Tom Jones International

First, wishes for a very happy Halloween to those of you who care (Celts? Early Christians? Americans?). People from other countries who find themselves in the USA on October 31 are generally completely shocked at the lengths to which some celebrations — and celebrants — go. But, if you are celebrating, may it be a good one!

Second, since 1962, The Late Late Show (oddly, considering its name, broadcast at 9:30 pm) on RTÉ, Ireland’s TV station, has been an Irish cultural institution.

Now hosted by Ryan Tubridy, on Friday night, October 29, the guests were Michael Flatley, Andrea Corr and Sir Tom Jones. (Of course! Otherwise, why would it be posted here?)

Before the interview, Tom sings Strange Things. The song and the interview clock in at 21;22. It’d be nice, by the way, if US late night television took the hint from this show, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, you can see the song and the entire interview (remember your RealPlayer Downloader!) in the TJI.com Video Library.

By the way, if you click on this icon — — at the lower right corner of the video, it expands to full-screen size.

In case you missed yesterday’s post with a link to the Swedish TV interview, or were wondering why people were talking about it being rude, you may be interested in the article about it from a Swedish newspaper. (Warning! The article uses adult language.) If so, please click here to (more…)

Universal UK is releasing a new double CD collection called Tom Jones Greatest Hits Rediscovered. in the US on November 16; the UK November 8. No details just yet and it’s not listed on amazon.uk. But it is on amazon.com and in the UK on HMV.co.uk.

On amazon.com it is now listed for $31.99 and, at that price, includes free shipping. Note, the price may drop as it has for other amazon.com pre-ordered items. You can order by clicking through the link at left. Good cover image, huh? In fairness, CD Universe has it for $3 less but ordering from TJI makes the site a bit of money. Please bear in mind that the limited edition 2011 calendar orders will be posted this week. Because of postal rates the price may be around $30. Meeting with the US Postal Service this week.

Thanks to Mika, TJI found out that Swedish TV host Frederick Skavlan had Sir Tom on his show Friday night, October 29. The interview is in English and Tom, looking terrific, sings What Good Am I?

He comes on at 43:44. You can watch it here.

Tom was also on TV in Ireland Friday night. Hopefully, we’ll be able to access some of that soon.

Tom is on The Late Late Show in Ireland tonight at 9.35 pm on RTÉ One. He’s on with Lord of the Dance, Michael Flatley and Andrea Corr.

Tom Jones was a category on Jeopardy Thursday. If anyone has a video of the show or, even, knows the five questions, please email TJI using the contact link at bottom right. Then we can share.

The headline below was posted exactly as is here on Tom’s official website today:

TOM JONES TO PERFORM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ”PRAISE & BLAME” IN EUROPE!!!

It is posted here with no comment, except we’re happy for our friends in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. This is, no surprise, a LiveNation tour, so tickets are LiveNation priced. Interestingly, they’re saying that this album has not been performed in toto before. Is that true? Don’t think so. The photo here was shot by a fan when he performed the (allegedly) complete album in Union Chapel a few months ago. Oh, well.

The brief tour begins at the Tyrol in Stockholm November 21 and continues at Kulturbolaget in Malmo November 23, Vega in Copenhagen on November 24th and finishing at the Sentrum Scene in Oslo on November 25th.

Tickets for Malmo and Oslo are on sale now, tickets for Stockholm and Copenhagen will go on sale on Saturday October 30. Although not posted on other sites yet, you can get tickets here.

Note: OK, have to comment. What’s with all those exclamation points? They’re just so wrong. Words, not punctuation, are supposed to get people excited. And bunches of !!!! are just distracting and take away from the message. Also wrong is the complete lack of exposure this all-American album has gotten in America. Maybe I’m dumb, but I don’t understand it.

The photo at left is of Tom with Hugh Laurie who, in case you didn’t read my response to Edwin’s comment in the post below, is much more than Gregory House, MD. Tom is singing on Laurie’s new album that is set for release in Spring, 2011. In addition to being a very accomplished musician, Laurie is an accomplished actor and comic. It’s well worth looking at some of his old comedy stuff with Stephen Fry and some interviews on YouTube, He’s very funny and very smart. For a quick sample of that (1:11) check out his song to America from A Bit of Fry and Laurie, his British TV series.

On the as-yet-untitled blues record, Tom will be singing a song called Baby, Please Make a Change. Also on the album so far are David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), steel guitar aficionado Greg Liesz, and blues legends Irma Thomas and Dr. John. Good company. Famed producer Alain Touissant also worked on parts of the album in New Orleans.

On September 25, TJI posted an audio clip recorded when Tom joined Memphis piano man Jason D. Williams and Texas honky-tonker Dale Watson and his Lone Stars at the SIRIUS XM studios in NYC on September 21 with an impromptu performance of the rock & roll classic Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.

Today, on Sirius radio’s Outlaw Country hosted by Mojo Nixon (and created by “Little” Steven Van Zandt) they replayed that song and, before that, the other one Tom recorded with them that day, I’ll Sail My Ship Alone, This was written by Moon Mullican and recorded by, among others, Hank Williams (Sr.), Patsy Cline and George Jones.

You can check out the Sirius session here.

Karen Price in the October 26 Western Mail reports on a study that found Welsh schoolchildren do not know who Dylan Thomas was. In fact, a survey said, “When it comes to culture in general, Sir Tom Jones was voted by the young people as the most influential Welsh person of today. Strictly Come Dancing star Gavin Henson was runner up, with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Katherine Jenkins taking joint third place and Charlotte Church coming fifth.”

Last Friday, October 22, someone blogged that he’d just “finished strength training with Tom Jones while they shot a documentary of his life.” But he didn’t respond to questions from blog readers about which Tom Jones it is. If you hear anything, please let us know.

Finally, I found the screen shot here while (or, if you’re British, “whilst”) tooling around YouTube and rediscovered a very sweet video that — since it has more than 5 million views — you’ve probably seen. I think it’s sweet, as it goes back almost to the time Sir Tom (then, just “Tom”) was doing the Top of the Pops interview below. It’s an early one of Tom Jones singing Delilah. I just enjoyed watching it. Hope you do, too.

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.

Is there anyone who does not remember Green Green Grass of Home, the now-classic Curly Putman song Tom Jones recorded in 1966?

Tom’s recording of the song reached #1 on the UK charts and remained there for seven weeks. In the US it climbed to #11 on the Billboard pop chart and #12 on the easy listening.

Why bring this up? Well, on the drive to LA Thursday, I had my iPod on shuffle and a clip of a young Tom Jones (circa 1966) came up. He was on Top of the Pops and the discussion was about Green Green Grass of Home.

When he spoke of it being an “American song” I immediately thought of Praise and Blame and how what he said 44 years ago applies to this entire album. What do you think?

Click to hear Tom Jones in 1966 on Top of the Pops

30 Rock, the sitcom whose title is a reference to NBC Universal headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, is one of my favorite shows. It was created by and stars Tina Fey. She plays Liz Lemon, a writer and producer of a TV show. Her boss is the very conservative Jack Donaghy, the world’s #1 Ronald Reagan fan, played by Alec Baldwin. The first episode of this season, mentioned here, began with Liz reluctantly waking one morning saying, “No, no Tom Jones!”

Now, Liz is having intimacy issues with with her boyfriend Carol (played by Matt Damon, who is not seen here), and Jack thinks he can cure the problem by bringing to light the cause of her inability to respond sexually. It stems back to the “roller skating” story and we hear that as part as Liz explains to Jack why “sex makes the people go away.”

Surely, a lot of fans will remember the item in question.

I am, by the way, sorry that so many of the references are to Americans baseball players — Pete Rose, Tug McGraw (Tim’s father) and Mike Schmidt. But, you don’t need to understand those specifically to laugh. Listen carefully so you don’t miss the words about the perm and Liz’s college boyfriend. I think it’s very, very funny. What do you think? (And, yeah, it is silly.)

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.

First, in case you haven’t guessed, according to several sources, Tom Jones will not be playing the MGM Grand in November. You know, I hope my sources are wrong. Visitors to this site are aware that Sir Tom has to be in the UK in November and couldn’t possibly get away until November 18 at the earliest but the Hollywood Theater has no show listed between November 11 and December 6…..So, there’s still room for a week or two. But I’d guess we shouldn’t count on it.

Moderator’s Note: I’m sorry posts haven’t been regular or full but — finally! — I finished my book (and have been tossing around an idea for another that will be of interest to many of you). Drove to LA Thursday for a party…..lots of fun.

The only TJ news I have aside from the above is that, once again recently (sometime around Columbus Day) Tom again visited Vibrato, the Bel-Air restaurant owned by musician Herb Alpert and his family. When he was there in June (photo, right), he got onstage and sang. It’s cellphone video, but you get the point.

Be sure not to miss the video and photos in the two posts below!

Happy for our friends in The Netherlands that Tom will be doing Praise and Blame for them on November 5 in Amsterdam at the Rabozaal.

Tickets go on sale at 10.00am this Saturday 23rd October, priced at € 39,00 (excl. membership and booking fee) and are available from Ticketmaster’s Dutch outlet and at the usual outlets.

Don’t know for sure, but it says he’ll be performing Praise and Blame in its entirety so that seems to indicate the audience shouldn’t expect Sex Bomb,

It is, of course, produced by LiveNation, not the most audience-friendly promoter. Anyway, this has given TJI the idea for the question of the month and I have several days to think about how to phrase it. So, thanks for that.

Finally, again, so happy for the guys in Holland. You will be sure to tell us all about it, right?

The Late Night With David Letterman that Tom and Joaquin Phoenix were on last month will be repeated this Friday, October 22. You can watch it on your local CBS station or you can see Tom’s entire three days of Praise and Blame promos in the US in the TJI Video Library.

If you missed the terrific interview on CBS Sunday Morning posted below, be sure to check it out and comment on it below.

Still in the UK and still promoting his album there, today published Tom Jones singing in its studio in what it calls bizarre sessions. If you want to see a video of him singing Burning Hell, you can go to the story link here. Otherwise, the entire article is below with one photo and 10 photos from the paper — complete with photo credit — are in the TJI flickr set Sir Tom Plays Festivals & Special Events, as after some thought I decided this probably was a special event.

Tom Jones in exclusive session

I WAS honoured to have Welsh legend TOM JONES grace the Sun studios for a Biz Session.

His career has spanned an incredible 50 years and the basement walls are still shaking from his booming voice.

After performing rousing renditions of Run On and Burning Hell from his recent album Praise & Blame, Tom recalled the time he caught ROBBIE WILLIAMS sneaking up on him at home in LA.

In fact, he revealed he was the one who convinced Rob and wife AYDA FIELD to set up home in the swanky Mulholland Estates.

He said: “Living near Robbie is great. I distinctly remember the day he first set foot in the area. It was a great day all round.

“I had been for a health check-up and all was good. I was in my garage drinking beer and I heard this voice coming from over the fence.

“I looked round and it was Robbie. He was checking out the estate and heard I lived there so came to me for advice.

“He came in for a look and loved it. I think he was sold. My wife stayed upstairs because she was too shy to meet him.”

He continued: “Ayda is great too. They are good neighbours. They invite me round for coffee.

“Rob also tried to get me to play football with him but I can’t be bumped around like that. I am not as fast as I was.”

Despite avoiding contact sports, Tom says he’s keen to keep in shape and has no time for people who take drugs.

Tom’s good friend RICKY HATTON recently landed himself in hot water when he was allegedly filmed snorting cocaine.

Tom was saddened by the news: “I’m a huge boxing fan. He loves to eat and drink. If he’s not training he’s indulging. He hasn’t got the discipline to bring it back.

“I’ve always liked alcohol but I have never been interested in drugs. Sniffing cocaine is not attractive to me. It looks like Fagin counting his money. It looks evil and I have never ever felt the need for it.

“I know a lot of people that do drugs and they say if you do cocaine you can drink more as it keeps you up. I don’t need to drink any more than I do.

“I have never smoked pot. I stopped smoking cigarettes in the 60s. I’ll have the occasional cigar but you don’t inhale. I don’t want to do that.”

What a legend.

Praise & Blame is out now.