“You’ll have to ask my booking agent,” Tom Jones quipped to the Metro this week, asked why he hadn’t put on a Welsh headline show in over two decades. Yet this evening in Cardiff Castle, it was like he’d never left, as he stunned with almost two hours of trademark rock‘n’roll and a remarkably unchanged vocal ability, showing few signs of his 83 years.
I was left with the impression that Jones was a fan of music, period. Songwriters from Prince to Bacharach and David were covered and credited, and he seemed to know every chart position for his hits. The show was so gleeful to witness, as Tom clearly adores what he does. Not Dark Yet, a Bob Dylan song he made a point of choosing, felt well-suited as the evening was reminiscent of the latter’s own tour last year: two twilight-era artists staking their claim as defiant talents.
Jones strutted, posed, and yelped to emphasise his good vigour. He wasn’t remotely shying away from the microphone – in fact, he wowed with an extended, high-note-hitting Sex Bomb. He successfully preserved his place as a classic sex symbol further on You Can Leave Your Hat On: licking, glancing, and growling, it was remarkable to see how little was off limits. He left his audience hanging on every word.
In an intimate fashion, he described how the next song, which he’d first heard on a Jerry Lee Lewis album when in New York, “knocked me out!” That song, Green, Green Grass Of Home, made for an emotional moment as that voice adeptly swelled over the misty-eyed Welsh audience. It was a beautiful exchange of pride: “People ask, do you miss Wales? I’ve got Wales right in here. She’s always with me.”
One Hell Of A Life, originally by Katell Keineg and covered by Jones on 2021’s Surrounded By Time, was perhaps the most telling song of the evening: “When I’m dead, please don’t philosophise or feel regret / Just remember me when I said / I had one hell of a life…” Its honesty and gratitude were intensely moving, and I imagine the whole audience was reflecting on the immense role Tom Jones has held in their own lives during a career of over 60 years.
Tom Jones, Cardiff Castle, Fri 21 July
words BILLY EDWARDS photos SIN HART