Tom Jones International

This is the time to look back and reflect on the year just past. In the wider world it was a year of extremes. It was great — the longest campaign and most exciting presidential election ever in the US (and no matter how you voted you must agree) and it was scary — a world economy that has tanked, wars and conflicts that seem neverending. Those, in a nutshell, are the highs and lows.

In the somewhat narrower World of Tom Jones it was indeed a very good year.

Highlights include 24 Hours which, love it or not, gave us the opportunity to see Sir Tom on TV doing all sorts of interesting things — from busking, to chatting and being very funny. Oh, yes, and he sang a lot, too. Fans were very pleased and lots of people who didn’t before these appearances got to know Tom Jones — and that’s always good.

The new CD also meant a new setlist in late October and that was nice. It meant new publicity photos — great ones — and lots of positive press. Even when being negative, the press wasn’t bad (except for that silly, false report about insured chest hair). For example, when the “mankini” incident occurred in August the commentary as the photos were shown on a TV show known for its snide remarks was fine. (“Look at that! Sixty-eight years old and rockin’ the mankini!”)

All year Sir Tom looked and sounded great and, finally, he seems to be getting the kind of recognition he deserves, especially in the USA. Check out this site’s area of 24 Hours Reviews for ample evidence of the recognition of his stature. It’s wonderful.

Also, if you’ve missed any video, go to the TJI.com Video Library and see what’s there. If you haven’t missed any, you can view your favorites once again. That’s one place where Tom Jones is always easily accessible for you.

Quotes of the year include:

“I hope you record it. But if you don’t, no big deal, I’ll just slit my wrists.” — Tom Jones, on what Bono said after he and U2 guitarist The Edge wrote the new song, Sugar Daddy, for Jones’ new album.

“Who am I to stop them? It pleases people. I don’t like to disappoint.” — Tom on why he lets fans buy him drinks. (He really is a giver, isn’t he? That’s why we love him!)

“What I like about that song is that I walk on and ‘make my memories’. I’m still making my memories, I’m not just thinking of old memories.” — Tom on the song Seasons, to journalist Simon Hattenstone in a great interview in The Guardian

“I pray every night by the bed before I go to sleep. I say, ‘Look after my family and my friends and band members and all the people who work with me, and thank you for giving me this voice. Please may I keep it for as long as I live.’” — Tom on faith in the same interview as just above.

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From BBC Radio 5 comes an opportunity for you to vote. (Not sure, but it looks like the text # is 85058.)

So we’re close to finding out which is the ‘Best chorus ever’. We asked you to nomimate your best choruses. We had strings of suggestions. And nine of our presenters picked their favourites, based on your choices. Over the past three days you’ve whittled that list of nine down to three by taking part in a text vote.

Well, we now know which three songs have made the cut and are through to the final on January 1st. They are All you need is love by The Beatles, Delilah by Tom Jones and Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. From seven tomorrow morning you’ll be able to vote for which one you think makes the best chorus of all time.

You can vote for the three nominations in tomorrow’s final in the Breakfast Show from seven in the morning. And to register your vote, you have to text us. Your standard charge applies. Voting will close tomorrow morning at 0930. We’ll announce the winnner before the end of the programme at ten tomorrow morning.

VOTING TERMS AND CONDITIONS

* Voting is by text only. The numbers to be used will be given during the programme. * Vote lines are opened and closed as specified on the programme. Votes received outside the specified times will not be counted, but will still be charged. Voting times may change. * The BBC reserves the right to cancel or suspend voting at any time. * Each text vote costs your standard network rate, (usally a network rate of 10-15p applies, check with your network operator). * Voters must obtain permission from the bill payer before voting. * Make sure you carefully text details of the chorus you wish to vote for. * The BBC reserves the right to disqualify votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent and multiple voting has occurred or if it considers there has been any attempt to rig the voting. * The BBC, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any telephone network or line, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any vote being lost or not properly registered or recorded. * In the event of problems with the text vote, a respected music journalist will help us choose each day’s winner * Please note that you cannot vote by email or via this website.

If nothing else, this November 20 online interview proves to everyone (especially those who take Sir Tom so very solemnly) that the man has a terrific sense of humor about himself.

By way of introduction, the site says:

At 184 yrs old, Tom has released his new album

Our HM film crew took the risky strategy of breaking in to Tom Jones hotel room disguised as cleaning maids and threatened to play him his new album non stop, unless he gave us an interview. What do you know, he was only too willing to oblige. Just goes to show, if you don’t try you never know.

So Tom, now you’ve tried, we all know — it doesn’t work.

We ended up getting a charming insight into a national treasure and asked him some indepth questions such as, “If your beard colour was sampled as a Dulux brand, what would it be called?” — Genius.

(Moderator’s Note: “Dulux” is paint)

Now, here, from HolyMoly.com comes this entirely silly interview with Sir Tom.

Thanks once again, Dre.

The timely-for-New-Year’s-Eve drinking advice posted to the left from This Week quotes from an earlier article in Q that we posted when it was published last month. If you missed it, it’s worth a download. Just follow the link.

And, to the right, from the January 2009 edition of Q is a review of 24 Hours. (The three stars are out of a possible four.)

First, the UK organization called The Beard Liberation Front (BLF), which campaigns against “beardism,” prejudice against those who sport beards (and who saw the word entered into the Oxford English Dictionary as a result of their campaign, has named Sir Tom’s one of the two “Beards of the Year,” with the Archbishop of Canterbury joining him at the top of the list. Excerpts from the article below:

Prince William’s beard honoured


Prince William has been honoured for giving beards a positive image after sporting thick facial hair over the Christmas period….The Prince finished as a runner-up in the annual Beard of the Year award.


The Telegraph




The overall title was shared between the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and ageing singer Tom Jones.

The Beard Liberation Front, an informal network of beard wearers, has recognised Britain’s best beards for the past 14 years….The award aims to highlight those who have given beards a positive image in the public eye during the year.

“A concern this year was beardism, irrational prejudice against the hirsute, and while Tom Jones sex symbol status overrode this, it was certainly a factor for other winners.”

AND…

The Las Vegas Review Journal, the daily paper here, has a show reviewer named Mike Weatherford who is a real Tom Jones fan. He doesn’t varnish the truth, and his assessments of Tom’s shows is always honest. (Last January he suggested a set list change might be in order.)

At any rate, on Sunday he compiled his annual end-of-the-year list of the 10 Best Shows. Sir Tom is at #6: “TOM JONES — A new album should bring even better things in ’09 from the 68-year-old singer who celebrated 40 consecutive years in Vegas with an MGM Grand forum that lets him be both wise and eternally horny.”

The rest of his list — 1. Jersey Boys; 2. Tony Bennett; 3. Bette Midler The Showgirl Must Go On; 4. George Carlin; 5. O (or Love or Ka — any Cirque show except Criss Angel’s Believe); 7. The Second City (now, lamentably, gone from The Strip); 8. Blue Man Group; 9. Donny and Marie Osmond; 10. Cher

The only quibble with his list is #10, Cher. Her show is too-much glitz and too-little Cher. The others — and I would substitute Love or Ka for O, but that’s very subjective) are terrific.

Today is Herman’s birthday and it’s time for the TJI.com annual birthday salute. We wish Herman — a great musician and an even better human being — a very happy one. (Note: Of course we wish the same for everyone in Tom’s band and all his singers, but Herman’s is the only birthday we know, so consider this an annual wish for the entire gang.)

Anyway, below is a promotional video made by DW drums whose products Herman uses.

The video’s in two parts and is lots of fun:




Herman Matthews/DW Promo/Part 1 • Herman Matthews/DW Promo/Part 2

Be sure to visit Herman’s website.

Note: As of Saturday, December 27, Billboard places 24 Hours in the Top 100 European charts and the Official European Chart Company has the CD moving up seven places this week.

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If you missed them on youtube, there are two bits of video from the same interview Tom did on TV back in the 1960s. There he is — weeding some odd patch of land, explaining the rules for a spouse of “a married pop singer,” puttering around the house being domestic (fiddling with a decorative sword) and talking about the possibility of his child being spoiled.

Even though you can almost hear the producer and/or director suggesting that he do “something” domestic (yet masculine), it’s lovely video of a time when so much was still ahead. Could he, or anyone, have imagined what was to come?

Because the quality isn’t too great — the sound, especially, is fuzzy, but understandable — I tried to improve on it and put the two clips into one video. You’ll find it at the TJI.com Video Library.