Elvis impersonator to wed Priscilla tribute act after falling in love at Blackpool gig

Lookalikes Steve Halliday and Cassandra Fisher met at a show in Blackpool in 2018

An Elvis Presley impersonator is to marry a Priscilla Presley tribute act – after they couldn’t help falling in love at a gig.

Lookalikes Steve Halliday and Cassandra Fisher met at a show in Blackpool in 2018. Steve, 51, then proposed on the same stage in the town’s Winter Gardens exactly a year later.

nd the rock and roll couple are set to demonstrate their burning love for each other by tying the knot later this year. The Covid-delayed big day is planned for July 29, where the pair will be dressed as themselves.

But the newlyweds will then head in costume to Las Vegas – where the real Elvis and Priscilla married in 1967 – to have their union blessed. Steve, who makes his living performing as Elvis, said: “We really want to do something that’s very Elvis and Priscilla, because they’re absolutely a part of us, but also be ourselves.

“Elvis drew us together, but I’d have been attracted to Cassandra even if she wasn’t Priscilla. It’s just lucky – a win-win situation.”

Cassandra, 33, works part-time as Priscilla and says she is often called upon to host charity events. She says she feels extremely lucky to have met Steve – and said they match on and off the stage.

She said: “It’s fantastic to meet somebody that just gets you and loves what you love the same way that you do. We don’t have to explain anything to each other about why we are the way we are about Elvis and Pricilla.

“There was a connection straight away. I feel lucky that Cassandra has found her Steve, and as a happy consequence Priscilla has found her Elvis.”

Steve has appeared as Elvis for 30 years in both the UK and abroad – including in an award-winning Vegas show. He fell in love with the King aged 10 and, instead of going to art college, instead took his dad’s old guitar along to working men’s clubs to perform.

It was then that he realised had both the looks and the talent to perform as Elvis. Steve said: “I taught myself to play guitar, and I was so shy about singing my parents didn’t even know I could do it.

“The first single I ever bought was Elvis, and you never forget your first love. The truth is that Elvis was as good as people thought, he could really sing. He was technically a superb singer – really exceptional .

“I can’t walk anywhere without people going, ‘uh hu hu’, and even if I’m wearing a hat people say, ‘oh Elvis has left the building’, when I leave a shop.

He’s worked as Elvis all over the world – including Memphis – and was on the Elvis special of Stars in your Eyes in the mid 1990s. He also appeared BBC hunt to find the world’s greatest Elvis impersonator in the mid-2000s.

Meanwhile, Cassandra’s adoration for all things Presley started age six as she watched films with her mum. When she started going to Elvis tribute gigs people remarked that she bore a strong resemblance to Priscilla – and she started working as a tribute ten years ago.

The lookalike mimics Priscilla in the late 60s when she was married to Elvis and not her later years. One of her favourite outfits is a pink shirt dress with a dagger collar that Priscilla wore as she left hospital after giving birth to her and Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie in 1968.

Cassandra, who also works as a teacher, said: “I was just mesmerised when I watched [the film] In Hawaii. It also felt like a connection with my nan, who’d watched all the Elvis films with my mum as they came out, and very sadly died when mum was six.”

Highlights for Cassandra include meeting Priscilla twice and encountering Elvis’ grandson on a visit to Memphis. She has at least 30 replica outfits she has had made specially from photographs of her idol.

She said: “I was so excited to meet her. I found it hard to speak. I was so in awe. She said, ‘wow just looking at you really takes me back’.

“It meant so much and was really overwhelming to hear her say that to me – like I’m doing something right. I have the utmost respect for Pricilla and everything she has done in Elvis memory.”

Steve says he was so nervous when he first spotted Cassandra he asked a friend, now the best man, to approach her on his behalf. Later he plucked up the courage to ask her on a date, and she said ‘yes’ – and she’s been always on his mind ever since.

“It was love at first sight,” said Steve. “She looked so pretty.”

“It was a bit frightening in a way,” Cassandra added, “because I felt something so strong so quickly.”

A year later Steve called Cassandra onto the stage just before his last song – If I Can Dream – and got down on one knee. Speechless Cassandra managed a nod and he turned to the audience and said, ‘I think that’s a yes’.

Petrified Steve explained he was scrabbling around behind his guitar amp where the diamond ring had fallen while also trying to look cool. Cassandra said: “Suddenly he’s on one knee and I’m so gobsmacked I’m nearly on the floor.”

Steve and Cassandra’s wedding was originally planned for 2021 but got delayed because of the pandemic. After their guided tour of Vegas, the couple will go on honeymoon to Beverly Hills and San Francisco, finishing in Elvis’ beloved Hawaii.

By

Kate Pounds
Jon MacphersonChief Reporter
  • 13:24, 30 MAY 2022

Be the first to comment on "Elvis impersonator to wed Priscilla tribute act after falling in love at Blackpool gig"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*