Tom Jones Was Great—Audience Something Else

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, June 21, 1971

If anyone came to hear Tom Jones sing at either the afternoon or evening performances yesterday at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, he would have done better to stay home and spin this fabulous entertainer’s records.

The sheer bedlam of screaming girls and women, the mass hysteria up and down the aisles, the continued attempts of some girls to get onstage (and some actually made it briefly), the constant “attire” being thrown at the gyrating Jones made it downright impossible to enjoy an excellent singer.

Polished

Yet, despite this it was a thoroughly enjoyable show, for Jones is a polished performer and works every minute. Since the afternoon was very warm and the sun hitting directly on the stage, Jones was bathed in perspiration from the very opening song.

He admitted several times that “this is the first time I’ve ever sung in the sun,” adding with a smile, “and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen an audience throughout a performance.”

Control by police and ushers became more and more of a problem as girls kept rushing forward and Jones began kneeling down to kiss them, sign autographs and spend more and more time between songs engaging in this hectic exchange with his adoring fans.

Jones is all over the stage, gyrating in Elvis Presley fashion and literally putting everything he has into a song. He’s a fabulous singer, can move from a ballad to rock with equal skill and remains informal and relaxed between numbers in his exchanges with the audience.

At one point, it almost became more interesting to watch the ushers struggling to hold back the girls trying to crawl onstage. Some eventually were carried bodily from the front of the theater but Jones never missed a note.

He sang all the songs for which he has become famous from “It’s Not Unusual” to “She’s a Lady” and “Pull My String.”

Backing him was a 32-piece orchestra, Jeff Sturges Universe, and also appearing on the bill for the first half of the show were the Blossoms, three gal singers in startling bright green crepe pantsuits with sequin trim and deep decollectage, and night club comic Pat Henry.

Harry Downie, WGY disc jockey, introduced the show. For all the first half of the show, nearly 1,000 teenagers of the 7,000 attending completely ignored the onstage performance. They were packed by the stage door entrance hoping to catch a glimpse of Jones.

The content of last night’s performance may have been the same, but the enjoyment for the audience had no comparison. Although there were over 11,000, compared to the afternoon’s 7,000, the evening audience stayed in its seats, listened attentively, applauded enthusiastically and Tom Jones could actually be heard singing.

It was more like a quality nightclub act than an afternoon festival, and this made the songs seem better than ever, worthy of this young Welshman’s excellent talent.

In a quick, backstage interview after the performance, Jones said he has two days off, then continues the tour of one-nighters which started in April in Las Vegas and ends on the West Coast in mid-September. Asked if the in-outdoor aspects of SPAC were a hindrance to his style of performing, Jones quipped, “Just ask me back next year and see how quickly I’ll accept.”