ELVIS AVOIDED BRITAIN TO HIDE COCAINE HABIT

by John Harlow
Arts Correspondent

HIS absence from British shores became one of the great mysteries of
rock'n'roll: why did Elvis Presley turn down millions of pounds to play a
single concert in London during the 1970s?

Over the years, biographers have repeated the official excuse that health
problems and a fear of flying across the Atlantic kept him at home in
Memphis, Tennessee.

Fear of flying never answered all the questions, though: he bought a Boeing
707 and at least one corporate jet in which he flew around the United
States. Nor did his health problems, officially represented as either
glaucoma or liver infections, stop him from appearing in lucrative Las
Vegas shows.

The FBI, however, has its own darker theory for Presley's shying away from
Britain. In a clutch of files released in Washington under the Freedom of
Information Act, a dossier has emerged from a senior field agent who was in
charge of photographing people entering and leaving Presley's homes in
Memphis, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The agent reported that Presley had rejected overtures to visit London
because the singer feared it would expose his drug habit.

"Presley is currently psychologically addicted to and a heavy user of
cocaine. Because of this, he had turned down an engagement in England that
would have netted him several million dollars," reported the agent, whose
name is blacked out of the report on the FBI's Internet site.

"Presley did not accept this offer for fear that he would be caught in
possession of or using narcotics in a foreign country."

The FBI report claimed that Presley was being supplied with the drug by a
former girlfriend who lived in New York but had connections with the mafia.
But the bureau took no action: three years later Presley died from what the
Memphis coroner described as "a terminal event on the commode". He was 42.

Presley was obsessed with the FBI ­ he had written fan letters to J Edgar
Hoover, its nowdiscredited director, who had sent him an "honorary agent"
badge. But he probably never realised that the agency was spying on him, as
it did on all the "communist hippies" Presley came to hate, such as John
Lennon.

The FBI claim that Presley was using cocaine has shocked Todd Slaughter,
who has run the Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain for 30 years. He
said it was the first time he had heard such a suggestion.

"Elvis did not drink or smoke and the only drugs we can be sure he took
were antidepressants and dieting pills. I don't think for a moment he was
interested in cocaine. He preferred his food."

Lord Archer, the bestselling author, was another entrepreneur who
attempted to net Elvis.

"At Graceland he agreed to perform in London for charity ­ it was going to
be the Albert Hall or the indoor arena at Wembley ­ but he procrastinated
and we eventually gave up," said Archer.