With trade bookings via Newmarket up 200% since the new Baz Luhrmann film, Stuart Forster explores this Tennessee city’s musical legacy
People were coming from all over. They were different ages and from different backgrounds. It was exciting,” recalls Jack Soden, chief executive of Elvis Presley Enterprises, of Graceland in the summer of 1982.
Elvis Presley’s Memphis mansion had just opened to the public, five years after his death. Forty years on, more than 23 million people have visited. And, with the release last month of Elvis, Baz Luhrmann’s new biopic about the King, trade bookings for Elvis tours are booming too.
Since the film’s release, Newmarket Holidays has reported a 200% increase in agent sales for its group guided tours taking in Elvis Presley spots in Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans – marking an all-time high.
Elvis fever
Richard Harrington, Newmarket Holidays product director, says: “Our Elvis tours have always been big sellers, but this year has been the best yet. Excitement around the movie has fuelled interest, and we expect it to get even bigger as Elvis fever takes off.”
At Graceland, fans can see the bedroom Elvis slept in – complete with vibrant purple drapes – and the basement television room where the superstar relaxed, watching American football on three screens. They can also explore the pool room, with its colourful fabric-lined walls, then climb towards the jungle room.
This kitsch-yet-comfy room, which Elvis referred to as his den, is where he made his album recordings. “It’s pretty much in keeping with exactly the way Graceland was when Elvis died,” Jack says of the building, which was built in 1939 and designated a national historic landmark in 2006.
The 120-acre complex straddles Elvis Presley Boulevard, 2.5 miles from Memphis International airport, whose Terminal B reopened in February following a £183 million revamp. After viewing the mansion and meditation garden, where members of the Presley family are buried, visitors board minibuses and are dropped across the street.
Here, Elvis’s private jets and cars are on display. So too is memorabilia, ranging from the star’s army uniforms to jumpsuits and posters from his film career. Fans have the option of staying on-site at the 450‑room Guest House at Graceland, whose rooms are inspired by designs from the Graceland Mansion.
Other Memphis music spots
But Graceland – and Elvis – is by no means the only reason for music fans to visit Tennessee. “It’s better for Elvis and his legacy and it’s better for the Memphis music and tourism industry for us to be part of a fabric of different musical threads,” says Jack.
The Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, created by the Smithsonian Institution, explains how musical influences including gospel and country flowed together in the Mississippi Delta to create new genres. “It’s as much a civil rights story as it is a music story,” says John Doyle, the museum’s executive director. “It tells how black and white musicians created music that was heard around the world.”
After watching a 12-minute introductory video featuring interviews with greats of the genres, visitors view exhibits including music memorabilia. The audio guides are loaded with more than 100 songs, making the experience all the more fun. The museum also manages the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, whose inductees range from Jerry Lee Lewis and Justin Timberlake to hip hop act Three 6 Mafia.
Beale Street clubs and music venues
From there it’s a short walk to Beale Street, nicknamed the ‘Home of the Blues,’ with its bars, clubs and music venues including the original B.B. King’s Blues Club. Music history aficionados may also appreciate visiting the two-room home of W.C. Handy, the cornet player and composer known as ‘the Father of the Blues’. The wooden building he lived in was relocated to Beale Street in the 1980s.
Further insights into the careers of the genre’s greats are provided at the Blues Hall of Fame Museum. Muddy Waters’ Stella acoustic guitar is among the instruments, costumes and photos on show there. Less than two miles away, at Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue, the first ever rock ‘n’ roll song – Rocket 88, by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats – was recorded and released in 1951.
While guided tours of the studio end in the recording studio where Elvis Presley first laid down tracks, visitors are invited to grab the metallic Shure 55 microphone held by so many of the music industry’s greats and snap a selfie.
Isaac Hayes’ blingy gold-trimmed 1972 Cadillac is one of the star exhibits at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. All 900 of the singles and 300 albums produced by Stax Records are displayed in the Hall of Records. Today, the next generation of performers – students at the neighbouring Stax Music Academy – study recordings by the label’s artists, who included Otis Redding, David Porter and Al Green. The Crosstown Concourse, a mixed-use redevelopment of a former Sears catalogue distribution centre, is one of the Memphis locations that offers performance space to up-and-coming acts.
The brickwork building is also home to the Memphis Listening Lab, whose books and extensive vinyl collection offer users insights into the city’s rich and diverse musical heritage. And it’s a musical heritage that remains vibrant, four decades after the home of the city’s most famous resident – and one of the world’s most famous rock stars – was opened as a museum. That culture is still embraced both by Memphians and visitors today. Elvis and all the Memphis music greats are still very much in the building.
Three more top US music cities
Austin, Texas
Branded the Live Music Capital of the World, Austin has more than 250 show venues. They range from intimate spaces such as the Continental Gallery to auditoriums including ACL Live at the Moody Theater. Festivals such as South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Music Festival draw visitors from around the world.
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz. Visitors can tap their feet to tunes while sipping cocktails and soaking up the vibe at bars and clubs in the French Quarter. The long-established Preservation Hall and Chickie Wah Wah are two of the city’s many live venues.
Seattle, Washington
Influential guitarist Jimmy Hendrix is commemorated at a park bearing his name in the city of his birth. Distorted guitars became characteristic of grunge, the genre which evolved in Washington during the 1980s. The Crocodile is one of the Seattle venues to have hosted gigs by the likes of Soundgarden, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
Top tip
Newmarket Holidays has launched specialist music heritage training modules for agents and is offering discounts of up to 15%, available across all departures until 2024 for bookings made by July 31.
newmarketholidays.co.uk/agents-area
Book it
Newmarket Holidays offers eight nights in the Deep South on the Elvis Presley’s Memphis, New Orleans and Nashville tour. Prices start at £1,655 for Manchester departures until December 2024, including a saving of £184, available until July 31.
newmarketholidays.co.uk
American Sky offers a 10-day Tastes and Sounds of the South escorted tour between Nashville and New Orleans, featuring two nights in Memphis, from £2,899, including international flights.
americansky.co.uk
PICTURES: Shutterstock/f11photo; Memphis CVB/Andrea Zucker; Stuart Forster
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