DJ Fontana - Bolton Arena Worlds Greatest Elvis Concert

Elite Tributes and Bolton Arena proudly present . . . Direct from the USA!

A living legend of rock and roll music history!

D.J. Fontana



A spokesman for Bolton Arena said today, “Now not only do we have an incredible line up of ETA's headed by the world's greatest Elvis tribute artist Shawn Klush, but as in the case of the Sweet Inspiration's, Elvis Presley's original backing singers for the second half of the show, we now have an “Elvis link” with D J Fontana, Elvis Presley's original drummer in the first half of a truly epic concert.”

Promoters Elite Tributes added, “Mr Fontana was right there on stage, providing the beat behind an electrifying young Elvis Presley and together in a short time went on to change the world for ever!” Our intention from the very start was to give the fans as complete and as close an Elvis concert as witnessed anywhere in the world. We believe that in securing Mr Fontana for Saturday August 9th it will not get any closer and that we will have achieved our goal of providing a truly historic concert right here in the UK.”



Dominic Joseph Fontana the drummer for Elvis Presley for 14 years and who together played on over 460 RCA tracks will be appearing at Bolton Arena Saturday August 9th.

Born on March 15th, 1931 in Shreveport Louisiana he was nicknamed "D.J.," he was employed by the Louisiana Hayride to be an in-house drummer on its Saturday night radio broadcast. In October of 1954 he was hired to play drums for Presley that marked the beginning of the historic rock and roll relationship. He also performed on the NBC television special known as the '68 Comeback Special. Fontana, joined a band (originally assembled by Sun record label owner Sam Phillips without a drummer) consisting of Scotty Moore (Lead Guitar), Bill Black, (Bass), and Elvis Presley (Rhythm Guitar) calling themselves "The Blue Moon Boys".

The band became the band that would perform and record the vast majority of the Elvis Presley hits of the 50's (some also including piano and backing vocals from the Jordanaires including mammoth hits such as Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Don't be Cruel and Jailhouse Rock. The band also toured extensively and performed on several television appearances through 1956 and 1957. The band officially broke up in 1958 although D.J. and Elvis still played and recorded together regularly.

D.J. has also performed a 2002 recording of “That's all Right (Mama) with Paul McCartney. In 1983 he published a book in pictorial form titled "D.J. Fontana Remembers Elvis" about his years playing with Presley. D.J. Fontana's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

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just keeps getting better

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D. J. Fontana truly is part of rock and roll history, and a more down-to-earth and truly nice person you couldn't meet. He has worked with many, many well known musicians around the world also and can be heard on hundreds of records. What a terrific addition to this show.

For more on DJ, here is his website:

www.djfontana.com

Carol

It was a dream for me in the late 80s to have DJ playing drums for me, i was singing Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes, he signed the drum sticks for me which really i should have on the wall framed,
The man himself, many storys to tell about Elvis which i will always treasure.
Ian
Billy Dean

Yes, Ian, DJ certainly does have a lot of Elvis stories from the early days. I've had the opportunity to meet him many times and have always enjoyed his conversations. He is a genuine rock and roll pioneer and there aren't too many of them left. He's always a great addition to an ETA show too and the audiences love him. Carol