Tom Jones International

Please remember to answer the Question of the Month in the post below.

News articles today in several outlets, including Dallas News reviewer, Joy Tipping, filed a somewhat weak, uninformed review in the print edition and she should have done her homework enough to know that Kiss and You Can Leave Your Hat On do not qualify as “new material.” She was very impressed with the band and, of course, Tom’s voice. Below is her blog post about the concert.

Tom Jones was feisty as ever Sunday night at the Meyerson, performing a two-hour show before a full house that left him drenched in sweat and any number of the women in the audience likewise. It seems that when Tom Jones is involved, normally circumspect (well, one assumes) Dallas women are more than willing to relinquish dignity for the cause. Yes, many lacy bits of underwear were tossed onstage. Yes, more than one declaration of love was shouted. And Jones took it all in stride, at one point bemusedly talking about his age (He’ll be 70 in June! Yes, 70!) as if daring anyone in the audience to challenge his sex-symbol creds. No worries on that one when you’re in Dallas, Tom.

Jones sang a handful of songs from his latest CD, 2008’s 24 Hours, including the show-opening rocker Sugar Daddy, written by Bono. The audience seemed to crave the old hits, though, doing that back-and-forth arm-wave thing to Delilah and finally coming to its feet for What’s New Pussycat, more than halfway through the concert. Jones’ versions of Joe Cocker’s sultry You Can Leave Your Hat On and Prince’s Kiss were also crowd favorites.

The music was great throughout — Jones’ gorgeous, rich baritone has just gotten better with the years, and his 10-piece backup band was superb. The lighting was odd at times — one rock number was supplemented with lighting effects showing yellow, purple and gold pill-shaped thingies that reminded me of bacteria in a petri dish.

To read the rest of this post that consists of a sensible plea to every venue and for details of Tom’s Bangkok gig, click here

One thing: PLEASE, PLEASE, Meyerson management: Enough with the cellphone/camera Nazis. There was no “no photos” announcement, nothing on the tickets, and folks were taking a few innocent snaps. It wasn’t like people were balancing on their partners’ shoulders trying to get a Rolling Stone cover shot, for heaven’s sake. But every time someone pointed a cellphone, an usher would run down the aisle, gesturing wildly in that oh-so-friendly throat-slashing “don’t do that” motion. By song No. 10, two ushers on the left side of the house had been up and down the aisle at least 15 times, which was a LOT more distracting than the picture-takers themselves.

Here’s an idea for all venues, not just the Meyerson: If you don’t want people taking photos, make it clear from the outset. Print it on the tickets, put it on a sign at all the doors, make an announcement immediately before the show when most everyone is in their seats. Threaten to confiscate the cellphone/camera of any disobedient audience members, and then have the guts to do just that. People will figure it out and cease their snapping, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the show without ushers interrupting our view. If that’s too much trouble for the venues, just accept that EVERYONE has cameras on their cellphones nowadays, and live with it. You absolutely CANNOT stop people from taking pictures; you can only tick off the ones you happen to catch. (Oddly, people in the choir loft Sunday night snapped away unimpeded, with their flashbulbs going off in our eyes. I’m sure that went over well with the people who got verbally smacked by the ushers downstairs.)

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I am definitely suffering from travel envy. Tom heads to Bangkok on March 21 — right after Kuala Lampur and before Hong Kong — to play at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok. Tickets, available here and there’s an old (1966), badly written bio that goes on way too long. Tickets begin at $30. 16 USD. Odd that the only music they can find to play on this site is Sex Bomb,and then they let it be known that they discourage the tossing of dainties.