Tom Jones International

Please don’t forget the Question of the Month in the post below! And, of course, let’s all hope that Tom gets well very, very soon!

The Voice still rocks at 70!

The Hindi/April 1, 2010/ Lekha J. Shankar Legendary singer Tom Jones took Bangkok by storm recently.

It was difficult to believe that the swinging singer on stage was nearly 70! That his voice had not lost its power or texture in spite of five long decades in the business, that he could still get a packed auditorium of people, singing and dancing on their feet. One is talking about the concert of Sir Tom Jones, at the Impact Arena Auditorium in Bangkok, which shook the city.

The power and magic of his rhythms, and his wide repertoire of songs — rock, pop, soul, country and film tracks had the audience — young and old — mesmerised.

Here is a Welsh boy who started singing in small clubs, went on to bigger halls, and ended up singing at some of the top stages of the world. This is the singer who has jammed with the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, Prince and Robbie Williams. The famous singer has travelled and performed through the length and breadth of the world, from East and West Europe to the Middle East, Israel, Asia, S. Africa, and still continues to do so.

As Jones said recently, “I can’t see myself retiring. I hope I’ll always be able to go out and do shows for as long as I live!” Jones’ recent Asian tour covered Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. One heard he developed laryngitis in Singapore, soon after his Bangkok-concert, and had to cut short his tour. But in Bangkok, the legendary singer was in his element. He opened the concert with ‘Sugar Daddy’ and followed it with Style and Rhythm. The James Bond number from Thunderball was dramatic, but of course it was Delilah that brought the crowd on its feet.

Mama told me resurrected his early days with his first Welsh band, and he sang it intimately with his three guitarists, followed by the soulful Hard to Handle. He got naughty again with Help Yourself.

To balance the volatility, Jones then sang reflective numbers from his new album 24 Hours, where the lyrics, written by him for the first time, were totally personal and revealed the ‘real me.’ As he said on stage, he wanted in particular “to thank God for giving me this voice.”

To read the notice from the venue about the cancellation and one online report about it (so many and they all tended to say the same thing) click here to

When one remembers that Jones’ initiation into music was through the choir in his church, one can understand his unmitigated faith. The singer shut his eyes as he sang the lead-song of 24 Hours with deep feeling – “As I take my final breath, I don’t fear any more.” Then came Never fall in love which the singer said he had first recorded when he was 27 years old!

There followed a medley of country songs, which the crooner said were in memory of his club days, and he re-created the club atmospherics with dark lighting and his guitarists for company. But numbers such as Green Green Grass and Save The Last Dance had the audience singing and dancing with him. By the time he came to Pussy Cat and She’s a Lady, the women in the audience were on the aisles. And then came the song which won an Oscar for Best Movie Soundtrack from ‘Full Monty’ — -‘Leave your Hat On.’ ‘Stoned in Love’ had loud rhythmic guitar notes, but Jones’ voice was louder. And then he belted out Sex Bomb and waved goodbye. But the Thai audience had not had enough of him, so he came back for Kiss and ended the evening with the popular Take me back to the party.

For the large number of Tom Jones fans who came to the concert, the singer took them back to a never-ending ‘party’ of unforgettable numbers. If one can exude such energy at the age of 70, there’s plenty his audience can learn from this inspirational singer. Yes, ‘The Voice’ (as Tom Jones is called in his native Wales ) reigned supreme that evening.

The venue in Shanghai posted an explanation and ended on a nice note: “As the organizer of ‘Tom Jones Live in Singapore’, Resorts World Sentosa is naturally distressed by the latest cancellation of the concert. His management has just informed that Tom Jones is genuinely ill. He stayed behind in Singapore with the full intention to perform for his fans. He was advised by his doctor only today against risking permanent loss of his vocals by staging the performance. We again apologise to our guests.

“We wish Sir Tom a full recovery.”

Oh no no, not a second time, Tom

Poparazzi/Christopher Toh/8:52 pm/April 1, 2010

The Beatles’ song, Not A Second Timecould have been the theme song for Tom Jones’ fans who were preparing to go to the legendary Welsh singer’s rescheduled concert at Resorts World today.

At 3.25pm, a press statement from Jones’ management was received stating that the concert – which was pushed back a week after he abruptly cancelled the show last week after singing two songs – was cancelled again.

“Unfortunately, the doctors are nevertheless unable to guarantee that Sir Tom would be able to perform the full show tonight at 100 per cent vocal strength. In addition, they have warned that by performing, Sir Tom could risk serious permanent damage to his vocals,” read the statement.

“We are deeply sorry for disappointing and inconveniencing the fans and also the management and staff of Resorts World Sentosa. We hope to find a time to come back in the near future and reschedule the shows.”

According to Resorts World, the Apr 1 date had been arranged after consulting Sir Tom last week. “We worked closely with his management and the date was set after considering a full week of recovery and staying here during the period,” said Robin Goh of Resorts World, adding that they were really sorry and expressed their fullest apologies to fans.