Jon Murray watches the world's best Elvis impersonator light up the New Theatre

One thought preoccupied me — was Always On My Mind, you could say — from the moment I arrived at the New Theatre to see Three Steps To Heaven last week. It kept going through my head: “Elvis is in the building.”

And watching Stephen Kabakos, the world’s best impersonator of The King, perform, it really did seem I had been transported back in time and that I was in the presence of Presley himself.

The Canadian had Elvis’s songs, his stage demeanour, his mannerisms, off to a tee, to the minutest detail. So it was a shame that, on the night I was in the audience at least, the theatre was less than a quarter full — due partly to parts of the city being under water, but more to the fact that this Rock & Roll Tour had been slotted in to the New Theatre’s programme at quite late notice.

Those that were there found Canadian Kabakos, and Damian Edwards as Roy Orbison and Ed Handoll as Buddy Holly, terrific actors as well as good musicians.

Tribute acts seldom come as classy or as professional as this.

Of course Elvis had so many hits, it was not as if Kabakos’s music would struggle to be recognised. Despite dying far too young, at 42, Elvis had by then recorded the small matter of 759 songs.

Opening with Blue Suede Shoes, stepping up the pace with Hound Dog and King Creole, and in the second part of the show, from his 1968 Las Vegas concert, Suspicious Minds and The Wonder of You, were all delivered with verve and panache.

Roy Orbison, who made a living writing songs for the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly, had a unique voice himself, and Edwards carried this off impressively, with big hits Crying, California Blue and Only the Lonely particularly well received.

Both Texans, Holly and Orbison began their careers with country-inspired songs. It was after seeing Elvis Presley in 1955 that Holly began to bring in elements of his raw rockability style.

And Holly’s breakthrough hit That’ll Be the Day, and others like Peggy Sue and Oh, Boy! certainly had the audience rocking.

As well as their songs, what connected these three musical legends, of course, was that they all passed away before their truly full potential had been realised.

Orbison died from a massive heart attack at 52 while Holly perished in a plane crash, at the hands of an inexperienced pilot, aged just 22. But thanks to talented tribute artists such as these, their music lives on.

Three Steps To Heaven
New Theatre, Oxford