epic

IT was the long, hot summer of 1995, John Major was in No10 and Blackburn Rovers were Premier League champions.

The music charts had been dominated by acting duo Robson and Jerome, until one crazy week in August when Britpop’s heavyweights began slugging it out.

Oasis and Blur released their new singles Roll With It and Country House on the same day in a race for the No1 spot — and the nation was absolutely mad for it.

It was an era-defining, pop culture moment, billed as North v South, working-class v posh boys and sing-along anthems v lyrical sophistication.

Yet even their most ardent fans would have struggled to imagine that 30 years down the line the rivalry in all its boozy, sweary glory would be transformed into a theatrical production.

The Battle — which opened at the Birmingham Rep theatre this week — is a comedic caper that tries to recreate the 90s vibe.

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So Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher — played by George Usher — is seen snorting lines of coke, swigging champagne and threatening to knock Blur singer Damon Albarn’s block off.

And the production includes more uses of the C word than have been uttered in much of the rest of British stage history put together.

The play’s writer, best-selling novelist John Niven, tells me he had to explain the context of the expletive-laden script to the actors.

He said: “The young cast found some of the language challenging at first.

“I had to say that that was just the way people spoke back then. It was more full-on and a much more unfiltered time.

“There’s five or six c***s in it but I guess that’s a lot for the theatre.

“But there’s no way you could accurately reflect those musicians over a five-month period without a few C-bombs dropping. It wouldn’t be authentic.”

John, 60, said he took inspiration for the narrative from a comment by Oasis manager Alan McGee about the rise of his band from a tough Manchester suburb.

He recalled: “Alan said, ‘The thing is, Blur think this is all good media fun but you’ve got five lunatics off a council estate in Burnage who actually want to f*****g kill them’.

“Blur moved the release date of their record to coincide with the Oasis single, so Liam thought, ‘Right, they’ve offered us out’.”

With actor George, 21, successfully aping Liam’s loping gait, he also gets to deliver the most one-liners.

John, who spoke to Blur’s bassist Alex James while writing the play, added: “Someone like Liam is so seductive to write for.

“Noel and Liam are both very funny in completely different ways.

“Noel is really dry and has got great timing, like a stand-up comedian, while Liam is much more surreal, random and unfiltered. He’s a delight to write dialogue for.

“Sometimes you think, ‘F***, have I gone too far there?’

“And then you could go online and find an interview with Liam where he said something ten times crazier.”

John — who began writing the play in 2023, long before the triumphant Oasis reunion last year — also had to explain to the young cast how the Britpop battle came to dominate the national conversation.

He said: “It was such a big cultural phenomenon. The whole country, from six-year-olds to 60-year-olds, knew about it.

“It went from the music papers to the broadsheets to the tabloids to News At Ten. Back then, things spread via radio, TV and the Press, whereas now the culture is so atomised.

“I’ve got teenage kids and you can have acts with a billion TikTok followers who play Wembley Stadium and I’ve never heard of them.”

After a blast of Blur’s Girls & Boys, the play begins at the February 1995 Brits, where Blur won four awards to Oasis’s one.

Collecting the prize for best British group, Damon insisted: “I think this should have been shared with Oasis.”

Interviewed later, Noel Gallagher said: “As far I’m concerned, it’s us and Blur against the world now.”

But the love-in didn’t last. Later that year Noel said of Blur: “The bassist and the singer, I hope the pair of them catch Aids and die because I f***ing hate them two.”

(The guitarist would later appologise, insisting he was “f***ed” on drugs when he made the remark).

When John began writing the play, he recalled the resentment that had built up between the bands in a few short months.

The former music company executive who was at the Brits that year, added: “I thought. Now there’s a dramatic arc.

“Back in February they had all been mates with Noel giving an interview saying, ‘It’s us and Blur against the world now’.

“Now he was saying he hoped they died.”

Then, in August Oasis’s record company Creation announced their new single Roll With It would be released a week before Blur’s Country House.

John added: “Blur’s manager Andy Ross was worried that Oasis would have a massive No1.

“Back then a single could top the charts for a month so Andy was worried the Blur would be stuck at No2.”

Andy, played by Gavin and Stacey star Mathew Horne, decides to move Country House’s release date forward to coincide with Oasis and all hell was unleashed.

The then influential music magazine NME produced a front cover with the headline, British Heavyweight Championship, Blur v Oasis.

A then 29-year-old Clive Myrie reported breathlessly for the BBC News At Ten on the brewing rivalry.

Like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s, the two bands divided friends and families into rival camps.

An exclusive in the The Sun revealed that Oasis-mad Mandy Vivian-Thomas had kicked out her husband Richard for being a massive Blur fan.

Richard said: “Mandy’s been a nightmare. She’s spent a fortune on trash about Oasis and the last starw was using my card to buy their record.

“I’m out on my ear but I’m hoping things will calm down.”

Headlined, You Blurty Rat, the Sun article takes centre stage in The Battle.

It’s cited by Blur guitarist Graham Coxon as a symptom of how the chart battle has seen his band drift away from their indie ideals and into the mainstream.

John explained: “It became apparent how different the two bands were because I think Noel and Liam loved being in the tabloids and wanted to be that big.

“They had no problems with having loads of reporters outside their door. They thought, ‘We want to be the biggest band in the world and this is part of it’.

“But I reckon Blur found it all much more uncomfortable, especially Graham. That when you get that big you’ve got the tabloids banging on your door.

“I think he thought, ‘This is getting crazy now.’”

In the end, it was Blur who would win the Battle of Britpop with Country House topping the charts but Oasis would go on to have a more stellar career.

John added: “Damon and Noel are pals now.

“When men are in their 20s and 30s and they’re really ambitious, they’re all claws and teeth, sharp edges and hustling.

“You hurt people trying to get where you want to be but I think as men get older in their 40s and 50s they get a lot nicer and they calm the f*** down a bit.”

John hopes the play will transfer to the West End after runs in Birmingham and Manchester.

“I don’t think we’ll see a time when two bands dominate the national consciousness in a way like that again,” he said.

“It’s almost impossible to imagine.”

TOUCH OF TARANTINO

EFFING and jeffing as he struts around the stage like a rampant chimp, George Usher has Liam Gallagher down to a tee.

I’m supping a lager in the stalls at the Birmingham Rep, where if you suck your gut in and comb your hair forwards, it could be 1995 all over again.

With blasts of their hits, and aided by newsreel and radio clips, the great Battle of Britpop is fought once again.

The dialogue is pacy, comedic and very sweary. Yet with two bands, assorted managers and girlfriends to cover, there is little time for character development.

However, just as the play seems to be running out of narrative, it plunges into a Quentin Tarantino-esque sequence.

It’s a fittingly surreal end to this parable of a drug-addled decade.

★★★☆☆

WE all know Americans do things a lot bigger than in the UK – from fast food to drink sizes – and it goes for play areas too.

One in the US the size of a football pitch has caught the eye of Brits who say they’d love to see one open in the UK.

Called The Fun Station Cedar Falls, the enormous play area stretches across 70,000 square feet and is the state of Iowa‘s largest indoor adventure park.

It has over 20 attractions from zip lines to trampolines, an obstacle course, laser tag, racing slides, bowling alleys and fairground rides.

There’s a multi-level play maze, seven climbing walls as high as 22ft, a high-ropes course at 55ft, an arcade with 35 video arcade games where players can win prizes.

There’s food on-site too from a salad bar, to a cafe and fizzy drink station.

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It’s popular with local parents who say that their kids “love to climb for hours here”.

With a video doing the rounds on Facebook, it’s even caught the attention of UK residents with one even saying “wish we had this in the UK”.

For UK parents, one parent in the comments suggested heading to Riverside Hub in Northampton.

One writer Catherine Lofthouse visited the attraction that has the UK’s largest playframe across four floors, which they called ‘soft play on steroids’.

Catherine said: “Laser tag, crazy golf, two climbing poles, go-karts and even arcade machines all included in the price.

“The main issue is keeping an eye on all your children as they head off in opposite directions to make the most of everything on offer.

“While the youngest was taking a spin on the carousel, my middle son was clambering up the two 10m climbing poles, one in the shape of an oak tree and the other a beanstalk, in the centre of the hub.”

There are also Fun Stations in the UK – but these are owned by a different company.

In cities like Birmingham, Leeds and Milton Keynes, there are Fun Stations that are more like arcades.

It’s packed with immersive and action-packed video and VR games, along with carnival games where visitors can win top prizes like iPads and headphones.

Some destinations even have dodgems, mini bowling, laser tag, escape rooms and mini golf.

For more on play areas, here are five of the UK’s biggest indoor soft plays to escape the rainy weather with huge climbing frames and drop slides.

And here is a huge new wooden play attraction that’s set to open at a historic English house with den building, zip lines and racing slides.

The first hour of “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” convinces you that the King is the greatest entertainer who ever lived. By the end of it, he’s a god. Director Baz Luhrmann claims he made this Imax documentary so that any poor souls who never got to see the King live can worship him in action. Really, I think Luhrmann is praying that in a thousand years, some alien civilization will discover this footage and build a whole religion around the thrall Elvis’ hip thrusts had over a crowd.

If that future comes to pass, then Luhrmann himself will be elevated as a key disciple. He’s so devoted to Elvis that this is his second tribute in four years, the other being, of course, his 2022 biopic “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler, who was good in the role if not quite iconic. That more traditional film hewed to the genre’s standard rise-and-fall narrative and was dinged mostly because the King’s life represents so many things to so many people — race, class, controlling relationships — that it’s impossible to please everyone or for any actor to fill his blue suede shoes.

“EPiC” sticks to the surer footing of documentary footage: the man himself performing over two dozen tunes — including “That’s All Right,” “Burning Love” and “In the Ghetto” — plus twice that number on the background soundtrack. (I’m not into his gospel hits, but they suit the mood.) A dream concert that’s longer and larger than what fans could have seen in reality, the movie is stitched together primarily from Elvis’ Las Vegas appearances in 1970 and 1972. You can tell which year it is by the amount of rhinestones on his costumes, which become increasingly maximalist.

When Elvis retook the stage in 1969, he hadn’t performed before a live audience in nine years and he’d gotten a little uncool. Beatlemania had dinged his appeal so perilously that editor Jonathan Redmond splices its arrival with images of car crashes and missile attacks. Reporters at that comeback show noted that most of his fans were now — horrors! — over 30, with the exception of a 25-year-old who said he attended out of nostalgia.

Luhrmann quickly sets up the essential framework, then Luhrmann picks up a year after Elvis proved he was still a smash. No longer constrained by moral panic, the Army draft or the decade he spent trapped within the Hollywood industrial complex, this is the King at arguably the high point of his career, right in that sweet spot before his 1973 divorce from Priscilla Presley, after which his mood and health started to flag.

This Elvis comes across confident, breezy, comfortable and funny. In one scene, he jokes about the difficulty of lunging to the ground in a tight jumpsuit (an outfit he adopted because he was nervous of ripping his pants). Later, he switches up the lyrics to “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” to croon, “Do you gaze at your forehead and wish you had hair?”

The camera often seems to be right under his chin, gazing as the sweat on his cheeks and lashes shimmers under the Vegas lights like diamonds. His spell over the crowd feels at once intimate and volcanic. You get the best look at his charisma when Elvis targets his energy at an unsuspecting back-up singer in the middle of “Suspicious Minds.” Slowly striding toward the girl, he hypnotizes her as skillfully as a snake charmer and then, as a punchline, lunges in her direction. She jumps and giggles.

While we become familiar with the faces of his band members, the film doesn’t bother to mention any of their names, not even in the credits. They deserve better, but the film is about how the concert felt, not how it came to fruition. Still, once you get over the contact high of Elvis’ psychedelic neon pink paisley shirt in the rehearsal studio, it’s delightful to see that he gives as much of himself when performing in a small setting as he does in a massive one. He loses himself in thrall to the beat, gyrating his pelvis so fast it resembles a machine gun.

Naturally, there’s a montage of the women in the audience overwhelmed by joy, from a sobbing little girl who won’t let go of his arm to a glamazon in a dangerously low-cut minidress who scoots under the curtain before it closes. The ladies tug on his scarves and toss bras at him, one of which he wears on his head. Surprisingly to modern eyes, when his female fans grab and kiss him, Elvis smooches them back, even after he wades into a sea of his admirers and emerges with the chains on his jumpsuit torn off. If you happen to spot your mother or grandmother in the crowd, well, good for her.

In lieu of mentioning Elvis’ off-stage reality, Luhrmann deepens a song’s effect by cutting to personal photographs that are a little out of context. As Elvis wails the line, “And I miss her,” from his cover ballad about a bad husband, we see a shot of Elvis’ dead mother, Gladys. “Always on My Mind” becomes a brisk yet moving acknowledgment of Priscilla and his infant daughter Lisa Marie. Otherwise, Lurhmann only wants to celebrate the good stuff. There’s no tragedy here. It’s ecstasy minus the agony.

If Elvis was ever cranky, that’s been stripped out. Though we hear him get hound-dogged by nosy questions from the press, the closest Elvis comes to snark is when he sits on a stool to play “Little Sister.” He sings the chorus, then cranks up the tempo a notch and suddenly starts belting the Beatles’ “Get Back,” before smoothly transitioning once more into his own song. Point made: Don’t give those Brits too much credit for revolutionizing rock ‘n’ roll.

Lurhmann’s got his own score to settle. In the Butler version of “Elvis,” he made the case that, as big an artist as Elvis was, he should have been bigger. Colonel Parker, Elvis’s manager, kept his cash cow on a leash, tethering him first to middling B-pictures, then to casinos. The Beatles invaded his country; he never played a single gig in theirs. We never got to find out who Elvis, with his magpie love for all music, might have become if he’d traveled the world and gotten to pick up an ashram sitar.

And while that argument got a little drowned out in the biopic by Tom Hanks’ double-phony put-on accent as Parker, this rapturous salute to the King’s majesty wants to make sure we don’t miss it now. Lurhmann even scores his footage of the Colonel to “The Devil in Disguise.” Hey, every religion needs a heel.

POP superstar Lady Gaga is set to release a concert film about her record breaking Mayhem Ball.

The Sun can reveal the Abracadabra hitmaker, 39, has secretly enlisted British director Sam Wrench to help bring her vision to life.

The special is set to be filmed over Lady Gaga’s four nights at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles this week.

While no release date is set, the film is expected to be released later this year after being snapped up by streaming bosses following a fierce bidding war.

Sam is no stranger to concert documentaries, having previously worked with Taylor Swift on her 2023 Eras Tour film.

Not only was the film released on Disney+ but it also was rolled out across cinemas – breaking box office records in the process.

Most recently Sam teamed up with Christina Aguilera for her festive special;  Christmas in Paris.

It’s not the first time Gaga and Sam have worked together.

They previously teamed up on Gaga’s 2024 Chromaica Ball HBO special which documented her 2022 stadium tour of the same name.

A source said: “Gaga has poured her heart and soul into The Mayhem Ball.

“She is so proud of everyone who has helped make the tour what it is and is keen to give it the full concert film treatment.

“Not only is it arguably her most elaborate show of all time, it’s also reminded the world that almost two decades into her career she is still at the top of her game.”

The insider added: “Gaga and Sam have a close working relationship so bringing him on board was a no brainer.

“The show will be filmed across her four dates in Los Angeles and is pencilled in for release late 2026.”

The Sun understands Sam is joining the creative team headed up by the superstar.

He will sit alongside Gaga’s fiance Michael Polansky, 42, and her choreographer Parris Goebel, 34, who are also helping creatively manage the project.

Michael is now an integral part of the Poker Face singer’s inner circle.

He was listed as an Executive Producer alongside Gaga on Mayhem – as well as landing a number of writing credits including on the record’s lead single Disease.

Gaga previously said: “Michael was in the studio every day with me.
“He oversaw the whole process of making the record, completing it, helping me shape the sound of the record creatively.

“It was an amazing thing to do with your partner, because when I start to doubt myself, there is nobody that’s going to call me on it better than he is”.

Kicking off in July last year, The Mayhem Ball is one of Gaga’s biggest ever tours, seeing her play 87 dates across four continents.

Last September and October Gaga played four sold out shows at London’s O2 before a further two dates at Manchester’s Co-op Live.

By the time she takes her final bow at Madison Square Garden in April, she will have played to over 1.3million fans.

The concert film comes off the back of an already packed 2026 for Gaga.

Despite only being weeks into the year the singer has already filmed a concert special for Apple Music, performed at the Grammys and the Super Bowl and wrapped up the Asian leg of The Mayhem Ball.

Next week she will go head to head with some of the biggest artists in the world at the 2026 Brit Awards.

While she is unable to attend the ceremony due to playing a show in Texas on the same date, she is up for two of the biggest gongs of the night.

Gaga is nominated for International Artist of the Year and International Song of the Year thanks to her Bruno Mars collaboration Die With A Smile

It marks the first time in over a decade she has been nominated.

EPiC is a hip-shaking, lip-curling, fist-pumping, wise-cracking, sequin-spangled, sweat-soaked, all singing and dancing grand spectacle. 

It stands for Elvis Presley in Concert — a film that brings The King back into the building. 

Directed with loving care and boundless pizazz by flamboyant Australian Baz Luhrmann, it is a fitting companion to his 2022 biopic Elvis, starring Austin Butler. 

Using an incredible patchwork of unseen footage and unheard interviews, painstakingly restored by high-end technicians, he is presenting Elvis singing and telling his story “like never before”. 

You hear the music icon talking about his adoring fans, saying: “Those people want to see a show. They want to see some action.” 

The “action” centres on two years, 1970 and 1972, and features the singer’s residencies in Las Vegas, tour engagements and upbeat rehearsals, all interspersed with telling insights from the man himself. 

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Aside from fleeting visits to Canada, Elvis never did shows outside the US and yet, as he admits in the movie, he yearned to spread his wings and bring THAT voice to the world. 

Movingly, he performs Never Been To Spain which includes the line: “Well, I never been to England but I kinda like The Beatles.” 

‘Seen all the stuff’ 

Now, with EPiC, he’s getting the world tour he never had. 

To celebrate its cinema release next Friday, along with a soundtrack album, I’m speaking to one of the most qualified experts on “the kid from Tupelo” who changed popular culture for ever. 

Angie Marchese is Vice President of Archives and Exhibits at Graceland, the Memphis mansion bought by Elvis in 1957 for $102,500. 

It’s where he lived with wife Priscilla, where the couple welcomed their only child, Lisa Marie, and where he died on August 16, 1977. 

Since 1982, Graceland has been a museum with exhibits including Elvis’s pink Cadillac, his private jets, his gold records, his jewellery, his ornate furniture, his deep-pile carpets and, of course, his legendary jumpsuits. 

During her years living and breathing the place, vivacious curator Marchese has seen “a whole lot of Elvis footage”. 

“I’ve scrolled YouTube and seen all the stuff,” she tells me. 

But nothing quite prepared her for EPiC, which she first saw last year when it premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.  

“I was captivated for 96 minutes,” she says. “I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. 

“You get to see a real person through this movie. That’s the guy I know from going through his archives.” 

Marchese highlights the frequent snatches of interviews with Elvis, which she describes as a “window into his mind”. 

“You’re hearing him telling his story for the first time, in his own words,” she affirms. 

“It involved lots of manpower — finding all these interview clips, dissecting them and making a story out of them. That brought it to a personal level. If Elvis had ever done an autobiography, this is what it would be.” 

Hollywood’s image of me was wrong. I knew it and I couldn’t do anything about it

Elvis Presley

Marchese also saw EPiC at Graceland on January 8, on what would have been the music legend’s 91st birthday. 

“That was very special,” she says. “It was the first US screening of the movie — and you would have thought that you were at a live concert.  

“Everybody in the theatre was dancing and singing and applauding. With the clarity of the footage, it felt as if you could reach out and touch him and he’s there. 

“The look in his eyes, the little smirks — I’ve never seen Elvis performing this clearly before.” 

EPiC begins with a rapid-fire retelling of the Elvis story and how he led the rock ’n’ roll revolution in the Fifties, even if a few stuffed shirts thought his high- octane antics “triggered juvenile delinquency”. 

You see him being drafted into the US Army and posted to West Germany, serving with a tank battalion. There are glimpses of his frustrating movie career which saw him given increasingly lightweight roles, culminating in him talking to an actor dressed as a dog in Live A Little, Love A Little. 

“Hollywood’s image of me was wrong,” he decides. “I knew it and I couldn’t do anything about it.” 

EPiC continues with the dying throes of Elvis’s movie career coinciding with the momentous 1968 Comeback Special, his televised return to the live arena, looking as fit as a fiddle. 

“The black leather suit has a 28in waist,” says Marchese, again proving what a mine of fascinating information she has at her fingertips. 

“That size rolls into the next couple of years of touring. Even the Aztec Sun jumpsuit which Elvis wore in ’77 [for his last ever concert, on June 26, in Indianapolis] is not as large as people might envision it to be.” 

The focal point of EPiC is his Las Vegas residencies which began at the International Hotel in 1969 and continued until the end of 1976. 

You hear Elvis confessing to stage fright before emerging on to the stage in 1970 in his off-white “fringe” jumpsuit (Marchese’s favourite) and launching into the song that started it all, That’s All Right, his first hit from 1956. 

Marchese believes his anxieties stemmed from a burning desire to make shows as special as he could for his fans. 

“He was the kid who lived the American dream, coming from poverty in Tupelo to being on top of the world and able to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. 

“But he never forgot where he came from.” 

Despite everything, Elvis was never exactly shy and retiring, as Marchese explains. 

“He sure knew how to dress. If a kid was going to high school in the Fifties with sideburns, greased hair, his collar pulled up and wearing pink, then he was confident in who he was as a person — even if he had come from humble beginnings.” 

There’s some astonishing footage of Elvis climbing off stage and wading into the crowd, hugging and kissing women — some on the lips. 

Marchese continues: “One of the questions I get asked the most is, ‘Why is Elvis still so popular?’  

‘He sang just to you’ 

“The answer is that he had a personal connection with his fans. If you were in the crowd and there were 18,000 other people in the audience with you, you felt like he was just singing just to you. He had this energy about him, and he was just so personable. 

“Even if you never had a chance to get a scarf or a kiss or even get close to him, you felt like he was there for you. That really comes across in this movie.”  

Another key aspect of Elvis, which shines through, is his mischievous sense of humour. 

There’s a moment where he grabs a drink after complaining of feeling “dry — like Bob Dylan, only in my mouth”. 

Marchese calls him “Graceland’s worst practical joker” and tells her favourite prank story. “Every year, he gave the Memphis Mafia [the nickname given to Elvis’s inner circle] Christmas bonuses,” she says. 

“One year, he overheard the guys as they sat around imagining what the bonus might be. So, Elvis goes to McDonald’s down the street from Graceland and buys them all 50-cent gift certificates. 

“He puts them in envelopes with their names on. Christmas Eve comes around, Elvis brings the envelopes out and hands them out.

“The guys open them up and stare at Elvis — and he just falls about laughing but, mind you, back then 50 cents would have got you an entire meal.”

Next, I ask Marchese if there’s a song in the EPiC movie which particularly grabs her attention. 

He never lost this desire to please his fans, to be with them and to perform for them

Angie Marchese, Vice President of Archives and Exhibits at Graceland

“Like everyone, I love the popular ones such as Suspicious Minds, but when he sings gospel, that’s huge for me. It takes everything to another level. So my answer is, How Great Thou Art. I don’t think anyone could have done it better.” 

Marchese describes how Elvis became infatuated with gospel at a young age. “He used to go to these all-night gospel sings at the North Hall in downtown Memphis when he was a kid. 

“He didn’t have money to buy a ticket so he would go round to the back door and listen. Sometimes, JD Sumner [who sang at Elvis’s funeral] would sneak him in.” 

Of his towering rendition of How Great Thou Art, Marchese says: “Typical gospel hymn, but Elvis put it in the middle of a rock concert. The crowd is silent, listening to every word, but it doesn’t slow down the vibe, it raises it even more.” 

Just before How Great Thou Art, you see cute home movies of Elvis with Lisa Marie when she was a baby and toddler. 

“It made me cry,” says Marchese. “I wonder if Baz [Luhrmann] did that on purpose because How Great Thou Art was her favourite Elvis song.” 

It’s so sad to think that, like her dad, she died young and is buried beside him in Graceland’s Meditation Garden. 

“Lisa was the apple of Elvis’s eye, and loved her dad more than life itself,” says Marchese. 

“She was loyal, authentically who she was and also a beautiful, doting mother to her kids [Riley, twin girls Harper and Finley, and the late Ben].” 

As the owner of Graceland, Lisa Marie also got to know Marchese well. “She really was a special friend. She had a lot of Elvis’s traits — she had no filter so whatever she was thinking was what she was trying to do.” 

Before we go our separate ways, Marchese returns to the subject of EPiC, which showcases some of Elvis’s best-loved songs with breathless intensity — Always On My Mind, Can’t Help Falling In Love, In The Ghetto and so on.  

Elvis announces that it’s time to “get dirty” before launching into a relentless Polk Salad Annie — a truly remarkable feat of film editing, employing footage from two concerts and a rehearsal, all spliced together to thrilling effect. 

“That was masterful editing [by Jonathan Redmond] right there,” enthuses Marchese. 

There are wonderful intimate moments where Elvis rehearses Beatles songs Yesterday and Something.  

Cue one final, illuminating anecdote from the curator with an encyclopaedic knowledge.  

“I actually took Paul McCartney through Graceland. He was most fascinated by the fact that Elvis had a remote control for his TV in 1965 — years before most people had them.

“Oh, and we have the first microwave ever sold in Memphis, inside Graceland’s kitchen.” 

Finally, I ask Marchese if Elvis felt “caught in a trap” by Vegas, resulting in him not touring the world. 

“He loved his Vegas audience. He loved being on tour. But there was a moment in time when he couldn’t get off the hamster wheel. He had so many people relying on him.  

“Yet he never lost this desire to please his fans, to be with them and to perform for them.” 

If you get the chance to see EPiC, you’ll realise Elvis Aaron Presley is STILL The King. 

EPiC – ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT  

★★★★★

I carry my train journeys in my bones, the juddering song of the Indian rail. Our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, famously likened India to a palimpsest, no layer quite effacing the one that went before. That’s how I think of Indian railway journeys. They inscribe on the mind our fellow travellers, our ways, our thousand languages, our landscapes, our climate.

I think of a rail journey I made in 1998 – that brutal summer of nuclear testing – setting out from Mumbai, in an ordinary three-tier sleeper, for Dehradun, 1,000 miles (1,600km) north. The frazzled train fell off any semblance of a schedule. The voyage grew longer, past 50 hours; hotter, past 50C. I remember the metallic burn on the window grilles; the hot, killing wind that blew through them; the sizzle of water drops splashed on the face when theyhit the uncovered platforms in the heart of the country; the melt of my rubber soles. A fortnight later, having trekked to the mouth of a tributary of the Ganges, completing my expedition from the Arabian Sea to a Himalayan glacier, it was possible to look back on the rail ordeal with affection.

I wonder, as I write, whether this memory seeped into the heat-addled odyssey made by the runaway protagonist of my novel Railsong. Physically depleted as she is by its end, she is sustained by the benevolence and solidarity of strangers. Alighting in the great city of Bombay, as Mumbai was then called, standing below the gargoyles of the gothic masterpiece then called the Victoria terminus (now the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj terminus), she knows she has emerged on the other side of something.

In no other activity, so easily available to all, does India offer itself up as wholly as train travel. Mahatma Gandhi, initially a critic of the railway system (“Railways accentuate the evil nature of man”), came around to accepting this, hitting the rails to understand his country on his return from South Africa. This is why I recommend to the prospective traveller not necessarily the heritage or scenic routes – though by all means sample the quaint narrow- or metre-gauge hill railways, or the gorgeous run down the Konkan coast – but instead using the railways simply as a way of getting from one place to another.

In the process, one learns much about oneself. Consider sleeper travel. Is there a situation more exposing than sharing a compartment with strangers? With luck, you might fall into invigorating company. A few months ago, I made an overnight trip up from Mumbai to Delhi with three large policemen, one nursing an injured toe, another dedicated to his newspaper, the third his phone, each initially taciturn. As the journey unspooled, so did their stories. They were going out to capture someone. If it was anything like their last outing to Delhi, when a slippery accused murderer had them chase him for more than 600 miles across three states, these officers would make it on to the news again. Another time, a painstaking manhunt had taken them to Mangaluru on the south-western coast, where they discovered instead the fellow’s namesake – himself wanted in a decades-old riots case. That led to a medal.

Food is also a valuable companion on the rails. No matter that dining cars are gone, that regulations about open flames have restricted platform fare, or that the foil-boxed meals served on premium services trigger thousands of official complaints every year and much casual grousing – eating remains a crucial railway habit. Depending on the season, and your route, it is possible to pop out on to the platform during a halt and buy top-notch, farm-fresh lychees, custard apples, bananas and mangoes in places famed for them.

On the Mumbai-Pune route in the west, vendors at Karjat align themselves with the carriage doors, bearing metal trays of the town’s famed vada pav – a deep-fried, lightly spiced potato ball, placed inside a soft bun with a mix of dry and wet chutneys (for the cautious, the dry is safer). On the same route, as banker (helper) engines push the rake (coupled carriages) up the Western Ghats, the hill station of Lonavala offers up its famous chikki – an energy-boosting sweet made from nuts and jaggery (unrefined cane sugar) – and the more decadent chocolate walnut fudge. In the southern states of Telangana and Karnataka, you might help yourself, as I did a few years ago, to vividly peppy breakfasts of ograni – a mixture of soft puffed rice and an array of condiments and spices, similar yet so distinct from the crunchy, mustardy puffed-rice jhalmuri of Bengal in the east. And there is always the prospect of packing yourself a tuck and sharing food with any friends you make along the way.

Despite the myriad challenges of Indian train travel, the journeys are pleasurable and affordable, not to mention sustainable. For these reasons, my family and I do as much of our travelling as possible by rail. Routinely, we curve out east from Delhi, across the great swathe of the Gangetic plains, the dusty brownscapes gradually getting greener, up past the trim tea gardens in the eastern Himalayan foothills, through the narrow corridor known as the “chicken’s neck” (officially, the Siliguri Corridor), into bamboo-shaded Assam, to my wife’s ancestral home. This run, 24 or 28 hours long, depending on the service, sometimes stretches past 35. Our two young girls don’t mind; it’s flights that make them feel claustrophobic.

The causes of these delays are often dramatic, and instructive about Indian life.

One time, a station footbridge collapsed under the weight of Kumbh Mela pilgrims – typically, a last-minute change of platforms was involved, causing a stampede – in the town then known as Allahabad (since renamed Prayagraj by a regime intent on scrubbing Islamic fingerprints off Indian history). More than 40 people died, putting into perspective my trivial discomfort of waiting in the chilly hours for the train to pull into Mughalsarai (also renamed, after the philosopher Deen Dayal Upadhyay). On another occasion, a derailment sent us on a circuitous gallivant through Bihar and Bengal. Then there was the time our rake first mowed down three cows and then, in the middle of the night, smashed into a stalled Jeep. The occupants got away. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

On a monsoonal Assamese morning in 2012, the train I was on came to a standstill beside a paddy field. This was an inexpensive regional service, fitted with unreserved bench-seating – in Indian Railways parlance, a “passenger” train – and it was halting at the merest hint of a station. But even by the standards of passenger trains, this seemed like an eccentric location. Eventually, I climbed off to investigate. In front of the locomotive sat a mangled autorickshaw. The bodies of three men had been laid alongside the tracks.

I don’t mean to deter you from passenger services. In fact, I highly recommend them. In a land as diverse as India, a passenger train is a full-blooded immersion in the local: the dress; the produce the farmers carry; the food vendors serve up; the unknown halts that mail and express trains roar past, which are the centres of their own little worlds. After all, on the railways, as in certain novels, the intimate and the epic, the local and the national, are linked together, making the whole.

Rahul Bhattacharya’s latest novel, Railsong, is published by Bloomsbury (£18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

A SAUCY Valentine’s Day strip model Abbey Clancy had planned for her hubby Peter Crouch was dashed when he invited a chef to their home to cook for them.

The 40-year-old dressed in skimpy underwear and covered up with a mac, intending to make a big reveal.

But she was forced to swelter under the coat when the former Liverpool, Spurs and England striker arrived with the chef.

Abbey said: “That was the worst surprise ever because I got a gorgeous outfit from Agent Provocateur and just put it on with a coat on top.

“And Pete was like ‘Surprise! We’ve got a chef’.

“So I had to just wear my coat for the whole dinner — at home.

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“I had to wear my coat for the whole meal in my own house.

“And I was literally sweating because I was so worried.”

Asked if she was in a Burberry Mac, Abbey said: “Yeah, I was.

“That was highly embarrassing.

“And he kept asking ‘Aren’t you hot in that coat?’”

Peter, 45, eventually cottoned on to why Abbey would not remove her coat but by then was helpless to ask the chef to leave because it would have appeared rude.

He said: “He wouldn’t go away as well.

“You know when they come over and they want to explain the meal.

“It’s like ‘p*** off mate, will you’.”

Mum-of-four Abbey said Valentine’s nights indoors can be romantic too and couples should not feel pressure to always have a great meal out on February 14.

She added on their Therapy Crouch podcast: “That is nice, to stay in.”

It was not the first time Abbey had tried to woo Peter using the same tactic — although last time she was a bit more successful.

In November 2003 she told The Sun how she lured Peter home from training by picking him up in a car while wearing only a Burberry mac.

He said her teasing tactic “worked very well” — but that he is also very easily pleased.

Peter said: “It’s easy to surprise me.

“If I came home and you had no clothes on, it’d be the best surprise ever.

“It’s so simple and I’ll be so happy.

“I’m just being honest.”

Time is running out to binge watch the addictive and highly rated series

Time is running out for Netflix fans to enjoy an ‘epic’ sci-fi adaptation.

The series was originally an exclusive on rival streamer Paramount+, with episodes released weekly beginning in 2022. That was until the live-action series based on the popular video game series Halo made its Netflix debut in March last year.

Finding a new home on the platform, it quickly surged up the charts of most watched titles among UK subscribers. However, it looks like the deal to bring the show over was only good for a year, as it is set to be removed a day before its 12 month anniversary.

The show, based on the much-loved Xbox-exclusive game franchise, follows super soldier Master Chief John-117 and his team of Spartans as they battle against the alien threat known as the Covenant.

Its first season scored a respectable 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, while the second series upped the ante with an impressive 90% rating. Pablo Schreiber, known for roles in Orange is the New Black, Den of Thieves and The Wire, took on the role of Master Chief.

Despite its eventual cancellation by Paramount, many viewers have expressed their admiration for the show. This includes many acknowledging the challenge of successfully adapting such a beloved series.

One fan, sharing their opinion online, posted: “The Halo show on Paramount+ is everything I could have hoped for and more. As a fan of the Halo series, I was thrilled by how they brought the universe to life.

“The visuals are stunning, capturing the gritty yet futuristic essence of the franchise. The action sequences are intense and cinematic, especially the battles with the Covenant, which felt ripped straight out of the games.”

Another added: “Epic! If you want action, violence and non stop battles, this is for you. Amazing cinematography. Brought to screen successfully, I’d say.”

They continued: “Heaps of effort and money went into producing this, obviously. Visually stunning. Whole cast excels in character very convincingly. If you are a Halo fan, this will keep you glued to the screen. Lots of twists and dilemmas to keep it gripping and interesting.”

However, its not just dedicated fans of the game series that have been able to enjoy the show. As one person claimed: “Production quality is outstanding, on par with Star Wars or Star Trek. I found the first season intelligent, enjoyable to watch and honestly, very addictive.”

While someone else suggested: “Pure fun, best sci fi since Expanse and The Mandalorian.” And one person commented: “Excellent! They have filmed and written the storyline perfectly and it has me hooked wanting more. Binge watched whole of season 1 in two days.”

Halo is streaming on Netflix until February 28 and on Paramount Plus.

LOLA Young is single and looking for love after returning to the stage from her career break.

The Londoner triumphed with the Best Pop Solo Performance Grammy on Sunday night for her No1 hit Messy — and she won over even more fans with an emotional performance of the song.

But I can reveal she has well and truly moved on from the subject matter, all about the end of a previous relationship, and has signed up to dating app Raya.

And she has overhauled her life by cutting out booze.

I’ve seen her profile on the high-end matchmaking app, which features a handful of sultry photos, as well as one of her performing, and is linked to her official Instagram account.

But she still has an air of mystery, choosing to leave the “bio” section of her profile blank. It’s a change from September, when she said she was too busy to date.

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However, it’s fair to say it’s been a period of a lot of changes for Lola.

She took a four-month break after collapsing on stage in September, and only returned to the spotlight at a pre-Grammys party at the end of last week.

Now she is sober, I’m told industry pals Lily Allen and Sir Elton John, who are also teetotal, have been offering their support.

Lola revealed she had ditched alcohol when asked how she would be celebrating following her Grammys success.

She said: “I am going to have an In-N-Out burger with my manager and everyone. And I’m probably going to go out a little bit.

“I don’t drink, but it’s going to be fun anyway.”

Last year, she revealed she had to check into rehab to tackle a cocaine addiction in 2024, just as Messy was rising up the charts.

Then on her song d£aler, released last summer, she sang about the struggle of “tryna be sober.”

Now it sounds like things are finally looking up for her — and she seems in great spirits.

Speaking about her break, Lola said: “This is a very difficult industry to be in.

I took the time out to get better because there were a lot of things going on in my head, in my personal life, and we constantly have to be protected as artists.

“I had to make the decision to do it for myself — to be kind to myself and give myself space.”

“But now I am back. I feel better.

“I will do as much as I can to be good for my fans and to be good for the people that love me.”

She’s got Teyst

Teyana Taylor was my best-dressed star of the night, and it’s fair to say she probably has the busiest awards season of anyone.

She wore this stunning, sculptural Tom Ford dress but sadly lost out on the Best R&B Album prize for her record Escape Room, with the gong going to Leon Thomas’s Mutt instead.

Still, Teyana will have plenty more wins I’m sure. The multi-talented performer is the favourite to win Best Supporting Actress at the Baftas and the Oscars – after winning the same prize at the Golden Globes – for her role in One Battle After Another.

She joined a load of stars hitting the town, with Justin Bieber spotted in an open hoodie, having earlier performed his song Yukon in just some silver silk boxers.

That wasn’t half as mad k as Lady Gaga performing with a black bird cage on her head though.

Kesha wore an over-the-top head-dress to greet fans, while Miley Cyrus looked chuffed to pose with Bad Bunny.

And Tate McRae, Olivia Rodrigo and Bruno Mars all looked super-stylish as they headed out to the afterparties.

Those celebrity stylists have been working overtime.

All the goss at The Grammys

Cher added some laughs to proceedings when announcing the Record of the Year winner, claiming it had gone to Luther Vandross, despite the fact he died 21 years ago.

She got confused when reading out who had won, claiming she thought the name would be on the autocue and she wouldn’t have to open the envelope on stage.

But when she did, she saw the title Luther and said the late singer’s name instead.

Thankfully, winners Kendrick Lamar and SZA, whose song Luther samples the soul star’s version of If This World Were Mine, put two and two together and realised they had won.

And that was a relief, because it was seven more seconds before Cher exclaimed: “No, Kendrick Lamar!”

Sabrina’s tough love

She left the ceremony empty handed despite six nominations, although Sabrina Carpenter still sent pulses soaring during a racy performance of her hit Manchild.

But any new admirers should take note, she has no qualms about spilling the beans on her love life in her music.

Speaking backstage, Sabrina, who wrote her last album Man’s Best Friend about her ex Barry Keoghan, said: “I love really hard. If you f*** with me, there will be consequences.

“I feel pretty transparent going into any of my relationships that I write songs and I think they’re just as down for it.

“Also, most of the time, they’ve been pretty flattered. When they get a song written about them, good or bad, I think they’re just excited to get a shout out.

“I’m not scared of men in that sense. I am scared of men sometimes, but I’m not scared in that sense.

“I will attract exactly who I’m supposed to attract. And again there’s so much conversation around women that are honest and strong and opinionated and determined, focused.”

Winner Tyla will ao A-POP

Tyla celebrated her second Grammy win by announcing her new album will be called A-POP.

She won Best African Music Performance for Push 2 Start, having won the same gong in 2024 for Water.

Speaking backstage, she said: “I wanna announce that my sophomore album drops this summer and it’s called A-POP.”

Asked what fans can expect, she said: “Amazing new music. It’s going to be different. It’s me now. I just grew up… I’m now 24, I feel like a woman.

“I’ve got other things I want to say and other vibes I want to give, so yeah, it’s definitely a different vibe but I’m so excited.”

Charli XCX is a self-proclaimed “365 Party Girl” so I can see why her post-event bash was one of the most star-studded of the evening.

The Saint Laurent-sponsored event took place at Bar Marmont in West Hollywood – the go-to venue for luxury brands – and boasted a guestlist including Demi Lovato, Paris Hilton, Diplo and Rose.

Not so clever, Trevor

Donald Trump has threatened to sue Grammy host Trevor Noah over his jokes about him at the bash.

Noah, inset, said: “Song of the Year – that is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense because since Epstein’s gone, he needs a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.”

Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!

“I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media.

“Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.

“Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!” Here we go again . . .