Tom Jones - the Life (13 page)

At least Linda could enjoy visits from family who travelled up from Wales. She couldn’t persuade her mother Vi to leave her home in Cliff Terrace and move permanently. She was a frequent visitor, but Vi continued to work at John’s Café, next to the White Hart pub. Despite a strong admiration for Tom’s talent, she was never happy about stories involving her son-in-law’s indiscretions.

Tom’s parents were only five miles away in Shepperton. They were even closer when he bought them a new house in Weybridge. His sister Sheila and her husband Ken moved into the lodge at Tor Point and Tom gave his brother-in-law the job of looking after the extensive grounds. He liked to keep his family close and that never changed.

Linda did have friends, of course, and while he was young, she was looking after her son, who was enrolled at an expensive school in Shepperton. Jo Mills was only just up the road, but she was a very different type of woman and, in any case, she had an expanding family. She was sociable and socially adept, and enjoyed throwing extravagant showbiz parties.

Tom would associate with celebrities away from home, but, as a couple, Tom and Linda weren’t part of a show-business set. The most famous person ever to come to Tor Point was probably Michael Jackson, but at the time he was only a boy and Tom had invited him to shoot a video in the grounds. Michael turned up and spent half a day driving a little go-kart about the place while being filmed.

Tom, when he was at home, was just the same as Linda. He preferred to go out to be sociable. He liked nothing better than to hold court in an old-fashioned boozer. Once, just before Christmas, Linda was worried because she didn’t know where he was and he had been missing for two days and two nights. She phoned Chris Hutchins, who told her he would try to discover what had happened. He found Tom in the local pub in Weybridge. Chris walked in and Tom looked up at him, smiled and said, ‘Hello, Chrissie. Have a drink.’

Linda chose to stay at home when she had the money to do anything she pleased. Tom was about to sign a television deal that would make him a multi-millionaire. She didn’t choose to do what some other women with wealthy husbands do. She could have travelled the world with her husband, or by herself. She could have started a charity or a foundation. She might have started a fashion and design business or found an artistic pursuit that enriched her life, but she drank champagne and dusted. It may or may not be coincidence that she became more reclusive after Tom’s affair with Mary Wilson became public and she had to deal with that humiliation.

Ironically, the third great Tom Jones song of the sixties was about infidelity. Thankfully, none of Tom’s affairs ended as badly as ‘Delilah’, the dramatic ballad that perfectly showcased his powerful voice.

Les Reed and Barry Mason wrote it and, surprisingly, they didn’t compose the song with Tom in mind. He was second choice – just as he had been to Sandie Shaw when ‘It’s Not Unusual’ was written. They wrote it for P. J. Proby. Les, who admired the Texan’s individual approach, had been hired as producer for his album, called
Believe It or Not
. Les joined forces with Barry to write a number of songs for inclusion, but he recalls, ‘From the very beginning, on hearing the song, P. J. absolutely hated it. After a long and heavy day at the Wessex Sound Studios, we finally came to record his voice onto the track of “Delilah”. He was so against the song, he ended up singing it like Bob Dylan! Eventually, as his producer, I gave up on the song and we released an eleven-track album instead of twelve. I played “Delilah” to Gordon and Tom the following day … and the rest is history.’

Tom had to answer some critics who thought the song glorified murder. He told the
NME
: ‘Of course “Delilah” has violence. It’s a song about a man who sees his girl being unfaithful and who kills her in the heat of the moment. It’s been known before. It’s not a song that glorifies murder. The whole point of it is that I’m sorry for what I’ve done.’

As usual, a little controversy was good for sales and ‘Delilah’ reached number two in the singles chart. The album of the same name was Tom’s first UK number one in August 1968. The song is one of his best loved, but also remained controversial because of its violent subject matter. There were even calls for it to be banned after Tom sang it before the Wales rugby international against England in 1999, more than thirty years later. It became an unofficial anthem of the Welsh team, with the crowd cheerily singing, ‘I felt the knife in my hand …’

The lyricist Barry Mason summed it up: ‘Nobody listens to the lyrics.’

Tom continued to badger Gordon to let him have his nose fixed and his teeth done. His manager had always resisted, telling him he wanted him to look natural. Tom’s rugged masculinity was part of his appeal. Gordon changed his opinion, however, when the dollar signs began to appear in front of their eyes. The rough and ready rocker didn’t suit the image of a Vegas headliner or a budding movie star.

Gordon now told him, ‘You are a star and you must look like a star.’ Tom was booked into a clinic in London for what was called an operation to repair some nasal cartilage. He soon grew tired of that subterfuge and has subsequently been happy to talk about his cosmetic surgery. The large, misshapen hooter he so hated was remodelled, his teeth were whitened and capped, and his long face became more rounded under his chin. He has never been afraid to top up his cosmetic treatments to continue to keep the years at bay. The procedure worked, because Tom emerged looking much more traditionally handsome.

The movie star Tom was the one that Lew Grade first saw at the London Palladium. Lord Grade, as he would later become, was a legendary figure in television history. He was born Lovat Winogradsky in the Ukraine, but his family moved to London when he was thirteen, and he had become Lew Grade by the time he was crowned Charleston Champion of the World in 1926. He later billed himself as ‘The Dancer with the Humorous Feet’ before deciding that his future was as an agent and impresario.

Tom likes a cigar, but Lew Grade must have been born with a large Montecristo in his mouth. He was the archetypal cigar-chomping TV tycoon. His great talent lay in spotting potential and exploiting a gap in the market. After the Second World War, he signed some of the UK’s favourite entertainers, including Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Tony Hancock, and secured a foothold in the rapidly evolving world of television. His aim was to provide programmes for the ‘average working-class family’s evening’.

By the time he first saw Tom Jones, he was the renowned boss of ATV (Associated Television). More importantly for Tom and Gordon, he had an eye on the American market and was always on the lookout for shows that could work for both the UK and US audiences.

He recognised Tom’s potential when he watched a run-through for
The London Palladium Show
, a hugely popular variety show that ran throughout the sixties: ‘It was only a rehearsal and Tom was dressed casually, but he performed as if he was doing his actual performance.’

Lew could see straight away that it was the music that mattered for Tom: ‘He was a very attractive sensuous-looking man, but that was incidental. Without the vitality he put into each performance, he would never have been a sex symbol.’

Lew called his American contact, Martin Starger, the vice-president in charge of programming at the ABC network, to invite him to London to see Tom live at the Talk of the Town, the well-known London nightspot, where he was booked for a month’s residency. They chose a good night. He gave a rousing rendition of many of his best-known songs from the sixties. Lew Grade observed, ‘Even when he sang a ballad, you could feel the rhythm.’

Lew must have been thinking of ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’, a song made famous by Ray Charles. Tom sang it as if his very life depended on extracting every ounce of emotion from the lyric. He was backed by the Ted Heath Orchestra, demonstrating how quickly he had mastered singing with a big band. It was Sinatra with balls.

Grade and Starger were looking for a charismatic artist who could bring ‘variety’ to a younger audience. They both believed they had found that man. Lew told
Omnibus
that Martin was ‘over the moon’ and suggested that they produce a Tom Jones special in the first instance, with a view to commissioning a series if it was a success.

Tom wasn’t keen when he heard the plan. He was uncomfortable with the idea of introducing acts, ‘Ladies and gentleman, put your hands together for Bob Hope.’ He did trust Gordon, however. He accompanied him to meetings in Lew Grade’s office, smoked one of their host’s fine cigars and sat quietly while the two men conducted a series of tough negotiations. Gordon already had a reputation for being fearless – he needed to be when he had discussions with the Mafia in the US and looked them in the eye.

Lew recalled their third meeting in his autobiography,
Still Dancing
: ‘I said, “Gordon, that’s my final offer, and I’ll tell you what else I’ll do. I’ll give Tom a box of cigars for every programme he does.” Tom, who’d remained silent at these meetings, spoke for the first time. “You’ve got a deal!” he said.’

It’s a good story that doesn’t ring true. Gordon made all the decisions. Tom would have known when the enthusiastic poker player was happy with his hand. He had every reason to be pleased. The three-season contract was set to earn Tom £9 million, the highest figure ever paid to a single performer.

Elvis Presley was the first star that Tom asked to be on the series
This Is Tom Jones
. The King was booked but never appeared. Apparently, there was a contractual problem. He had appeared on TV in 1960 in a special programme hosted by Frank Sinatra that welcomed him home from his national service in the army. The show was an opportunity for Elvis, minus sideburns, to show America his new toned-down image for an adult audience. It also gave him the chance to plug his new film,
G.I. Blues
, which co-starred the dancer Juliet Prowse, with whom he’d had a passionate fling during filming.

Elvis told Tom that he had been contracted to make two specials with Sinatra and wasn’t allowed to appear on another show until he did. That was the official line, although the critics had been harsh about Elvis’s appearance alongside Frank and he may not have been too keen to sing alongside another vocal powerhouse.

Sinatra was probably the only guest who could have matched the prestige of Presley, but he too proved to be beyond reach. When Tom started in Vegas, Frank and The Rat Pack were the kings of the strip. The two men became friendly and Tom has often quoted the piece of valuable advice that Sinatra gave him: ‘He said, “Tom, you don’t have to hit everything hard. If you keep hammering everything, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”’ Frank encouraged Tom to find his crooner voice and not focus so much on rock ’n’ roll.

Juliet Prowse, whose bee-sting lips revealed the widest of Hollywood smiles, did appear on
This Is Tom Jones
, in the pilot show recorded in the autumn of 1968. The guest list was a touch middle of the road for Tom’s taste: Juliet, the accomplished harmony group The Fifth Dimension and the French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu. The reaction from the focus groups was very positive and the go-ahead was given for the first series to begin in January 1969.

Tom, by all accounts, tried his luck with Juliet, but was rebuffed. Despite all the headlines concerning his sex life, his success rate with some of the leading female entertainers wasn’t spectacular. Dionne Warwick, Sandie Shaw and Lulu were just three who were strike-outs. Lulu wrote in her autobiography that Tom was misled in believing she liked to fool around: ‘I think he was disappointed to discover that he was wrong. I was aware of his animal magnetism, but to be truthful he frightened the life out of me.’ He was falsely rumoured to have had an affair with Kathy Kirby, who, for a time, was the biggest British female star of the sixties and had toured with Tom. She was even said to have had Tom’s baby and was heckled about it by a member of the audience at one of her concerts. It was complete nonsense and Tom managed to laugh it off, although Kathy found the whole thing rather cruel. This sort of gossip has plagued Tom throughout his adult life.

Just as the TV series was getting under way, Tom and Gordon had to go to the High Court in London to contest a claim from his old managers, Raymond Godfrey and John Glastonbury, who were seeking the royalties from their original contract. Eventually, the former managers settled out of court for a figure reported to be £50,000 each. Tom has always been dismissive of Myron and Byron’s efforts on his behalf, referring to them as Pinky and Perky. He wouldn’t have enjoyed giving them any money.

The resolution of the contract with his old managers seemed to prompt a spring clean by Gordon. He gave Vernon Hopkins a lift back home from the courts and told him The Squires would not be needed for the new television series, because the Americans wanted to bring in musicians who could sight-read and accompany the guests, as well as play for Tom. In the meantime, he suggested the band record a song he had picked out, called ‘Games People Play’ by Joe South.

They promptly recorded the song at a studio in Barnes, with new guitarist Bill Patterson on lead vocals. Gordon showed up for the session, but, according to Vernon, took little interest and made zero contribution. A few days later, the bassist was looking through the
Daily Mirror
and came across the headline that declared ‘Tom Jones and The Squires in amicable split’. It was the first Vernon had heard of it.

The report quoted Tom’s management: ‘Tom will be spending most of the year making his new television series, any future tours will be with the Ted Heath Orchestra. The Squires have, for some time, wanted to branch out on their own and will soon be releasing a new single.’

The Squires’ one and only record didn’t even make the charts in Pontypridd. Vernon says it received so little promotion that he’s not even sure if it was given a proper release. The probability is that Gordon was looking to avoid any future obligation to the band by sorting out a half-hearted single that was doomed to failure. Its poor showing gave him an excuse to sack them and they had no written contracts. Vernon received three weeks’ wages – a grand total of £120. It was especially galling in the light of the settlement paid to the former managers.

The Squires were young men in their twenties. They had seen the world with Tom and enjoyed more than their share of willing young women, but they were still paid a pittance – £40 a week – while Tom was a millionaire. Simply, they didn’t fit in with Gordon’s vision for Tom’s future. He saw his man as a TV star, earning a fortune in Las Vegas and possibly Hollywood.

It was the right time to let them go. Neither Gordon nor Tom has revealed the reason why the boys were apparently treated so badly. Only the group members have given their version of events. Vernon has spoken to Tom just twice since and still has a strong antipathy towards him.

Tom, as we know, hates all forms of confrontation and Gordon was a man who liked to be in total control. Chris Hutchins, who remembers the circumstances well, observes, ‘Tom would always say, “Talk to Gordon.” He wouldn’t negotiate his way out of a paper bag; Gordon had to do all the dirty work. I don’t know if it was a sign of his early financial insecurity, but the last thing Tom would ever do is give the band a lot of money. He has never been one to do that.’ The harsh truth may be that the band members weren’t his close friends; they were just his band.

Gradually the old team was breaking up. Les Reed still wrote songs for Tom, but was concentrating more on other artists. Peter Sullivan left Decca and was no longer responsible for producing his records. He had loved working with Tom, appreciating his natural talent and said dramatically, ‘I feel as if my left arm has been cut off.’

Peter gave a fascinating insight into Tom’s attitude to the songs he recorded: ‘He has to really feel something to sing it well. If Tom was singing a particular song that really wasn’t happening, he’d lose interest. He’d get very depressed about it and want to forget all about it.’

The vacancy for a producer for Tom Jones was filled by Gordon, which was not necessarily a good thing, as his golden age as a hit-maker was soon over.

The television series was filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. The schedule meant that Tom had to be ready for work early in the morning, at a time when he was usually about to go to bed after a night out. He coped well with the stop–start demands of filming, when a two-minute segment could take half a day.

One morning, the director, Jon Scoffield, wasn’t happy with the colour of Tom’s white jeans, which he felt didn’t blend with the set. Tom had to go to his dressing room, take off his jeans, wait for them to be dyed grey and dried, put them back on and return to the set. The director still wasn’t happy, so it was back to the dressing room, slip them off, wait for them to be dyed white again and dried, then put them back on and be ready for filming to start. He had been there all morning and achieved nothing.

Tom wasn’t a prima donna. He would sit patiently, sometimes with a glass of champagne, but more often with a mug of tea, and wait to be called. It was, after all, better than working in a glove factory.

One incident brought home how lucky he was. He was being driven to the studios in his Rolls-Royce Phantom after a night out, and wasn’t looking forward to the production number, which involved choreography and dancing. He told Larry King, the legendary CNN host: ‘I thought, oh my God, I have to go in today and I have got to get made up and do all of this.’

When he stepped out, he spotted a young hod carrier humping bricks up a ladder – exactly the job he had once done on a building site. The lad shouted to him, ‘Hey, Tom, you want to help me out with this?’ It opened Tom’s eyes: ‘I thought, “I’m complaining about a production number and this kid is going to be running up and down that ladder all day.”’

Sandie Shaw was a guest on the first show and memorably duetted with Tom on ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, which was a Rolling Stones song that was hugely popular at Tom’s live show in Las Vegas. He invited her to his luxury caravan for a glass of champagne, but she turned him down, perhaps sensing that he had more on his mind than bubbly.

Tom’s success rate in the caravan was very high, however. It was referred to as a caravan, but it was nothing you would take on holiday to Clacton. It was the size of a small apartment with several rooms and was parked out of the way so visitors could come and go unobserved.

Production staff had to knock four times and wait to be called just in case he was ‘entertaining’. The TV producer Stewart Morris recalled that if Tom had spotted someone he liked the look of in the audience, Chris Ellis would be despatched to invite her for Dom Pérignon in the caravan. Chris would then stand guard outside the door for the duration of her visit.