Tom Jones International

Here’s a newly posted clip from the same show — Tom singing You Can Leave Your Hat On. Be sure to watch until the end.

So exclaims Dawn French on the Michael Parkinson (“Parky”) Show when she and her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders — whom you may remember as the riotous Edina on Absolutely Fabulous — were on the show with Tom in late 2000.

The funniest line? “I hope I’m pregnant by the end of this show.” And a bit later we see her rendition of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. Subtle? No. Funny? Very.

You can see it all on youtube.

We’re about to start the final design on the TJI.com Fan Calendar so we can get it to the printer in September and have it ready that month.

If you have any photos you took of Tom, at any stage in his career, please send them. If they’re hard copies we’ll return them, or you can scan then at a minimum of 300 dpi. The sample here was taken by Ralph, who sent it for the project.

Use the email at the right if you have any questions to ask (or photos to send). We are also looking for photos of Tom with fans, too.

If one of your photos is used for one of the monthly portraits, you’ll get a free calendar.

Thanks in advance!

You can buy a copy of the program (or, as they say in the UK, “programme”) from the Concert For Diana website. For the US and Canada it costs £16.25, including shipping ($33.28 USD; $35.10 CAD). The site also says there is a DVD of the concert being prepared for release “later this year.”

On eBay the programs are going for hundreds of dollars. Even at the official price we must ask if it’s worth it. (Actually, insofar as Diana is concerned, it’s well worth having. We even considered ordering several and selling them on eBay. But, no.)

But as far as Tom goes, you have to decide for yourself. The 128-page book is a beautiful document commemorating a beautiful woman. But, then, there’s the stuff about Tom. The photo at right is the one they use in the book. It’s from 2003. The copy that goes next to the photo is, like the picture, outdated and, in fact, sometimes downright incorrect:

“In his native Wales, he is known as ‘Jones the Voice’. Today, he is one of the enduring personalities in the music entertainment business. His unique vocal power, ability and charismatic persona make him one of the most respected, admired and loved performers in modern popular music. His recordings have spanned the spectrum from pop, rock and country to classic standards, rhythm and blues to boogie woogie and rockabilly through to contemporary dance and urban soul, but he is first and foremost a rocker with a true rhythm and blues soul.

“Tom had his first hit single, It’s Not Unusual in 1964 and is still both recording and performing to great acclaim. The millennium saw a shower of honors, among them a BRIT Award for Best Male (UK), Amigo Award for Best International Male (Spain), NRJ Award nomination for Best International Act (France) and Echo Award nomination for Best International Act (Germany). A profile of Tom was presented by Vicky Mabrey on 60 Minutes II and by Lord Bragg for The South Bank Show. Last year Tom released his Greatest Hits package in the UK and US, undertook a massive tour of Europe and was presented with a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. He was knighted Sir Thomas Woodward by The Queen on 29th March this year.”

OK, then, what can we say? The Concert for Diana was July 1, 2007, so the bio — which is almost always provided by the artist’s people — is all out of date. The Greatest Hits CD was released in the US in 2003. The Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music was also in 2003. And Tom had his first hit single in 1965. It was recorded in 1964. And we won’t even discuss the photo used. It’s all so easy to fix and as fans we are frustrated.

We believe that Sir Tom, who really is one of the greats, deserves better.

Newsday, the daily paper on Long Island, has a story today about the much-delayed release of a John Turturro film called Romance and Cigarettes,, a film made in 2005 that will finally have a premiere in September.

As the article says in part, “Christopher Walken will boogie to the Tom Jones hit “Delilah” and Kate Winslet will bump and grind to a production number staging of Elvis Presley’s Trouble in a new flick from John Turturro….an eclectic cast that includes James Gandolfini, Winslet, Walken (who appeared in the film version of Potter’s Pennies from Heaven, and also co-stars in the new Hairspray

Walken is terrific. Just check him out in this clip from the movie. In the still we posted here, Walken is explaining to Susan Sarandon how, “I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.”