'It's Now or Never' is the title of one of Elvis Presley's best known hits. It's also the very thing 80-year-old Carole Davies thought when she finally had a chance to get up close and personal with a lookalike of The King at a recent sold-out tribute gig in Cardiff.
The nanna from Brynmawr leapt from her seat at the internationally-renowned A Vision of Elvis show at the capital's St David's Hall on the weekend to tell her singing idol - or, at least, the unnervingly accurate onstage approximation of him - that she'd waited all her life for just such a moment. The OAP superfan brought the packed house down with the encounter, during which she planted a smacker on Elvis' face and dabbed at his sweaty brow with her scarf.
Elvis then serenaded her with a rendition of the 1960 song Are You Lonesome Tonight? - which had been she and her late husband Graham's favourite song. And the whole memorable exchange was captured on film by her grandson Justin Davies who'd been sitting nearby.
Following the concert the 26-year-old actor tweeted: "Last night, me and my Elvis obsessed nan went to watch a Vision of Elvis down in St David's Hall, Cardiff. Out of all the thousands of people in the audience, my nan made herself known when Elvis walked out into the crowd.
"It made my evening and it probably made my nan's life. Living life to the full in her 80s, without a single s**t given - be more like Nanny Carole."
Speaking to WalesOnline afterwards, Justin added: "Nan was in the bar before the show when she got wind that Elvis usually walks out into the audience during his performance. Well, from that moment her mind was made up.
"'I'm going to meet him', she told me. And that's exactly what she did - 48 hours later and her feet still haven't touch the ground."
And it wasn't just Carole who loved Rob Kingsley's version of Presley. The former soldier, who left the army in 2002 following stints in the first Gulf War, Kosovo and Northern Ireland, the Scotsman has since become one of the industry's most respected Elvis-a-likes.
Even Elvis' old friend, photographer and tour manager Ed Bonja has lauded his performance, saying: "Rob sings like Elvis, but most importantly, he seems to capture the very soul of Elvis. Hell, he even walks like Elvis."
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