Rock ‘n’ roll superstar Elvis Presley was planning to perform his first ever show in Britain when he died, a never-seen-before document has revealed.

Despite his enormous international fanbase, the King never performed outside of North America partly because his dictatorial Dutch-born manager Colonel Parker was living there illegally and couldn’t leave.

The only time he touched down in the UK was at Prestwick airport in Glasgow when the US army plane carrying him home from duty stopped briefly to refuel in 1960.

But a $3.6 million life insurance policy that Elvis filled out 12 months before he died in August 1977 has now come to light for the first time showing he was planning to travel by plane to England and Japan.

The signed document, dated August 11, 1976, relates to the use of his Corvair 880 private jet The Lisa Marie which he had bought for $250,000 the year previously.

(Image: Reuters)

Elvis filled out the aviation questionnaire in his full name Elvis Aaron Presley and states that he has flown 45 hours as a crew member since buying the plane.

Significantly, in response to a question about what countries he intends to fly to outside of the US, Elvis put ‘Japan & England’.

He then states that he anticipates to double the plane’s usage from 25 hours a year to 50 and that the purpose of the flights would be business and pleasure.

(Image: JuliensAuctions/BNPS) (Image: JuliensAuctions/BNPS)

Experts say the form is the only known documentary proof that he clearly intended to come to England prior to his untimely death aged 42 on August 16, 1977.

The questionnaire was discovered among a folio of 140 life insurance-related documents including medical reports, cardiac charts, discharge summaries and test results.

The file has now been put up for auction by an unnamed collector who acquired it at some point in the 38 years since Elvis died.

The document is tipped to fetch £10,000 when it goes under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions.

Julie Yeardye, one of Britain’s leading authorities on Elvis, said: “For years there was speculation about Elvis coming to Europe to perform that was drummed up in the media but nothing ever came of it.

“What makes this document so fascinating is that it is the first time I’ve ever seen anything in black and white actually showing that it was in Elvis’ mind to travel to England.

“Around the time he signed this form he was in a bad place - he was not speaking to Colonel Parker and he had just learned that two of his bodyguards were writing a book about him.

“It could very well be that he just decided to distance himself from it all by getting out of the US.

(Image: Rex)

“He had massive fanbases in both England and Japan so they would have been obvious choices for places to go on tour.

“Maybe at that point in his career he was just looking for a new challenge.

“Whatever it was, we know that Elvis never went to England or Japan on tour, which is a great shame.

“Maybe his nerves got the better of him, or maybe he just didn’t get round to organising it.

“Sadly we will never know what an Elvis concert in England is like, but this is the closest we’ve ever seen to the idea being in his mind.”

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Darren Julien, from the auction house, added: “The fact that Elvis plans to up his plane’s usage from 25 hours a year to 50 hours a year would suggest he was thinking about long-haul flights out of the US.

“I think Elvis would have performed internationally a lot more as he got older - he understood the importance of his music to fans outside of the US.

“It’s sad that he didn’t perform in the UK because I think it would have only heightened his career.

“Anything relating to Elvis is highly collectable and there has been plenty of interest already in this document.”

In 2008 theatre impresario Bill Kenwright claimed in a radio interview that Elvis had secretly visited British stage star Tommy Steele in London in 1958.

But the owners of Prestwick airport contested it and said that until proof was given of the meeting they would continue to claim their runway as the only place in the UK that Elvis ever went to.

The auction will take place in Los Angeles on Saturday.