WATCH: All shook up! Elvis costumes are stolen from Black Country home

Andy James was forced to cancel a charity gig in Wolverhampton last night at the last minute but he has vowed to honour a gig in Brierley Hill next weekend.

The costumes were all tailor made for him in Las Vegas by the firm who made the real Elvis Presley's stage jumpsuits, each one knocking him back a cool £2,500.

The opportunist thieves also made off with all his lighting and sound equipment, although they left a £1,000 guitar by the side of the road.

Semi-retired businessman Andy is kicking himself over the loss of his performance gear as he left the keys in the van's ignition so the insurance company will not pay out. The total loss comes to £35,000.

The theft, on Monday, happened as he and sound engineer Chris Hayward were packing the white Citroen Relay to go to London where 50-year-old Andy was due to play at a 1,000-seater venue that night.

He said: "It was crammed with all my stuff and just as we were about to leave, Chris popped back to my flat to use the loo. I went with him to let him in and returned just two minutes later to find the van gone.

"My immediate reaction was that I'd parked it somewhere else but when I looked down and saw the skid marks from where they'd driven off, it hit me what had happened. I felt sick."

Instinctively Andy jumped into his own car to give chase but had no idea where the thieves had gone. Worse still, when he phoned the police from his car, he realised he did not know the registration number of the van because he had not had it for long.

"I was devastated. Around 70 to 80 per cent of my work is for charity, I certainly don't do it for the money. The first thing I had to do was make the call to the London gig and obviously they didn't take it too well.

"I was able to give the police the van details when I got home but by then the thieves were well away."

The Elvis fanatic, from Rosehill, Willenhall, found one of his guitars in the car park outside his flat.

He said: "I can only guess that they initially just went for the guitar – one of my neighbours saw a black guy wearing a baseball cap with the guitar walking across the car park – but his mate must have spotted the keys still in the ignition and called him back. Everyone I know thinks what's happened is disgraceful but there's no one to blame but myself."

Andy has been a fan of The King since 1977 when he was moved by the enormous nostalgia surrounding the star's death.

He started a tribute act 15 years ago, focusing on Elvis's early 1970s hits. Among the stolen items were four new high-collared jump suits he had tailor made in Las Vegas for the act. "I'd not even had a chance to try them on," he said. Also gone was £10,000 of gig lighting.

His Elvis work is a far cry from his former life as boss of the mobile pooch pampering business Dial A Dog Wash which he initially started in the Walsall area before launching into the franchise market.

He said: "The tribute act is just a hobby because I'm such a massive Elvis fan but it's not just one man and his speaker. I've got all the gear and I get a great buzz out of doing it."

Andy, whose also has a home in Haughton, near Stafford, carries out around 150 gigs around the country, although mainly in the Black Country and wider West Midlands.

He performs the majority for free, asking only travelling costs if the gigs are some distance away. He said he was disappointed that he also had to pull out of last night's concert at the Chillington social club in Wolverhampton.

He said: "I'm lucky that I had a couple of suits that were not on the van but with all the sound, stage and lighting equipment gone, I couldn't fulfil that commitment. But I'm not going to let them beat me."

Andy spent yesterday in Liverpool and Leicester buying new stage equipment. He has also ordered new wigs from America over the internet.

He is hoping to keep his promise to perform at the re-opening of The Raven pub in Wood Lane, Brierley Hill.

"They're rushing the hair over from America, and with a bit of luck I should have everything in time," he said.