Tom Jones Live in Muscat, April 14, 2010


Here comes Tom Jones, who is currently doing a world tour of his latest album 24 Hours (2008) which consists of (the album that is, not the playlist for the concert):

1. I'm Alive
2. If He Should Ever Leave You
3. We Got Love
4. Give A Little Love
5. The Road
6. In Style and Rhythm
7. Sugar Daddy
8. Seasons
9. Never
10. The Hitter
11. Seen That Face
12. 24 Hours
13. More Than Memories

Taking a look at the official website's archive show dates, I pulled a rather well written review from kiwi journalist Simon Sweetman, which I've reproduced here:
----

Tom Jones Michael Fowler Centre, Monday February 22

Tom Jones comes from Wales. And Tom Jones wails. He is 69 but does not look a day over 67. He has a one-size-fits-all approach to dance; that is to say one dance move fits (almost) every song.

Imagine tagging both sides of an escalator that never makes it to the top - that is the move. An imaginary treadmill with Jones stopping at every chorus for a double fist pump; periodically pausing to ponder if he might like to lay an egg - the audience loves it, reacting as if it is a new move every time.

Jones is a born showman: knowing that Mama Told Me Not To Come and Hard To Handle are essentially the same song when they come from his lungs, he simply performs them back to back. By this point the crowd is eating out of his palm, you see Tom had played Delilah. A good portion of the audience would have been happy with a 90-minute version of this most tragic waltz, arms up swinging left to right, Telethon-style. Or at least an endless medley of that, cut with The Green, Green Grass Of Home and What's New Pussycat.

Those songs did arrive, separately, in and around several songs (possibly two too many) from his most recent album, 24 Hours. But Jones squeezed in plenty of hits, also squeezing out a grin and a wink and several near-septuagenarian pelvic thrusts; or should they be called pelvic trusses?

It is impossible to laugh at Jones; you have to laugh with him as he moves through his versions of country, pop, dance and soul, very much making every song his own.

He is the Vegas version of Joe Cocker, you don't need to own the albums but you cannot argue with the live performance. And the green, green lights really brought out the orange in his spray tan.

You Can Leave Your Hat On, Sex Bomb and of course It's Not Unusual were all major highlights and there was a return for Jones' cover of Prince's Kiss.

The only thing unusual would have been to not enjoy at least some of this concert.

----

So that sounds promising then! Ticket prices have not been announced yet, but I'd imagine they will be around the RO 25 mark and coming on sale soon. There's a Facebook group here, you can check the Hi FM radio website here, or, if you're that way inclined, you could even listen to the radio for more details ;)

le fin.
Tom Jones Live in Muscat, April 14, 2010 Tom Jones Live in Muscat, April 14, 2010 Reviewed by Sythe on Thursday, March 18, 2010 Rating: 5

3 comments:

  1. Ah TJ is coming...now that is funny even... but ya I am going. I mean we are in the Middle East so any form of entertainment is like a million times better here than in the real world. What i can't do ...is listen ot Hi FM. I get confused about what year I am living in ... the music is so so so boring...so so badly mixed, so so like 10 years ago or more...

    Hi FM I tried it and am back on the ol' mp3 plugged into the ciggie lighter.
    Ah. Sanity.

    TJ is COMING....i want a poster that reads that at least.

    ReplyDelete
  2. One thing I've learned about living in Muscat, if there is an event on, you MUST go!

    They are usually really good and well run (except the Jai Ho (?) concert, I've been told).

    Even if you don't particularly like Tom Jones, you should still go if you can, it'll be a blast, even if you just end up exchanging wtf-are-we-doing-here? looks with your friends :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. That should be a good concert, definetely worth going.

    ReplyDelete

This is a free blog hosted in the USA, comments are not moderated and should be treated as individual observations made by the commenter, they are not the views of the author of this blog unless specifically noted as such (eg a comment posted under the account of the blog owner). Should an individual or company wish a specific comment(s) removed please contact me at mrsythe[at]gmail[dot]com and inform me and I will delete it as soon as I read the email.

Powered by Blogger.