Tom Jones International

Today is likely a travel or rest day for a very hard-working Tom Jones. Before his holiday vacation we hear from friends in Silicon Valley he’s got one private gig and, then, nothing but some already-taped TV appearances in the UK until he opens in (snowy) Las Vegas January 15.

Since there is a now bit of a lull (although we do have lots of good stuff to post stored up) I’d like to again ask if you got your 2009 calendar and how you like it.

It’s been surprising that calendars mailed Friday in Las Vegas arrived in New York on Monday and in Canada Wednesday. Last year they took longer to get to Canada than to get to Japan. A couple have a very specific printing error that we didn’t catch so, if yours does, please href="http://tomjonesintl.com/wp-admin/post.php#" mce_href="http://tomjonesintl.com/wp-admin/post.php#">email me.

(Note: The comments about the calendar that were sent in earlier this week have been moved to this post in an attempt to keep things more organized.)

---

Also: Got a nice note from the marketing director of Vocalzone. It’s in the comments of the December 17 post about the throat lozenge below.

Laura C. alerted TJI.com to the The Best Songs of 2008, a very eclectic list of 25 tunes on Spinner.com, an AOL music site.

If He Should Ever Leave You came in at #9. The site’s staff said, “This is a brand-new classic, brought to life by an old favorite.”

Also on the list are John Legend, Adele, Kings of Leon, Neil Diamond, T.I. feat. Rihanna, The Jonas Brothers — many of them placing below Sir Tom.

Laura, perhaps rightly, suggested that if he goes on US TV again Tom should sing this song, rather than I’m Alive, since the retro sound of If He Should Ever Leave You is in vogue now.

AND! The Tampa Bay Tribune’s music blog put 24 Hours on its list of 2008′s Top 10 CDs. Writer Sean Daly said, “9) Tom Jones, 24 Hours The Welsh Wonder merges ’60s swing, ’70s smarm and modern thump for a sexy sonic shindig.”

This is really great news, isn’t it? Congratulations to Sir Tom!

(For the record (no pun) both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk show the CD selling well.)

Kim, president of the Tom Jones Scandinavian Fan Club in Denmark sent an email today detailing the day he and his wife Inge spent with Tom yesterday in Copenhagen. (We told you he was going to Denmark!) As arranged by a local TV station, they had the chance to spend the day with Tom and Don (photo left), including time spent at the station where Sir Tom was interviewed (photo right).

Here is a small clip from the beginning of the interview, taped as Tom was settling in and concluding some small talk with the interviewer. It is unusual that when stuff like this is kept in a video. Leads one to wonder how many times Tom’s answered the same questions. It really is very hard work and not always interesting. Kinda feel sorry for him.

The full interview, including the clip above, is posted at the the TJI.com Video Library

Don’t forget this week’s videos from Tom’s UK TV appearances. Links in posts below this one where you can read the story about the appearance or you can go directly to the TJI.com Video Library

---

Exploring this website can take a great deal of time. Unless you’ve been visiting since the site was launched October 10, 2005, you have here almost 1,000 posts on a range of topics waiting to be read. There are many categories and, within those, additional pages. All of this is listed in the sidebar at right. One of those pages few people have checked out is, Pitchman Perfect, the page that details commercials and promo music Tom’s done over the years, complete with music. In August there was a post here called Tom Jones’ Voice Is A Gift and Vocalzone Helps It Keep On Giving. And, although the Vocalzone website has a testimonial from Tom Jones, his appearance on Top Gear and his mention of the throat pastille occasioned a slew of hits on the company’s site. Does it count as an “official,” compensated-for pitch? Doubt it, but he should be their spokesperson. (Songperson?) The company sent out the press release below following Tom’s plug for the product. And, by the way, when you’ve nothing to do, there are lots of places on TJI.com you may wish to check out. Loads of interesting stuff.

Be aware that material below was sent over the PR Newswire (a public relations service) to editors in the UK — Hence, the “note to editors.” People outside the UK can buy Vocalzone online.

---

Vocalzone Fine Tunes Tom Jones’ Vocal Cords

POOLE, England, December 17 /PRNewswire/ — As a result of Sir Tom Jones citing his use of Vocalzone on Top Gear (14/12/2008) Kestrel, the (Poole based) makers of the Throat Pastille which is also known to be used Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Joss Stone and Robbie Williams, has been inundated with enquiries from literally thousands of aspiring singers that watch the programme.

Sir Tom Jones was asked by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear if he took anything to maintain his voice. Sir Tom replied that he uses Vocalzone Throat Pastilles and that they are “Great, unbelievable, they are made in England and they are great things.”

“We received over 27,000 hits on our
website in the first hour after the programme with the majority of enquiries asking where they can buy Vocalzone Throat Pastilles. Frankly we’re surprised by just how many people watching Top Gear are also keen performers!”

(more…)

Last month, you may recall, Liz sent us a report on Sir Tom busking for charity and on her visit to the Graham Norton Show.

This evening the busking segment was shown on The Culture Show.

The object of the exercise was to raise money for charity. (The money, in keeping with busking tradition, is thrown n a violin case on the ground in front of the busker.)

The record, £450 raised, was held by the Fron Male Voice Choir from Wales. They were ahead of their nearest competition by almost £200. Tom was the last busker of 2008. Could he beat them?

Look quickly you’ll see Don and Mark with Tom. Keith Airey is on guitar.




In the photo at left Tom’s being interviewed about busking. At right, he’s waving a fiver someone kicked in.

On Friday night, an uncut version of the show is on. Watch for video here. You can see it in the TJI.com Video Library.

(Thanks again to the staff at The Tom Jones Collector’s Page for getting the video here.)

Please don’t miss the video link from yesterday and, also, in the post below please let us know if you got your calendar and what you thought.

---

This photo is of a clearly happy Tom Jones on Season 12/Episode 7 of Top Gear which was broadcast Sunday night on BBC 2.




As BBC America is now on Season 9/Episode 6, it’ll be quite awhile until we see it here. So, you can check out this short video here of driving on Top Gear or you can go to the TJI.com Video Library to see all the video of Tom on the show.




We posted the Perfect Day video they talk about on December 12. (How prescient was that?) You can watch it here.




BTW, considering what he usually drives and that with all his touring he doesn’t drive all that much, he did pretty well, didn’t he?

Video of Tom co-hosting The Sunday Night Project is posted full-length at the TJI.com Video Library. With RealPlayer Downloader and, perhaps, some other apps, it is downloadable to your desktop. Online, for this show, you’ll find either separate different segments — annoying to watch — or in one chunk that, at 22 minutes, is less than half of what was actually aired. So enjoy and feel free to download from here if you can.

The 2009 TJI.com Calendars were mailed Saturday and, we’re told, people across the country were getting them on Monday. Please let us know what you think. Again, the US Postal Service says it takes longer to get to Canada than to anywhere else.

Finally, the note below came from one of the producers of The Culture Show:

“I just wanted to let you know that the Tom Jones Busking Challenge will be featured on The Culture Show tonight – Tuesday 16th Dec, BBC2, 10pm and again Uncut on Friday at 11.35pm.

“There are also 3 songs featured on the Culture Show website, two of which are extras, not featured on TV.”

Note: The videos mentioned above are only available in the UK. That is due to music licensing issues that are unfair, silly and hurt the shows when they ask for a lot more publicity than given here above by websites and media outlets outside the UK. It’s time they realized that it’s a small world. People everywhere are interested in seeing this stuff, it helps push music product. In this instance, we were sent three links to “extras” online only available in the UK. If someone in the UK can download these videos for the fans who visit tji.com and who wouldn’t otherwise see them, please send an href="http://tomjonesintl.com/wp-admin/post.php#" mce_href="http://tomjonesintl.com/wp-admin/post.php#">email and I’ll send the links.

We hopefully will have good quality video to post by tomorrow sometime.

---

Here’s part of an article — just the part about Tom — posted at walesonline. Jools Holland knows music, musicians and he’s right about Tom’s position in the pantheon of great ones.

Music man Jools Holland talks Tom Jones

Dec 16 2008 by Gavin Allen, South Wales Echo

He made his name with Squeeze but has become the BBC’s main music man with his TV show Later. Jools Holland talks to GAVIN ALLEN about drinking with The Voice…

(more…)

When Tom was on Graham Norton’s TV show a few weeks ago, the other guest, comedian Alan Carr, was hilarious. Hopefully, he’ll tour outside of the UK. Anyway, last night, Tom hosted Carr’s show, The Sunday Night Project. Along with Carr, the constant presence in the show is Justin Lee Collins.

If you wish to see Sir Tom Jones having more fun than you’ve ever seen him having in public — except for when he’s singing — you have to watch this….Just terrific! Long but very well worth the time.

The entire 49-minute show is posted in the TJI.com Video Library. (The video is the best we could get.)

And, since they mention this on the show, here’s info about the Beard of The Year contest. (Or, as they say in the UK, “competition.”)

---

A note on the show: In March 2006 we posted the photo at left of a Tom-themed restaurant in Newport, Wales. The photo was sent to tji.com by Newporters m&rharding.




The photo at right has nothing to do with anything except, if you’re planning to visit Las Vegas next month to see Sir Tom, be aware you may run into weather like that shown here.




The photo was taken today and, yes, that is Las Vegas, Nevada. Snow on palm trees: who’d a thunk it?

Check below beneath the line. We added another video.The format is QuickTime and we couldn’t post it in the video library yet. Hope you can watch and enjoy it.

We’re going to get video of both of Tom’s UK appearances today but, meanwhile….

Guests on Wetten Dass…? are, in addition to their performances onstage, interviewed backstage.

You’ll find Sir Tom’s 10+-minute interview has been added to the TJI.com Video Library.

There’s even a little seasonal cheer at the end.

(Thanks to Shezad for sending the link and to the staff at The Tom Jones Collector’s Page for getting the video here.)

---

And here, thanks to Anne, is another interview from TV in Germany. This one is in German, but there’s a terrific few seconds when some fans from Ireland happen on the proceedings. Here’s Tom’s interview from Today in Germany. It was done November 20.

The show is called Wetten Dass…? which means Wanna Bet? and it’s said in some sources to be the most successful show in Europe. It’s broadcast only a few times each year, is commercial-free and runs between two and three hours.

Including Tom the show featured 12 guests. It was broadcast tonight from Stuttgart, Germany. Among the other guests were Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Anastacia. Tom was on for one song and the shortest of interviews. (Love the photo on the right.)

Here’s Tom on Wetten Dass…?

Thanks to Shezad Eikmeier for the video. Check out his Elvis act at his website. The worldwide Tom Jones fan community is terrific!