Tom Jones International

Tonight Sir Tom is back on tour, with a stop in Jonkoping, Sweden, But, last night must have been a memorable one for him; one where he was surely honored to be chosen — although he’s not Irish — to kick off a worldwide celebration And, just as surely, he had a ball. Congratulations to him and to Arthur!

Tom gave the main, kick-off toast at the event — followed by toasts around the world — and then, one news source reported, he “broke into a rendition of It’s Not Unusual. During his set, as he needed to “wet my whistle,” as he says, he asked if anyone had a Guinness for him, instead of water. Someone in the audience volunteered a pint and he took it and placed it with his water on the stool on the stage.

Tom Jones rocks Dublin to celebrate Guinness’ birthday

Sep 24 2009/WalesOnline

Global celebrations to salute the world’s most famous stout kicked off in style tonight with Tom Jones leading the toast with pints of Guinness in Dublin.

As millions of people saluted the birth of the brew, a host of stars jetted into the Irish capital to add a touch of glamour to Arthur’s Day.

At 17.59, Jones, the star of the show, opened the night-long celebrations to raise his glass at the St James’s Gate brewery to commemorate its founder, Arthur Guinness.

The atmosphere was electric as 2,000 ticket winners from all over the world crammed into an old warehouse and spread the tide of toasts around the world.

Minutes earlier on the red carpet, the singer admitted that he started drinking Guinness shandy* as a child at home with his father.

But he said it was fantastic to be invited to perform at the Dublin celebrations.

“Irish people are great, they’ve always been good to me and I’ve always enjoyed coming here,” he said.

“The best place to have Guinness is in Ireland.

“When you are in the place where they make it it’s the real deal.”

The Welsh star also revealed that his best way to cure a Guinness hangover was to down another one.

But he told reporters he liked “a hairy dog”… laughing as he realised he had mixed it with up a hair of the dog.

[*Moderator's Note: Guinness Shandy is a drink of half Guinness and half lemonade. I, personally prefer ad lovely Black-and-Tan]

While we wait and hope for better video (It was broadcast on TV), here’s a bit of video. First, there’s an interview Tom did from the WalesOnline website. Then, some B-roll** of the main event in Dublin. First, Ronan Keating introduces Sir Tom who makes the 17:59 (exactly at that minute) toast. Next, is Sir Tom on the red carpet and, following that, a short clip of him singing It’s Not Unusual. He said he’d be performing for about an hour so, hopefully, we can get some of that. Finally, because I like him and for my daughter (not the one who likes Kiss), I included the a toast that was on the video. The quintessential Dubliner, Bono, saluted Sir Arthur. Unfortunately U2 is on tour (tonight they played Giants Stadium in New Jersey) and couldn’t be there.

[**Moderator's 2nd Note: B roll is extra video shot as filler. This, as you can see at the beginning, bears no copyright but the quality is nowhere near what we'd like. In fact, you can tell from the still just above he looked phenomenal, not all fuzzy and pixelated like he does on the video. Oh, well, until we get more, this will have to do. So, enjoy!.]

You can watch it here.

As usual, if you cannot view it, please drop me note using the “Contact TJI” link at right and I’ll send it to you.