Great Yarmouth was 'All Shook Up' over the weekend as more than 1,100 Elvis Presley fans gathered in the town for the start of a week long convention celebrating the life of the 'King'.

The die hard fans of the legendary singer are staying at the Vauxhall Holiday Park for the 31st Elvis Festival, which was being held in Yarmouth for the first time and is the biggest of its kind for Britain.

In a reflection of how Elvis is always on their minds, the large army of fans gathered on Sunday morning to buy a wide array of Elvis memorabilia, ranging for 7in singles to cups and cardboard cut outs.

And the cliche images of people dressing up as Elvis from his later years was missing, as the committed fans disapprove of Elvis impersonators, especially ones in jumpsuits, who could be said to belittle the life of the singer who recorded more than 700 songs.

Among the fans were Mick Rowland, 56, from Northolt, London, and Ian Peacock, 40 of Bedford, who were proudly wearing a large collection of Elvis pins and patches on their jackets.

It was both men's 12th Elvis convention and they said they had spent a small fortune of buying Elvis memorabilia, including a gold disc.

Explaining his love of the singer Mr Peacock, whose favourite Elvis song is If I Can Dream, said: 'I was six when Elvis died and it was everywhere on the news and in papers. At about six you begin to be influenced by things and I guess that is why I started to follow Elvis.'

Mr Rowland added: 'Elvis is all I listen to.'

For the rest of this week Elvis fans at the sold out event will be entertained by live music, including a Roy Orbison show, and on Friday Dick Grob, who was the head of security for Elvis from 1969 until his death in 1977, will be appearing at the convention as a special guest.

The festival is organised by Strictly Elvis UK on behalf of Arena travel.

Neil Cameron, from Strictly Elvis UK, said: 'The festival gets bigger and better each year. It just shows that the sprit of Elvis still lives on.'

Previous festivals has been held in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, but organisers decided to move it to Yarmouth to give it a fresh feel and provide more entertainment for the 1,100 guests.

Ali Naqvi, managing director of Arena Travel, which is based in Ipswich and organises Queen conventions at the Vauxhall Holiday Park, said: 'This is the largest Elvis festival so far. It is going very well. It is good way for Elvis fans to meet and share their love of him.

'There are fans from all walks of life, including doctors and lawyers.'

Mr Naqvi said he would like to see the festival return to Yarmouth next year which will be the 35th anniversary of Elvis's death.