Chef cooks up tribute that's fit for a King

Aug 16 2007 Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

Tommy Rockliffe, chef at Rigby's, Dale Street, Liverpool prepares an Elvis Presley favourite, 'Fools Gold', a sandwich of bacon,jam and peanut butter sandwich in an Italian loaf. Picture: Howard Davies _180

WHILE thousands today gather in Memphis, Tennessee, in a vigil to honour the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, in that other great rock ’n’ roll city – Liverpool – a more unique tribute was being paid.

Tommy Rockliffe, the award- winning chef at Thomas Rigby’s pub, on Dale Street, had literally prepared a meal fit for The King by cooking up three of his favourite dishes to commemorate Elvis’s death on August 16, 1977.

“Consumption of one or all of them on a daily basis may have contributed to his death because of the number of calories they contain, but I thought Elvis fans would like a little bit of a taste of what he fancied when he was alive,” said 38-year-old Tommy, from West Derby, who has won The Publican’s national Beer and Food Combination award in consecutive years.

His appetiser was the peanut butter and mashed banana triple- decker bread toastie which Elvis liked fried in butter. The main meal was the classic double burger topped by smoked cheddar and served with fries. But the piece de resistance is Tommy’s recreation of the notorious Fool’s Gold Loaf. This consists of a hollowed-out fresh Italian loaf stuffed with jam, peanut butter and a pound of cooked, crispy bacon, then baked for 15 minutes in the oven after being closed and coated in butter.

Tommy said that the last time he had made it was on request from the late Richard Shaw of Walton, a much-missed regular at the pub who asked for the Fool’s Gold to be made on the 25th anniversary of Elvis’s death in 2002.

“This one’s for Richie as much as Elvis,” said Tommy, of the monster creation which will be sliced up and be available free of charge for The King’s fans to sample at the pub throughout today.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on Merseyside, one of the country’s most acclaimed Presley impersonators, Elvis Brettini – alias Damian Brett, from Waterloo – was pontificating on the continuing popularity of The King three decades after his death.

“I was only six at the time he died, but I will always remember the day because my Dad said that 42 was no age for a man to die and then a couple of months later he died too – he was only 27,” said Damian, who is one of the most in- demand impersonators whose next city gig is at the Supper Club, on Blundell Street, on August 23.

“His popularity just seems to be growing and growing since his death. When I’m playing, especially when there’s a family audience, it’s quite spooky because you’ll get kids as young as five or six years old getting up, dancing and singing – they know all the words.

“With the older people, it is as though through me they want to preserve the illusion that Elvis is still alive – they still find it very hard to accept he won’t be coming back because he’s still such an influential figure and very much a part of people’s lives.”

King’s influence incalculable

BORN Elvis Aaron Presley on January 8, 1935, the boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, grew up to become The King of Rock ’n’ Roll, an iconic figure in social and popular culture whose only competitors could be considered The Beatles, who themselves held him in awe.

Thirty years on from his ignominious death as a bloated, prescription drug- addled shadow of his former self at his Gracelands home in Memphis, his influence on the history of contemporary music is still to be considered incalculable and the worship he inspires undiminished. Here are just a few of the eulogies from his musical peers that still hold true.

“Before Elvis, there was nothing” – John Lennon.

“There’ll never be another like that soul brother” – James Brown.

“Elvis is the greatest cultural force of the 20th century” – Leonard Bernstein.

“Hearing Elvis for the first time was like busting out of jail” – Bob Dylan.

“If it hadn’t been for Elvis, I don’t know where popular music would be” – Elton John.

“That Elvis, man, he was all there is. There ain’t no more. It was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear and somehow we all dreamed it” – Bruce Springsteen.