This video from the great, hilarious Rob Brydon’s TV show was posted on youtube by OFFICIAL Tom Jones. Thus, the totally unnecessary placement of the ad for Spirit In the Room. Honestly, if anyone watching this doesn’t know what is being promoted, then they are likely not a potential customer. That quibbling aside, it is very funny and Tom shows his terrific sense of humor about himself when all that name-dropping on The Voice is touched upon. If, for some reason, you don’t know Rob Brydon, he has got Tom’s speaking voice, speech patterns and mannerisms down better than anyone else. It is genius.You can see a bit of it here.

Spirit In The Room is #1 on the Amazon UK pop chart and #2 in all music! Nice news!

What makes the review just below especially impressive is that it appears in the online edition of The New Yorker, a magazine famous since its first publication in 1925 for it’s wit, sophistication and good taste (not to mention its cartoons by the likes of Charles Addams and Peter Arno and its stories by such as JD Salinger and — this week, too — Woody Allen). It is extra-impressive because they choose to review a record that is not being released in the USA. That is very cool.
Music Pick: Jonesing
Posted by The New Yorker

In the twilight of his career, Tom Jones, like Johnny Cash before him, is producing a series of sparse covers records that showcase his still-powerful vocals. The last time out, on “Praise and Blame,” he took a stab at songs by Bob Dylan, Billy Joe Shaver, John Lee Hooker, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. On his new record, “Spirit in the Room,” also produced by Ethan Johns, Jones has a slightly more contemporary bent, with recent compositions by Paul Simon (“Love and Blessings”), Tom Waits (“Bad As Me”), and the Low Anthem (“Charlie Darwin”), along with older songs by Leonard Cohen (“Tower of Song”) and Blind Willie Johnson (“Soul of a Man”). The vocals are heartfelt and powerful; the arrangements are unobtrusive; the results are impressive.

In the twilight of his career, Tom Jones, like Johnny Cash before him, is producing a series of sparse covers records that showcase his still-powerful vocals. The last time out, on “Praise and Blame,” he took a stab at songs by Bob Dylan, Billy Joe Shaver, John Lee Hooker, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. On his new record, “Spirit in the Room,” also produced by Ethan Johns, Jones has a slightly more contemporary bent, with recent compositions by Paul Simon (“Love and Blessings”), Tom Waits (“Bad As Me”), and the Low Anthem (“Charlie Darwin”), along with older songs by Leonard Cohen (“Tower of Song”) and Blind Willie Johnson (“Soul of a Man”). The vocals are heartfelt and powerful; the arrangements are unobtrusive; the results are impressive.

BBC boss wants Voice judges back
Contact Music

Sir Tom Jones wishes he was immortal.

The ‘Voice’ coach – who is turning 72 in June – hates getting older because it means he does not have much time left on the planet and he would love to live forever if he could.

He said: ”I’ll be 72 next month and so I suppose I’ll be lucky if I have another twenty years left. Twenty years is nothing. The last twenty years have gone like that. And that’s scary, it frightens me.

“You know, if I could have one wish granted it would be for immortality. God has given me this most wonderful life and the only thing I hate about the ageing process is that, one day, I’m not going to be able to live any more.”

However getting older has worse side-effects for Tom – he has had to stop drinking wine as it causes him to gain weight.

He added: “I do still like a drink – drinks – especially with food, but the problem is that I find wine fattening now.

“There are calories there, you see. I never had to worry about calories before. My metabolism took care of that. It doesn’t so much any more, so I’ve had to cut back.”

Tom named his favorite 13 albums (a baker’s dozen) in the article below. It is crystal clear that Tom was influenced by these musicians and has spoken of some of them (Amy Winehouse and Jerry Lee come to mind immediately) often.

Please read it and think about it. Do you know this music? What do you like?

Baker’s Dozen
“Shit, That Sounds Tremendous!” Tom Jones On His 13 Favourite Albums
Laurie Tuffrey , May 17th, 2012 05:33, The Quietus.com

With his new album, Spirit In The Room, on the way, Sir Tom Jones reflects on his favourite LPs and tells Laurie Tuffrey about his friends Elvis, Aretha and Stevie.

Big Bill Broonzy – Trouble In Mind
It was on the radio, I was just getting it, I was thinking, ‘Fuck, what is that? Who is that?’, it was so different. I would say ‘Black, Brown and White’ is my favourite song. It was played on BBC radio, and at the time – he said it himself – that he couldn’t record it in America, so I think he recorded it in France, because they said it’s too controversial. Even black friends of his said, ‘Don’t you stir up the shit here! We could get repercussions.’ But I thought he put it… He was just stating a fact. He wasn’t saying ‘you white bastards’ or ‘the whites won’t let us’, he wasn’t saying anything like that. It’s just ‘me and a man was working side by side, this is what it meant, they were paying him a dollar an hour and they were paying him 50 cents’. You know, he said, ‘If you’re white, you’re alright, if you’re brown stick around, but if you’re black, get back.’ Which I thought was tremendous.

Little Richard – Little Richard’s Greatest Hits
It’s got all the classics on it: ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’, ‘Rip It Up’. It’s tremendous, when you put that thing on: from start to finish, it’s boom all the way! First of all, I thought he was a girl, because I heard him do ‘Rip It Up’ and I’d heard Bill Haley & The Comets – they covered a lot of things where we didn’t know what the originals were at first, but then you’d hear them – sometimes in movie houses funnily enough, like in Pontypridd, between films, they would play records. Sometimes they’d play the original American ones, but that’s when I heard ‘Rip It Up’ by Little Richard. I thought, ‘Some chick has covered Billy Haley & The Comets’, but it was the original record. And then the same thing with ‘Ain’t That A Shame’ – I heard the Pat Boon version before I heard Fats Domino. We never got to them that early – there was always somebody covering them first, getting the jump on it.

It definitely made me appreciate the songs more when I first heard it, no doubt about it. Americans – they’re paranoid about the lyrics that might be a little risque. With Big Joe Turner, on his version of ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’, there’s some – ‘you’re wearing those dresses, the sun comes shining through / I can’t believe my eyes, all that mess belongs to you’ – [laughs] well, they cut that back out straightaway! Bill Haley & The Comets: ‘Wearin’ those dresses, your hair done up so nice / you look so warm, but your heart is cold as ice’ – they changed it.

For the rest of Tom’s choices and to comment, please click here to

Hank Williams – Hank Williams as Luke the Drifter
That’s when he did all talking songs. He had this pseudonym, Luke the Drifter, but I remember it for ‘Beyond The Sunset’ and every track was where he sang a little bit, but he talked a lot. The earlier ones that I heard Hank Williams doing were the classic hits that he had, ‘Cold Cold Heart’ and ‘Your Cheating Heart’. This one I came to later. I heard Hank Williams as Luke the Drifter first in America. When I first went to the States in 1965, I was finding albums in the Colony record shop, right in Manhattan.

It was the honesty of the songs – they were very well written, the lyrics, which were tremendous. That’s what I liked about it and what I still do. The ones were he talks, that’s another thing again. He went a step up there: it was great to hear him talk as well as sing. ‘I Dreamed About Mama Last Night’, that’s a great song, just about life, talking and singing.

Solomon Burke – Rock ‘n Soul
The first time I heard him was in London, it was 1964 and he had just come out with that album and I got it. It was in my manager Gordon Mills’s Notting Hill Gate flat and he just had it because they used to send him stuff – things that I might like. There was this album, so I thought “Shit! This is tremendous” and recorded a bunch of the songs on there – ‘If You Need Me’ was one of the ones on the first album. Solomon was always my favourite soul singer, more than Otis Redding, Sam and Dave or Wilson Pickett. Solomon was a step above. He was more of a singer who happened to sing blues and gospel – you could tell that he came from the church, but he sang it better. Otis Redding used to get trouble with this throat – you could hear it in him. He was struggling to get out what he did. Wilson Pickett had great feel and great drive, but there was a roughness to his voice, and Solomon could be rough or sweet when he wanted to be, he could put his voice into different areas. And his range was huge – there’s that track on it, ‘Goodbye Baby, Baby Goodbye’, he sings that in two octaves, which is tremendous. Real, very honest.

Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley
That first album, that sounds great to me. The first one we heard was ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, because I don’t think they ever released the Sun records – the RCA records came out first.

We had a great friendship – I met him in 1965 the first year I went to the States. He was doing a movie at Paramount Studios, and I was at Paramount to talk about a song for a movie and they said ‘Elvis Presley is filming here today, and he heard that you’re coming over, and he’d like to meet you.’ Like to meet me? I tell you, I didn’t even know he knew I existed. I had three singles out at the time: ‘It’s Not Unusual’, ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ and a ballad called ‘With These Hands’, and he had the three of them. He was walking towards me singing ‘With These Hands’ – [impersonates Elvis] ‘with these hands’. And then he said, ‘How do you sing like that?’ And I said, ‘It’s your fault, you were partly to blame!’ He said, ‘Well, you know, I come from Mississippi, I was born there, I was brought up with this stuff. What’s it like in Wales? Are there any black people there?’ I said, ‘Only when they come out of the coal mine! No, it’s listening to American music on the radio – that’s where I’ve got it from.’ He couldn’t believe that somebody could sing like me not being influenced first hand, like he was – the gospel thing, listening to gospel groups and blues clubs like that.

He preferred a lot of the later things that he did. I said, ‘That early stuff on Sun Records, man, I mean jeez’. He said, ‘Ah, it was very primitive – we didn’t have very good equipment and it’s a lot better now.” And I said, ‘But there’s fire there’, and he said ‘I’m glad you think so.” But he didn’t do them on stage. I said, ‘You want to open with them, open with ‘Blue Suede Shoes’.’ But no, he wouldn’t do it. Then one time, on his own special, he starts to go into some ‘Whole Lotta Shakin” and then he goes on into another, and he said, ‘We could do this all night’, so you could see he was really wanting to do it. But he wasn’t thrilled with those early recordings, he thought he made better records later on.

Charlie Rich – The Many New Sides of Charlie Rich
‘Mohair Sam’ was one of the tracks on it – I recorded it on my first album because of hearing him do it. But I liked him before that – ‘Lonely Weekends’ was the first one I heard him sing. Heard it on the radio, on the BBC – some people had condemned the BBC because they didn’t play enough of this or enough of that but at least you would get a smidgen of things coming through. I’d be getting records then from Spillers in Cardiff, but there was a shop in Pontypridd which was more local, called Freddy Feys, and I would get a lot of stuff in there. On another album later on, I did the song that was on The Many New Sides… called ‘Field of Yellow Daisies’ that his wife wrote, which I learned later – when I met him, he said “Thanks for recording that.”

Aretha Franklin – Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You
The rawness is what perked me up when I heard this first – and I’ve never forgotten that. You know, I’ve gotten a lot of her albums since, but that first one… There’s an American singer called Nancy Wilson and the tone of their voices is very similar. When they first played it, I was driving back down to London from the north of England – it came on the radio and I thought, ‘Thank God, Nancy Wilson has gone back to church.’ You know what I mean, Nancy Wilson has got more soul, because the tones of their voices are very similar. But then they said ‘this new singer, Aretha Franklin…’ so I went out and bought the record in London.

Meeting her for the first time [Franklin appeared on This Is Tom Jones], Aretha was very quiet – unbelievably quiet. I mean you’d go ‘Hello’ and she’d say ‘Hello.’ ‘How are you?’ ‘Fine thank you.’ ‘Great!’ And that’s it. And when we were doing the rehearsal, and she’d open her mouth to sing, the volume that came from this woman – how can a girl who’s so shy and quiet – all of a sudden BOOM – burst?

Jerry Lee Lewis – The Sun Years
‘Whole Lotta Shakin”, was the first time I heard him, in Pontypridd, being played from Freddy Fey’s record shop. People used to ask me, because I loved music so much, ‘What do you think of this record, what do you think of that record?’ When Elvis Presley came out, I said he can’t be the only one – a white man being influenced by black music in the South. So when ‘Whole Lotta Shakin” came out, my friends said, ‘Is that what you’re talking about?’ I said, ‘That’s exactly what I’m talking about!’ Another guy, playing piano, similar to what Elvis was doing, but even more syncopated, white and from the South. It was unbelievable to hear that record. Then ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ followed, and ‘High School Confidential’ was a great record.

When you listen to his records, he always sings up, except towards when he got older and the pressures of life got on him. In the beginning, he was always up, you know the ends of everything came up. Little Richard was pushing the shit out of everything but Jerry Lee, he had his syncopation, it was like he floated. He fell out of favour, because he married his cousin – it was a shame, he was still making great records. There’s one called ‘Loving Up A Storm’ and that’s equally good. That’s on The Sun Years, they’re all there.

I saw him live in Cardiff in 1962, and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were there and they were slick… I thought, ‘Shit, how’s Jerry Lee going to get over this?’, because they closed the first half. He came on, and instead of how Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were very aggressive, Jerry Lee was the opposite, he opened up with ‘Move On Down The Line’ and the band were like [sings] and he just walked on and was like [gestures] showing us the the chord he was going to play. He just sat down at the piano and – boom – went into it. It was like ‘Jesus Christ!’ You know, it was smooth, it was slick, it was rock & roll but he wasn’t like, screaming – he had a different take on it and yet it was rocking.

Stevie Wonder – Talking Book
Great songs. I had it on 8-track in my car. I heard ‘Fingertips’ first, and I thought “Shit! Who’s playing harmonica on that for a start off?” So those Motown records were happy records, great for dancing and parties and things. But then it got deeper, more personal, which is why I picked that record. I think people should try things and if you have something to say, something in you, then do it. That can happen in different times of your life, and I think for him, he had that to prove – you know he had done the jolly records, and wanted to get deep. And he did.

Favourite song would be ‘Blame It On The Sun’. It was different, “but my heart blames it on me” – blame it on this, blame it on that, but at the end of that day, my heart blames it on me. I love clever lyrics… and its a simple story but the way he put it together was very clever.

Bill Withers – Just As I Am
I heard this on the radio in the States, and I loved the songwriting. He was coming up with something different, it was a soulful folk, so I went and bought the album in LA, I thought “I gotta hear what this guy does” and every bloody track on it is a gem.

I’ve always loved the sound of an album, maybe as much as the songs themselves, you know the performance, the sound of it makes a big difference to me. And now you know you can get box sets with alternate takes, and you realise then how long it took them sometimes to get the final take. The first time they did it was good, but then all of a sudden – boom – and there it is. I think there’s a good learning process to listen to the ones they didn’t let go, where the producers said “not yet”, and they persevered until… there it is.

When I’ve been in a club sometimes, I’ve gotten up [on stage] and they’ve been like, “Do ‘Delilah’!”, and I’ve said “Let me just do this, which I don’t normally do”. So it is, because when you’ve made big records – great onstage, the way you do your own show – but it’s great to do other stuff when you don’t have to do those things. Not that I don’t like them, you know ‘Delilah’’s a great record, but its nice to do other things. So when you hear someone like Bill Withers doing something like that and being successful, you think, “See, there’s room for that.” There’s room for all different kinds of records. They don’t all have to be the same, or in the same vein, or chasing some things just to get a hit record.

Keb’ Mo – Keb’ Mo‘
I was at my son’s house in Henley, we were having dinner. Mark likes to play me things that he knows I’ll like. So he didn’t say anything, he just put it on. We were having dinner, and I hear ‘Am I Wrong’ and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’ He said, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘What you’re playing there!’ ‘Oh, a guy called Keb’ Mo’.’ So I said, ‘Turn it up!’ It’s tremendous. [sings ‘Am I Wrong'] You just think, Jesus! Something that I haven’t heard before, that first initial thing, is always the most exciting to me. I’ve heard him do other things since, but that, ‘Am I Wrong’… great. When I’ve listened to him singing, there’s a similarity in our vocal tone and syncopation. When I was playing it in my house, funnily enough, back in LA – I play guitar, nowhere near as good as he does, but a few chords – so I’m playing it downstairs and my wife was up in the bedroom, and I said ‘did you hear that thing I was playing?’ She said ‘you got your guitar out, right? It was you?’ I said ‘it’s not me’. She said ‘I heard you get your guitar out and start singing’, I said ‘no, it’s not, it’s a guy called Keb’ Mo”. And she thought that it was me, and I thought, ‘wow, that’s great, that she thinks I can play as well as him’.

Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
When she did the video of ‘Rehab’, I thought ‘Jesus, what is that?’ – again, that initial thing… I thought, ‘shit, she sounds tremendous, who is this kid?’ And it looked great, and the arrangement was great and the whole package was great, and I had to get the album. So I got the CD and it just got better and better. You hear her getting into the ballad, ‘Love Is A Losing Game’ – that’s like a standard, that comes from a jazz standard, something one of the old jazzers would have done, that’s how good that is. She nails the shit out if it. The whole album is tremendous, and it’s just a shame – making an album like that and then nothing.

The band I take on the road with me is the same brass section that she used to use. So when she died, we were in France and I saw it on BBC news, and I came down to the bar that night and I said ‘my God, how did that happen? She must have thought she was indestructible’, and they said the opposite – she had loved living on the edge apparently, it was that thing of danger, that’s what they felt. I wish I’d met her and had a chance to sing with her because she had a lot to offer, and she had a great spirit and what she sang was tremendous. I would have loved to duet. When you record something was somebody, it lasts forever, and if you haven’t, it’s a shame.

It’s a shame that it [drug addiction] happened to her so early. With Whitney Houston, she’s left a wealth of material to listen to, but Amy Winehouse, I know she did an album before that, but Back To Black is tremendous, you just think ‘shit!’ Just waiting for the next, and now there is no next and it’s a bloody shame. The drug thing, it never appealed to me. Sniffing cocaine, I know what it does. For singers, it’s death – it gets on your vocal chords, it’s bad news. Burns your bloody nose out. I’ve never taken any drugs. The only thing I took was at the beginning, purple hearts, because I was doing so many shows and I was getting tired. I think it was Viv Prince, who used to be a drummer with The Pretty Things, who said, ‘try one of these, that’ll keep you awake’, but then I realised you couldn’t go to sleep! So that was a short-lived thing. And I’ll take a sleeping pill when I’ve got to go to sleep and I know I need to get up, but mild ones, nothing heavy, because I don’t want anything to get in the way of what I do. And when I’ve gone a little too far drinking and I think ‘oh shit, I’ve got to get up tomorrow’, then you see it, and you think ‘you fucking idiot! You stretched it too far last night’. So you do that enough times and you learn, but some people don’t learn.

Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up
I saw him on the Jay Leno show, and I thought ‘wow, this is a good band’. It was like the Kings of Leon, southern rock, and he came on with that thing and I thought ‘I wonder where this kid’s from, he must be from the South somewhere’. And then when Jay Leno says ‘that was great’, Paolo says [adopts Scottish accent] ‘thank you very much’, and I thought ‘he’s fucking Scottish!’ So it’s great, but the album he did as well, that’s great. I play that – there’s so many great things on there. Again, it’s fresh, it’s different from other things, so I hope he can come up with more, because he writes as well. And Ethan John [Jones's producer for Spirit In The Room] produced the album, which I didn’t know, when I heard the album. There’s a jazz band thing, a traditional jazz band thing. ‘Simple Things In Life’, I like that, about going round to his mother’s for tea, it’s great. He paints a picture, you can see him do it.

JUST ADDED!!! PLEASE CLICK TO SEE A 2-MINUTE, 37-SECOND PREVIEW OF TOM IN KING OF THE TEDS. (Thanks, Garrett!)

Breaking news (with updates): According to The Mirror, all four Voice UK coaches have signed for a second season. Update #1: The exact quote from Tom is: “I’m really loving it, it’s been great fun. The BBC has already asked me to come back for the next series and I’ve said ‘yes’ – we have already begun discussions.

“They are on-going but I would very much like to do it again. They’re happy with the judges as we are, and it looks like all of us will be back, even Will.”

Don’t be surprised if the news is picked up by several outlets and, at first, denied by OFFICIAL Tom Jones. History has revealed this is a pattern. Tom said yes, he wants to do it. So it’s almost certain he will (unless someone decides the money isn’t enough). If they acknowledge it as fact right away, it’d be terrific. Anyway, congratulations, Sir Tom!

UPDATE #2 TO BREAKING NEWS NOTE ABOVE: @REALSIRTOMJONES, Tom’s twitter feed, says Wednesday, May 2: “Hey – re MIRROR article today – complete BS – all of this…no matter what the ‘fansites’ say. Cheers all x” Again, the oft-demonstrated need to be first with everything is in play here. As noted above, this is a pattern. Also as noted, if it’s true that he’s resigned to The Voice UK that means another success for him and that’s terrific news. Again, “congratulations, Sir Tom!” What it also means is that Tom’s management — that is absolutely not Sir Tom Jones himself tweeting! — reads TJI.com. But, really, “BS”? Nice.

And, by the way, they wrote “‘fansite’” on Twitter in reference to TJI as if this weren’t a fansite. Well, www.tomjonesintl.com IS a fansite — here to give voice to the fan community, whether that voice is, in the opinion of Management positive or negative. It is, as you all know, the fans who gave/give Sir Tom his career. (Although as is clear below, that Gordon Mills got it all going and, one must say, Mark Woodward revitalized it at one point. They, too, get credit for what they did. And, part of what they did was get the fans to notice and, when fans notice, they’re the ones who buy tickets and recordings.)

Please don’t forget episodes 7 and 8 of The Voice UK in the post below. And, please, take time to read this entire post, watch the documentary and answer the Question of the Month! I know this is a long post, but please give the time to your answer!

Because Gordon Mills brought Tom to prominence and because last night (May 1) on BBC Wales there was a short documentary about Mills (embedded below) he is the topic this month:

The TJI Question of the Month for May is in two parts:

(1) Did you ever meet or did you know Gordon Mills? If so, please share share your story.

(2) What do you think the career of Tom Woodward would have been if he had not met Gordon Mills?

Published Saturday, April 28, 2012 in Wales Online:

He was the man behind Tom Jones’ worldwide success and worth an estimated £50m. But, writes Nathan Bevan, a new documentary will show how the same gambling streak that brought Gordon Mills huge success also brought his music empire crashing down

WHEN collecting eggs as a boy, Gordon Mills’ father would warn him against being greedy.

“Only take one from each nest,” he’d say. “That way its parents won’t notice.”

One day though Mills found a heavily stocked bed of twigs, moss and feathers and emptied it of all its contents, resulting in him being swooped upon and attacked by the distraught mother bird.

“He was completely broken up by that,” recalls Juliette Terry, one of Mills’ four daughters, in a new BBC One Wales documentary about the Tonypandy lad made good. “That incident really changed him.”

Although watching further reveals how in going from rags to riches and back again – leaving the Valleys to become a multimillionaire music manager and producer behind some of the world’s biggest talents, only to lose it all in messy legal wrangles and neon-lit Las Vegas’ gambling joints – the temptation to take too much and leave too little never fully left Mills.

“I met Gordon at a 21st birthday party, he arrived with Engelbert Humperdinck, who was still Jerry
Dorsey at the time,” recalls his widow Jo Mills.

“There was just something about him, you just felt he was very sure about his life – we were soon engaged and got married in London.”

Mills himself was also quick to reveal in various vintage television interviews that he had an innate drive and determination to succeed that put him ahead of others.

“I would look at a nice car and think, ‘I’d like that car’, not because I was jealous of the man driving it or wonder why he should have it and not me,” he once admitted.

“Same with a house – if I saw a beautiful place in the country in some magazine it would stay at the back of my mind because I always knew I wanted my own little place in the sun, as rosy as I could make it.”

And that chance finally presented itself when he came across Tommy Scott (AKA Tom Jones) and The Senators on the South Wales working men’s club circuit, Mills realising half way through the band’s opening number to a packed house that it was the greatest thing he’d ever seen.

For the rest of this article, to new photos and to answer the Question of the Month, please click here to

But, despite playing it cool in front of Jones, he knew he’d found the man who would help him make his fortune and could barely contain himself on the car ride back to London.

“Suddenly Gordon pulled the car over and said, ‘I’ve got to do something here’,” smiles Jo. “The rest of the drive was us excitedly making plans about bringing Tom to London, wonderful.”
Despite early success in the ’50s as singer with The Viscounts, Mills had seen in Jones something he didn’t have, although he claims to have had no intention of managing him, only of getting his voice heard by a wider audience.

Not that many outside of South Wales seemed that intent on listening, as Jones, with his broken teeth and labourer’s build, proved a turn-off to the female fans and there were countless fruitless auditions and months spent eking out an existence on the breadline before success came in the form of a song Mills had co-penned.

“It’s Not Unusual changed life dramatically for us all, no one could move for reporters gathering at the door at all hours,” says Jo, she and Mills moving from their small bungalow in Bayswater to a huge sprawling mansion in a gated Surrey community they christened Little Rhondda.

Tom Jones attends the South Bank Sky Arts Awards at Dorchester Hotel on May 1, 2012 in London, England. Photo: Ian Gavan/Getty Images Europe

“We were like one big family – us, Tom, his wife Linda, Engelbert,” she adds, the situation helping Mills keep a close eye on his other bit of hot property, namely Jones – telling him
what to wear, what to say and what not to say like a true Svengali, or the Simon
Cowell of his day.

Mills was in control of everything, choosing the songs, the arrangements and even producing the recordings from the early ’70s onwards – and Jones was happy to be controlled.

Attempts to make it big in the States saw Jones win the attention of Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, his subsequent patronage meaning the Welshman would never play to any empty seat on the Sunset Strip.

However, the inherent gambling streak which had got Mills this far in the industry would prove his undoing when it came to Sin City’s miles of casino craps tables.

“He’d never know when to fold and Gordon lost a lot of money over successive months and years,” says Chris Hutchins, Jones’ former PR man, of Mills’ reported racking up of millions in debts.

“Gambling was both his weakness and part of his spirit of adventure.”

By the late ’80s, however, Mills’ marriage was over, Jones’ hits had dried up and both Humperdinck and his other big client, Gilbert O’Sullivan, were suing him, the latter successfully
for a seven-figure sum.

On top of it all he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and died just days after
being admitted to hospital.

“On the day of the funeral I walked with Tom around Little Rhondda because he wanted to find a specific rose to put on dad’s grave,” says Mills’ eldest daughter Tracey. “And I remember pulling out of the driveway when this beam of light came through the car between us and we just sat there looking at each other. “It was a strange experience, like he was sending us a sign or something,”
she smiles.

For four other photos taken June 1 of Tom at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, please visit the TJI.com flickr set Pap Shots: The Paparazzi Capture Tom.

On episode 7 of The Voice UK the coaches (Jessie J. has changed her hair) sing U2′s Beautiful Day. (Remember when TJI posted U2′s Bono sings a snippet of Sugar Daddy? On episode 8, Sir Tom himself has to send one of his team members home.

For people who get BBC Wales: On Tuesday, May 1, a documentary about Gordon Mills will be broadcast at 10:35 pm on the show They Sold A Million. TJI will have that for you.

And, on Thursday, at 9 pm, SkyArts 1 will show King of the Teds, the half-hour teleplay in which Tom appears.

In Wales Online Nathan Bevan interviewed playwright Jim Cartwright (are names destiny?) for the April 28 edition:

Jim Cartwright on how Tom Jones went from Sex Bomb to depressed ex-Teddy Boy

He’s been one of the most famous singers in the world for the last 40 years – so why, at 71, has Sir Tom Jones decided to try his hand at acting? Nathan Bevan talks to the hit playwright responsible for recasting Wales’ Sex Bomb as a depressed former Teddy Boy

All you see of him at first is the crown of grey hair poking out from above the copy of The Racing Post he’s hiding behind to escape his wife’s nagging.

But when that voice comes, with a rumbling Valleys burr – exasperated, pleading, “What are you going on about now, woman?” – the penny suddenly drops and you realise it’s the same one that’s thrilled music fans all around the world for the past four decades or more.

So begins the opening scene to King Of The Teds, in which Sir Tom Jones makes his much-publicised first foray into acting – aside from his self-lampooning turn in the 1996 Tim Burton B-movie homage, Mars Attacks! – alongside the Oscar-nominated likes of Brenda Blethyn and Gavin & Stacey’s Alison Steadman.

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Sir Tom with Alison Steadman in King of the Teds.

And when she does, Jones’ one-time leader of the local Teddy Boys, now reduced to moping around his run-down terraced house in a dowdy cardigan, must confront some long-buried feelings about whether he ended up marrying the wrong woman all those years ago.

“I remember as a young kid sitting in our council house watching Tom Jones on the telly with my older sister who was a fan,” says playwright and King Of The Teds director Jim Cartwright, who specifically penned the lead role of Ronald with Jones in mind.

“If I’d have turned to her then and said, ‘One day I’ll be working with him’ she’d have no doubt laughed her head off and clipped me round the ear!”

And like the Lancastrian’s best-known previous work like The Rise And Fall Of LittleVoice (which was made into a movie starring Michael Caine) this new one-act comedy drama for the Playhouse Presents season on Sky Arts ploughs a similar frustrated working class furrow – perhaps even tipping a wink to some parallel universe in which Jones’ star hadn’t ignited and he’d ended up swapping working in a Pontypridd glove factory for a bottle-making business up North.

“I’m a big Tom Jones fan, along with everyone else in the world as far as I can make out, and the character of an embittered and depressed ex-factory worker is, of course, a long way from who he is, but to watch him embrace him and become him was something special to see,” says Cartwright, adding he wasn’t concerned about the singer being an unknown commodity on the thespian front.

“Although we didn’t know what his acting ability would be, it never felt like a gamble in any way, no.

“I instinctively knew that someone who had performed such dramatic songs as Delilah in such a real and moving way would be able to do it.

“But it was still an incredible moment when the call came through saying Tom had agreed to do it, not to mention the rest of the cast coming on board too.”

And despite thinking he’d managed to write the script relatively quickly, Cartwright was doubly amazed at how effortlessly the filming seemed to come together.

“Yes, the process was all very fast and I think you’ll probably gasp when you hear that we only had one-and-a-half days of rehearsal and then four days to film it all,” he says.

“It’s one thing never having acted before and being given lots of time, coaching and as many takes as you need to get it right, but it’s quite another to be thrown in at the deep end on something like this.

“It was testament to Tom’s professionalism and pure talent that he took it all in his stride,” adds Cartwright.

“I knew as soon as we were in the costume fitting that everything would be all right as he instinctively sought out the oldest, most used-looking cardy for Ron to wear.

“There was no ego or vanity involved, it was just, ‘What would this character choose to put on’?”

Indeed, Cartwright freely admits to being very impressed by the Welshman’s down-to-earth nature on set.

“Tom has a great power and soul to him, meaning that anything he creates is going to have a real depth and truth to it,” he says.

“There is no grandeur about him either, no pulling rank. In fact, I often had to remind myself, ‘I’m working with a global superstar here!’

“And, apart from being so professional and focused, he is also great fun – one of my favourite things to do was put my head around the door of the little room that the actors rested in between takes.

“It was always so full of laughter and life and I loved listening to Tom, Brenda and Alison telling each other tales, absolutely priceless.”

And the sentiment is shared by executive producer Sandi Toksvig, who came up with the idea of the Playhouse Presents series as a homage to the golden age of TV drama when shows like Armchair Theatre and Play For Today were a regular fixture. Although the Copenhagen-born writer, broadcaster and comedian manages to convey her feelings about the septuagenarian Sex Bomb rather more succinctly.

“Tom was a charm bucket,” she laughs. “He’d be sat on the catering bus with everyone else, tucking into his cottage pie and having a laugh during breaks. It was quite a thing watching him walking up the nearby lane on the way to the set each morning in his wellies, I can tell you.”

Sartorially speaking, it was certainly a world away from how he appeared during their first meeting about the project.

“I’d arranged to meet him at The Savoy in London for lunch, but it turns out 1pm is a little early for Mr Jones,” says Toksvig.

“So I sat with his son and his daughter-in-law for a while before going up and knocking on the door of his suite, upon which Tom materialised wearing the shortest shower robe I’d ever seen and went, ‘Hello Sandi’ in that deep, gravelly voice of his.

“So deep was it and so Welsh that it almost sounded like someone else doing a Tom Jones impression,” she laughs.

Toksvig adds that Jones, who hadn’t even seen a script at that point, only had one concern about branching out into the world of drama for the first time ever.

“He just wanted to be looked after, I think, acting being something that was completely new to him,” she says.

“The great thing about him is, even after all this time in the business, he’s not one to rest on his laurels and is totally open to trying new things and pushing himself.

“And I honestly believe most people will be genuinely surprised by just how well he pulls it off, you almost see him disappear behind that frumpy cardie.”

And, of all the 12 weekly plays featured in the series – which also draw on such similarly starry names as Emma Thompson, David Tennant, Stephen Fry and Richard E Grant – Toksvig says working with Jones was the experience she’ll remember the most.

“I’ve met a lot of famous people in my time, but I have to say that Tom was one of the most humble,” she smiles.

“Through the whole process there was absolutely no sign of any ego, no airs and graces – he was just a really grounded bloke, which is quite unbelievable when you consider the kind of life he must have had.

“We encouraged all our writers to think big about who they wanted to bring their work to life on screen, so while Jim wrote (King of the)Teds with Tom in mind I doubt any of us genuinely thought for a minute we’d actually get him.

“Looking back on it now though I’d struggle to think of how anyone else could have done a better job,” says Toksvig.

It’s always sad to report something like this:
Lorraine Giordano, a long-time fan of Tom’s from New York, passed away Thursday. She was a dear friend of Mary Muratore’s and they went to lots of shows in lots of places together.

Matt and Sueleen, 34, Canterbury: This couple dreams of appearing on Jools Holland — a step up compared to their gigging in the local pub.

Tom: “I thought they were brilliant. I love their harmony — they complement one another.”

Sam Buttery, 20, London: While some might have groaned at hearing another Adele cover, Tom heard something special in Sam’s version. Watch out for the big quiff and big glasses as battle commences.

Tom: “There were a few notes in there that I thought sounded like me — sounded like me in my head anyway! I think he’s got a great voice.”

Leanne Mitchell, 28, Lowestoft: Leanne almost had a record contract when she was just 15 and, 13 years down the line, she’s ready to aim for the big time once again. She plays piano and the organ, and writes her own music.

Tom: “I listened to the tone of her voice and liked the lower register. When she started, I thought she had a lot of timbre in her voice — very appealing for me.”

Ruth Brown, 20, London: This shy girl is completely transformed when she takes centre stage. It’s a wonder she finds the breath for those fantastic long notes.

Tom: “She’s a great singer, that’s why I hit the button. I really wanted her on my team.”

Adam Isaac, 29, Exeter: Adam is a very cool customer, having played regularly in the South West for ten years. He’s already released an EP, but this boy wants more…

Tom: “I’ve sung with a lot of people and I’ve recorded a lot of different kinds of songs — I needed somebody with a strong voice who can sing and play like that.

For a funny video and the latest on what Tom allegedly said about Britain’s Got Talent and for some nonsense about Tom vs. Will. i. am, please click here to

So you can get an idea of what Tom means by “dancing dogs,” here’s a video someone sent me a few months ago because it’s funny. It’s from Britain’s Got Talent in 2008. Silly, yes, funny, yes and it does require some degree of talent. (The woman on the panel is Amanda Holden, that person who was so rude about Tom’s age a few weeks ago.)

‘The Voice”s Tom Jones on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’: ‘I’d rather judge singers than dancing dogs’

Welsh crooner takes a dig at Simon Cowell’s show ahead of live finals this weekend (April 29)

The Voice judge Tom Jones has taken a dig at Britain’s Got Talent as the ratings battle between the Saturday night light entertainment shows intensifies.

Speaking to NME, the Welsh crooner said he’d “rather judge singers than dancing dogs” ahead of the first of the live finals for the BBC 1 talent show this weekend.

He commented: “I’m better qualified. I’ve been a singer. I’ve never been a dancing dog.”

Jones added that he was pleased that The Voice was a “very honest show” and hoped that the contestants on the programme didn’t get shaken by performing live in front of millions this weekend.

The show, which also features Jessie J, will.i.am and The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue as judges, broke the record for the most requested shows on the BBC’s iPlayer service earlier this week. It sees aspiring singers attempt to impress the panel – who are initially only listening rather than watching their performance.

Although The Voice initially suffered in the ratings, it has now forced Simon Cowell to move his reality behemoth Britain’s Got Talent back by half an hour to avoid clashing with the end of the show.

Lana Del Rey is reportedly booked to sing on this Sunday’s edition of The Voice, with Emelie Sande set to follow on May 6.

Britain’s Got Talent, meanwhile, has made ‘stars’ of a succession of dancing dog acts in recent years.

On the other hand, the articles say Tom has given the team his “private email address.”

That is most interesting because Tom Jones does not use a computer. So, they’ve probably been given his office email. This goes in the category of “anything for publicity.” Now that The Voice UK vs. Britain’s Got Talent has gotten old, some jerk is trying to make it Tom vs. Will. i. am. Hope her doesn’t engage as he did with the BGT nonsense.

This is amazing! This third cut from Spirit In the Room (SITR), this is Tower of Song, written by Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes (you know her from her duets on Up Where We Belong with Joe Cocker from the 1982 film, An Officer and a Gentleman) and (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, her duet with Bill Medley from Dirty Dancing.) Tower of Song was recorded by Cohen in 1988. It’s just the perfect choice for Tom, as was Ethan Johns to produce it. What do you think?

In the Tuesday, April 24 edition of The Telegraphis a story quoting Tom saying something that is interesting and, I think, appalling. And, I believe, very wrong.

First, the small stuff: If he wanted to stop dying his hair, he simply should have done it. It’s too bad if he regrets it.

Second, the important stuff: He says that he stopped playing Las Vegas because “he was sad to have given up his annual stint singing in Las Vegas last year but that he had been ”flogging a dead horse” and was ”taken for granted” because he had been there for so long.”

Come on. Raise your hand if you think this is true — if you believe that Tom was “flogging a dead horse” because he played here so for so long and was “taken for granted” in Las Vegas.

I don’t know who told him that but it is absolutely not true. The last time Tom was here, in August 2010, he sold out about nine of 14 shows. When he wasn’t sold out, there were, maybe, 50 seats available. Bear in mind that Tom and all the entertainment in Las Vegas had a rough patch in 2008 and ’09. But he did very well by in 2010. And reliable sources told me he is very welcome to return. Let’s face it: Fans came to Las Vegas from, literally, around the world — all across the USA and Canada, Mexico, South America, Australia, Europe and Asia — to see him. Those trips cost a lot of hard-earned money, plus more than $92 for each ticket and many of them see him every night for five, seven or 10 nights. No one I ever met took him for granted. The fans who come to see him spend most of their money in the hotel where Tom is playing. Some are here for several days and never leave the hotel grounds. They dine, drink and gamble wherever Tom is playing. Those are the guests hotels love to have.

So, his statement about the dead horse leads me to believe that somehow, for some reason, someone is not being honest with Sir Tom and that, perhaps, this is an attempt to deal with the attention his absence from North America — particularly Las Vegas — has gotten in the British press.

A response from him or his people is certainly in order and long, long overdue but this is just sad, I think.

To read the article — and be sure to share your opinion after you’ve read it! — please click here

Photo: Rex Features

The Voice star, 71, surprised fans three years ago when he finally stopped colouring his trademark thick, curly locks.

He told the Radio Times magazine: ”To each his own. It’s not for me to tell others what to do. But you can’t get to a certain age and have black hair. If some can, bless ‘em.”

The Sex Bomb singer revealed: ”Every Christmas I’d take two months off and never dye my hair. And when I started a new tour, I’d look and think, ‘It’s not white enough, a bit patchy’, so I’d dye it again.

“It must have looked pretty obvious. I should have let it go five years earlier.”

Sir Tom told the magazine: ”Getting older is great. I look forward to birthdays. It’s very sad if you moan that ‘it’s not like the old days’.

“I know entertainers who do that, and claim the music isn’t so good. Bulls***.”

The Welsh star, a coach on hit BBC1 talent show The Voice, said that he had still not ”got to the bottom of” an email leaked from his record company which described his 2010 album Praise And Blame as a ”sick joke”.

“I said I hoped it wasn’t a publicity stunt because it would backfire,” he said.

“No-one will ‘fess up. It was said by an accountant, apparently. They had to cool me down.

”I have a temper that frightens me. When I was younger I got into fights. Now I’m older, I can’t get into any bother… Now if I explode, I’m the one who’s going to die. I’m an old man.”

Sir Tom said he was sad to have given up his annual stint singing in Las Vegas last year but that he had been ”flogging a dead horse” and was ”taken for granted” because he had been there for so long.

”My voice is as strong as ever. Hopefully, when it’s not, I’ll stop. It can’t be far away, but I hope it’s a long way off,” he said.

In addition, I was also criticized for posting news about other people on TJI.com. For example, I am sure the fact I am writing right now that Engelbert’s new single — Love Will Set You Free — is the #1 single on Amazon.UK, will be offensive to these people — actually, to one person, Melvyn Chircop and his many noms-de-plume, among them, Bob Green (and I have the email from Melvyn informing me that they are the same person).

Among other issues, Melvyn apparently is upset that the Welsh press didn’t bother to speak to him, a Welshman. I will not apologize for either talking to the press, for telling the truth (which, like love, will set you free) or for liking other singers. He was apparently horrified that I dared to mention Elvis, Jerry Lee, Engelbert and some others on TJI. When I told him that even his idol Tom Jones likes lots of entertainers he banished me from his Facebook pages. I shall endeavor to ignore this person and others his ilk. Not worth it. This — Melvyn Chircop/Bob Green — is the kind of fan who gives fans a bad name and who, out of jealousy, will trash another fan.

Melvyn/Bob Green has two groups on Facebook — The New Tom Jones Appreciation Society and “FOR THE FAN,S OF SIR TOM JONES.” (That way of writing “FAN,S” is not a typo. That’s how he wrote it.) Then, he wrote under his fake name pretending to be his own friend (that’s kind of sad in itself, isn’t it?) and, as Bob, asked fans to write to Management to get Melvyn (himself) a meeting with Tom. Hopefully, no one did as he requested. His groups are made up in large part of people whom he — without asking — signed up from other fan groups/fan sites. I apologize to anyone who got roped in via TJI and, as so many have already done, encourage you to leave these groups. To do so, just go to the top right of the group page and, just to the right of the “notifications” drop-down menu, click on the little thing that looks like an asterisk (*) and a menu will drop down. Just choose “Leave Group.”

Odetta and Tom Waits

Tom Waits is a multi-talented musician — singer, composer, actor — with a very distinctive voice, both literally and in what he writes. Here’s a few seconds of Tom Jones singing his cover of Tom Waits’ song, Bad As Me.

IN THE NEWS: Mark Smith in the Pontypridd Observer wrote of Sir Tom’s inclusion on a portrait bench in his hometown (which, apparently, “looks the same”) and of some controversy about it:

TREFOREST legend Tom Jones will forever be stood on the green, green grass of home after plans to resurrect a decorative bench in his honour were given the go-ahead.

Residents in the town voted the Welsh crooner to feature on a new piece of artwork to mark a new walking and cycling route between Treforest and Tonteg.

A life-size steel portrait of Sir Tom, known as The Voice, will be officially opened during Bike Week in June.

John Hughes MBE, the owner and founder of the World of Groggs, has also been chosen to feature on the bench, as has Pontypridd’s James James, composer of the Welsh National Anthem.

Children of St Michael’s RC Primary School picked James, who also has a statue dedicated to him at Ynysangharad War Memorial Park.

Rachel Lister, Sustrans Cymru project manager for the scheme, said: “Featuring local people on the portrait bench is a great way to make this artwork, and the walking and cycling route, unique to Treforest.

“It should reinforce how much there is to celebrate about this beautiful area of Wales and be here for people to enjoy for many years to come.”

Nigel Brinn, service director for highways, transportation and strategic projects at Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, said: “The new walking and cycling route will be a fantastic asset for the community of Treforest and beyond, offering a beautiful, relaxing way for them to spend time outdoors and enjoy activity.

“It is an important and valuable project from both a transport and recreational perspective.”

But the cycle route, part of a national project from Sustrans, has not been without its setbacks.

A pathway between Tonteg and the University of Glamorgan campus in Treforest is close to completion.

But because an application for village green status was submitted along the second part of the route, plans to create a footbridge linking the railway line to the Taff Trail had to be put on hold.

The move angered local councillor John Bell, who said the new road would be more dangerous for cyclists as it ran alongside a busy road.

He said: “This application for a village green is standing in the way of the future for Treforest.

“I’m not totally against the application – once the bridge is built then they can apply for it.

“The plans were already in place for the bridge, which had £650,000 lottery funding, but now that’s been stopped in its tracks.”

In response, Sustrans say they are looking into plans to create a 20mph speed limit along the new route to the Taff Trail.

The bench project received funding through the Valleys Regional Parks initiative via the European Regional Development Fund, as well as the Regional Transport Grant from Sewta, both through the Welsh Government.

The Treforest Community Route will provide a walking and cycling link between the Church Village Community Route at Tonteg and Llantwit Road in Treforest and is due to be officially opened during Bike Week in June 2012.

On Sunday, April 8, 2012, Nathan Bevan wrote an article in Wales On Sunday. Because of Easter and a bank holiday it didn’t get posted online, but it is below. (Please note the clever turn of phrase — “vinyl” straw — and the fact that Bevan clearly recognized TJI.com’s articulate fan community by quoting the outstanding comments of Joe and Stewart.) Note, too, the not unusual, but nonetheless sad, last line of the story:

HE HASN’T toured there properly in years and recently vacated his decades long residency in Las Vegas.

But for American fans of Sir Tom Jones the decision not to release his latest album Stateside has proved the vinyl straw.

Indeed, some supporters of the Pontypridd-born legend have been voicing their fears over the internet that the no-show of his new CD, Spirit In The Room, represents the legendary singer turning his back on his loyal US followers.

“It may a sound silly but I have an 81-year-old friend, a lifelong listener of Tom’s, who was in tears on the phone to me the other day because she’s probably never going to see him play live here again,” said Ellen Sterling, the Vegas-based journalist behind the online US website dedicated to the star, www.tomjonesintl.com

“Other than a handful of shows he did in early 2011 to promote Praise And Blame, Tom’s gigged here less and less in recent years – so this new album not getting a US release means it’s extremely unlikely any live dates will be scheduled either.”

Ironically, the album – Jones’ second since his reinvention as a grey-haired belter of old blues standards – will be emerging in the UK next month at a time when the singer’s profile has never been higher, courtesy of his appearances on BBC One’s hit Saturday talent show The Voice, a credibility boosting team-up with White Stripes star Jack White and his much-hyped foray into acting in the impending Sky Arts drama The King Of The Teds.

Yet across the Atlantic things couldn’t be more different.

“People are angry, hurt and increasingly feel like giving up on Tom,” added Sterling. “It’s odd because, aside from one Paul McCartney tune, every song on the new record is a cover of a US artist, so its non-release here seems to suggest that someone’s made the decision that Tom Jones is completely irrelevant outside of Europe.”

And she’s far from alone in voicing her disappointment, with plenty of others flooding her site to register their opinions.

One subscriber called Susan posted: “They have thrown out the fans that supported Tom when no one else did, when he was just a tabloid joke in England. Why is this happening?”

Another, Joe Murray, wrote that US fans had “supported him in both good times and bad” and called on him to override any decisions and return to the other side of “The Pond”.

And a contributor called Stewart added: “It is so unfortunate that the person who is arguably the best pop singe who has ever lived has been reduced to second rate status in the US.

“Celebrities like Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow and Tony Bennett have all done albums of old standards in the past few years and those have all gone to the top of the charts.

“Tom, by comparison, releases Praise & Blame and it barely cracks the top 100 before disappearing completely in the space of a fortnight.

“It’s beyond frustrating – it’s pathetic,” he added.

Sir Tom’s management were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

Please take a few minutes to read my column about Mike Tyson. It’s a Tyson you never thought existed. Guaranteed!

Sir Tom was mentioned nicely in an article about Jack White in The New York Times on Thursday, April 5 by Josh Eells, who is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal. In the article, White talked about Tom and unveiled something I didn’t know about Tom’s career. See if you do:

“…White played a song he recently produced for Tom Jones. ‘Seventy-one years old, and he just came in and murdered it,” White said. Then he told a story about the time he was in Transylvania, filming the movie Cold Mountain (he played a minstrel). Every morning on his way to the set, the driver would be listening to Tom Jones. Later he went to a local record store, and there were something like 60 Tom Jones records. No one could explain what the deal was, so White asked Jones about it. It turned out that everyone in Transylvania thought Tom Jones was a Gypsy. He insisted that he wasn’t, but they still didn’t believe him.

“‘What an incredible story,’ White marveled, no doubt jealous of a narrative that brought together slippery notions of identity, misleading your audience, dubious Romanians. ‘They really thought he was a Gypsy, and he was hiding it. He didn’t think that was the answer, but it seemed to me like it was the answer. Even if it wasn’t,’ he said, ‘I’d make it that.’”

Kelly jones

(from left) Gordon Mills, Tom Jones, Tom Woodward, John Moran at Ballys in Las Vegas.

Stereophonics rocker Kelly Jones has revealed that he passed up the chance to be Sir Tom Jones’ co-judge on TV talent show The Voice…

The Cwmaman singer, who plays the annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity bash at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday alongside Paul Weller and Paul McCartney, has revealed he was approached to occupy one of the four hot seats on the show last year.

“They called me in for a meeting and I most went along out of curiosity because I knew they’d already confirmed Tom’s involvement, as well as Will.i.am and Jesse J – so, had I said yes I’d probably have been sitting where that the singer from The Script is now,” said the 37-year-old dad-of-two.

“They actually asked me to go in for a second meeting but I just backed away after that because I think the show goes on for about 11 to 12 weeks and that was just too much to commit to.

“It was being pitched as being different to other talent shows on telly – but really, how much different can it be? Besides, I’m not really sure I’d want to judge other people on their singing anyway, although I think it’ll be a great gig for a bloke with as much hard-earned experience as Tom.”

Kelly said he also missed out on another opportunity to team up again with his old Mama Told Me Not To Come singing partner when the mighty-lunged Pontypridd legend asked him to be a guest mentor on the programme.

A clash of schedules meant that the slot eventually went to ex-Catatonia star Cerys Matthews with whom Tom duetted in 1999 on pop standard Baby It’s Cold Outside.

However, the ’Phonics frontman says there might still be another – non-musical – way he and the other Mr Jones can work together in the future.

For the rest of this story please click here to

“I’ve got a couple of writing things on the go and have been recently going to see a script editor for advice,” he said.

One of the manuscripts, entitled The Pool, is a long gestating project dating back to the Dakota singer’s unsigned days when he fancied himself as a budding writer instead.

“The story is proper kitchen sink stuff, about three adolescent girls growing up in the Valleys and hanging around their local lido,” said the singer.

“People who’ve read it say it’s ready to go but I want to wait unit I’m old and experienced enough to make it myself.”

And Kelly added that he was excited by the news that his idol Tom had now branched out into acting – the Sex Bomb having donned a dowdy cardie to play a washed-up Teddy Boy in the upcoming Sky Arts drama The King Of Teds.

“I saw a clip of that on telly the other day and wondered what he was doing dancing around someone’s living room with Alison Steadman and Brenda Blethyn – I had no idea he was doing that sort of thing.

“The older he gets the better he is and it would be wonderful if, one day, he’d star in something I’d written,” Kelly adds.

Meanwhile Sir Tom’s former manager has revealed how cash the star earned in las Vegas ended up in Mob pockets.

Tony Cartwright looked after the voice from the valleys after he and pal Gordon Mills discovered him in the Top Hat Club in Cwmtillery, in Blaenau Gwent.

Tony said: “When we went to Las Vegas in the ‘70s, Gordon lost £100,000 in a single night at the Riviera, a casino run by a Mafia fixer called Sidney Korshak, who had once been a crony of Al Capone.

“Tom was earning £5,000 a week, but he never saw the money, it all went straight to the Mob to pay Gordon’s debts.

“When we played US stadiums, the Mafia debt-collectors would demand 50% of the box office and there was nothing Gordon could do but pay up.

“Tom was just told it was all going into off-shore accounts and long-term investments.”

Gordon died in 1986.

Tony revealed Tom had barefoot pop sensation Sandie Shaw to thank for his smash hit It’s Not Unusual.

He said: “There were contractual obligations that meant it had to be offered to Sandie first.

“She could have had a huge success with it: she’d just had a Number One with Always Something There To Remind Me, a Burt Bacharach song with a similar feel.”

But Sandie listened to Tom’s version and said: “Whoever is singing this has to record it.”

Tony agreed, saying: “Tom really had earned that hit.”

They drove to Birmingham to promote the song on TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars. The Beatles were on the same bill.

John Lennon came over to talk Tom.

He said: “I’d love to produce him.

“Paul and I could write a couple of songs for him.”

But Fab Four manager Brian Epstein vetoed the plan.