Tom Jones International

Here’s a very favorable review from Tom’s last Australian show in Perth Saturday night. The reviewer didn’t care for the songs from 24 Hours and notes that they were greeted a “muted silence,” kind of like many audiences here greeted Stoned In Love a couple of years ago. But — hooray! — Tom added The Hitter. (I wonder if it is the entire 6+ minutes.) The thing is that, like most of Springsteen’s songbook, this is a very American song….can’t explain why, but I guess it’s because Springsteen is so very much of his time and place — his time being the last 40 years or so and his place, definitely, New Jersey. Anyway, interesting, thoughtful, well-researched and informed review. Finally.

Tom Jones charms Perth fans

Polly Coufos/PerthNow/ March 15, 2010 12:19PM

GOING STRONG: Tom Jones charmed Perth fans at A Day On The Green. Picture: Robert McKell Source: PerthNow

To be fair the girls were only singing what the rest of us were thinking.

As Tom Jones went backstage before his encore to swap one saturated-with-sweat dress shirt for another that would also look like he’d been swimming in it within minutes, his 11-piece backing band vamped a little on a little of Prince’s back catalogue before heading into Jones’ remake of Kiss. His two backing singers cooed ever so sweetly “you sexy mother …” They left the last word blank but anybody who wasn’t thinking the same thing couldn’t have been paying attention.

Here’s a man three months away from his 70th birthday, and yet still in fine vocal and physical form. He’d made fun of the fact that he is just about to join the septuagenarian club but the way he moved suggests the years have been very kind to him and he still has a ways to go.

There were lots of pelvic thrusts but they were almost always accompanied by a sly grin. All the knickers hurling nonsense – and the couple of pairs that passed this reviewer’s eyes could have served to cover your canary cage – is still part of the show. Fun for the ladies who should have spent a bit more time in the backyard practicing their throw, ignored by him.

If Tom Jones truly were a Lothario caricature, able to be reduced to a handful of novelty hits and lofted unmentionables it would have been curtains for him years ago. That’s just schtick, what got Jones in the public eye was talent. It’s what’s kept him there too. His warm baritone is ageing, and like the rest of him it may not be quite what it used to be but could still put to shame just about anybody else you care to name.

The sight of his now silver mop tilting back, his eyes rolling back in his head as he reached into the depths of his diaphragm to bring forth steel-like power is still something to behold. Likewise his smile as he looks out into the crowd. You’d go a long way to see someone who enjoys performing this much.

He showed the desire to front a hard-edged soul band still burns within, nailing Otis Redding’s’ Hard To Handle and Randy Newman’s Mama Told Me Not To Come. If only the pop hits hadn’t come along it’s hard not to think he may have become one of the all time best blue-eyed soul singers.

He held back a little on a trio of acoustic country songs including Green Green Grass Of Home and a stunning mariachi-infused arrangement of Save The Last Dance For Me and they offered another, less abrasive, side to the Welsh star.

For the radio interview, click here to

Jones didn’t have it all his own way though and there was a dull patch early on. He insisted on singing five songs from his latest album, 24 Hours, without including the one clear winner, a brooding cover of Springsteen’s The Hitter. In fact in the first five songs Jones had played four new tracks. If He Should Ever Leave You was the pick of the bunch but by the time it came along it was greeted with a muted response.

As he lit into the tragi-comic waltz Delilah, complete with audience making “ha hah ha ha” interjections, it was clear that he knows exactly what the crowd wants to hear. But he also knows that he needs to find the reason that he can get on stage and sing Delilah every night. Currently it’s songs off his disappointing new album and some soul and country classics, but whatever it is, it is also obvious the highs became much higher because he’s not simply living in the past.

He still made room to give his full attention to What’s New Pussycat, She’s A Lady and the song that started it all It’s Not Unusual. It may be an indulgence but if suffering through Give A Little Love is the price to pay for a heart-wrenching take on the understated ballad I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, that showed the full range of his interpretive powers, it was worth it.

And then some.

(While Jones wasn’t acting his age in a good way, it should also be noted that in the seventh row there was a middle-aged lady who was doing the opposite. Even when the MC had said before the show that it was expected that people would want to get up and dance in their seat and were free to do so, this person chose not to respect those wishes and continued to launch projectiles at a young lady who had to audacity to stand for the duration. Some people really need to get out more. On the other hand, the rest of us would have a much better time if they didn’t.

Big respect to the dancer up front who just gave Chucker Khan the finger and didn’t return fire. If she had and her aim was as bad as the protagonist we all were in danger. As Tom sang in Kiss, “Act your age Mama, not your shoe size.”)

Tom’s official site had two radio interviews posted today and several people emailed me about them. I really appreciate those emails that keep me informed and almost never allow me to miss anything. But, this time, TJI was covered. The one from Melbourne was posted on here February 28. The other one, from South Africa, happened yesterday. You can listen to it in the TJI.com Video Library.