Fan Fare, What's New, Pussycat?
Here’s where you’ll find TJ photos and stories that don’t fit into any other categories. It is, as its name says, just for fans — and, hopefully, for fun.
Listen! A Two-Hour Tribute To Sir Tom
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Yesterday, August 30, BBC Radio Wales presenter Mal Pope hosted a two-hour tribute to Sir Tom Jones on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Maybe this was broadcast earlier — like, say, on June 7 — but I don’t think so.
Anyway, it is a lovely show with lots of tributes, a partial replay of Sir Tom’s Latitude Festival interview with Bethan Elfyn on BBC Radio Wales and some reminiscing by people who knew Tom when.
It is posted in two parts and you’ll find it in the TJI Video Library. (There’s a strange grinding noise at the beginning of the show. That’s the broadcast, not an error I made. And, there might be a break in the recording for news. Sorry, didn’t have a lot of time to edit.)
And! I awoke to an email from someone on the BBC Radio Wales Call-In Show asking if I was interested in participating in a discussion of the question: “Who looks better at 70…Cliff [Richard, — photo right — from his new calendar] or Tom?” Even if the guy who wrote knew I live in Las Vegas and there’s an eight-hour time difference I wouldn’t have been interested in participating. But, while they were able to find a fan of Cliff’s the best they could come up with for Tom is Gwen Russell, author of that awful, rumor-laden, gossip-heavy, full of old-news biography of Tom. She is the worst kind of celebrity leech and never talked to Tom for the book. Now, she’s acting as if she’s his official spokesperson. Gross.
Anyway, the show was silly and pointless. If you want to hear it, go here and forward to approximately 1:35.
August 31st, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I have read the Gwen Russell biography and Robin Eggar biography of TJ. The Russell book I got fed up after reading the first few pages. It’s really true that it’s just a horribly laid out copy-paste book that doesn’t tell anything new and if I remember right it had atleast 40 pages of nonsense and rumour/gossip about Tom’s and Linda’s relationship. I say yuck to that book!
But I did find the Robin Eggar’s biography of Tom as a very interesting book. I have read it maybe about three times. It has a lot of interesting aknowledge about the entertainment world of sixties and seventies and how Tom entered his way those days. I like the book and because of from that I got a lot of information about Tom’s life through the times that I didn’t knew before. And Eggar did interview Tom and his close people for the book quite alot if the books forewords and credits are true. I don’t know is the reason that people find that book bad too that it handles too closely some of Tom’s women relationships. Is that somekind of thing that is not allowed to be discussed in the biography of his at all? Or what is wrong with the book? It’s not the best biography that you could have but I think it serves well as a source of knowledge about Tom’s career. Also I think it shines through the book that Eggar does respect Tom and his career quite alot.
I remember there were some stupid sounding comments coming from mr. Eggar about Tom’s lates album Praise & Blame. I was wondering where did they come because it made him look quite an idiot to say the least. Is that somehow connected to things that made the book bad too?
I would like to get my hands on the one biography that I did hear about too, it’s called Close Up by some guy named Ellis I think. Is that book worth for the read or what kind of biography is that? If someone here did read it I would like to know how was it.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Mika: Tom Jones: Up Close by Lucy Ellis and Bryony Sutherland is just about as bad as Russell’s book. None of them ever spoke to Sir Tom and it was just a trash rehash like Russell’s book. I suspect the reason no one was able to speak to him (assuming they tried to) is that after the hatchet job Eggar did, no one was granted access.
If I were to write about Sir Tom I, truthfully, wouldn’t write about his personal life — aside from the very basic facts. I’d be interested in his career, his life in music, the people he’s known, etc. The man is a great storyteller with a prodigious memory. That all goes to waste when people only want to write gossip and garbage. He deserves more and deserves a book that does justice to the phenomenal career he (and his fans) have enjoyed. There’s a lot to say that is not trash.
September 1st, 2010 at 2:50 am
Thanks Ellen for the info on Up Close. I don’t have to waste my time on that one then. And it’s true that Tom deserves that kind of biography where the focus is on Tom’s career and “the gossip stuff” is all ignored. There sure would be enough material to compose such book too.
Now from that kind of perspective the Robin Eggar book goes a little over the top describing some stuff from Tom’s personal life and relationships. It’s maybe trying to be too sensational on that department and that surely raises anger among some fans.
But for me it was a book that I still did read with a big interest without being judgemental towards Tom on the personal life issues. I think if you have a very sincere mind that did think before reading that Tom has always been an angel (or something like that) and let the book guide you and make decisions from that book, then it really is not good idea to read the “gossip stuff” parts of it.
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:40 am
Tom wins! Looks like Cliff’s head is pasted on a much younger body. LOL