Tom Jones International

Lost Highway records has launched their publicity campaign for Praise and Blame. You can visit their website here. Burning Hell is now available on iTunes in the USA or via MP3 download at amazon.com (link at top right).

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Tom and his band will perform tracks from Praise and Blame at midnight, Thursday, July 15, at the Latitude Festival at Henham Park, Southwold, (in Suffolk — a familiar county/shire name to may in NY and MA, too) UK. This is a very unusual and very interesting event, running July 15-18, and featuring music, theater (Royal Shakespeare Company), film, literature/poetry, TV, comedy and lots more. They even have babysitting. They are sold out except for Viagogo, a ticket exchange service. Looks like Sir Tom will open the festival. (Oddly, the festival publicity takes pains to note that he will appear with his band. Is that unusual? No, it’s not unusual, as he doesn’t generally sing a capella.)

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Tom will be on BBC 1 two times next week. On Tuesday, July 6, he’ll be the final subject of the show Imagine (times vary, so check your local schedule). On Friday, July 16, he’ll be on the last or the penultimate Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. That’s on at 10:35 (22:35). If you can record and send it to me for posting, please contact me to find out how to send it. Of course, the Ross show will be on BBC America the following week.

The article below is from TV Times and we have to thank the people who took the time to send it for us to share. You are most appreciated and, when you get to a Tom Jones show in Las Vegas, there’ll be lots of fans to buy you a drink. Also, this article was excerpted and reprinted all over the place. This is the original. Not interested in posting two short paragraphs about how anyone who tossed a pair of knickers should “apologise” to Sir Tom. (Please note: The Question of the Month will be up tomorrow and, if you have something you’d like to see posted, please send that to me. It would help a great deal. I retyped this entire article and I don’t mind but, in the next few days, I don’t have that kind of time. Back to LA for the weekend.)

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The Legendary Singer Goes Back To His Musical Roots and Keeps Romance Alive As He Enters His Eighth Decade

Imagine: Jones the Voice
Tuesday, BBC1

In the 46 years since his amazing baritone burst out of the valleys of south Wales, Sir Tom Jones has lent his voice to pretty much every style of music — pop, rock, show tunes, country, disco — you name it, he’s done it.

So perhaps the image of a tight-trousered Tom on stage dodging a shower of underwear does him a disservice. It’s easy to forget that this is a man with a passion for music that runs fathoms deep.

In that spirit, Tom, who turned 70 on 7 June, has teamed up with acclaimed producer Ethan Johns to deliver Praise and Blame, perhaps the most honest album of his career.
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Speaking to him on the phone in LA, and hearing the enthusiasm in that familiar voice, it ecomes clear that this isn’t just another huckster flogging his wares. Tom — the subject of this week’s final documentary in the BBC2 series Imagine (and a guest on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross) is genuinely excited…

The new album, Praise & Blame finds you going back to the music that first inspired you to sing. Have you come full circle? Well, I’ve been into spiritual music since I was a kid. We always sang gospel stuff in the chapel and at funerals, funnily enough! Even at parties we’d have the old sing-song. With that stuff, even though sometimes it’s sad, it’s also uplifting.

For the rest of this article and a preview from the same magazine of the Imagine episode, click here to (more…)

If you go to the iTunes in Great Britain, you’ll see that, instead of the title song — previously announced as being the 12th track on Praise and Blame — is now listed as “Burning Hell (Ethan Johns Wood Room Version) [Bonus Track].”

The US iTunes store still doesn’t have the CD listed and both amazon in the US and the UK still have Praise and Blame as the 12th track. Oddly, amazon UK is offering an “import” of the US CD for £24.99….’Tis a puzzlement.

Anyway, since I had to be out of the house at 5 am Monday and 6 am Tuesday, I am just putting up a video of Tom singing (as in photo at left) one of my favorites — From 1989, it’s Jerry Lee Lewis’ massive first his, Great Balls of Fire. Just smashing!

You can watch it here.

As usual, if you cannot play it, drop me a line using the “Contact TJI” link at the bottom right and I’ll email it to you.

Please note: Google blogs — where the TJI Video Library is located — has been having video issues and that’s why the terrific All You Need Is Love video wasn’t showing. Luckily, Carole emailed TJI to point out that the video was not available. Please, if you notice a video isn’t up/working please take a minute to email it. Usually a fix is easy and quick. That video is now up and working properly.

You can watch it in the TJI.com Video Library. Before you do, however, read the few sentences below and check out that video, too. They are the two top videos on the page.

A brief explanation of the origin and spread of of the blues from a 1990 documentary features BB King, Eric Clapton, Booker T and The MGs, Jeff Beck, Little Richard, Bonnie Raitt. Mick Fleetwood & Tom Jones.

As pointed out just above, it’s brief and the video quality ain’t great. But it goes a long way toward explaining this music. Tom talks for — literally — four seconds beginning at 2:53. But there are lots of others singers, too. Worth seeing.

You can watch it in the TJI.com Video Library.

And, if for some reason you cannot access these videos or any of them in the Video Library, just use the “Contact TJI” link at bottom right to let me know. Don’t forget to watch both videos!

Finally, since Tom’s first gig in the US was the tour of Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars in 1965 and he also appeared on American Bandstand to sing She’s A Lady, it would have been grand to see him do a brief video tribute to Dick Clark on the Emmy Awards last night, wouldn’t it? After all, they had video greetings from Cher, Manilow, Donny Osmond and lots of others. Sir Tom would have been a nice addition.

EMI Music Publishing inks deal with Tom Jones

25 June 2010

Veteran Welsh singer-songwriter Tom Jones has sealed a worldwide publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing. The agreement encompasses Tom’s full back catalogue and future releases including his forthcoming album Praise and Blame, out July 26. It marks the first time the musician has signed with a major publisher.

The Sun reports that:

On July 16, Tom will join Jonathan Ross for his last BBC show. Also on the guest list are Prince (maybe a duet of Kiss?); David Beckham (to whom The Sun refers as “Golden Balls”), Mickey Rourke and Jackie Chan.

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross is shown on BBC America one week after they’re shown in the UK. So look for this ep on July 23 and, of course, TJI plans to post it, too.

A few days ago I asked if anyone who might have the video for the 1992 ChildLine fundraising recording of All You Need Is Love could send it to TJI to share with other fans. As she always seems to do Pat responded promptly and sent a DVD of a half-hour promo video. As always, her willingness to share is deeply appreciated, as is the same willingness of Dre, Johan and some others.

This is the video I was working on yesterday — getting it from several gigabytes in size down to 48MB or so. Now, this is a transfer from a video tape, so the picture clarity isn’t the same as it might be when directly made from a DVD. The digital age didn’t dawn until after this was done.

It’s a lovely video for a terrific cause. The screen shot at right is taken from it. You’ll see lots of children, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and learn more about ChildLine.

You can watch it in the TJI.com Video Library.

With the Glastonbury Festival turning 40 this week, the Daily Mail offers a rundown of “40 fabulous facts from the Glastonbury scrapbook.”

At #14, is this: “After his first appearance in 1992, Tom Jones said: ‘Van Morrison was on before me and he was complaining that the crowd were falling asleep. When I went on, kids seemed to arrive from everywhere and there was a banner that read “Tom F***ing Jones”. That was really something.’”

(TJI knows two people who brought a similar sign to Irving Plaza — that’s a venue, not the name of a person — and Tom saw it and really seemed to enjoy it. The photo of Tom here was from the same time as his first Glastonbury appearance.)

The Fockers Are Back & You May Be Interested: In 2000 the film Meet the Parents was a huge hit. It was followed in 2004 by Meet the Fockers, which was also a hit. Now, for Christmas 2010, we can look forward to Little Fockers.

The same cast as was in the 2004 film is back — Stiller, DeNiro, Hoffman, Streisand, Danner — along with a lot of people (Harvey Keitel comes to mind) who weren’t in the others in the series.

Why am I telling you this? Because the fans’ friend in Florida — who’s a fan herself — sent a link to this trailer for Little Fockers. She — I’ll call her BB to protect her privacy — thought it would be of interest to fans of Sir Tom. I agree. So, take one minute, 46 seconds to check it out and see if you do, indeed, find it of interest.

You can watch it here.

As usual, if you cannot play it, drop me a line using the “Contact TJI” link at the bottom right and I’ll email it to you.

Come back to TJI tomorrow for a video many of you haven’t seen.

Thanks to a terrific woman in the UK, I got an answer to a casual question I asked here on TJI the other day. Because of that, I’ve been working to reduce several gigs of video to a usable size to post. And it will hopefully be tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in case you’re interested, when Sir Tom is here in Las Vegas in August, Lady Gaga will do a night at the Grand Garden Arena at the MGM and, down the road at the Hilton, Al Green will be playing the second weekend Tom is in the Hollywood Theatre. Always something interesting in Las Vegas.

Not having anything to do with Tom Jones or Las Vegas, but something I found interesting: Remember in 2006 when the American Film Institute (AFI) honored Sir Sean Connery for lifetime achievement? Tom, newly knighted, wore the badge of that honor he shares with Connery and Tom sang Thunderball. If you forgot that show, you can see video of Tom’s performance and Sir Sean’s reaction (photos above) by clicking here. (Not great quality, but you’ll get the idea. And, as Tom was a newly minted knight, it would’ve been nice if they’d introduced him using the title.)

Anyway, Connery retired from films (for good, he said) around that time and has been living in the Bahamas and writing his autobiography. Anyway, he’s out of retirement and working on the first every full-length animated feature to be made in Scotland. In a move that sort of reunites Agent 007 with the voice of Goldfinger, Dame Shirley Bassey is set to sing the title song of the movie, Sir Billi. I had the opportunity to interview one of the filmmakers and the story, with some video, is in my Huffington Post blog.

So, as I was so busy that this became an almost impossible TJI day, I chose one of my favorite brief videos. To revisit Tom Jones’ 1989 performance of Great Balls of Fire at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, just click here.

As usual, if you cannot play either of the videos posted today, drop me a line using the “Contact TJI” link at the bottom right and I’ll email the video you couldn’t see (or both of them) to you.

First, I want to note that, Saturday night, June 19, when I was in Bel-Air, we went out to dinner. Among the restaurants we talked about going to was the only restaurant actually in Bel-Air, Vibrato Grill Jazz, owned by Herb Alpert (Remember the Tijuana Brass/founder of A & M Records?) We chose a Japanese restaurant instead. My luck. Below is video taken that evening in Vibrato:

Appearing on the stage at Vibrato was Anna Mjöll, a jazz singer from Reykjavík, Iceland. Appearing as a guest in the restaurant was Sir Tom Jones, a multi-genre singer from Pontypridd, Wales (now living a mere few miles from Bel-Air).

Anyway, because it is such a part of him for sure, Tom joined Mjöll to sing. Among other tunes, they did Fly Me To The Moon and When I Fall In Love. There was more, but this was caught on cellphone video. I’ve worked to improve the quality but — as you can see from the screen shot — it was so bad to begin with…..

However, such videos are always fun and you’ll probably enjoy it.

You can watch it in the TJI.com Video Library.

And, according to WCBS-101.1 FM in New York City (a great station), on June 22, 1992,” Tom Jones was joined during his performance at London’s Town & Country Club by Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour on guitar.” As you know they performed that terrific version of Purple Rain on Tom’s TV series The Right Time that year. (That series really should be out on DVD!)

Amazon listings for Praise and Blame in both the US and UK note there are 12 tracks on the album. The new listing is the title song.

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Imagine • Tom Jones • Tuesday 6 July • Time to be confirmed BBC ONE

Alan Yentob meets a musical legend who is preparing to celebrate his 70th birthday in the summer of 2010, as the arts series concludes.

During an intimate and revealing encounter, Sir Tom Jones looks back on a remarkable singing career, reflecting on his highs, lows, achievements and regrets.

A pop legend, a soul singer, and a true rock ‘n’ roller, Tom Jones (often referred to as The Voice) possesses the dynamic stagecraft and supercharged vocal power that won the admiration of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra – and, of course, millions of fans all over the world. Such illustrious endorsements should come as no surprise; in a career spanning almost five decades. Sir Tom has sung almost every idiom in popular music — including pop, rock, show tunes, country, dance and techno. He has also sold more than 100 million albums, hosted a successful TV variety programme, and has headlined at some of the biggest venues in Las Vegas.

Featuring exclusive contributions from an outstanding line-up of fellow musicians and former collaborators, including Jools Holland, Sandie Shaw, Robbie Williams, Cerys Matthews and Kelly Jones, this film attempts to get a glimpse of the real man behind the showman – and to show how this septuagenarian is still striving to be as relevant today as he ever was.

The BBC’s description of the show says, “Imagine… aims to capture the power and effect of the arts and the people who have changed our way of looking at the world.

“It is presented by Alan Yentob, who says ‘The brief for Imagine… is simple. To be bold. We aim to be inclusive but we hope to inspire and surprise too.’”

According to a snarky story in a Welsh tabloid, Sir Tom flew — oh no!! coach!! — back to LA this week. On the same plane, Welsh singer Ronan Keating flew first class. It’s not important, but it is difficult to believe. However, let’s wish Sir Tom a hearty welcome home.

I spent a few days in LA this weekend — in Bel-Air to be specific — for the launch party of Bel-Air Magazine that was held at an estate there — and we’ve all read about “Bel-Air estates,” haven’t we?

(I am managing editor of the magazine that is put out by Platinum Triangle Publications, published by my friends Rick Amor and his Melanie. Another friend, Glenn Brennan, is the company’s operations manager and a terrific photographer. Steve Milner, owner of LaBrea Antiques in Los Angeles, is not only an expert on mid-20th-century furniture and accessories, he’s a fine film critic and booster of all involved. If I never believed in the possibility that coincidence can play a large role in one’s life, then the way I met all these people — starting only late last year — would convince me of it.)

But, I digress: I stayed with friends in Bel-Air and, trying to leave the community a couple of times, I managed to get a bit lost. Both times, without trying, I ended up on a street called Copa de Oro. It didn’t matter, but no one was home at #363.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the critical reaction to the material on Praise and Blame. On the drive back to Las Vegas I put my iPod on shuffle and realized something. Several years ago I bought a great CD called A Vision Shared: A Folkways Tribute To Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. It features a bunch of people — Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Arlo Guthrie, Sweet Honey and the Rock, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Little Richard, Pete Seeger, Brian Wilson and U2 — singing songs Guthrie and Leadbelly wrote. U2 sang a very gospel-influenced Guthrie song called Jesus Christ. On another CD, Live In Dublin, Springsteen sings a gospel song for children (which many of you must know) written in 1920 called This Little Light of Mine.

Among the thousands of tunes on my iPod are 833 tracks by Tom Jones (these include some interviews and more than one version of many songs). They take up 3.6 GB of space and would take 2.1 days to play. (I am not bragging. I think it’s kind of embarrassing so I will only share this with you. No one else.) Of course, the three TJ newest songs have fallen under the gospel/spiritual umbrella and, it could be argued that such Bill Withers’ tunes as Grandma’s Hands which was in the live show for quite awhile and Stand By Me, recorded by Tom, have that gospel kind of feel. Perhaps there are others in a similar vein.

So, though Praise and Blame may be a first for Tom Jones, clearly, he is not alone in the choice to sing this music and, equally clearly, some other pretty important names have made the same choice. Since the gospel/spiritual genres were the forerunners of the R & B and blues still so popular, the music he’s singing is very relevant today. They are stories telling of a belief in a higher being; a belief necessary for many people to move on in the face of adversity; a testament that such a belief may for many people be a factor in building a better life. In the end, this music may not be such a departure for Tom Jones and the others, as they are at the most basic level, singing songs that tell stories of the kind of people who listen to their music.

Thanks for bearing with me today….more video and stuff is just around the corner…

AB sent several photos that he found online. I had seen all but one before, I am so grateful to him as always for taking the time. This is one of those pictures.