Very pleased to be supporting The Small Steps Project again by donating a pair of my shoes by Prada.
The Small Steps Project is a brilliant charity who help children across the world to take small steps to a better future.
Take a look and you can bid on my shoes here
Good luck.
Thrilled, to announce my autobiography Over The Top And Back is released today as a paperback version in the US with a revised jacket!
Published via Blue Rider Press.
You can pick up a copy here
Tune in to the Pride of Britain Awards tonight (1st November) on ITV at 8pm.
Sir Tom Jones attended and presented a top award, a truly heartwarming evening celebrating inspirational people, not to be missed!
Not all of the significant voices of pop music from the 1960s are hunkered down in the Coachella Valley this week for Desert Trip, and two of them got together Thursday the Hollywood Bowl to demonstrate the veracity of the Who’s songwriter Pete Townshend’s observation that “It’s the singer, not the song, that makes the music move along.”
Van Morrison and Tom Jones, two of the most revered singers to emerge at the same time Desert Trip’s six headliners were starting out packed the Bowl for a chance to see them share a stage. Share they did, both during Jones’ opening set and again after Morrison and his band took over to finish the three hour-plus evening.
Morrison just turned 71, putting him slightly on the younger side of the average age of 72 for Desert Trip’s big guns: Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the Who, Neil Young and Roger Waters. Jones, now 76, is a bit on the other side of that mathematical equation, but both demonstrated that the passing of years doesn’t have to equate with diminishing of musical acumen.
Over the last five years, Welsh singer Jones has put out three of the finest albums of his long career — “Praise and Blame,” “Spirit in the Room” and last year’s “Long Lost Suitcase” — in which he mines the blues, R&B, gospel and folk influences that have always been lurking beneath the polished pop music he made for much of that career.
Morrison too on his just-released album, “Keep Me Singing,” builds on similar blues, jazz and soul elements that have long infused his music, that has put him on a par through his life with rock’s greatest songwriters and made him the envy of many of them for interpretive skills as a vocalist that put him in the company of Ray Charles and other great soul singers.
That gave them a great reason, not just an excuse, to join forces for this one intersection of their respective current U.S. tours.
Over the last five years, Welsh singer Jones has put out three of the finest albums of his long career — “Praise and Blame,” “Spirit in the Room” and last year’s “Long Lost Suitcase” — in which he mines the blues, R&B, gospel and folk influences that have always been lurking beneath the polished pop music he made for much of that career.
Morrison too on his just-released album, “Keep Me Singing,” builds on similar blues, jazz and soul elements that have long infused his music, that has put him on a par through his life with rock’s greatest songwriters and made him the envy of many of them for interpretive skills as a vocalist that put him in the company of Ray Charles and other great soul singers.
That gave them a great reason, not just an excuse, to join forces for this one intersection of their respective current U.S. tours.
Article written by Randy Lewis for The LA TIMES
Article available online here
So pleased to be back on The Voice UK! Looking forward to working with the team, my friend Will and new coaching partners Jennifer and Gavin, it’s going to be great!
The Voice UK returns on ITV in January.
Early in his show at the Tower Theater Tuesday night, Tom Jones reminisced about the 1970s in Las Vegas, and how he and Elvis Presley would hang out together after their respective shows and "sing gospel songs all night long."
Both of them ruled the Strip at the time, but if there was a difference in their careers it was this: Elvis had a reservoir of artistic credibility from his '50s work before losing his way with schlock in the '60s. Jones made his name with mostly cheesy pop hits in the '60s and became synonymous with Vegas showmanship and the shallowness that implies.
Jones' road to being taken seriously (at least by rock snobs) was a long one, although anyone paying attention knew the big-voiced Welshman always had the goods. Just look at clips from his 1960s TV show, where he goes toe-to-toe with Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Stevie Wonder. Or fast-forward to 2003 and watch him jam with Van Morrison and Jeff Beck.
At the Tower, Jones was in total command without being showy. At 76, he's a white-haired eminence whose voice is as clear and robust as his artistry. He's digging deeper than ever, masterfully interpreting songs that are obviously close to his heart, and keeping the focus strictly on the music.
Jones' last three albums have been superlative, stripped-down takes on blues, gospel, folk, and country, and it was that material and similar fare that formed the emotional bulwark of the nearly two-hour show. He came onstage unannounced and tore through John Lee Hooker's "Burning Hell" with just a guitarist and drummer. Eventually joined by his full nine-piece band, he kept the focus on gospel and blues, from the rave-up "Didn't It Rain" and the searing "The Soul of a Man," to more secular-minded fare such as Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me Not to Come" and "You Can Leave Your Hat On."
Gospel also closed the night as, after delivering Prince's "Kiss," a cover that helped revive his career, he and the band went out on the high of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Things."
The old hits were judiciously sprinkled throughout. The stately country-soul of "The Green Green Grass of Home" fits in seamlessly with his current work. As for numbers such as "Delilah" and "It's Not Unusual," Jones played them straight, careful not to treat them as kitsch or with ironic detachment. And "What's New Pussycat?" was given a pretty cool new arrangement - just acoustic guitar, accordion, and sousaphone - that reduced its ridiculousness and helped it fit in with the rootsy nature of the rest of the set list.
While singing Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song," Jones got a rise from the audience when he reached the line, "I was born with the gift of a golden voice." He has not only served that gift well, but added luster to it.
Article written by Nick Cristiano for Philly.com
Article available online here
Written by Allie Volpe • Photography by Colin Kerrigan • September 21, 2016
Tom Jones is a man of many voices—a sonic chameleon, an aural shapeshifter able to transform his instrument into any genre, style, or time period he so chooses. The Welsh singer began the U.S. leg of his tour in support of his 2015 album Long Lost Suitcase at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia last night. In a true showman's fashion, he gave a gentlemanly bow before erupting into a repertoire of hits from rock 'n' roll's past.
Pulling cuts from his trio of albums produced by Ethan Johns, which includes 2010's Praise & Blame and Spirit In The Room which would follow two years later, in addition to Suitcase, Jones again proved his ability to step into any song or story and make it uniquely his. From the bombastic rockabilly blues rendition of John Lee Hooker track "Burning Hell" to the tender and melodic spin on Leonard Cohen's "Tower Of Song," the evening's performance had depth as well as width. His career spans over 50 years, yet Jones makes fresh and new material that predates his time in the limelight.
At its fullest, Jones' backing band consisted of nine players, and ranged from horns to organ and guitar. These bright features helped move the show along, ushering in various arrangements like the wild full band "Raise A Ruckus"—a jubilant and full contrast to the sleek and minimal recorded version on Suitcase—or the stark and moving "Elvis Presley Blues."
Mentions of Presley were noted, with Jones paying tribute to his late friend through another musician's song. He poured life into lyrics written about the man he knew well—"And he shook it like a chorus girl / And he shook it like a Harlem queen" turned not cliche, but revelatory under Jones' deep baritone vibrato. Tales of he and Presley's time singing gospel songs together prefaced "Run On." Another tenderhearted anecdote lead into the Lonnie Johnson original "Tomorrow Night," which Jones transformed into a crooning moonlit ballad, a favorite of his late wife who passed earlier this year.
The night's most anticipatory and well received moments came in the form of notable original recordings given new workings. "Sexbomb" was shed of its original funk and given the Las Vegas treatment with a dramatic and slowed introduction filled with sultry guitar wailings and accented rests in between mentions of "sexbomb" before transitioning into a brass-lead groove. Accordion, acoustic guitar, and tuba accompanied Jones on a romantic version of "What's New Pussycat?" fit for any French cafe. Rather than the chipper "Delilah" of 1968, a Latin salsa variety exists in 2016. On more than one occasion, security interrupted showgoers approaching the stage, panties waving overhead.
With a voice as strong and unwavering as ever, Jones' new arrangements and revisits to music history's past refocused attention on the demands of being a solo performer whose only instrument of vocals leaves no curtains to hide behind. He takes the listener on a journey of his own musical discovery, leading with charisma and wide smiles while he builds a world of song around us. The goal of Long Lost Suitcase is not to banish old with the new, but to invigorate the past with a life well sung.
Article available here
Tom Jones, the hitmaker whose work dates back more than a half-century, continues to draw fans and make interesting recordings. Since 2010, he has been working with rock producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Ray LaMontagne) on a trilogy of albums that both return Jones to his bluesy roots in Wales and use a mix of contemporary songwriters, including Tom Waits, Richard Thompson and Gillian Welch.
We reached the 76-year-old singer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he was finishing a South American tour before traveling north for a concert swing that includes a stop at Washington’s Warner Theatre on Sept. 25.
Q: You’ve been doing this for 50 years. Is it any easier an occupation?
A: It’s different. I don’t know exactly what I felt like then. I was full of fire when I was young. I wanted to attack anything. But I think when you’ve lived a bit, you read more into the songs. I do, anyway. And you’re sort of living the songs rather than performing them. . . . When I was young, I was interested more in [singing the songs]. . . . I can’t say I’m enjoying it more now than I did before, because I loved it when I first sang in Wales, in a pub or a club. I loved it then, getting up and singing. Or as a kid in school, I’ve always loved to sing. But I think when you’ve been around a long time, it’s even more satisfying to think that people are listening to me now, and I’ve been in the business for a long time.
Q: You’ve been revisiting your roots with your last few albums.
A: Yes. When I started off in Wales, I sang and accompanied myself with guitar in the ’50s. And then I got a band together, which is a rhythm section, really. I used to do a lot of blues, and rhythm and blues, and ’50s rock-and-roll and country, and all kinds of stuff. Then, when I had my first hit record, “It’s Not Unusual,” with brass on it, I had to put a bigger band together to try and duplicate the sounds that I was recording. But now, I’ve gone further back with just a rhythm section, even two instruments, sometimes even one. It’s more basic. It’s more how I would have done it in the ’50s, if you like.
Q: And the songs you’re singing seem to reflect your life, as well. They’re very carefully chosen.
A: Yes, exactly. The last album, “Long Lost Suitcase,” when I was recording it, Ethan [Johns] said it sounds like an autobiography, the songs that I was picking, and I said, “Well, I’m finally writing one.” That’s why we called some of the chapters in the book the titles of the songs, because they all reflected different parts of my life.
Q: Is it important to put your own stamp on a song?
A: It all depends. You can’t lose the essence of a song. I try to enhance it more than anything else. Some of them are similar to the original, but not a copy. Like when I did “Run On” on the “Praise & Blame” album, I knew it from Elvis Presley. When I tried it, it sounded like the one that Elvis had already done. And I thought, I’m not doing anything different. So then we came up with a guitar riff and I sang it in a higher key, and I did the whole thing myself, without the answering vocals from the backing singers. And it came out different. So, we try things. You’ve got to kick them around a bit to see what can you add to it or do something different to it, so you’re just not copying something somebody has already done.
Q: Did you have any reaction from Prince when you did your version of his “Kiss”?
A: Yes. I thanked him for writing it. I met him; he had a birthday party a long time ago. It was in London, and it was the first time I actually met him. I said, “Thanks for the song, thanks for writing it.” And he said, “Well, thanks for recording it.” But I didn’t take it any further. I didn’t ask Prince what he thought of it.
Q: What led to you write your autobiography, “Over the Top and Back,” which was released last year?
A: I’d been asked so many times since I started. When you first start off, I know singers who have only been in the business just a short amount of time, and they’ve already written their autobiography. I didn’t want to write it too soon. I wanted to live a while and write about things that I felt were important to me — growing up in Wales, and the characters that I met and listened to.
Q: Did you want to use it to set the record straight on some things?
A: Not really. What I wanted to show was how much I loved my wife. You know, my wife passed away in April. And that book is even more important to me now, because I don’t think I could write it now. Her passing hit me very hard. It’s still hitting me hard. Because we were kids together. We grew up together. So when I wrote the book, she’s featured in it a lot. And she loved it. . . . She passed away from lung cancer and it was very quick. . . . By the time they found it, she only had less than two weeks. So that hit me hard, and it still has. I didn’t know whether I would be able to sing after that. But now I realize that singing is saving my life, once I started again.
Q: Has your musical approach changed as a result?
A: Yes, I think it has. I feel it has. She used to listen to everything I recorded, and she would be very honest with me, whether she liked it, loved it or whether I shouldn’t have done certain things. . . . And on “Long Lost Suitcase,” “Tomorrow Night,” the Lonnie Johnson song, when I played it, she said, “I love that.” That was her favorite on the album. I didn’t know whether I’d be able to sing it. It means more to me now than when I actually recorded it, since she’s passed away, because of how much she thought of it, because of how much she loved it. And the words in it are very meaningful. But to do it is a joy to me now. Because I’m seeing her. I’m remembering her when I sing it.
Q: I suppose you must get fans who would rather you sing just the ’60s hits.
A: I don’t know. I think the people who really love the way somebody sings, they like to hear it. As long as you don’t change your style completely or do something that has nothing to do with what you’re known for, which I don’t agree with. So “Delilah” is still in the show. “It’s Not Unusual” is still in the show. “What’s New Pussycat?” is still there. “Leave Your Hat On” and “Kiss” are still there — the songs that I think are important. And I tried to freshen up the arrangements a bit. I sprinkle them throughout the show, so I can put in newer things, as well. And I don’t get any complaints.
People who go out and do hits year after year after year, I think the fans deserve more than that. The audiences deserve more than just that. You need to give them something new, or things you really love to sing. And they love it.
Article written by: Roger Catlin for The Washington Post
Kicking off The Americas Tour tonight in MEXICO CITY! Make sure to share your concert photos throughout the tour using #TJournal on social media or through the website directly here
We have created a tour mosaic of your photos sent in so far this year. Can you spot yourself!
I look forward to seeing your photos and you on the road very soon!
To celebrate Tom Jones’ Americas Tour starting in September!!! We are giving you the chance to win a pair of tickets to a show of your choice.
There are twenty pairs of tickets up for grabs.
As Tom’s latest album the critically acclaimed Long Lost Suitcase comprises of some of his favourite songs that have sound-tracked some great memories, we wanted to hear/see what songs, pictures and memories would be in your Long Lost Suitcase ?
To enter share your Lost Lost Suitcase on social media using #TJournal or you can directly upload your entries to the #TJournal page on Tom’s website right here
Good luck and see you there! :)
(The Long Lost Suitcase competition runs from Monday 22nd August and closes Thursday 25th August, after which twenty winners will be selected and winners will be revealed on Thursday 25th August. Each prize is for a pair of tickets for a Tom Jones concert only, travel and accommodation will not be provided.)
TOM Jones turned Kelvingrove Park into his very own Green Green Grass Of Home last night.
The Welsh crooner put on a sensational show at the Bandstand in Glasgow's West End.
He got the party started with his cover of John Lee Hooker's Burning Hell then thrilled the sell-out crowd by rattling through an epic greatest hits set which included timeless classics Sexbomb, Delilah and It's Not Unusual.
It turns out middle aged women really do throw their knickers on stage at Tom Jones gigs though even some of the heavier sets didn't make it that far.
You had to feel for the die-hards dancing away at the front.
It wasn't all laughs though and the great man paid emotional tributes to Elvis and then late wife Linda before a touching version of Tomorrow Night.
He sent his fans - ranging in age from 10 to 80 - home happy by rounding off an incredible night with Thunderball and Kiss before finishing with Strange Things Happening Every Day.
He is 76 years of age. What an absolute legend.
And what a Voice.
Article - The Scottish Sun - available online here
Thank you UK & Europe we had a ball this summer playing for you! It's been a thrill to see the fun and enjoyment you have been having at the shows by sending in your pictures on social media using #TJournal! So we have created a short tour film, enjoy, and see you soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eP13QIcxZs
The method suited Jones just fine. “They’re listening, they’re hearing the expression in my voice—they’re living in it the same as I am,” he says. “Jeremy does little things with his brushes, for example, following my phrasing. It’s like he reads my mind—he seems to know what phrasing I’m using and puts in accents to accent it. He changes things as I’m changing them. It’s extraordinary.”
Monks would mike Jones with a classic RCA 44, which, he notes, had benefits besides its inherent tonal qualities. “Half the drum sounds come in the back end of the 44,” he explains. “Everybody is coming down Tom’s mic. You can solo Tom’s mic and just enjoy the records. That’s the sound, basically. I would treat that as if it was the main microphone, as you would a main pair in a classical recording. Everything else in the room is a spot mic.”
For louder tracks, the engineer would place a Shure SM7 directly next to the 44. “The 44 is a figure-8 mic, so if you stick a cardioid—like the SM7, which has great rejection out the back—next to it and mix them together, you end up with a hypercardioid microphone.”
Johns played his guitars through a 10W or 15W Magnatone Lyric amp, a Vox AC4TV and a Fender Excelsior, while Fairweather-Low had a 15W Supro, with a single 12-inch speaker. “The key to recording in this manner is you’ve got to be getting a great sound, but at low volume,” Johns explains. “So lots of very low-wattage amps knocking around.” The Vox was used for the grungier leads, though Johns sometimes would use a diminutive 1W Marshall. “It’s a little boutique handmade Marshall, with incredible sound.”
Monks miked the amps with a Coles or Telefunken C12, often with a Unidyne SM57 alongside; for smaller combos, a 57 or a Sennheiser 421 in the back, mixed together with the front mics, out of phase, onto a single track. “That’s a trick I sometimes do on those really small amps, when you’re trying to get some of the low-end resonance output from them,” Monks says. “If you just put a mic in front, they can sometimes be a bit small.”
For Stacey, Monks had the drummer bring his own vintage AKG D30 bass drum mic, supplementing a selection that included C12s, U 87s, Coles, the 57s and AKG D19s, the latter for louder tracks. “It would change drastically from track to track,” Johns says. “I’d marvel at how Dom would change his miking technique depending on the sound Jeremy was making.”
Four additional tracks were cut elsewhere, all of which had been attempted previously, but, upon late review of existing tracks, not to Johns’ satisfaction. So a year after the last Distillery recordings, Jones, Johns and Monks went to Real World and tracked “Elvis Presley Blues” and “He Was a Friend of Mine,” with just Johns on a tremoloed guitar and Jones singing alongside him. In a rare instance of overdubbing, Johns doubled his guitar, producing a unique stereo effect. “We only did two takes of the song,” the producer reveals. “We put the guitar track from the alternate and flew it into the first pass—that’s that guitar sound.” Two more, “Factory Girl” and “Honey, Honey,” were recorded anew at Paul Epworth’s studio, The Church, with Irish band Rackhouse Pilfer.
Johns mixed most of the album himself at his home studio, Three Crows East. Since he doesn’t own a 16-track analog machine, the tracks were transferred to Pro Tools at The Distillery, then converted to analog via a set of RADAR converters before being mixed through his API analog console and recorded to a Studer C37 ¼-inch 2-track.
“I do quick mixes, almost like roughs,” Johns reveals. “There’s very little processing, no program compression or bus compression, and very little EQing on anything. It’s all balance. And I spend no more than 30 or 45 minutes on any song, and then just live with them for a few weeks.”
Occasional slap echo does appear, Johns using either an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man or Lexicon PCM42, in lieu of several vintage Echoplexes he has around. “It’s pretty crunchy; it has its moments,” he laughs. “There’s a lot of old gear here, so it’s always a bit of ‘fingers crossed.’ You’re running tape, an old console, tubes everywhere. You just hope that nothing’s gonna fail catastrophically during the live take, during the keeper.”
Tracks like “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used To Do” can even end up with a mono mix, as was the case here, giving it an authentic 78 rpm sound. “I think one of the enemies of creative record making is decision deferral,” Johns says. “You should just trust your instincts. I mixed that song four or five times, and just one day went, ‘You know what? I’m gonna mix this mono.’”
The process, from beginning to end, was just Tom Jones and his band, playing songs. “You can hear the joy in those songs, in his voice, because Tom is having a good time,” Johns states. “The musicians are being allowed to play and express themselves and perform. And Tom is just sitting in front of people that he loves, making music he wants to sing. When you hear the smile in his voice, it’s real.”
Article written by: Matt Hurwitz for Mix Magazine
Photos: Mark Woodward
Article available online here
🎉Very excited to reveal YOUR VERY OWN section of my website #TJOURNAL ! 🎉
I have created a fun and exciting area for YOU, MY FANS to share memories, tour photos 📷and videos 🎥 with the hope of connecting us all together from around the world 🌎, as I am really enjoying seeing your #TJournal posts this summer ☀️and all the fun you have coming to the shows! 🎫
To get involved share your memories and media using #TJournal on Twitter and Instagram or you can upload directly onto the website.
Check it out and get sharing your #TJournal memories! I will be joining in too!!
I look forward to seeing your posts on the #TJournal !!
Have fun & enjoy!
Very happy to announce Tom Jones will be touring the US this Fall.
Please keep your eyes peeled on the tour dates section of the website for all the latest announcements.
Tom Jones
Eden Sessions
Review by Lee Trewhela
★★★★
TO quote the Leonard Cohen song which the boy from the valleys has made his own, Tom Jones truly is a tower of song.
The hip-swinging sex symbol days may be long gone but he held the 6,000-strong audience of a certain age rapt with that extraordinary voice which only gets better with age.
Not many 76-year-olds can sing the way he did on Elvis Presley Blues (he knew The King, you know) or Thunderball.
There was one astonishing moment when Tom's voice went as cavernous as is humanly possible much to the delight of the awed audience.
Other highlights included a misty-eyed Green, Green Grass Of Home and the song from last year's Long Lost Suitcase that his late wife Linda loved, reaching a peak with that funky version of Prince's Kiss.
Still getting the ladies excited (witness the jokey knicker-throwing at Eden), Tom has also matured into a performer who gets music lovers equally excited.The Eden Project witnessed yet another legend work their magic in its amazing setting.
Oh and hats off to support artist AJ Brown, 50 years younger than Tom, whose easy charm and Buble meets Elton style won over a lot of new fans.
Tom Jones returned yesterday to talk about his autobiography ‘Over The Top and Back’ at the Hay Festival in Wales with GQ Editor Dylan Jones.
Read all about their conversation here
We are thrilled to announce that Tom Jones’ critically acclaimed autobiography ‘Over The Top And Back’ is released today as a paperback edition in the UK (published by Penguin), just in time for those summer holiday getaways.
The US paperback release will be later this year.
Tom Jones will be chatting exclusively to Michael Ball on his BBC Radio 2 show from 11am on Sunday 29th May.
Not to be missed.
Tom Jones will be attending this year's The Hay Festival to discuss his autobiography 'Over The Top and Back' with the editor of GQ Magazine, Dylan Jones.
The Hay Festival takes place in the staggering beauty of the Breacon Beacons National Park in Wales.
Tickets to Tom Jones' talk on Sunday 5th June at 2.30pm are LIMITED and are on sale now