Tom Jones at The Apollo in Oxford
On Sunday 10th December, 2000 I saw the man himself, Mr. Tom Jones, live in concert! I went with a party of seven, which included friends and family and our own 'Tom Jones look/sound alike'! We left Banbury and arrived at Oxford a little early, so we were in time for the concert.

I had never been to the Apollo before (But I had seen it on a 'Bottom-Live' video!) and it was a beautiful building. We had perfect seats. I did put 40p in the binoculor holder to zoom in on the stage, but I ended up dropping the binoculars on the floor and I never saw them again!

I didn't need them anyway!! As the lights grew dim the sound of the Cerys Matthews and Space hit 'The Ballad of Tom Jones' could be heard playing. The perfect introduction for Tom to come on stage to! His first song was off his recent album 'Reload' called 'Ain't That A Lot Of Love'. He was backed by a brilliant backing band of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, percussionist, two pianists, three backing singers and a four piece horn section! It was like listening to the actual record! They were rockin'!

He said at the begining that he will be singing songs from 'Reload' and some of the oldies as well. I had many, many favourites from the concert. The first fav was,I think, the third song. As soon as I heard the brassy intro to 'Help Yourself' I thought, "WAAAAA!" I love that song and I never thought he'd sing it! The only times I'd heard it live was when The Mavericks performed it last year at the Albert Hall, which was also a great suprise, and when my dad's group did it! I should just explain, my dad was in a local group for a number of years and the singer is a Tom Jones fan, and he just happens to look like him as well! (He's the Tom Jones look/sound alike!)

Anyway, their group did a lot of Tom Jones' songs and this was one of them. Some other highlights of the night were when he sang 'Deliah', 'Kiss', 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again', 'Mama Told Me Not To Come', 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' and 'Green Green Grass Of Home'. When he sang Green Green Grass of Home, green lights were shining around the hall and on the stage. Then at the end, light projected images of the Welsh Dragon were shone onto the walls! It looked great! I thought about joining him on stage for this song as I can do a pretty cool version of it on the accordion!


Of course, the other favourite was 'It's Not Unusual'! It was just a dream come true seeing that performed live by Tom!! Near the middle of the concert Tom did a short Blues set accompanied by the guitarist.
He finished the night with 'Sex Bomb' from Reload. By this time everyone was standing up dancing and singing along!! It was a fantastic concert!!!!!The only favourite of my mine that he didn't do was 'Love Me Tonight'. But it didn't matter at all-It was a brilliant night and you should definitely see him live if he's in concert near you!