Tom Jones International

On the air with Sir Terry Wogan, Tom introduced his UK single, If He Should Ever Leave You on this, a most-popular morning radio show. Tom was charming and clearly excited about the new CD in this most pleasant 13+ minutes. And we were most impressed at how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Tom sounded at 8:34 a.m.

He said he’ll be in the UK for three weeks this trip and, next year, will have a full-scale tour there.

Awhile before Tom went on the air, Terry Wogan read a wish from our friend The Georgia Peach. Then, after the interview, read a message from Paula, our UK friend, who said, “I don’t remember when I was last so hopelessly excited first thing on a Monday morning….”

Between those messages, right before he began the interview by playing It’s Not Unusual, Sir Terry read the message below from us:

“We have the largest Tom Jones fan website in the world, tomjonesinternational.com, and we want Sir Tom to know we join all his fans in wishing him the best with “24 Hours.” We’re listening to you here in Las Vegas…Ellen & Ursula”

He commented on the time difference and, then, said something about fans in Las Vegas toward the end of the interview. So, here it is in two parts:

Wogan Interview • 10-06-08 • Part I • Wogan Interview 10•06•08 Part II

We hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we did and, we have to say we love the last few, plaintive horn notes in the song. So haunting.

Apologies for the rough cuts of the interview. We’ll try to get better.

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Here’s a brief — too brief — review of 24 Hours from Music Week. Since it’s a “real” music publication, we’d like to see lots more at great length as the release date gets closer. We understand that commitments here in Las Vegas inhibit the UK promotion, but hopefully there’ll be plenty of phoners he can do to keep it fresh.

Here’s the last song in the Good Morning America concert — Mama Told Me Not To Come.

After this there’s one more number to go — a reprise of Mama Told Me.

Here’s Tom singing Sex Bomb.

Released a few years earlier as a dance single and on Reload in 1999, this was the first album — mainstream — release of the song in the US.

We will be posting two more clips from the GMA week and we have to again thank our friend The Flash for the video. Check out what he has to offer. It’s pretty amazing.

Please don’t forget the October Question of the Month (below)!
And be sure to check out the video from Good Morning America (also below)

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Moderators’ Note/Question: Why are they saying this is Tom’s “songwriting debut?” Didn’t he allegedly write Baptism By Fire and some other stuff from his Jools Holland collaboration? And didn’t he allegedly write songs with Wyclef Jean for Mr. Jones? And, also, didn’t he allegedly co-write Looking Out My Window and And I Tell The Sea with Gordon Mills?

We understand that cred seems to demand singers perform their own music these days, but this is silly. All any writer or journalist has to do is look on albums and CDs to see that Tom’s been credited with writing years before this CD’s release. With that voice — that amazing, like-no-other voice — is writing so important? It’s nice he’s writing for this CD, but it’s not new. Why risk credibility, and diminishing any accomplishment, by saying it is? And we don’t think Tom deserves any of the potential backlash from this, either.

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The BBC press office announces:

Later Live … With Jools Holland Ep 5/9

Tuesday 14 October /10.00-10.30pm BBC TWO /www.bbc.co.uk/later

Snow Patrol, Tom Jones and Eliza Carthy are among Jools Holland’s guests on this week’s edition of Later Live. Snow Patrol, who make a welcome return to the Later studio, perform a song or two from their new album, A Hundred Million Suns, the follow-up to the million-selling Eyes Open.

The legendary Tom Jones, who is about to release his new album, 24 Hours, which features his songwriting debut, is also in the studio to perform a number from it.

Eliza Carthy, meanwhile, performs songs from her recent acclaimed album, Dreams Of Breathing Underwater.

Further acts due to appear tonight will be confirmed closer to transmission.

Please don’t forget the October Question of the Month (below)!

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Tom will be on Wake Up To Wogan on Monday morning at 7:30 British Summer Time (BST). He’s slated to play the first single from 24 Hours which, we’d guess, is If He Should Ever Leave You, the song he did on Canadian Idol. We hope he gets this kind of promotion here in the USA as it’s kind of a foregone conclusion that the CD will be a hit — however briefly — in the UK. Please, please, whomever-makes-these-decisions: Don’t settle for anything other than an all-out bombardment of promotion! Work on the USA!

You can listen live at the site above. Since on the US west coast it’s on at 11:30 p.m. we’ll try to record it and post it for your that night.

Thanks, Dale.

Finally, the promo concert on GMA October 30, 2003 begins with Tom singing It’s Not Unusual.

We love the shots of the audience — especially the little kid — and of the band. (Check out Herman looking as he did when we first met him.) As always, everyone’s having a blast.

Please don’t forget the October Question of the Month (below)!


This clip opens with a nice long shot of the Good Morning America video marquee above Times Square and, then, cuts to the in-studio audience gathered for Tom’s concert on October 30, 2003.

We love this because, as we mentioned above, we have friends in that audience. Also in the clip is the GMA weatherman at the time, Tony Perkins. Note, also, Charles Gibson’s mention of “stock in Kodak.” Just five years ago and, today, it seems so quaint, doesn’t it?\

If you were unable to view these clearly, please try the TJI.com video library.

Here’s the second (and final) part of Diane Sawyer’s October 2003 interview with Tom Jones.

You’ll notice the interview was edited and what is apparently a question asked of Tom about that train station sign below in Wales by Charles Gibson (lately one of our favorite news anchors) is cut. The interview, too, is briefly sidetracked when Gibson reminds Diane Sawyer and the audience that weatherman Tony Perkins’ new son will be introduced that day.

Sorry, we took an extra day posting this because we really wanted to pay tribute to Paul Newman. (post below)



Back to our look at Tom Jones hard at work promoting Reloaded October 27 through 30, 2003.

He was celebrated during “Tom Jones Week” on Good Morning America during which there were two interviews and a concert. On September 26 we posted the intro and first interview by Lara Spencer.

Now, toward the end of the week — building up to the concert — the big guns are called out and Diane Sawyer interviews Tom Jones, Part I.

Pictured here are (from left) Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and that guy they’re interviewing.

Tomorrow, Part II.





And Pat reminds us that the new DVD available on amazon.uk is from the Canadian series, not from the This Is Tom Jones series like the TimeLife ones are despite what the title claims.

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Also, we want to wish those who celebrate it, L’Shana Tova — a happy Rosh Hashanah 5769. May the year ahead be healthy, prosperous, peaceful and filled with warmth, love, friendship and good music for everyone. Doesn’t time go by so quickly?

There is little we could even imagine saying that would do justice to the legend who was Paul Newman. Both of us numbered him among our favorites and — for his contributions to film and, perhaps more important, his contributions to making this world a better place — he will be deeply missed.

Paul Newman shown with Tom in these 1981 photos at (obviously) Caesars Palace. There was a Grand Prix race in held in Caesars parking lot. Newman raced; Jones was grand marshal of the parade. Looking at the development that is Caesars Palace (and the Las Vegas Strip) today, it’s very hard to imagine that much space, isn’t it.

This photo (left), from the same time in Las Vegas, was clearly taken after one of Tom’s shows. Love the way they’re comparing their chest hair. Great senses of humor.

We can only be grateful we were watching films and attending plays when Paul Newman was acting in them. If you don’t know his work, try to rent it and watch.

All we can say is Paul Newman never really had a failure to communicate. Finally — and, please, forgive the corn — “Goodnight, Sweet Prince. May flights of angels sing you to your rest.”

Forgot to include the photo above right in our original post. It shows Tom as “The New Man In Newman’s Bed,” taken as a PR stunt when Tom rented Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s home in LA on one of his first extended stays in the USA.

Thanks, UKFan, for the pictures with Tom and Paul Newman.