Tom Jones International

Well, we’re happy to report our Rhondda Valley girl Shirley called one of your moderators in Las Vegas (while said moderator was having dinner with Keith Cooper — remember him? — and his wife Joedy) after the show at the Silver Legacy in Reno Saturday night to report: “This show was better than the one at Mountain View Winery. He brought the house down!

“He was sweating like he did in the photo posted the other day (and the one here that Nancy took in San Diego),” Shirley adds. “Someone shouted at him, ‘Take it off!’

“Tom answered, ‘We’ve got plenty of time. I’ll have it all off by the end of the night.’

“Alas,” she concluded, “he didn’t, but he did blow the roof off! He is a great, great entertainer!”

Looks like Shirl had a blast and, below, Nancy has added her reviews of the San Diego and Costa Mesa shows from July 13 and 15, respectively.

We hope all of you who were at the shows this week add your review in the comment section below. This site is for fans to share the joy and this is a perfect opportunity to do so.

Nancy’s “Overdue” Reviews of Two Incredible Events — July 13 and 15

Please excuse the tardiness of these reviews. After doing extreme audience participation at two of Tom’s concerts in a three-day period, I was pretty much unable to think straight or write a meaningful sentence. I had to wait until my Tom Jones Fever broke.

On Sunday, July 13, my friend Patty J (another big Tom fan) and I had great 8th row center seats at Humphreys in San Diego. This is the venue that’s outside, and right on the water. For those of you who haven’t been to any shows at Humphreys (they have a huge schedule of all kinds of acts each summer), they sell Rows 1-7 only to those who buy their (overpriced) dinner and hotel packages. For example, the dinner package is $68.00 plus the ticket price. So, the first available row for regular ticket buyers is row 8. I really don’t like this system at all since I like sitting up closer to Tom, but obviously Humphreys does.

Now, here’s a tip: Never think it’s too late to get tickets to see Tom (or anyone). Due to some late planning and a trip abroad, I did not start seriously looking for tickets until about July 8th. snatched up and appeared immediately, to my dismay, on Craig’s List, StubHub, and those other scalping sites at terribly inflated prices plus fees for this and that. So I decided to just wait. Well, I am indebted to “Mike R.,” a fine human being, who sold me those great tickets July 9th at face value through Craig’s List!

The Preshow: We gathered in Humphrey’s lounge for a few pre-show cocktails, and had a great time preparing for the show with a few margaritas, our two illustrious TJI website managers and Sara and spouse from Yorkshire, England, who just happened to arrive in San Diego that day and were thrilled to be suddenly going to see TJ. (I saw them later and they did have a super time). It’s really fun to see the TJ excitement build!

The Show: It started a bit late, as folks were late getting into their seats. When Tom strode out in the red jacket, which I hadn’t previously seen, my heart flew to the moon!. He looks so fantastic in that outfit that I wished he had made the costume change years ago (remember the heavily sequined red, purple, etc jackets? See the DVDs of Coast to Coast the Canadian TV show, for a pleasant reminder.

I will not give you a blow-by-blow description of the show, because you would have had to be there to really get the picture. All I can say is that Sir Tom was intent on putting on an incredible performance, and he did. He put every fiber available into his singing and dancing moves. He must have literally lost several pounds during the show, because water was rolling down his shirt and off the cuffs and hem. The Voice and his energy were incredible. He had total connection with the audience, and the audience just went crazy. We screamed, we sang, we danced, we thronged up to the stage. Men and women alike were besides themselves with euphoria. It was a like a religious experience.

So that’s the review of my 15th Tom Jones concert — 15 in just less than 5 years. All I can say is that that show was so good, I immediately made plans to see him again 2 days later up in Costa Mesa. See that review next.

July 15, 2008 Pacific Amphitheater Costa Mesa, CA

This was the unexpected second half of my 2 concerts-in-3-days whirl with Tom Jones (as an audience member, that is). Now, there are many of you out there who have reported that you often see Sir Tom 3-4 days in a row one month , then 2 or 3 days in a row a month or two later. I don’t do that. But, after I saw him in that red jacket, flashing those devilish but truly appreciative smiles to the audience on July 13, I said to myself, “ I must find out where he is next — I think it’s in Orange County (which is only 1-and-a-half hours or so from San Diego). I am on vacation. I MUST go.” The next day I did find a friend to accompany me, and on Tuesday afternoon we headed out to the Orange County Fair Grounds, home of the Pacific Amphitheatre. We planned to stroll around and see the sights of the fair for a few hours before gazing upon the handsome and exciting Tom.

I must say that I have been to county fairs before (San Diego, many times, and once or twice to the CA State Fair in Sacramento.) Long story short, do make sure that you have a really good reason to go to the OC Fair besides eating fried food.

The PA information reports that there are 6,000+ seats in the amphitheatre. About one-quarter of them were filled when we sat down around 15 minutes before Sheila E’s act was to begin. Sheila E and band put a lot of energy into their act and tried to get the crowd “going.” But the crowd, which continued to grow until there was (by PA Staff report) approx. 8,000, was waiting for the main event.

I thought to myself, “He’s never going to get this whole place on fire like he did at Humphreys (capacity about 1,200). Not to worry. By the time the “best back up band in the world” (quote unquote TJ) was in place, the audience was ready for lift-off. And by the time Tony was making his intro, the crowd was crazily screaming the “Tom Jones!” that Tony asked for. We had blasted off. Most of of us, anyhow. I had no more worries about the lad from Pontypridd’s success that night.

Tom’s jacket of the evening was white. I like him in the red one much better, but he didn’t ask me. The jacket came off, as usual, and already soaked through, about one-third into the show. It showed perspiration marks way before that. The man’s normal temperature must be around 110.

About the show: The regular song set. Fabulous sound system in this amphitheatre; the singers and the band have never sounded better. They were just superb. After all, they were accompanying the master showman. To those of you who read my review from July 13, which was an incredibly electric show where Tom just outdid himself, well, he did more (physically) in this one. There was more dancing, more leaps in the air (I actually got blurry one on camera), more strutting, hip moves, etc. I would really like to have that kind of fun doing my job! And of course the fabulous voice was on display for every song. There were many panties and other garments tossed, and the whole audience had a very good time. In fact, with little effort, I managed to get the gals in the ladies rest room chanting “Tom Jones” after the show. I don’t know if he’d appreciate that, but many were only fixing their sweaty hair and make-up!

It was another incredible show. As the man from England sitting next to me said, “There’s no one else like him.” No, there’s not.