Tom Jones International

Tom and the gang are headed to Atlantic City today to prepare for the shows tomorrow and Saturday. Since this is one of the places where it seems the most outrageous fan-related incidents take place, we decided this is an appropriate time for this post. We know for a fact that Tom’s aren’t the only fans who, shall we say, can get a bit obstreperous. It happens with ardent fans of every performer. But, since we’re here because we’re Tom Jones fans, we’re focusing on them.

It looks like Sir Tom has the perfect life. And we’re sure that in many ways his life is, indeed, perfect. But we’re equally sure that it’s not always that way. There are schedules to be met, people he doesn’t know to meet and smile at, pressure to always be pleasant even when he doesn’t feel particularly pleasant….you understand.

Well, Tom Jones’ fans don’t always have it so easy either. Not that anyone’s really complaining, but sometimes things that happen are memorable and/or funny and of course they say more about the individual involved than they do about Sir Tom.

How many of you have been pushed, stepped on and/or cursed at when you’re trying to say “hi” or get a photo? How many of you have had the random undergarment land on your head while you’re watching a show? Or, perhaps, been pelted with a stuffed animal on its way to the stage?

Some fans are rude and intrusive. And that’s not funny. Some never stop. For example, there’s one woman now living in Las Vegas who for 30+ years has tried to make herself part of everyone’s TJ experience. On several occasions she has accosted fans she didn’t know and demanded information that was absolutely not her business. Back in the day, a fan and her husband were regularly able to get into a restaurant at Ballys after the show when it was closed to everyone but the fan, her husband and Tom’s party. This rude woman and her friend followed the fan into the elevator one night (!), demanding to know how the fan and her husband got into the restaurant when she couldn’t. (The Italian maitre’d liked the fan’s Italian husband and knew the wife was a fan. He asked TJ’s permission to allow them in and Tom, knowing the fan was respectful and liking her and her husband, agreed. He’d often stop at their table and ask what they were eating, how they were, etc. They always let him take the lead and never interrupted.)

On another occasion, this woman marched up to a man she didn’t know, the husband of another fan, and yelled at him “for using my name to get good seats.” (Of course, he didn’t. He didn’t even know who she was. Or her name.) Last year at the MGM — still rude and intrusive after 30+ years — this same woman accosted a fan she knew casually at best and began questioning her about why she was allowed backstage for a photo and who she knew to get there. (It was via her sister who, in turn, knew someone who secured the photo invite. No mystery, just happy coincidence and lucky stars in alignment. Also not the business of the rude and intrusive fan.)

Yes, just about everyone has a story and we invite you to tell yours. But we bet that no one — no one! — can beat this fan story:

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It happened at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1978.

Our Fan was sitting stageside — she took this photo from her seat that night — when a young woman in a bright white pantsuit with a big diamond ring glittering on her hand made her way to the stage from the back of the room and stood next to Our Fan. Tom saw her and came over. He kneeled and started to speak with her, but the woman was absolutely frozen.

He saw that and tried to put her at ease. “Oh, can I see your ring, luv?” he asked.

She just stood there.

Our Fan lifted the woman’s arm up so Tom could see the ring. He touched the woman’s hand and she, stunned into a kind of waking coma, just collapsed into the nearest chair.

Said chair was occupied by Our Fan.

Seeing the woman sitting on Our Fan’s lap and noticing a rather surprised look on Our Fan’s face, Tom — who knew Our Fan — said, “You have a woman sitting on your lap, luv.”

Our Fan could just nod and say, “I know.” She didn’t have the heart to tell Tom that as she sat, the woman had wet her pants.

Tom — who kissed all the fans back then — was oblivious to what had transpired on Our Fan’s lap. He wanted a kiss from the woman. Our Fan helped her stand so Tom could kiss her and then Our Fan started the woman on her way back to her seat.

It was the last time she ever allowed another fan to sit on her lap.

Truly Unusual is, according to actor and filmmaker Forest Guider, “a partly improvised, Tom Jones fan club mocumentary.”

It’s the story of a group of fans who make an annual hegira to Las Vegas to see their man. Will they get to meet him? Will they get backstage? Therein lies the suspense.

You can see the trailer and several clips.

Even looking at these, those of you who belonged to fan clubs and who went to shows with your clubs and who even got the chance to go backstage, may find some familiarity here.

At any rate, check out the movie. It is funny with a humor that, even now that actual fan clubs are a thing of the past, rings very true.

We’d like to know the status of this film, as its website seems to have been last updated in 2007 and it’d be fun to get some current news. We’ll be looking for it in our local multiplex….or art house.

After much thought we decided to post this article from 2000. It’s by Canadian journalist (and New Hampshire resident) Mark Steyn, a crusader for all sorts of things, and an op-ed columnist who specializes in wit and irony. Reading through this long piece we decided it’s well worth reading — even if some of it is a bit inappropriate for a family website (and who says this is a “family website?”) his admiration for Tom is clear. Enjoy it.

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HAPPY ST DAVID’S DAY!

Seasons of Steyn/THURSDAY, 01 MARCH 2007/from Steyn Online/originally published in The Sunday Telegraph/The National Post, June 11th/12th 2000

In celebration of Wales’ national day, here’s my profile from a couple of years back of the greatest living Welshman:

The world’s press was out in force last week to salute birthday boy Tom Jones. “Jones Still A Sex Bomb,” said The Toronto Sun. “Tom Jones Still A Sex Bomb,” agreed The Cape Breton Post. “Tom Jones Still A Sexbomb,” agreed the typographically adventurous Kamloops Daily News. The National Post, confirming our reputation for offering Canadians a unique perspective on world affairs, ran with: “Tom Jones Is Still Dodging Flying Underwear.”

Well, you’ve got to admit he looks fantastic for a man of 75.

What’s that? He’s only 60? Well, he still looks fantastic in a weird kind of way. The unfeasibly hairy chest, the year-round orange leathery complexion one associates with sun-drenched Wales. Millions of women around the world still want to get into his pants, which, given that he can barely get into his pants (they’d be a tad tight on Kate Moss), seems absurdly ambitious.

The only time I met Tom was a long time ago back in my disc-jockey days, when supposedly he didn’t give interviews. Either that, or no one wanted to interview him. His manager had signed a deal with Polygram for five country-music albums without checking first whether Tom liked country music. It wasn’t a good time for him.
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The Grammy Foundation is auctioning Tom Jones-signed book.

The book, And The GRAMMY Goes To… The Official Story of Music’s Most Coveted Award, details the history of the Grammy Awards. Tom signed this copy, one of 50 the Foundation says was put aside for Grammy winners to sign for auction, at the Starry Night Gala honoring Sir George Martin on July 12.

The GRAMMY Foundation was founded in 1989 to cultivate the awareness, appreciation and advancement of the contribution of recorded music on American culture from the artistic and technical legends of the past to the still unimagined musical breakthroughs of the future generations of music professionals. One hundred percent of the sale price goes to the Fouindation.

Bidding starts at $150; shipping in the US is $20.

The auction ends Thursday, July 31, at 12:40 p.m. PDT.

We heard on CBS Sunday Morning, our favorite news magazine show yesterday that July 27, 2008, was the 68th anniversary of the Billboard music chart. This is the one that started it all and is the pattern followed by charts all over the world.

The first #1 hit was I’ll Never Smile Again by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The vocalist on that was Frank Sinatra. For the first 16 years of its life, the chart was dominated by crooners — Como, Crosby and Cole. Then, in 1956, Elvis broke through with Heartbreak Hotel. It was the Beatles’ turn in 1964 and they still hold the record of 30 charted hits in one year. The longevity record for albums is held by Johnny Mathis (his Greatest Hits was on the chart for 490 continuous weeks) and Carole King (her album, Tapestry, charted continuously for more than six years).

And Tom Jones? Well, you can look here for his Billboard history. (The search engine on the site isn’t great, but it’s fun to roam around. And, please remember, these are US releases only.

In brief — and “brief” is difficult, as Tom’s is a long history covering five decades — Tom’s been there a lot. His first charted hit was, of course, It’s Not Unusual in 1965. It spent 12 weeks on the list, going up to #10. When the album This Is Tom Jones was released in June, 1969, it proceeded to spend 43 weeks on the chart, peaking at #4. In 1970, Live In Las Vegas spent 51 weeks on the chart, topping out at #3. For 14 weeks in 1971 She’s A Lady was there, peaking at #2. In 1977, Say You’ll Stay Until Tomorrow was on the Hot 100 chart for 16 weeks, getting up to #15. It also spent lots of time on the Country chart. 1989’s Kiss was on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart for nine weeks hitting as high as #13. In 1994 and 95 If I Only Knew charted for 13 weeks on the Hot Dance Club Play, rising to #4. In 2006 Stoned In Love spent five weeks on the European Hot 100 Singles chart.

If you’ve missed collecting any of Tom’s music and are interested in buying it, check out Tom Jones on amazon.com

(The Billboard site also sells artist merchandise, including Tom’s newest tour programme. Including postage in the US it’s $16 — a very good price.)

The internet has rendered fan clubs quaint at best; obsolete, in fact. The old mimeographed newsletters could not keep pace with the speed of news today. While we’ve gained in speed and, in many cases, accuracy, we’ve lost in the personal area. We can talk all the time online, everyone seems to have free long distance phone service, so there’s no real need for meetings. Photos are all over cyberspace, so no one much sells and buys them any more. But, there was a time that the fan club was the only way to keep up with your favorite and the fan club president was a very special person who, in the case of Tom Jones, controlled meetings with The Man and was the conduit through which all news flowed.

We, personally, do not mourn those days. But we love to look back at the Tom Jones fan clubs when they were active and vital and, so, we do that here.

The late Ruth Brooks was president and founder of the Tom Jones Canadian Fan Club, of which many of our friends were members.

Like so many of the club presidents back in the day, Ruth got to go backstage whenever and wherever she saw Tom. As a result of this favored treatment, club presidents often traveled far and wide to see him. After each encounter, they’d write about it in their newsletter so everyone in the club could hear about it. The Canadian club was a very active one, having actual meetings at homes, hotels and restaurants. They’d run auctions to raise money for a favorite cause of Tom’s (or theirs). Tom’s causes usually involved children in the UK, like the home for “spastic children.” (Yes, we know that’s politically incorrect, but it wasn’t 30 years ago.)

Members generally got to “live” through their club presidents and, occasionally, were favored by being taken backstage with their leader. Presidents and a group of members would decorate the dressing room when Tom came to their town. Clubs sold photos of Tom, held contests for merchandise and recordings donated by Tom’s management, and did all they could in their localities to keep Tom’s name out in the public consciousness.

Below is a letter to her members from her March/April 1978 newsletter. She saw Tom on Mark’s 21st birthday, April 11, 1978, in Flint, MI. When you continue the story on the next page, you’ll see the photo of the best tour book cover ever — the 1978 edition. The caricature (which was used in lots of tour books) is by Jerry Breen. Again, we thank AF for the article, the caricature link and the photo.

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TOM arrived in Flint in his own plane, which he uses for any series of one-nighters. This way, when they are playing a different city perhaps say six nights in a row, there isn’t the necessity to keep to scheduled flights. The plane is a fair size turbo-prop (I think) that has been all refurbished inside and so only seats TOM, his entourage and his own musicians. It is painted blue and white and has a big cartoon (the Caveman) drawing of TOM on the nose and TOM JONES painted underneath. It was really exciting to see it sitting out on the airfield when you know to whom it belongs.

I hadn’t seen TOM in 5 months, the last time being at Cleveland Airport in November, and all I can say is “the thrill is still there.” My heart was pounding like a trip hammer when he came through the door and I saw that lovely gentle smile of his as he quietly said “hello Ruth.” TOM has that quality, charisma, magnetism, call it what you will that makes me feel each time I see him again it’s like it was for the first time. On stage, or all stage, it’s the same. We chatted for a few minutes an dhe told us about his cold, but everything was going great he said. He had on a soft, pearl grey sweater with a scarf tied in the neck and a black leather windbreaker with a fur collar. The jacket would bring back memories of the London Palladium to some of the British girls – remember the night he drove up to the stage door in the little orange mini car and we laughed so hard as he was grimacing and muttering away to himself because he couldn’t get the car into gear? – Same black leather jacket! It brought back some lovely memories, I’ll tell you.

The morning of the show, I was kindly included in Betty and Bobbie’s cleaning, scrubbing (I’m not joking) and decorating bee at the I.M.A. Auditorium. When we had finished our work in the dressing-room, it did look quite nice. It is always a great feeling to think you have helped make any place TOM will be, even for a very short time, a little homey-er for him and we felt quite satisfied with ourselves as we left and went down into the auditorium to check it out too! What a hive of activity, and as I sat and watched all the preparations by sound men, lighting men, musicians, piano tuners, electricians, stage hands, etc. I thought, all of this for one man, and one show, — but what a MAN and what a SHOW!
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This is great news (announced with little detail on tomjones.com), but we’re told the as-yet-untitled project is “still being recorded” for S-Curve Records. More tracks than will be included have been laid down, so we’re anxious to see what’s on it. All we know for sure is that I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor, the Arctic Monkeys’ number he did at the Concert for Diana last year is on it. He’s also recorded a new song written for him by Bono and The Edge (on which The Edge plays guitar) and a Springsteen tune that, we think, is from his acoustic Devils and Dust CD.

The further good news is that we should be seeing some new things in the set list, hopefully for his November shows at the MGM and for those we hear* will be in New York in November.

*No, we cannot say where or when he’s playing because we’re not sure and nothing’s been confirmed, so please don’t ask.

All we can say is that, clearly, this was not a Welsh poll. And, list position aside, who can argue with Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery. And, please remember, we just report the news; we don’t make it up. (And who could make this list up?)

Check the comments below for a terrific clip of Tom on Letterman….what a sense of humor he has!

More than 2,000 people were polled [by msn.uk.com] for their opinions on the nation’s favourite sexy older men: :: Britain’s Sexiest Older Man 1 - Pierce Brosnan (51 per cent) 2 - Sean Connery (27 per cent) 3 - Bryan Ferry (7 per cent) 4 - Jonathan Ross (4 per cent) 5 - Rod Stewart (3 per cent) 6 - Sir Paul McCartney (2 per cent) 7 - Mick Jagger (2 per cent) 8 - Tom Jones (2 per cent) 9 - Ozzy Osbourne (1 per cent)

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To quote George Wallace, We Be Thinkin’ about Sir Tom and Canadian Idol: We’re happy he’ll be on TV so our Canadian friends can see him — and, at 6 p.m. Friday this news was posted on Tom’s official site — but of all the Idol shows, why that one? Why have him grouped with Bryan Adams who — and nothing against him — will open for Rod Stewart on August 2 at the MGM? We’re excited to see it was announced he’s going to be performing a track from his new CD, which is good. But shouldn’t that be in a venue with maximum exposure? Like, for example, American idol? Or, failing a fitting schedule for that show, how about a concert on one of the morning shows in the US? Or an appearance on every late night and talk show in the US? How about SNL which would really target the audience they want to reach? Somewhere he can be seen in North America so his CD will get the launch it deserves? Too much of Tom’s recent stuff wasn’t even released in North America. He deserves more exposure here. We guarantee he’d get the kind of respect he merits, not the lack of respect he too often gets in the British press.

Here’s another page from the TOJO UK fan club newsletter. Clearly, the fan club had a contest in which those who correctly identified the photo at left would be entered in a drawing to win the new album, Somethin’ ‘Bout You Baby I Like. So, we can date this at 1974.

There’s something about the memories of loving parents that is so sweet and the story about how Tom learned to walk is terrific. Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

We again thank the TOJO who shared it with us.

In an interview with writer Jon Bream in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Welsh pop tart Duffy discusses Sir Tom. At the age of 24 has she already learned to stir the publicity pot? We think so. What do you think?

If you haven’t heard Duffy, you can check her out at her official site.

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At the end of his story, Bream writes:

“She’d rather talk about someone a little closer to home — Welsh icon Sir Tom Jones.

“‘What does he mean to me? He means sex,” she said. “It was very liberating. That was a Welshman doing that in the days when people were quite well-behaved, for lack of a better word. He was kind of cool, you know, he was kind of a bit punk. The guy is still going. He’s still probably got the sex drive of a 21-year-old. He’s a great bloke.

“I”ve never, ever met him. But I’ve got a feeling that introduction is going to happen.’”