It was a mix of old and new on this stunning autumn evening at The Drive in Adelaide for the Sir Tom Jones Ages & Stages tour. The old being Sir Tom Jones (sorry Tom) at the age of 83. And the new being The Drive venue. A first concert for us experiencing this newly redeveloped venue to Adelaide in concert mode. And the first national tour for Sir Tom Jones since his sold out performances in 2016.
Local girls Germain kicked off the evening in a pleasant manner to ease the crowd into the night before the main event kicked off.
Opening his performance at the Drive in Adelaide on Tuesday night with “I’m Growing Old”, it shows that he still has that sense of humour that has endeared him to audiences worldwide. He then delved back to the start of his career with hit songs such as “It’s Not Unusual”, Burt Bacharach’s “What’s New Pussycat” (with a massive crowd singalong) and “The Windmills of Your Mind.”
In between songs he chatted and joked with the audience, often telling the story behind the songs. For example, “Windmills of Your Mind” was a Dusty Springfield cover that he enjoyed. Other songs that he sang from artists that influenced him included Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song”, Cat Stevens, with “Popstar” and Prince’s song “Kiss.” Other notable artists to be mentioned was the now ninety-year-old Willie Nelson and Chuck Berry
As well as many of his hits over the years, he also sang some lesser known tracks such as Ry Cooder’s “Across the Borderline”, Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee” and Todd Snider’s “Talking Television Blues” (with sunning visuals on the screen) which was as pertinent as ever.
In the encore he sang “One Hell of a Life” which sums up Tom Jones in a sentence. By now the crowd were standing and singing along in a crescendo of love for the man that has brought joy to the world for so many years. You could see that he still has the love of performing. At 83 years old, Tom Jones has lost none of his magic and stage presence that has kept him popular for sixty years.
An incredible show by an incredible showman.
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