The softly-spoken Belfast postman nervously steps on stage at LA's trendy Viper Room nightclub. By the end of his first song, the crowd of twentysomethings sipping designer beer is going wild with delight. Halfway through his extraordinary performance of Elvis Presley classics and reworkings of modern-day hits in the style of The King, a woman in the audience throws her bra onto the stage.
James Brown stoops to retrieve it and dabs his sweating brow and exposed chest with the garment. He flicks his quiff and smiles before going down on one knee as he swings his hips and caresses the microphone with two hands. The young woman, who wasn't yet born when the king of rock and roll died in 1977, dances frantically at his feet.
The scene is a million miles from the first time Brown - a married father of five who was named after his uncle Jimmy, not the godfather of soul - took the microphone at the Belfast Dockers Club during a Sunday afternoon singalong.
"It was my first time at the club. I was on my first drink, with my wife, aunt and uncle, and suddenly I heard my name being announced.
"My aunt had set me up by putting my name forward. I was petrified, I'd never done anything like that before. The only time I'd ever sung was to myself and the lads at the post office."
Brown (31) recalls that the first time he saw Elvis was while watching a rerun of a 1968 television special. He was seven at the time. "I was totally blown away," he says. "Within days my mother took me shopping and I purchased my first records, which were all Elvis Presley. He was incredible looking and had an amazing voice . . . and the way he moved! Elvis caused the rock and roll explosion. It had been around but it didn't catch on until he came along."
For that first, unprepared performance Brown sang The Wonder of You and Suspicious Minds from memory. "I don't even know if I sang the right words but I got through them. The audience reaction was really good. It was a real rough working man's club. Afterwards a lot of people came up to me and slapped me on the back. They said I had a good voice and sounded just like Elvis.
"Brian McCann, the entertainment manager of the club, asked if I would be interested in performing there on a regular basis. I refused. I told him it was my first and last time on stage because it was too nerve-wracking."
But in fact Brown wasn't to walk away from the stage just yet. "I had a nice warm buzz from the reaction," he says. "Each Friday night the club puts on acts to raise money for charity, so I offered my services. Each week I broke in a couple of new numbers and learned the tricks of the trade and tried to overcome my nerves. After six months of doing that I told the club I was ready to go on as an official act and things took off from there."
Word spread and Brown soon started to get offers from different clubs in Belfast. He was asked to become frontman for The College Boys, a local band, and sang rock and roll classics from the past four decades. The two-hour show also included a 40-minute tribute to Elvis.
During this time he was travelling, performing gigs with the band in and around Belfast, and would often not get home until 5 a.m., then have to be at work three hours later. One Sunday, after singing at the Belfast Dockers Club, Brown was approached by London-based record producer and musician Bap Kennedy. "He said he wanted to know if I would be interested in making a CD. He said he couldn't believe how much I sounded like Presley, which I took as a huge compliment." Kennedy suggested Brown cut an album of modern-day hit songs in the style of Elvis. And the album Gravelands, a tribute to the great rockers of the past, was born.
The record, which is developing a worldwide cult following, contains reworkings of tracks by such diverse performers as Nirvana, AC/DC, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye and Jimmy Hendrix. One of Brown's favourite tracks is Something Else, the Eddie Cochran song also covered by the Sex Pistols. "I always wished Elvis had sung it," says Brown. He turned down Bap Kennedy's original idea for an album of Nirvana songs in the style of Elvis, calling it "a weird idea" but did record one for Gravelands.
"The next day he called me and asked, `How do you think you could handle Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry?' I laughed and said he was coming up with some weird ideas. Elvis sings reggae seemed too weird but I thought I could handle it. It was at that point we realised nearly all the artists were sadly no longer with us. We laughed at first and then thought about using John Lennon and Jimmy Hendrix as well."
Gravelands was recorded in July 1997 and went on sale the following month. Brown had no plans to become a chart success but thought the album would be something fun for his children. But within weeks of the album's release it was being played by influential DJ John Peel on BBC's Radio 1. As a result, Brown developed an underground cult following, even being asked to perform at record company Christmas parties in London. There, he met stars like Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and Zoe Ball.
He also performed for London designers Red or Dead before their fashion show and was being booked for larger and larger venues around the country. After touring for two weeks in Moscow - "cold but the audiences were fun" - Brown was offered a three-record contract by EMI in Germany.
"I thought it was a wind-up," he says. The album became a hit in countries across Europe. "This past year has been a blur," admits Brown. He has taken a year's sabbatical from sorting the post, but it's looking less than likely he will need to put the uniform on again. His greatest disappointment is missing an opportunity to perform with Presley's original band after becoming snowed in while performing in Germany. Last July, however, he visited Graceland, the Memphis home of his idol, with his wife Annemarie.
"I did get choked up and my eyes filled with tears. I thought to myself, this man, who has been dead for over 20 years, is still bringing people joy."