the movie Elvis says, “We have 150 songs, note perfect in our band book. If the concert is starting to sag, I can instantly call for any upbeat song, count it in and the band starts right on cue.” I thought hey! that’s one of Elvis’s tools, he can instantly read and stop losing an audience. And that probably accounts for Elvis's concert durations. They varied significantly throughout his career, generally ranging from 25 minutes in his early years to about 60–80 minutes during his peak 1970s residencies. While the total "show" often lasted over two hours, this included extensive opening acts like comedians and gospel groups. All through I looked for Elvis genius sound engineer Bruce Jackson, but I think the closest Elvis got was when he said, “The sound is 100% better now.” I know that one concert on Bruce’s birthday Elvis had the whole audience sing Happy Birthday to him. Our theatre was 1/2 full with an audience of over 70s. So maybe it’s not for you, but it was for me. Cheers. __________________ Drink more tap water. On admission at Sydney hospitals more than 5% of day patients are de-hydrated.