Tom Jones International

To All Our Tom Jones Friends:

Today, October 10, we are celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of tomjonesinternational.com.

The fact that we are thriving is due entirely to you.

So many of you have contributed to this site that it truly reflects the worldwide community of Tom Jones fans.

As we launch our second year (on the same day Tom launches his UK tour) we want to express our sincerest thanks for all you have given us.

Ellen & Ursula

Big news in this interview broadcast today as he prepares for the October 10 kick-off his UK tour, Tom says he’ll record at the end of this year for release early next year. See the entire interview at GM TV in the UK. Tom also talks about an autobiography, his new favorite song (he used to say Autumn Leaves, but we guess his recent taping in NY revised his thinking on the topic), regrets (photo at left) and getting paid with a fresh chicken.




We must note that, as usual in a UK interview — and this is a very, very good one — Tom is asked and responds at length about his ties to Wales and how he misses it and, also, about how LA doesn’t have British pubs. Well, of course, not. We’d just one time, though, like to hear what he likes about the US. It’d be nice if the next journailist to interview him here could do that.

Note: This clip will likely only be available for a short while, so be sure to watch it while you can.

Thanks, Andre

As mharding was so kind to link in a comment on the show with Solomon Burke (see post below) to a youtube.com clip of Tom on Letterman, we decided to add this one as a separate post after all the unhappy news about AC ticket prices.

From that same show, here is the man doing a promo song for Dave over the closing credits of Dave’s 7th anniversary show in 1989. This is also available as part of a Best of Letterman video series.

Top price tickets to see Tom at Resorts in Atlantic City November 24, 25 and 26 have been raised from $75 to $125. And if you get your tickets through Ticketmaster there’s an additional “convenience charge” of $8.25.

Lots of performers get this (and more — Manilow’s top in that venue is $275), but as one fan who always goes to see Tom in AC pointed out, “This price does not include the cost of maitre’d seating.” For those who’ve never dealt with maitre’d seating, that means that before you are seated, you are expected to schmear the maitre’d. The higher the tip, the better the seat. Maybe. We know people who have tipped $100 and more a show and did not get up front.




In addition, in AC, which isn’t really close to any large city but Philadelphia, the majority of fans also have to pay for a hotel and all that goes with that. In addition, the fans who tipped the maitre’d in advance for the four AC shows in July — as many who are going to all the show often do — got their ticket money back from the venue when two shows were cancelled, but never got back the tips they gave the maitre’d. That was hundreds and hundreds of dollars lost. And we don’t know if it’s true, but we hear that the maitre’d who was there in July and didn’t return any of the tips is no longer there.

We know most TJ fans would go anywhere and pay every cent they can afford — and a bit more — to see him but we just wanted to note this. We only hope it’s just in this venue and not everywhere.

If you want to write to Resorts about this, you can go to their website’s “contact us” page.

This Friday night at 11:35 the BBC show Originals will feature the career of Tom’s friend, Solomon Burke. Tom is one of the many people on the show talking about Burke’s career.

The Paul Spencer film, titled Everybody Needs Somebody after one of Burke’s songs, follows the singer from his childhood in Philadelphia to the present.

If you don’t know who Burke is, maybe you’ll recall that Tom so beautifully covered Burke’s I’m Hanging Up My Heart For You on the Jools Holland CD and it was a mainstay of his stage show until recently. And, of course, we all know from Tom’s encore version of High-Heel Sneakers that Tom describes Burke as, “a good friend of mine” who told him “you’ve got to give your woman what she wants”…etc. And you might remember Solomon Burke from his turn as “Daddy Mention” The Big Easy.

The photo here of Tom with Burke (center) and Robert Plant is from Later With Jools Holland, broadcast New Year’s Eve, 2003 on BBC TV. It was taped December 26, 2002. Jeff Beck — with whom Tom worked so well on the Red, White and Blues project was also on the show.

If Tom were going out on the road for a long trip (as he is to the UK in a few days) and you were asked to prepare his last home-cooked meal before the trip, what would you prepare?

(We know it’s a silly question but, first, silly is perfectly fine and, second, we couldn’t think of a better one at the moment.)