‘Did that just happen?': Tony Abbott takes on Elvis in pub

Tony Abbott surprised Portarlington patrons with an Elvis classic, and the ex-PM was followed by another shock guest. Locals enjoying a beer and doing post-mortems on the footy results as last drinks were called at the Portarlington pub on Saturday got more than they bargained for when former PMAbbott, who is proving to be like a moth to a flame when it comes to karaoke – can someone please stop him! – materialised in the back room with a group that included his former chief-of-staff,Credlin has family in the Portarlington area on the Bellarine Peninsula, a bit over 1½ hours' drive from Melbourne, and CBD hears she had organised a group of about eight to 10 friends to come down for the weekend and have dinner at the pub. Abbott, who had been in Geelong that day on Liberal business, joined the group after his commitments had finished. Portarlington is about a 30-minute drive from Geelong. When leaving the pub, Abbott, the Liberals' federal president, twigged there was a cover band playing out the back, and suddenly was on stage and setting about his interpretation ofAm I Ever Going To See Your Face AgainAbbott, with fists in the air, heartily joined in from the back of the room with Credlin's mates and the small crowd of stunned locals and out-of-towners who had spent the evening watching the footy over a few beers. 'It was about 9.40pm, there were about 12 people left in the back room and last drinks had just been called,' our CBD operative said. 'They rolled in en masse, they were only there for about 20 minutes and they left en masse. 'We were all sitting there saying, 'did that just happen? ' We are still saying that today. Even the band were like, 'f—ing hell, that was Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin'. 'cover at a Liberal fundraiser in Sydney last month. We hear he also found a karaoke opportunity while on the road for the recent Pollie Pedal in Queensland. CBD put in a call to Abbott to see if he had any more karaoke performances planned, but did not hear back. Credlin, however, told CBD that yes, Abbott had had an Elvis moment on the peninsula. Plenty of pollies but no PM heading to NFL match While plenty of well-known types will be among the 100,000 fans at the MCG on Friday getting their heads around American footy, our sporty PM won't be in the stands. , who usually loves to be where the action is, will be absent from the history-making match between the LA Rams and the San Francisco 49ers – the first regular season NFL game in Australia. Owing to his plans to attend the United Nations in New York in the last week of September, he will not be at the AFL grand final on September 26. Kylie MinogueAlbanese, of course, put his foot in his mouth when he regrettably picked Minogue to 'shag' in a game of Shag, Marry, Date on comedianBack to the NFL, Friday's game comes with all the sport-tainment trappings expected from America including a half-time show from The Jonas Brothers. 'The game is a fantastic opportunity to showcase Melbourne and Victoria on the global stage, while also providing opportunities to engage with business and industry representatives as part of one of the world's biggest sporting events,' a government spinner said.