Tom Jones International

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all of TJI’s Canadian friends! May each of you have a day filled with all the things for which you give thanks!

TICKETS FOR TOM IN DALLAS GO ON SALE THIS FRIDAY! Tickets to see Tom in Dallas, at the Meyerson Symphony Hall, Sunday, January 31, 2010, go on sale Friday, October 16 at 9 a.m. local time. For best seats, call the box office at (469) 718-0145. A link to the venue is on the TJI page, Where’s Tom & When’s He There? Please remember that this is posted here with one star (*), which means the gig is on the venue’s site, not on TJ.com. No word yet on any other 2010 dates.

mharding sent this detailed, insightful review of the first Cardiff show. While all fan reviews are so appreciated by all of us, this is especially well-written, very creative while being accurate and exhibits his knowledge of the subject. He is objectively critical, too, and that’s a plus. (For proof of that, check out the fifth paragraph.)

Tom Jones Live at the Cardiff International Arena Friday 9th October 2009

It’s Friday night and Sir Thomas of Jones is due to do his pop music thing at the Cardiff International Arena (the first of three nights at the venue). Relatively speaking it’s a few miles away from where the pre-school Tom would regularly plead with his mother to call him out from behind the curtains of the family home in Pontypridd to show off his talent to an imaginary audience. By the time Tom was in his mid twenties his family had grown tired of him leaping out from behind the living room curtains and packed him off to London to secure a record deal. This he did, enabling him to forsake the factory and site work that had occupied him since leaving school. Instead he has been clocking on for evening shifts at music venues worldwide ever since.

Arriving at the venue my wife and I sit among a multi-generational audience. There are groups of teenage girls here whose grandparents might not have been born when Tommy Woodward first clambered up onto his Laura Street window sill. The audience trickles in until the venue is full.

First on stage is Tom’s support act, the skilled soul belter Florence Rawlings with selections from her debut album A Fool in Love. She and her young band prove to be a worthy choice as support for tonight’s main turn — speaking of which…

To start Sir Tom’s set there’s a bit of Close Encounters type melodrama on the darkened stage as eerie spotlights stream upwards through unfurling smoke clouds and the band stands silhouetted while sound effects twitter and bleep mysteriously. A shadowy figure steps out from behind the drum kit and Tommy Woodward is back ’on the window sill’ to do his pop music thing again.

When I last saw him at this venue Sir Tom opened the show with Tom Jones International, a bragging song written for him by another pop singer (Wyclef Jean) about how great Tom Jones is. This time Sir Tom opens with a new song, Sugar Daddy, It’s a bragging song written for him by another pop singer (Bono) about how great Tom Jones is. In it he claims to have been singing this song since before I was born. This seems unlikely as he seems to ad-lib a couple of the lyrics. “Sexual positions?” Did he just say “Sexual positions?” I don’t remember that on the CD. Such errors are minor though and the easiness that Sir Tom displays on stage makes you feel that he is ultimately in charge and the audience is in safe hands.

The song is gratefully received by an enthusiastic audience as is the rest of the set which consists of songs from the new‘24 Hours album and of course a selection of his hits from the sixties onwards. As well as these, Tom usually throws in a few other numbers, sometimes ones that he hasn’t recorded and that I suspect reflect his current personal listening. It’s a process that, during the eighties led to Tom recording a hit version of Prince’s Kiss which played a significant part in changing public and media perception of him.

For the rest of this review and to read the Times’ take on Cardiff,

For me, these random factors often form some of my favourite moments in the performances. This time it’s stripped down versions of the Drifters’ Save the Last Dance For Me, He’ll Have To Go (a song Tom has recorded but which wouldn’t have appeared on a hit list) and the up-tempo Too Many Lovers played by the full band.

There’s a new band line-up for this tour. They play well, work hard and entertain throughout the long show. Peter the guitarist is particularly energetic and playful on stage. There are fewer backing singers this time and one of Tom’s horns has dropped off (in the brass section that is). There’s greater facility for electronica in the show now (although this is balanced by the acoustic moments) with two keyboard players on stage, one of them occasionally donning that eighties favourite the keytar, one of those keyboards worn on a strap like a guitar. It’s a good, entertaining band but I have to admit a personal preference for the somewhat warmer, more natural sound of Brian, Herman et al.

The drummer and MD is Gary Wallis who has worked with Tom before and whom Tom introduces as “an old friend”. His new arrangements are often refreshing (What’s New Pussycat sounds close to the movie original, Green Green Grass of HomeKiss complete with rhythmically grinding engine noises throughout, it’s reminiscent of the original Art of Noise recording. Sometimes the introduction of these pre-recorded elements provides uneasy moments as in the song 24 Hours. Admittedly, there isn’t a great deal for much of the band to do during this intrinsically sparse sounding song but Gary Wallis looks to be at something of a loose end miming (I think) the drum part. Despite this it’s a highly dramatic part of the show with Tom delivering exquisite, highly focused vocals that captivate the audience (except for a girl in the audience who was wailing something unintelligible throughout).

Elsewhere in tonight’s show the playback experiments produce some undesirable side-effects. Tom introduces his 2006 hit Stoned in Love which he recorded with the Trance act Chicane. This introduction and the spiky opening chords are enough to instigate something of an exodus for those suddenly feeling the urge to powder noses or dash off for a crêpe (I’m not being coarse, there really is a stand selling them). I actually very much enjoyed the live performances of this song during TV promotion at the time of the record’s release. The wispy, filtered vocal of the record was discarded and the live version featured the full throttle Tom parading his old school vocals against Chicane’s high tech backdrop. Tom even performed the song in this way when appearing as a guest at a Chicane gig in Islington and was wildly appreciated by the Trance audience.

Here at the CIA though, we get flesh and blood Tom during the verses and, inexplicably what seems to be a tinny recording of the lead vocals during the chorus. Oh no! it’s “Jones The Pre-recorded Voice!” It seems a pointless technical exercise that subtracts from the performance rather than adding to it. As Tom is fully capable of singing this part himself and the playback doesn’t even sound particularly manipulated it presents an innovation for which the benefits elude me.

This technological “smoke and mirrors” approach has been present in Tom’s show for a number of years in the case of ‘If I Only Knew’ where there also seems to be an unnecessary concern with reproducing the sound of the recorded version. The eternal scream concocted by producer Trevor Horn for the recording is a signature factor in the record consisting of three hollers delivered by Tom which were mixed together to create a supposedly impossible animalistic wail. Tom would perform an approximation of this in live performance which was completely acceptable and impressive to my ear. At least since the recording of the Cardiff Castle DVD it seems that this live approximation has been abandoned in favour of a recorded insert. Again this strikes me as silly and selling the singer short. Tom is capable of hitting comparable notes in Thunderball and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again in this show so why not in this song? What’s the thinking behind it all? Britney mimes, Madonna mimes, maybe Tom Jones could too? A lip-syncing Tom Jones in concert? Please no. Tom has said that he considers himself basic and stresses that amid all the showmanship the voice is the most important thing. For this reason I consider that the lip-sync experiment is one that doesn’t work and should be put to one side.

Stoned in Love is presented as an extended version tonight (as is If I only Knew with it’s electric guitar solo) and as Tom leaves the stage for a couple of minutes the arrangement transforms into a starchy, synth-driven, pounding Ibiza-style instrumental that slowly morphs into Sex Bomb. It’s an intense and authentic electronic dance sound and while Tom’s willingness to experiment in this direction in a live show is impressive I wonder how some of the older audience members are faring during this section.

Again, all of this is balanced by the warmer ‘old but new’ sounding songs from the 24 Hours album. Songs such as If He Should Ever Leave You and Give a Little Love have an intentionally vintage sound and it seems possible that concert-goers unfamiliar with the new album may assume that these are songs from Tom‘s sixties back-catalogue. They fit seamlessly in with the older songs and are good, solid live numbers that could feasibly serve him for years to come.
There are considerable visual advancements in the new show in the form of giant screens to the rear of the stage which blaze with animations and psychedelically manipulated live-action imagery. Blood swirls in a manner reminiscent of a Bond movie intro during Delilah, a trippy merry-go-round twirls to What’s New Pussycat, a kooky sixties go-go dancer frolics during She’s a Lady, flames roar along to Burning Down The House and a kaleidoscope of geometric abstractions swirl and pulsate throughout the show. The slick visuals lend yet another layer to an already entertaining show and represent a welcome technological addition to the production.

Sir Tom works hard, leather jacketed he prowls the stage (It was his on-stage prowl not the growl that earned him the name ‘Tiger Tom’ all those years ago. Better that than ‘The Twisting Vocalist’ I say) occasionally swiping heavy waterfalls of perspiration from his brow. The audience is dressed for a fine evening but it’s at moments like this that the front row may need raincoats and brollies.

There are chats to and with the audience. Sir Tom holds up a clenched fist and tells us that because he is in Wales he has been sure to put on his dragon ring. He let’s us into the secret that there’s always a set list taped to the stage along with the name of the city and country that he and the band are visiting that evening. He’s highly amused by the fact that someone has, through force of habit stated the obvious (obvious to Tom) and written “Cardiff (Wales)” at the bottom of tonight’s list.

At one point a lady standing in the audience at the edge of the stage catches Tom’s attention and he pauses to speak to her. It turns out that she wants to know why dancing is not allowed at the back of the arena. Tom asks if she thinks he runs the place and informs her, “I’m not the bloody manager”. It’s a funny response that draws a gale of laughter from the capacity crowd. He tops it by giving his permission for “dancing at the back” and advises the audience that if anyone tries to stop us we should “Tell them to bugger off!”. There’s more laughter and a roar of approval. Luckily I catch the moment on video to share via Ellen at TJI.

The song is not included but it occurs to me that having achieved a UK number one this year with the Comic Relief single ‘Islands in The Stream’ a ‘straight’ rendition of the song might have been a fun and popular choice to add to the UK leg of the tour. Perhaps the priority is to perfect a set with universal appeal hence its exclusion.

The show ends with the George Clintonesque electro-funk romp Take Me Back to The Party. It’s all intense, saucy sounding throbbing synths and Sir Tom cavorting at front of stage with his new backing singers and the other band members whom he name checks as the number unfolds. It’s an exhilarating, satisfying finish to a bracing, briskly paced show.

The Voice is now, as Sir Tom himself has often noted, lower in register than it was for example at the first Jones gig I attended in 1994. Those blood-curdling, hell-raising, whooping high notes that ‘94 Tom used to exclaim, “ONE THOUSAND TIMES!” during The Lead and How to Swing it song A Girl Like You aren’t so much in evidence tonight. Instead he utilises the more recently acquired depths that his shift in range offer. However his enthusiasm, stamina, vocal power, sense of fun and musical instinct remain intact.

Good show, young Tommy! You’re a top pop show-off. Now jump down off the window sill and eat your dinner.

— mharding

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From The Times Online by Stephen Dalton, October 10, 2009, comes this review. He crack about HRT is rude and probably unnecessary, but it’s a nice review. I especially like when he wrote: “For anyone wondering why Jones can still fill arenas at 69, it was written all over his face. I struggle to name any other performer who radiates such intense pleasure at his own god-given talents. But it’s an infectious kind of joy, and one he plainly enjoys sharing.”

Tom Jones at the Cardiff International Arena

**** (out of 5)

At the start of a three-night stint in his native Wales, Tom Jones began his latest British tour in swaggeringly confident mood. Having finally dispensed with the vanity of hair dye, the 69-year-old singer’s newly snowy thatch and beard were reminders that he is now well past retirement age, even under David Cameron’s new pension-squeezing rules. But the recently knighted Jones appeared trim, tanned and energetic, while those muscle-bound tonsils have clearly lost none of their wrecking-ball power. Beyond any debate about his ridiculous, orange-faced, simian sex-god image lies that agelessly virile volcanic voice.

Jones has spent much of the past decade self-consciously chasing contemporary pop fashion, often with more commercial than artistic success. But his most recent album, last year’s 24 Hours, was a classy return to his heartland of booming ballads and supper-club soul stompers. With sumptuous retro-pop back in vogue thanks to the likes of Duffy, Amy Winehouse and Richard Hawley, maybe Jones just feels more relaxed in his own skin nowadays.

He opened the show with Sugar Daddy from the new album, a self-mocking litany of sexual innuendo written by Bono and the Edge, of U2. The newer numbers mostly held up well against the older hits, although connoisseurs of good taste might quibble with Never, the singer’s roaringly narcissistic love letter to his own voice.

Thanking us for our applause in both English and Welsh, Jones made great play of wiping his brow with a dragon-flag flannel tossed from the audience. He did not overplay the nationalistic card, but he did not need to: he could have strangled a succession of new-born kittens live onstage, and this crowd would still have elected him First Minister of Wales.

Zealous venue staff kept the audience in their seats for much of the show, causing evident annoyance to many. Midway through, Jones was surprised by a direct approach from a female fan demanding permission to dance at the back of the hall. “I don’t run the bloody place, love,” he laughed incredulously. “I’m only here to sing!” But when the big hits arrived, mutiny broke out. From the delirious, whirling, fiery melodrama of Delilah onwards, ladies of a certain age thronged the aisles, turning the show into an HRT-fuelled hen party. Jones removed his swish leather jacket, revealing a lake of sweat beneath. But he kept on belting out wall-to-wall classics, including a semi-acoustic Green, Green Grass of Home, an obligatory It’s Not Unusual and a hip-grinding demolition of Prince’s Kiss.

For anyone wondering why Jones can still fill arenas at 69, it was written all over his face. I struggle to name any other performer who radiates such intense pleasure at his own god-given talents. But it’s an infectious kind of joy, and one he plainly enjoys sharing.

Tour continues: Tue , Newcastle Metro Radio Arena; Wed, Glasgow SECC; Fri, Manchester MEN Arena; Sat, Liverpool Echo Arena; Sun, Birmingham LG Arena; Oct 20, Bournemouth BIC; Oct 23, Brighton Centre; Oct 24, London Wembley Arena; Oct 27, Belfast Odyssey Arena