HERO is undoubtedly Elvis Presley, the greatest rock and pop artiste who ever lived, and the template for every popular singer that came after him.

The first time I heard Elvis Presley was when I was a young lad listening to Radio Luxembourg, which was my favourite radio station at the time. To say I was an avid pop music fan would be an understatement, as music was my life and I lived for pop music and for radio. I bought the NME, Melody Maker and Disc magazines, and when I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel' on the radio, it jumped out at me and I was mesmerised. I just had to hear more, and find out more about the artiste, so I tuned to AFN (American Forces Network) to see if it would be played there, and I started my quest to find out everything I could about the singer. I knew he was American, but was he black or white (he sounded like a black singer), and was he young or old? I had to have this information because no other singer had ever had this effect on me.

I discovered that my hero was Elvis Presley, and once I found out who he was, I followed his career closely from that day on, and bought all of his albums and singles.

Elvis was one of twin sons born to Vernon and Gladys Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935 - his brother Jesse was stillborn. He moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13, and used to mow lawns and work in a cinema to help make ends meet. After a year living in a one-roomed apartment, the family qualified for what was called Federal Housing. Elvis was very shy, and didn't have many friends at school, and I found it amazing that someone who was born on the wrong side of the tracks could achieve such superstardom, and would become the biggestselling artiste the world has ever known.

Elvis left school and got a job as a truck driver, and in July 1952, he went to the Memphis Recording Service to make a private recording. The office manager liked his voice, and kept the recording to play for the studio boss, Sam Philips, who thought he'd found that certain something he'd been looking for. After a DJ played one of his demo discs, the listeners went wild, and Elvis ended up leaving his trucker job, and signing a contract with Sam Philips's Sun Records label, and his career took off from there. He went on to have his first major chart hit with 'Baby, Let's Play House', which made number 10 on the Billboard charts, and this started an international career that is almost unbelievable, except we know it's true.

Elvis was a worldwide smash hit, but some people complained about the way he waggled his hips and was known as "Elvis the Pelvis." There were objections to people listening to his music and going to his concerts in America - he never played in Europe - and although he was white, he sang like a black man, which also caused some controversy at that time. The Catholic Church over here gave out about him as much as they did over there, and it was said that his music was the "Devil's music!" We didn't listen though, because we thought he was the greatest thing ever. I came from a big family of six boys and two girls, and my mother never minded us listening to him.

When we'd go to school hops, as soon as the DJ put Elvis on, everyone would go absolutely wild.

Elvis was drafted into the army in 1958, and while a lot of stars managed to get out of it, he did his time and it was there that he met his wife, Priscilla Beaulieu. A lot of people thought he was a great fellow for doing his time and serving his country, and it impressed conservative people who Mwould have objected to him beforehand.

What I find amazing about his career is that he had more number one hit singles or albums on this side of the world alone than any other artiste in chart history, and no other solo artiste was awarded as many gold or platinum discs. He was the first artiste to enter the British charts at number one, the first to have advance orders of one million for a single, and holds the record for the most simultaneous album chart entries. He won hundreds of awards, starred in dozens of films, broke box-office records in America, and was the first artiste to sell a million records.

As the years went on, Elvis developed problems with his health, and it's terrible to see footage from shows in the years before he died, because he looked so bloated and unwell. Elvis was involved with drugs and his diet was terrible, and it all caught up with him, and he died at the age of 42 in 1977. I was actually on the air the night he died, and the newsroom came in to tell me, and I didn't believe it at first - I thought it was a joke. I really felt his death was a sad waste of a fantastic talent, and a lot of people were very upset over it. The day after his death, 20 million of his albums were sold worldwide.

I still listen to his albums and play them on my music show because they sound as fresh as ever. My only regret is that I never met Elvis, but maybe that was a good thing because they say you should never meet your heroes. I would have loved to have seen him performing live though, particularly in his heyday, singing 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'That's All Right Mama'.