Garry Lee Taylor...
...has performed all over the world, from Nashville and Memphis in the USA, to countries such as England, Luxenburg, Holland and many more. Over the years Garry has performed his winning recipe of crazy comedy, magic and music to many millions people all over the world!
In Sweden, Garry has performed shows to audiences from 300 to 20,000 people and has appeared alongside many of the top Swedish artists such as Tomas Ledin, Lill Babs, Per Gessle ( Roxette ), Siw Malmkvist, Di Leva, Ainbusk Singers, and Joey Tempest ( Europe ) and many more.
The City festival in Gävle Sweden has a review in the press each year and it names the top five high points of that particular years "City Festival". In 1997 Garry Lee Taylor was voted top on ALL 5 positions, and many of the famous names above were on the same show !
Garry has even appeared on Ingvar Oldsbergs "Oldsberg för närvarande" on Swedish TV2 ( the swedish equivalent to "The David Letterman show").
Garry Lee Taylor has recorded a number of Albums, and one of his own songs reached the number 6 position on the European Country Music Hit list CMR in 1995 beating world renowned country artists such as Bill Ray Cyrus, Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks.
* For photos and a few early country reviews of Garry click on the button EARLY GLT in the menu bar above.
In 1997 the Swedish danceband Perikles re-recorded "Wait Until Tomorrow" for their album Fifty Fifty
*original source taken from shop.klicktrack.com
In the year 2000...
...after having a hit record and performing on festivals, Tv programmes, and country shows all over Sweden, Garry Lee Taylor met the woman of his dreams and decided to quit the music business !
Over the years a "booking agent" tried on many occasions to get Garry to change his mind and go back to performing as he thought it was such a shame that Garry's musical talent was not being used, but Garry explained that he had become tired of the tours and of playing the country songs in his show and had no " interest or motivation" to begin again.
One day the agent asked the question in a new way....What WOULD Garry like to do if he was to return to the music business?"....what would make it all interesting again ? After a little thought Garry explained how he loved singing Elvis songs, especially Elvis songs from the 70s, the way Elvis performed the songs in his live shows.
* (Garry had won an award years earlier for sounding the most like Elvis Presley in southern Sweden by the radio station "Radio Kristianstad" in Sweden in 1998).
The agent then asked if Garry would be interested in doing 2 or 3 shows a year if he would be singing only Elvis songs. Garry thought about it and came to the conclusion that if it was just a few times a year it would be fun, as it would feel more like a "hobby". Garry admitted later that he really didn´t think that the agent would find places for shows that would want to have just "Elvis music". Apart from the odd song every now and again in his previous country shows, Garry had never performed a pure Elvis type show. To Garry´s surprise, within a month the agent called Garry and asked him to open the evenings music with an Elvis show in the city of Lund's "Kulturkalas" (a kind of music & arts festival).
Approximately 1 year later a friend of Garry`s had opened a new music venue and wanted Garry to come along and do a few shows to draw people to the new place. Garry tried to explain that he wasn´t in the music business anymore and so didn't want to do it, and it took over 3 months of persuading and convincing to finally get Garry to agree to do it. It was eventually agreed upon that Garry would perform 8 shows to help out his friend.
Garry`s new Elvis show "Thats The Way It Was" was sold out within 1 hour of being announced on Facebook !
The following shows were also quickly sold out within hours of their release date. The show received standing ovations and great reviews and Garry was quickly asked to add more shows than the 8 that had previously been agreed upon. The show had opened in the beginning of May and its continued success meant that it ran constantly throughout the rest of the year, and by December was still sold out 5 nights a week ! Garry Lee Taylor was back in the music business….and this time with an incredibly successful Elvis show!.
When Garry was asked to perform an Elvis show for the first time he didn´t wish to join the army of Elvis impersonators and "lookalikes" wearing wigs, sideburns and sunglasses and trying to talk like Elvis between songs as many of the impersonators do. Instead, Garry performed in his own long blonde hair, and as "himself" and didn`t want to become simply another "Elvis impersonator". Garry´s idea was to present a show packed full of wonderful Elvis songs together with a few Elvis type stage costumes to give the look and "feel" of an Elvis show, but he wanted to keep his own looks, style, personality and of course his own crazy sense of humor too.
Over the years after many requests from fans of the show wishing to see Garry Looking like Elvis in the black wigs and jumpsuits he finally agreed to get more of the "Elvis look" for some of his shows. Garry has never felt really comfortable in the wigs and sideburns as he said that he felt that it went against his original idea of offering a tribute to the incredible Elvis Presley and his fans, and not trying to copy everything about him.
As Garry said himself "There is only one Elvis, and it is impossible to try match Elvis`s voice, talent, looks and incredible charisma, anything less than Elvis himself can only be second best". These days Garry performs both with, and without the wigs and sideburns and explains very clearly to his audiences that he is "himself" and not trying to be a "copy" of Elvis.
* Due to the incredible success of "Thats The Way It Was" in 2011 Garry was asked to return after December and continue with his show the following year. Garry changed a few things within the show and added a few different songs, and once again due to the continuing sold out shows and amazing audience response the show continued to run until the end of December!
From 2012 to 2013 Garry created a couple of new versions of his show. The first new resident show "A Touch Of Vegas" opened in May 2013, and again continued to thrill audiences throughout the year, as did a different version of the show "Elvis Greatest Hits". Garry Lee Taylors Elvis themed show has in effect been running constantly since 2011 under different titles!
* In 2013 Garry was contacted by booking agency "Nöjespärlan" who asked him if he would like to take his show on tour to perform in Theater´s and City Halls throughout Sweden. For this to be possible Garry would need to fit the tour in between all of the continuing sold out performances of his resident show in the south of Sweden. Together with guitarist Peter J Lenz they created an exciting new show especially for the tour entitled "The King & I" and received standing ovations at every single performance during 2014!
*In 2015 Garry went back on Tour with a new show full of Elvis hits together with a newly created band which he called the GLT Band, together with a handful of new ways to annoy his guitarist Peter J Lenz. The newly formed GLT Band are a group of Swedens finest musicians and as always it features Garry beautiful daughter Tanya Tanita Taylor and even Sven Bornemark ( son of 70`s Tv personality Gullan Bornemark)
This new version of his show that he took on tour in 2015 was called "A Touch Of Vegas" ( a name that he once used for one of his resident shows in the south of Sweden).
Thats The Way It Was 2011
In 2011 Garry`s show entitled "Thats The Way It Was" became the most successful and longest running fully sold out Elvis show ever in Sweden! The show is a selection of Elvis songs and costumes from the various periods of the career of Elvis Presley.
Plus of course, as with every Garry Lee Taylor show, there was his unpredictability and crazy sense of humour together with Guitarist Peter J. Lenz.
Garry is not trying to "Be Elvis" in his performances, but he presents a Presley style show with the look, feel, style and sound of an Elvis presley show together with his own crazy sense of humour!
A Touch of Vegas at Lucy´s 2012
In 2012 "A Touch of Vegas", was the new version of his show and opened to rave reviews and was praised as being even better than his 2011 hit show "Thats The Way It Was".
Garry Lee Taylor was back in the driving seat, onstage once again with his straight faced comedy sidekick "Mr Happy" ( as Garry calls him ) guitarist Peter J. Lenz, and with two beautiful backing singers with voices of angels, Linnea Claesson, (and Garry`s daughter) Tanya Tanita Taylor.
Elvis Greatest Hits 2013
In 2013 Garry`s new show entitled "Elvis Greatest Hits" became another incredibly successful sold out Elvis show, again running from May until the end of December.
The King & I 2014
In 2013 Garry took a version of his hit show on tour and into many of the theaters and city halls throughout Sweden. This show was entitled "The King & I". This was the first time that Garry had taken his Elvis show "on the road" and was unsure how audiences would react to his crazy comedy/magic ideas together with Elvis songs. The audiences that came to see his show at the residency music venue were quite used to his wild and crazy ideas and it became part of the fun to see "what Garry would do tonight" as each show was always different, but how would other audiences react that were not used to this spontanious and often mischeivious person onstage? Garry didn´t need to worry! The King & I became a huge success receiving standing ovations at every single performance during 2013 !
In 2014 "The King & I" went back on tour and again received standing ovations at every single performance during 2014 !
In 2015 "The King & I" went back on tour and again with a full live band and again received standing ovations at every single performance during that tour of concert houses and theaters.
Garry will be touring again with his new show in the near future so don´t miss it!
To read more about Garry´s touring show press the "A Touch Of Vegas" button in the header at the top of the page.
