ELVIS will most definitely be in the building at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham on Saturday night.

Chris Connor, one of the world’s leading Elvis Presley impersonators will be rounding off a hugely successful year with a very special gig in his home town.

“We always like to finish off the year with a show in Oldham,” said Royton-born Chris. “In the past we went to Shaw Playhouse but the band has got bigger over the years and the stage there isn’t big enough. Plus the show got so popular that in the end we were playing six nights there. It just makes more sense to do the show in a much bigger venue.”

For his World Famous Elvis Show, Chris will be performing with his 13-piece with backing vocals by The Sweet Harmonies. The first half of the show will recreate Elvis Presley’s famous 68 Comeback Special with the second concentrating on The King’s Las Vegas years.

There are a lot of tribute shows to Elvis but Chris’s amazing ability to recreate the power and emotion of Elvis’s voice and the attention to detail within the show set it apart. Chris even gets all his rhinestone jumpsuits from the same company which made them for Elvis himself and the live show is as close as you will come to experiencing the real thing.

Certainly Elvis fans around the world appreciate what he’s doing having voted him Elvis tribute of the year in an international poll.

“Considering Elvis was one of the best singers the world has ever seen it is a pretty hard act to follow,” said Chris. “But when I first started out to do this I told myself ‘if you can’t do a good job, then don’t even try’.

“I have always been a huge fan and so has everyone in the band. We have to do it right, we owe that to the fans and we owe it to Elvis himself

“For me I think it’s like being an actor. You have to study the character you are playing. I have watched all the footage, analysed all the moves and listened to the way Elvis performs a song.”

The Oldham show will be the last one of the year which will allow Chris some quality time with wife Lisa and his family.

“Lisa handles all the bookings and the touring arrangements so we always try to keep it quiet on the work front over the Christmas period,” he said. “It tends to quieten down then anyway as it’s the time for pantomimes and Christmas parties and then come the end of January the touring will start again in earnest.”I’m not Elvis at home, it is a job I do and I love doing it, but I’m also a family man and the Christmas break with the family is always something special to me.”

With an artist like Elvis, the difficulty for Chris is keeping the fans happy regarding the choice of setlist.

“We do try to change the show every year or so both for the fans and also to keep it fresh for ourselves,” he said. “There are a lot of songs like Suspicious Minds for example, that we simply can’t drop but we always like to include a couple of more obscure numbers for the hardcore fans out there - we’ve certainly got plenty of songs to choose from. But I have to make some hard decisions otherwise we’d be playing a four hour show every night!”

Saturday night will be a real Elvis party with Chris expecting many family and friends who can’t get to see him when he plays at venues around the country and abroad heading to the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

“It’s always a special atmosphere when we play Oldham,” he said, “ and that inspires us to put on extra special show,” he said.

Chris Connor: The World Famous Elvis Show, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, Saturday, December 14. Details from 0161 770 4083 or www.queenelizabethhall.com