Great News!! Finally!! For years fans have been hankering for a release of Tom's original TV show, This Is Tom Jones. As many of you know, this great show was filmed in both Los Angeles and London from 1969-1971 and was considered the pinnacle of the variety show genre. It's with great pleasure we can announce the release of the first of a series of DVDs, exclusively from Time Life, that contain the great design, sets, music and performances from Tom and his many guests on This Is Tom Jones.
The first set of 3 discs, subtitled 'Rock 'N Roll Legends', features Tom singing some of his biggest hits, along with classic performances by The Who, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, The Moody Blues and many more. In addition, you'll get over an hour of extras, including a fresh new interview with Tom as he spins some stories about his experiences on the show.
These shows are full of great music and tv moments. You'll see the fabulous style of the times in its original form, and witness music, dance and production numbers that were the cutting edge of the era. The film is of very high viewing quality — its a real time-capsule of the range of entertainment at the time. At last — Tom in all his glory, fantastic guests — what enormous fun to watch!
Time Life will launch the DVDs by direct-response TV in the US on May 21, and the 3-DVD set will be out at retail on June 26th. Watch this space for more info soon!
Tom is featured on two of the tracks on Jools Holland's new album "Moving Out To The Country", which has just been released. The two songs are "I Wish I Was 18 Again" and "Friends Not Lovers". Jools says, "A couple of years ago I made a record with Tom. It was one of the most enjoyable records I have ever made because Tom is such great company and so fantastic in the studio. I was so pleased and honoured when it went platinum that I hoped we would be able to do a little more, and I am pleased to say, here we have. He and I wrote "Friends Not Lovers" and were thinking of it as a duet but once we heard Tom singing it we thought it was best just to leave it to him. The other song, Tom found. One of his early hits was "Green Green Grass Of Home" which Tom had found on an obscure Jerry Lee Lewis b-side. "I Wish I Was 18 Again" comes from the same source".
A micro site is available with full tracklisting and opportunity to purchase the album at
Tom Jones, shown here in early 2005, is back at the MGM with a set that balances his sex-machine image with grown-up singing. Wayne Newton and the Scintas are doing Christmas shows this weekend. But Tom Jones seemed a little confused last Saturday when someone threw a Santa Claus doll onstage instead of the usual female undergarments. All he wants for Christmas is the only thing he ever wanted: "Just want to be your play thing, don't need to be your smokin' gun," he wailed in a blues shout, accompanied by rudimentary guitar picking and minimalist drum beat. "Don't want you holdin' out for me, I just want to have a little fun," he proclaimed from his perch on a stool, knees strategically spread wide to advertise whatever might be for sale. "Let the truth be told, I only want to get me some." Uh-huh.
Let the other singers worry about the silver bells and the silent nights, and let the 66-year-old sex machine keep the home fires stoked. Waiting a full hour to take his coat off was perhaps the Tomcat's nod to holiday decorum in this stint at the MGM Grand -- an unusually late-in-the-year one -- that continues through Wednesday. But if the truth really be told, the ageless singer figured out long ago how to pull his perennial Las Vegas show into a near-perfect balance. The lascivious fun of that obscure blues song -- Earl Thomas' "Git Me Some" -- was immediately followed by a serious take on the blues, Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands," showing off a voice that's still as tuned and powerful as it was 20 years ago.
HE is known as simply "The Voice" and last night legendary sex-bomb Sir Tom Jones showed exactly why. The crowd at Glasgow's packed Clyde Auditorium was on its feet from start to finish as the Welsh singing sensation took to the stage for the first of a two-night stint in the city. Taking his audience on a trip through the years, Sir Tom blended some of his biggest hits with the new recordings which makes him appeal to every generation. Bouncing with energy, he soon had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand - though now instead of his audience throwing women's underwear on stage, they hurled red roses. The star broke with tradition with a series of favourites, including Fly Me To The Moon and That Old Black Magic but upped the tempo with She's A Lady and If I Only Knew before thrilling the crowd with What's New Pussycat?, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Sex Bomb and It's Not Unusual. He was never going to be allowed to leave without an encore and the Prince song he made his own, Kiss, rounded off the night. The Evening Times
TO loud screams and thunderous applause, Tom Jones performed in his beloved Wales last night for the first time as a knight. Dressed in his signature dark suit, Jones - or Sir Tom - entertained fans in his homeland with a string of hits. It may have been just another date on his current UK tour, but for the superstar, being back in Wales once more was clearly a special occasion. "I would like to say it's great to be home once again," he said, to massive cheers. The build-up to the opening of the show was huge as a giant globe was beamed on to the screens either side of the stage. Three words flashed up, "Locating: The Voice". That voice was soon located and Sir Tom walked out onto the stage to entertain us.
The sell-out show - the first of three at the Cardiff International Arena this weekend - was also the first time Sir Tom has sung here since his famous 65th birthday gig in Pontypridd in May 2005. At the time, about 20,000 fans packed into Ynysangharad Park to wish the town's most famous son many happy returns. While this concert may not have been on such a large - or emotional - scale, his fans were far from disappointed. Before the event, Sir Tom promised a real mixture of songs to keep even the most die-hard concert-goer happy. And he said that as well as all the old favourites which are guaranteed to get people up on their feet - Green Green Grass Of Home, What's New Pussycat and It's Not Unusual - he would be performing some new stuff as well as older material which he doesn't usually sing live.
I've always had the voice, I've always sung, ever since I was small - in school, in chapel, to the radio. I don't really know life without it. I lived in Wales for the first 24 years of my life and it stood me in good stead, gave me values. But that's also a lot to do with your upbringing. It could be working-class, it could be middle-class, but you've got to have love and attention, and I did, I was lucky. I might have become a miner like my father, but I had tuberculosis when I was 12. I couldn't go out between the ages of 12 and 14. It was a big lesson - not to take life for granted. I said to myself, when I get out of this bed, I'll never complain about anything ever again. But I do.
I'm never scared to try new things. When you do something and the kids dig it, it's great. It's not about trying to be young, or something you're not, because they always see through that.
Thousands of desperate housewives converged on Manchester to witness Tom Jones kick off his latest UK tour. So did their daughters, husbands, boyfriends and grandchildren. At 66, the newly knighted singer remains a formidable force of nature, with an appeal that spans as many generations as his undimmed vocal prowess. A commanding stage presence in bespoke blue suit and bright orange face, Pontypridd’s answer to Pavarotti did not disappoint. Half bullfighter and half bulldozer, Jones may represent the preposterous pinnacle of ultra-butch heterosexual camp, but he is a million miles away from kitsch. However overblown, camp is always sincere. And Jones the Voice invariably means it. Even the sheen of postmodern mockery that he acquired in the 1980s has eroded. His chest-thumping version of Prince’s Kiss, once tinged with irony, now sits comfortably alongside his raunchy manhandling of Otis Redding’s Trick or Treat.
As the audience leapt to their feet for the flame-grilled melodrama of Delilah, just four songs into the set, the first pair of knickers sailed across the auditorium. But Jones did not milk these rituals, wisely spacing his best-loved tunes throughout the show. Whether skipping across the stage to the demented fairground psychedelia of What’s New Pussycat? or tossing off a nimble It’s Not Unusual, he wore his greatest hits lightly.
THE atmosphere at a Tom Jones’ gig has to be seen to be believed. His audience may be wide in age range, but the one thing they have in common is they worship the man. Some like the swiveling hips and others love the cheesiness of his lavish shows. The one thing that I realised though is that for all the flack this man gets, he has the best voice in the business and can sing absolutely anything, as he proved on Friday night during his brilliant show. As the tanned one steps onto the stage oozing confidence the feel of the gig is Las Vegas; big, brash, full of atmosphere and the audience are just as wild. The backing singers are superb at complimenting this big voice and the band is as slick as you would expect. “Love is like candy on a shelf…..” sings Mr Jones and the fans, recognising the opening line from 'Help Yourself' begin to dance, singing every line. More hits from the 1960's follow such as 'Delilah', which has them eating out of his hands.
The audience are mainly here for the old stuff but for me and a few others, some of these hits like 'What’s New Pussycat' fail to test this man’s vocal range. But he knows he has to sing them in order to showcase more powerful tunes. Such as the soul classic 'Treat Her Right', which has the "hey hey hey hey" chorus hitting the rafters.
HE MAY be old enough to claim a free bus pass, but Sir Tom Jones doesn't show any signs of slowing down. All right, he doesn't do much in the way of bumping and grinding any more. Instead he prowls around the stage and does this thing with his hands, like a bad Tommy Cooper impersonation, or a mime of someone whose sleeves are too long. Sometimes he'll open his palms and stare heavenwards, eyes bulging, a la Al Jolson, although there was one high-ish kick that drew admiring gasps, plus a little skip during What's New Pussycat (the number, incidentally, when the audience, almost as one, swayed from side to side, looking from above like a giant table football game.)
A near-capacity crowd of 4,600 adoring fans packed the Bournemouth International Centre for the second date of the first nationwide tour in three years by the man they call simply "The Voice". And those famous tonsils were in fine fettle - at least, most of the time - although just occasionally, as in a distorted Stoned In Love, Jones did seem to lose his way. He's a master showman, though, and all those years on the chicken-in-the-basket variety club circuit, and later Las Vegas, have honed an act that's slicker than an oil tanker spill.
Even in an age when graying, wrinkly leading men romance starlets one-third their age, the idea of a 66-year-old sex symbol should be preposterous, but in his Hollywood Bowl debut Friday night, Tom Jones managed to pull it off. Yes, the panties that were tossed onto the stage were more likely to be from JCPenney than Agent Provocateur, but Jones (that's "Sir Tom" to you, as the introduction reminded the aud) retains enough of his swagger and winking, randy charm.
Since his hit 1987 cover of Prince's "Kiss" with the Art of Noise, Jones, who also played the Bowl on Saturday, has insisted on his relevance by collaborating with younger artists, including Stereophonics, Jools Holland and his current British single, "Stoned in Love," recorded with electronic dance producer Chicane.
He's still got it. After more than 40 years performing, Tom Jones has his vocals and his sex appeal intact. The 66-year-old international star whooped it up for an audience of 2,500 last night in the RBC Theatre of the John Labatt Centre -- strutting his stuff, shaking his hips and bellowing out old and new hits. Dressed in black with a beaded shirt and a gold cross over his chest, Jones performed disco, funk, rock 'n' roll, pop and ballads and did it with style. Not surprising really, when he has survived the music fads of four decades-plus and collaborated with different generations of singers to stay current. Prince, Talking Heads, The Pretenders are just some of the artists with whom he's worked. Prince seemed to have some influence in Jones' lighting last night. He clearly likes purple. The crowd of mainly middle-agers and up -- you could tell it was an older group when the lighters came out -- got going as the first chords of Delilah, his smash hit single from 1968, were heard four songs in.
"Are we going to have a good time tonight?" he sang to the audience. "Is everything all right so far?"
To borrow a phrase, if you haven't seen Tom Jones lately, you haven't seen Tom Jones. Not content to slide on his well-known Vegas persona, Tom Jones has taken a hugely successful leap, collaborating musically with some of the hottest, most current, musical acts in the business. Much of the music Jones performed Sunday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena is on the "Tom Jones Reloaded" album. There are two versions of this CD available. If you have the chance to choose between the version available domestically or the import version; choose the import. After a brief, introductory music video, Jones opened Sunday night's show at the Arena with "Tom Jones International" which has a heavy, pounding baseline. The song is a collaboration between Jones and Wyclef Jean and it was the audience's first clue that this show was going to be different than a Tom Jones show of ten years ago.
Sporting a goatee and looking athletic and fit at 65 years old, Jones came out in a purple suit with a black sequin shirt opened a few buttons down (not everything has changed), that was quickly drench in sweat. He and his three back up singers and six-piece band, moved right into "Momma Told Me Not to Come", also from his "Reloaded" album. "Momma" is a raw, funky, bluesy song that lends itself to Jones' strong, loud voice. Back on familiar territory for the audience, next up was "Delilah", but with a new arrangement and a picked up tempo and heavy electric guitar. Following that was "Just Help Yourself". Tom danced, jumped, slid and shook his way through this and all of the songs in his show. The mere suggestion of a hip swivel or gyration or thrust sent the audience into ecstasy. During both "She's a Lady" and "What's New Pussycat" there was the legendary tossing of panties onto the stage. This ritual was updated as well. A pair of men's boxer briefs joined the mix of undergarments on stage. Jones took it all in stride. For me, "What's New Pussycat" was a full-circle moment, having seen it performed the evening before, by its writer, Burt Bacharach.
Sean Connery, the Scotsman who was the first — and, some say, the best — James Bond had to fight back tears several times Thursday evening as he was feted as the recipient of the 34th annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. Almost everyone paying homage to Connery - Mike Myers, Tippi Hedren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Andy Garcia, Craig Ferguson, “Deadwood’s” Ian McShane and Eddie Izzard - did their best (and often worst) Connery accent. Welsh singer Tom Jones sang the theme from “Thunderball” while mini-skirted dancers in white go-go boots Frugged, Twisted and Watusied around the stage. And clips of Connery in his many films – from “Marnie,” “Robin and Marian,” “The Name of the Rose,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” and all his Bond films to his Oscar-winning role in The Untouchables” - were shown throughout the evening.
Finally, kilted Scots musicians played the bagpipes while Connery made the long walk through the wildly applauding audience to accept his award.He even danced a little jig to the music onstage.
Tom Jones showed a wide range at Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie on Thursday night. GRAND PRAIRIE -- If you want to think of Tom Jones primarily as the guy in tight pants who sang cheesy songs amid a blizzard of female undergarments, that's fine. But I don't. True, last night, Jones, 66, trotted out the old bump and grind to a large, mainly female audience at Nokia Theatre. And true, the women still went crazy when he swiveled his hips and sang pap like Delilah. But now that Jones is a little rounder in the middle and thinner on top than in his heyday, it's easier than ever to appreciate his ability as a singer and his wide musical palette. Following the blueprint of his career, Jones' show included a laudable array of styles from the straight-ahead country of Charlie Rich's Who Will the Next Fool Be? to a funky take on Randy Newman's Mama Told Me (Not to Come). Clad in a purple suit and with a mustache and goatee, Jones hit the stage just after 9 p.m. with Tom Jones International, a canny slice of modern dance pop.
Backed by a 10-person band that included a four-man horn section, Jones sang everything well, and, unlike many aging singers, performed full versions of old nuggets such as Delilah, She's a Lady and Help Yourself instead of shoehorning the standbys into medleys. Jones also offered up recent dance-oriented favorites including If I Only Knew and his current European hit, Stoned in Love. Tower of Power opened the evening with an excellent 45-minute set that drew almost exclusively from records released in the '70s that defined the band's horn-powered, jazz/R&B/soul sound. The band, currently with 10 members, powered through classics such What Is Hip? and You're Still a Young Man.
Stoned In Love has spent 4 weeks at #1 on the MTV Dance Galaxy Chart -- and chart voted by you, the fans and viewers! Just this week we've been knocked down to #2, but I wanted to say to everyone who loves the video and voted for it -- thanks very much and keep it coming!!Tom
Chicane and I are really pleased with the success of Stoned In Love and we want to thank all of you who've supported the record. We've gone UP in the charts this week -- from #8 to #7 ! This shows that the more people hear it, the more they like it. Hope you all enjoyed the recent TV, radio & podcasts. Many thanks to all the clubs, ILR and video stations who've been giving the record great rotation, and FANS: we know this is a hit record so call/email/text Radio 1 and get them to get it back on the playlist!
Thanks, love and best wishes