Tom Jones International

Marian, our good “Friend Through Tom,” sent us this review and photo of herself in Biloxi along with the photo of the venue and the marquee where, she tells us, that’s Tom’s picture in the middle. We are thrilled that she took the time to write such a careful, thoughtful review for us and do hope others who see him (or have seen him) on this southern swing do likewise. The newspapers don’t seem to be covering his shows and the only news fans get is from other fans. So, thanks to Marian and to the other fan who sent us the brief video clip at the end of this post. That fan didn’t want to write, but was pleased to share the clip. We wonder (but are not complaining) why all the video lately seems to be of Delilah. The video follows the review.

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Beau Rivage/Biloxi, MS/June 26, 2008

What Makes This Man Do What He Does???

I have always thought I can’t imagine why any man would do what Tom does, a lifetime of grueling touring and being onstage almost every night of his life. Why does he do it??

About to burst with anticipation and excitement, we arrived at the Beau Rivage Theatre about 40 minutes early, with only a sparse crowd. I tried to get better seats when we arrived at the hotel, but no luck. The theater is built so that the tier we were in wasn’t too bad after all. I had been told the show was sold out…and that it was!!! The latecomers filled even the “high-rollers” area. An audience of all ages seemed to be wound as tight as I was…waiting for the Man to come onstage. The well-known introduction with the outer space video, and Tony’s exuberant announcement, after the Tom Jones International video was familiar to me…but not sure if it was to many in the crowd. The sound of the video seemed muffled to me, so maybe it wasn’t clear to others. Tom was welcomed onstage, wearing a striking red jacket, (and I thought I heard a gasp from the crowd) with rapturous applause and cheers from the audience.

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The ever-tasteful Sunday Mirror today (June 29) has a story about the Christie’s auction. The paper continues it’s tradition of amusing, yet lame, headlines (and they’ll never be as good as the New York Post classic: “Headless Body In Topless Bar,” but that’s another story). Meanwhile, please note, that if you count the internet as “media” and remember that this site has a bona fide award-winning journalist as one moderator and a magazine writer as another, what “media” had the auction story in print first after it was on the radio in the UK? Um…..that would be www.tomjonesinternational.com. That’s why we love doing this.

Note: The Western Mail reconsidered the headline (“Want to hear young Tom Jones singing in the toilet? You’ll need to be feeling flush”) they used in yesterday’s first edition and in later editions changed it. Twice. First they said, “Rare Tom Jones recording goes under the hammer.” Then, they reconsidered and went back for the laugh or, at least, for the mention of a toilet: “Our Tom singing in the loo up for grabs.” Ah, well, no guts, no glory. Wonder who complained. The story’s the same, though.

Anyway, here’s today’s story:

Sing a lav song, Tom

A recording of Tom Jones singing in a toilet is expected to sell for up to £3,000.

The star made the demo in the YMCA in his home town of Pontypridd, Rhondda, in 1962, three years before his first hit, It’s Not Unusual.

Tom’s band, Tommy Scott and The Senators, recorded in the toilet because of the acoustics.
The reel-to-reel tape contains four songs — Don’t Pretend, Time Alone, What About Me and That’s What Love Will Do.

Its unnamed owner is putting it up for auction at Christies in London on July 10.

For our original post about the auction, click here.

Another story — surely more to come as the July 10 auction gets closer — about the Christie’s auction of early tapes from a Tom Jones-Senators session (see June 19 post below). If the provenance is exactly what the seller claims, these are, indeed, valuable. We just sense there’s something missing somewhere. We can certainly believe that Tom recorded in the Ponty YMCA with the Senators. And we have no doubt that the acoustics were fine. What we have problems with are, first, the person who owns the tapes, a former recording engineer from Cardiff, telling Christie’s that Tom himself sought him out to manage the recording. Second, we’ve read the Ellis-Sutherland bio again and all it says about the recordings (on page 30 of the book) is:

“…the songs were recorded on a portable eight-track studio in the unlikely setting of the football changin room toilets at the YMCA in Pontypridd. Apparently that was wehre myron and Byron deemed that the acoustics were optimal.

“The resulting tracks included an original Godfrey-Glastonbury instrumental called ‘David’s Theme’ and songs such as ‘Lonely Joe.”

None of the songs mentioned in the book are part of the auction. And the book, containing little or no original research, just a tired rehash of old interviews, gossip and innuendo, doesn’t seem a particularly reliable source. We hope all is on the up-and-up. In truth, Christie’s probably wouldn’t be listing the lot if it weren’t. We just cannot help considering the source. But we love the headline of this story.

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Want to hear young Tom Jones singing in the toilet? You’ll need to be feeling flush

Jun 28 2008 by Robin Turner, Western Mail

AS FAR as Tom Jones recordings go, this one definitely is unusual.

A rare reel-to-reel master-tape recording of Tom in 1962 made in the unlikely setting of the toilets at the YMCA in Pontypridd is about to go under the hammer at London auction house Christie’s.
The unique tape, the earliest known recording of the Welsh star to have survived, is being sold by a one-time “sound man” at former Cardiff based TV firm TWW (Television Wales and West) who actually made the recording.

The recording’s current owner — who wishes to remain anonymous — hopes to gain between £2,000 and £3,000 for it.

Back in 1962 when the tape was made, Z-Cars was making its debut on TV and the charts were dominated by the Tornados (with their hit Telstar) and the likes of Ray Charles, Cliff Richard and the Shadows and Elvis Presley.

Tom Jones – born Thomas Woodward in Pontypridd in June 1940 – was going by the name Tommy Scott at the time and was fronting a rock and roll band, The Senators, who played in South Wales’ lively pub and club scene.

It would be another two years before Jones received global acclaim with his hit single, It’s Not Unusual.

The origins of the recording date back to early in 1962, after a gig in Bedwas, near Caerphilly. Jones and The Senators (later known as The Playboys and The Squires) were approached by two local songwriters, Ray Godfrey and John Glastonbury who had adopted the music management name of
Myron & Byron.

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After shows tonight and tomorrow at a casino in Lake Charles, LA, the gang’s headed to New Orleans for two shows at the HOB Sunday and Monday.

We can say unequivocally that Sir Tom Jones is at the head of the class when it comes to singing the music indigenous to that city. He did a lot of that stuff — blues, R & B, and so on — in his eponymous CD with Jools Holland. Here, on a Parkinson’s show in September 2004 is their fabulous version of St. James Infirmary Blues, one of our very favorites from that collaboration. Tom and his own terrific musicians did this for awhile in his show. We miss it.

St. James Infirmary Blues became popular in the US with a 1928 version by Louis Armstrong. It’s based on an English folk song called The Unfortunate Rake, the story of a sailor who, as a result of his consorting with prostitutes, dies of venereal disease. In the ever-Puritanical US the cause of death became over-indulgence in drinking and gambling.

The location of a real St. James Infirmary is in dispute, but many favor London — either in what was a workhouse or what is today St. James Palace.

At any rate, it’s a great song and Tom and Jools do it proud. (And, doesn’t Sir Tom look grand?)

Sorry it’s so small, but it had to be crunched to fit online. It was on youtube but, now, it’s gone or we’d have linked to it. It is, by the way, a QuickTime video.

Tom opens tonight in Biloxi, MS, and will then play two nights in Lake Charles, LA, two nights in New Orleans and one night near Dallas. Until we get some reviews from those of you fortunate enough to be there, we’re finding other TJ tidbits to post. We’re really looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

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We love the top story from this guy who — as if with a bolt of lightening — was struck by the talent that is Tom Jones. He was one of thousands at the venue where Tom played truimphently and it’s a pleasure to read his recollection — still sharp 16 years down the road, so it must have been an amazing show. As for the second bit of “news,” the paper is just being dopey at the end but, why not? What a kick it would be to fly into Sir Tom Jones Airport….can see the luggage tags now: “STJ” or, better yet, from our point of view — “Tom Jones International!” Not bad. Not bad at all.

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The Glastonbury Festival opens Friday and a blog from New Zealand called webweavers world looks back on the sensation that was Tom Jones who was the “surprise guest” at the 1992 festival.

“Immediately after the Family Cat had finished playing on the NME stage, the weekend’s “special guest” was due on the Pyramid Stage. I don’t remember there being a special guest in previous years, so maybe this was the first time. No one knew who it was in advance — it hadn’t been announced — but by the Saturday night the rumour was flying around the festival site that it was going to be Tom Jones.

“Tom Jones? At Glastonbury?? You have got to be kidding me!!!

“Sandra, Sean, some of The Family Cat and I all decided it might be good for a laugh, so we headed around the corner to the Pyramid Stage to join the 70,000 other crusty folk ranged all the way up the hill on that beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. We approached the stage from behind the left-hand side, so we were able to push our way into the crowd right near the front, and gradually moved closer to the middle as time went on.

“Imagine the scene. You’ve got 70,000 grubby hippies (for that was the Glasto crowd in those days) all standing there waiting to take the piss out of Tom Jones — a performer more used to entertaining our mothers — and we’re all thinking how completely incongruous this is, and wondering what on earth was Michael Eavis was on when he chose Mr Jones…

“And Tom comes on stage with his band, and starts up with the first song – and his band is so tight, and he’s so bloody professional that they have the entire crowd in the palm of their hands before they’ve even finished the first verse.

“It.was.amazing. Tom Jones was amazing!

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In 1976, a group of Tom Jones fans from Benoni, South Africa decided that the Tom Jones Street in their city should be properly dedicated to their favorite singer, even though it was really named after a former mayor and council member.

They hung Tom’s photo from the sign and made a bit of a ceremony of it. Below left is the photo of them; right is the photo of Tom looking at a picture of what they had done. The brief tabloid article accompanying the photos says:

“Tom Jones Street: Tom Jones is the name of one of the main streets of Benoni, a small town near Johannesburg, South Africa.

“It was named after one of Benoni’s pioneers, a Tom Jones who was mayor in 1920. But fans of the other Tom Jones, the singer, decided recently that history could be changed, and hung a large picture of him on the street sign. In Los Angeles, when he received a photo of his fans and the picture, Tom Jones said, ‘I never knew I was so famous.’”

Thanks again, AF

Note: We hope you scroll down to the post directly below and listen to Emma Lanham’s version of Sexbomb but we were so pleased to come across this photo of Tom and George Carlin that we wanted to post it right away.





Yes, this is a website devoted to Tom Jones. Thus, we were wondering how we could pay tribute to George Carlin, who died of a heart attack on June 22 in New York.

He was a groundbreaker. In fact, he was unafraid to tread on new ground. Irreverent, insightful, trenchant and very, very funny — Carlin often said what many of us want to but lack the nerve to say.

His approach to everything was mordant, which made him all the sharper. Just check the first two lines of his bio from his website:


“August, 1936 – Conceived, Curley’s Hotel, Rockaway Beach, NY.


“May 12, 1937 – Born. God winces.”

His death is a loss.

So, we wondered how to write about him and someone told us about this photo. Yes, from This Is Tom Jones, here’s Tom and George Carlin. We’ve made the TJ connection!

(Now, we wish we could do the same for Tim Russert.)

We don’t want to upset any purists out there, so we’ll say clearly and unequivocally right up front that Tom Jones sings the definitive version of Mousse T’s Sexbomb and no one does it better.

But Marisa sent us a link to a version done by Mousse T with a British singer named Emma Lanford. When she sent it, Marisa suggested a duet might be fun to hear; a duet of this song or any song. What do you think? We think it’s a cool arrangement and would love to hear Tom again — just once — with a full orchestra. (And if you know us you know how we love his band.)

This is a live version of Mousse T and Emma Lanford doing Sexbomb.

PS: We looked it up and the name of the song — Sexbomb — is definitely one, single word.

In 1971 Tom’s official fan club, run out of a UK office directly supervised by manager Gordon Mills, regularly sent out newsletters to fans (“TOJOs”) that purported to fill them in on all things TJ. In this issue, fan club secretary Vicki talks to musical director Johnnie Spence about a “typical day.” We have lots of these newsletters from the official club and from locals and, from time to time, we’ll post some of them. When we do you’ll see that the assumption by seemingly everyone in those early days was that all of Tom’s fans are female. The readers are always addressed a “girls.” Quaint. (Note: If the print is too small to read, just click on it to enlarge it. We wish it were clearer, but it’s a scan of an old mimeographed page.)

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The tux was won for $285. There were five bids from two bidders. None of the bids came from “usual suspects” whose names those of us who regularly bid on TJ eBay auctions.

Bidding on vintage Tom Jones-owned and -autographed tuxedo ends tonight at 9:23:49 pm, Pacific Daylight Time on eBay.

The person auctioning the tux says it was donated by Tom to a public television fundraising auction in Texas. No year was specified. The tux was made in Las Vegas.

The seller is starting the auction at $250, with a Buy It Now at $500. Shipping is $20, USPS Priority Mail to the US.

Many fans remember when such items were donated to fan clubs to auction for charity. There was a time this was a regular occurrence. It’s rare now and we’re wondering if this item will go and who will buy it. Notice, too, that the tux is complete — the trousers are under the jacket on the hanger.

If you’re going to bid, good luck. If you win, please let us know.

Just out of curiosity, how much do you think this tuxedo is worth? And why?