Tom Jones International

As they often do, walesonline.com offers a slightly sensationalized rehash of the article posted below that cheapens the original. It’s really bad — and, apparently there’s no journalistic law or unwritten rule in Wales that they give credit to the source — but there is a fun photo gallery to go with it.

Here’s the cover and the two new photos that appeared with the article posted just below from The Guardian Weekend Magazine. That doom-and-gloom photo at right is so in keeping with the mood of the song 24 Hours that it’s really kind of amusing, isn’t it? It may be considered artsy and smoldering but, it may be that the poor guy clearly just finished sweeping and he’s annoyed and exhausted. But it’s a new look at Tom, so we love it.

Thanks so much to Pat for sending them.

New photos by Zed Nelson.

WOW! What can we say? Over several days, reporter Simon Hattenstone talked to Tom — who loves to talk — and turned in this almost-5,000-word profile in which he perfectly captured his subject. The writer even got the “songwriter Tom” stuff correct, saying this CD is “the first for which he has a joint writing credit on most of the songs,” rather than the untrue statement that seems to be everywhere that this is the first time Tom’s ever gotten a songwriting credit. And, sadly, the youtube videos of Tom and Tina Turner are “no longer available.” Everything about the interview is terrific, except the photo. But we forgive that because, though a picture may be worth a thousand words, in this instance, the words are so much more valuable. (But The Guardian should get the new photos taken for 24 Hours.)

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On song
Tom Jones can’t believe his luck. He’s a belting balladeer rediscovered as cool, he’s a womaniser with a lifelong happy marriage, and then there’s the voice — good enough to tussle with Elvis. As the martinis flow, he tells all to Simon Hattenstone.

The Guardian/October 25, 2008

Tom Jones has two recurring nightmares. In the first, he is wrongfully accused of murder. In the second, he has hidden a body in the attic, the house has just been sold and the body is about to be discovered. He wakes up in a bath of sweat. The nightmares confused him for years. “I haven’t killed anybody. I’ve never wanted to kill anybody. I’ve tried to analyse it, and I think, since I started making hit records, I’ve thought, ‘Jesus Christ, this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’ But always you think this is going to fall apart. Something will happen. There is a skeleton in the closet.” He stops. “Which there isn’t. But in my mind I think they’re going to find that out, and that’s going to finish me.”

Jones, now 68, has a lovely way of telling stories, as if every thought has hit him for the first time.

Perhaps there’s another reason for the nightmares. His biggest hit, Green, Green Grass Of Home, was about a man facing execution. Another huge single, Delilah, tells the story of a jealous boyfriend killing his girlfriend. His new album is called 24 Hours and the title track is about another man on death row — though it can just as easily be read as the sombre reflections of an elderly man looking into the abyss. It’s a landmark album for Jones — his most personal, and the first for which he has a joint writing credit on most of the songs.
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Single: If He Should Ever Leave You (25th Nov)

S-Curve Records is proud to announce the return of legendary singer Tom Jones with the first single from his new album, 24 Hours. Entitled If He Should Ever Leave You the single showcases the sophisticated and soulful pop music for which Tom has been renowned throughout his career.

However, this time Tom is not just the great interpreter of a classic song, but has for the first time ever played an active role in the songwriting and If He Should Ever Leave You is the first taste of his new-found fire to sing his own songs and tell the story of his own life.

Intimate, personal, moving and yet playful and reminiscent of the sound he first came to prominence with in the ’60s, If He Should Ever Leave You demonstrates that Tom’s voice is better than ever and shows how influential his sound has been on today’s crop of talent.

Produced by Future Cut, who have previously worked with Lily Allen, Dizzee Rascal, Estelle and Kate Nash, If He Should Ever Leave You is released on November 25th as part of the new set.

The album 24 Hours follows on November 25 and ranges through the shirt button-popping cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells classic I’m Alive, the cool Latin beats of Style and Rhythm, and the pop genius of Give A Little Love, before leading into more intimate moments such as “The Road,” a remarkable cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Hitter” and the already much-talked about title track “24 Hours” which is –a spine-tingling gaze into the abyss, delivered with sublime gravitas.

Music Week (UK): “[24 Hours] delivers his most honest and contemporary sound in years… A stunning return”.

24 Hours — album released 25th November on S-Curve Records

Photo: Soren Solkaer Starbird

This article — or selected excerpts — has appeared in a range of newspapers across the USA. Excellent!

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Tom Jones gets back to basics on “24 Hours”
Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:52pm EDT/By Jeff Vrabel/Reuters/Billboard

CHICAGO (Billboard) - Pop star Tom Jones’ new album is the 68-year-old’s first U.S. release in 15 years and, practically speaking, his American comeback — in the studio, anyway; he still performs more than 200 shows a year.

“I’ve been thinking about this album for a long time now,” Jones says of “24 Hours,” due November 25 on S-Curve Records. “I’ve had success worldwide, but with albums that were never released in America.” (His last album, 2000’s rock-covers collection “Reload,” moved 5 million copies in Europe, but labels found its roster of British-leaning duet partners off-putting, so it never came out stateside.)

Unlike artists like Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, Jones isn’t using the comeback pedestal to deliver a stark, acoustic, depth-of-the-soul thing; this is a characteristically splashy, bombastic, large-sounding platter of future-retro swagger in the vein of the Amy Winehouse-led throwback-soul movement. (It was produced by British duo Future Cut, which has been behind recent tracks by Kate Nash, Lily Allen and Estelle.)

Witness these couplets from “Sugar Daddy,” a vaguely dirty come-on at the record’s center: “I been singing this song before you were born”; “I’ve got male intuition/I’ve got sexual ambition”; “You don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.” The best part: The Welsh singer got U2’s Bono and the Edge to write that for him after a night of drinking in a Dublin pub.

In Jones’ mind, the key to the recording was keeping sharp watch on the balance among his progressive ambitions, the music’s retro feel and the substantial weight of his reputation, and he says records like Winehouse’s gave him confidence that his plan was solid.

“It was reassuring,” he says. “When (”Back to Black”) came out, I thought, ‘It can be done. People do want it.’ It confirmed what we were doing.”

SETTING THE RULES

What he was doing was setting a series of ground rules, chief among them that the record wouldn’t be a simple nostalgia trip. He also took a greater role in defining the sound and, for the first time in decades, in the songwriting.

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Since we missed this last week and we want to highlight the article from Vanity Fair posted below — and there’s little new here — you can either go to the Music Week website or click here to (more…)

OK: Ms. Sawyer doesn’t think Sir Tom or Tony Christie are cool. She’s entitled. We watched some of Christie’s videos and we really agree about him. She’s not all wrong. Yes! We believe Tom is cool and we’re happy he “never flirted with the dark side.” We agree with her assessment of Duran Duran and with the last paragraph of this opinion piece. But, we don’t agree with her — based on what we’ve seen — that Tony Christie is “more interesting.” (And why all the effort to find Amarillo? Not a great city, we don’t think.) What makes someone “cool” anyway? Judging by this, she certainly hasn’t paid attention to Tom for many years. Whatever, it makes for a few moments of interesting reading and, in the end, it’s just one person’s opinion and is as valid as yours or ours. At least she’s plugging the new project. And she calls it “strong.” Good.

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Pop’s phoney rebirth of cool

Miranda Sawyer/The Observer/ Sunday October 12 2008

Tony Christie and Tom Jones were never Johnny Cash. And when were Duran Duran ever cool? Let’s stop rewriting pop history, says Miranda Sawyer

What is cool? Do we care? I only ask because, recently, I have been required to reconsider two past icons, to move them from the file marked ‘cheesy’ to the matt black one that, you know, refuses all my attempts to put it in a box or stick a label on it. The icons are Tom Jones and Tony Christie. Both talented crooners d’un certain age, singers we are quite happy to have around, but cool? Hmmm.

Let us first consider Mr Jones. It doesn’t matter how many times he reinvents himself, nothing can erase Sex Bomb from the memory. ‘Sex bomb, sex bomb’, went the lyrics of his classic number, Tom bellowing like a prize bullock eager for his seed to be hand-harvested. Less hepcat living on the creative edge, more foghorn with an ever-ready hard-on. So can Tom’s new LP, 24 Hours, up his credibility points? It’s certainly having a go. Produced by Future Cut, 24 Hours, according to tomjones.com, ‘references the impassioned cinematic classics of his early career, mixed with a current cross-genre template’. A current cross-genre template? Does that come with raspberry coulis?
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You can pre-order Tom’s new CD, 24 Hours by clicking the link at right.

In the UK tabloid The Sun Gordon Smart’s BIZarre column offers a first look to Tom’s new video and a first listen to some of the CD.

If you go to the link above, the video and some of the songs are posted.

We love that and are grateful. And we love this new photo of Tom that, we assume, is part of the PR package for the CD. Finally! Some good, up-to-date pictures! Life is good.

But (sorry, there always seems to be a “but” with Tom and this kind of thing) why was this guy chosen to be the first to hear it and see the video? He’s no friend of Tom’s and, in fact, neither is The Sun.. Mr. Smart calls it “surprisingly good” and calls Tom a “veteran lothario” and says the album is “another attempt by Tom to find a new audience.” Mr. Smart, he’s found new audiences over the years and they stay with him. Gads! And, how much of this CD did Tom actually write? The whole album? We’re curious to find out.

Doesn’t whomever makes these decisions realize that the negative and the smarmy is the stuff that gets picked up by other news outlets? Surely, one of the music pubs in the UK or — why not? — the US would have been more suitable. We have to wait more than two months for the product. (He also got the release date wrong and the name of the producers.) What’s the rush?

Tom’s new CD … it’s unusual

IT’S taken 40 years — but TOM JONES has finally turned his hand to writing an album.

The Voice Of The Valleys has reinvented himself yet again for new collection 24 Hours — which echoes JOHNNY CASH’s late renaissance when he worked with producer RICK RUBIN.

I’m the first journalist to hear Tom’s soulful new record and, I have to say, it’s surprisingly good.
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Click here to Pre-Order Tom Jones: 24 Hours Ships worldwide Nov. 25! Note: It ships in the USA on November 25. Earlier posted dates were, apparently incorrect.

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OK! By last count — and the number will continue to rise — Google picked up 549 news stories about Tom’s new CD. That number doesn’t include the multitude of blog entries. All of them are pretty much the same, except for two.

The first, from walesonline.com is a two-days-later after-the-fact (uncredited) rehash of the original story with some TJ history thrown in. What galls us is that when they choose a fan to quote they choose a 78 year-old woman. And, they mean Neil Diamond’s CD is Home Before Dark, not Gordon Mills’ CD. Anyway, here’s what’s different in that article:

A spokesman for EMI, which looks after Jones in the UK, revealed there will be a single out in Britain called If I Should Ever Leave You. That is expected to be out on November 10.

He said: “The UK album will have slightly different tracks on it. But that is literally still being decided.”

Jo Mills is the widow of Gordon Mills, who wrote It’s Not Unusual.

She said from her home in Weybridge, Surrey: “I am always pleased if he has a new record out, I wish him the best of luck with it.

“He can sing anything, anything at all.

“I hope it’s a big hit out there.”

Her son, Gordon Mills, was invited to write for the record but was unable to find time in his schedule.

The 34-year-old, who co-wrote Newton Faulkner’s hit Dream Catch Me, claimed the record would see a Neil Diamond style reinvention, whose last album – Home Before Dark – was produced by rock producer Rick Rubin.

Mr Mills said: “I was given a brief that he wanted to do something like the new Neil Diamond record, but I did not actually do any writing for it.”

He added: “I thought Rick Rubin (who produced Neil Diamond and Johnny Cash) was going to do it.

“It’ll be good.”

Lifelong fan and mum-of-three Christine Wyatt, from Treharris, couldn’t wait to get her hands on the record.

The 75-year-old said: “That’s fantastic, Tom will show them all, with his sexuality, his voice all of it.

“They love him over there, He’ll be in the top ten, maybe number three. There’s so many Tom Jones fans.

“I’ll be in the queue to get a copy.”

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Now, we love this story from RTÉ Entertainmentin Ireland because it’s so….so….typical:

U2 stars teaming-up with Tom Jones

U2’s Bono and The Edge are to make a guest appearance on the new album by Tom Jones.

The Associated Press reports that the 68-year-old will release his new album 24 Hours in November, with the sound said to be reminiscent of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black.

The U2 duo join Jones on the song Sugar Daddy.

U2’s new album will be released early next year.

Because we couldn’t use the photo of Bono that was posted with the article, we used this one of Bono and The Edge at the Brooklyn Bridge at the release of their 2004 album, HTDAAB.

Oops! We forgot and we knew this: Rolling Stone noted on September 17 that: “24 Hours features U2’s Bono and the Edge guesting on Jones’ Sugar Daddy.” This is the song they wrote for Tom and to have them actually back him will bring a whole new audience to the project. It’s great news. You can catch some video of the story here

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Tom’s official website still lists different release date and the name of the CD seems to have been changed, but the publicity is great and we’re thrilled that it’s starting a month out. This Associated Press story is everywhere we look.

As for the “15 years” stuff, just remember, Reloaded and Mr. Jones weren’t released here. Like them, The Lead was released only as an import (we think) and stuff like Reloaded were mostly remasters of old songs. And he’s right, but we think he understates the issue when he calls the failure to release Reload “a shame.” We think it was malpractice on someone’s part….maybe the record company’s.

This time, Tom’s covering a fabulous Springsteen song from the acoustic album, Devils and Dust — an unusual tune for him that we cannot wait to hear him do— and included is the song Bono and The Edge wrote for Mr. Jones that wasn’t used.

So, yes, there’s been nothing new here in years and we’re so happy there is now. Aren’t you? And, for the record, he’s right, he’s a “goodie.”

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Tom Jones to release 1st album in US in 15 years

By JAKE COYLE/AP Entertainment Writer/Sept. 16, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) — After 15 years without a new album in the U.S., Tom Jones will release a disc of almost entirely original material this fall.

The 68-year-old singer will release 24 Hours on Nov. 25 on S-Curve Records. It’s a retro-tinged album much in the style of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black that finds the Welshman’s voice as strong as ever.

“The fire is still in me,” Jones told The Associated Press in a recent interview, speaking by phone from his home in Los Angeles. “Not to be an oldie, but a goodie. I want to be a contender.”

The disc was produced by British production duo Future Cat, who have cut tracks for Lily Allen, Kate Nash and others. With backing horns and an almost Stax Records kind of soul, the sound is distinctly retro.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a while, doing a retro sound but new,” said Jones. “And Amy Winehouse, she cracked it. When that album came out, my son called me right away and said, `You know what we’ve been talking about? Listen to this.’”

Since he released the hit It’s Not Unusual in 1965, Jones has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. While his 2000 album Reload was a hit in Europe and elsewhere (buoyed by the club hit Sex Bomb), it was never released in the U.S. — which Jones calls “a shame.”

“The hits that I’ve had recently have all been European,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of success worldwide, which is a pain because I live here and I do most of my shows in America. … Hopefully this will straighten that out.”

Jones, who regularly performs in Las Vegas, believes his voice hasn’t aged - thanks partly to his careful treatment of it; he takes a humidifier with him traveling to keep his throat from drying. Jones even believes his lower registers have gotten richer.

“I wanted my voice to sound as natural as possible,” Jones said of the album. “The arrangements and the production needs to be modern, but the vocal needs to sound like me.”

There are two covers on the album - Bruce Springsteen’s The Hitter and I’m Alive by Tommy James and the Shondells - but the rest Jones either co-wrote or collaborated with the songwriters. Bono and the Edge of U2 guest on the song “Sugar Daddy.”

“I love doing the songs that I’ve had success with and the audience keeps those alive,” Jones said. “But I love moving on.”

This is a preview of Saturday night’s (July 19) show at the Silver Legacy in Reno, NV. Even though the interview is a couple of years old, it reads like it’s new. Ignore the list of recordings at the end, as it’s not quite complete and we think some of the singles listed were only released in the UK. But no matter. It’s a fun read. The photo is from Tom’s publicity kit.

Please remember to send a review of the show in Contra Costa Tuesday night.

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Tom Jones knew he was destined to be a star

July 16, 2008/Go To Reno Tahoe Who:

Tom Jones • When: 8 p.m. July 19 • Where: Reno Ballroom, Fourth and Center streets• Cost: $45, $70, $80 and $95 • Details: 888-288-1833 • Web: downtownreno.com

Best Bets

Picture this, pussycat. It’s the late ’50s in Wales, and it’s a Friday night at the local YMCA.

Onstage is a popular area band, Tommy Scott and the Senators, singing the hits of the day of artists such as Elvis, Little Richard, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.

You might have been impressed by the strong vocals and good looks of Tommy Scott, a Welsh lad whose real name was Tom Woodward. But it’s unlikely you would have turned to your friend and said, “Wow, in a couple of years, that kid up there in the black leather is going to have a huge hit, win a Grammy and become one of the top sex symbols of an era.”

But that’s just what happened to Woodward, renamed Tom Jones in the mid-’60s by London manager Gordon Mills to link his new client to the good-looking, lowborn character of a popular movie of the day, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. (It was Mills who turned plain-sounding Arnold George Dorsey into Engelbert Humperdinck.)

Jones said he wasn’t surprised by his success. He had been expecting it since he was a youngster.

“When I was a child singing at parties, people always told me that I had something different,” he said in a 2006 interview.

“So, I believed as a child that I was going to become a star. … I thought if I can make a living at singing and not have to do a job of work that I didn’t like, that would be it.”
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