Around The World With Sir Tom Jones

Written by Paddy Milner

"I'm just back from perhaps the most epic tour I’ve been part of, circumnavigating the globe in two months!

I can’t quite believe the whirlwind of places we’ve been - starting in Abu Dhabi, we headed to Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong before criss-crossing Australia, New Zealand then on to Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and finishing in Mexico City.

Playing Byron Blues Fest was a standout - we were joined by the Blind Boys of Alabama on stage for a couple of songs, and there was a particularly electric atmosphere in the air that night.

We had a quick run-through with them in the dressing room beforehand - a goose-bumps moment hearing Tom singing acoustically with them while musical heroes Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi also shared the moment in the room.

"One of things I love about touring is the opportunity to experience different places, cultures and meet all sorts of people."

Touring with Tom is such a gift in this sense, as the schedule usually allows enough time to have a meaningful experience of the places we find ourselves in. For example, I’ve been getting super interested in wine the last few years and managed some great trips to vineyards in places like Margaret River, Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, Hunter Valley in Australia, Waiheke Island in New Zealand and Casablanca Valley in Chile. I mean, when else would I get a chance to do that?!

Food is always great to explore, and I love trying anything from local street food to the occasional higher-end local fare. Getting to know people really helps on tour, for example, we met some bar owners (Backroom Bar, Santiago - great place, check it out!), who knew the manager of an amazing steak restaurant in Buenos Aires (La Carniceria - go if you’re there!) and managed to get us a table despite it seemingly being fully booked. Another standout dinner was at a wonderful, unassuming place called Soei in Bangkok - the flavors at were so intense and unlike any Thai food I’d eaten before.

"Musically, my favourite points in the set are generally when I get a chance to dig in a little more."

This is usually with songs like ‘Leave Your Hat On’ on organ, or piano on the more rhythm & blues influenced songs like ‘Strange Things’ or ‘Johnny Be Good’. The shuffle version of ‘Sex Bomb’ is also fun, along with a little Hammond feature on ‘Green Green Grass of Home’.

On the more introspective side, I open the show on my own before Tom walks out and we play an emotive ballad ‘I’m Growing Old’ - it’s an interesting song with very poignant lyrics although the chord sequence isn’t the most intuitive so I enjoy the challenge of being exposed at such a heightened-emotional start to the set.

"The set remains fairly constant each tour with Tom so keeping it interesting on stage becomes more important as time goes on."

This can lead to the temptation to pepper my parts with a few more notes or try a cheeky substitution so it takes some discipline to keep it consistent. Ultimately, we’re there to support Tom in the delivery of the songs so any distraction from that isn’t helpful. But generally there is a degree of freedom in the keyboard parts so I just have to use my judgement in how far I can push ideas before they become inappropriate - I guess flirting with that line is where some playful interest can come from!

"I don’t have any particular warm-up for a show although I enjoy a bit of head-space so I’ll normally head out after soundcheck rather than sit in an often dark and often uninspiring dressing room."

We’re needed back in the dressing room an hour or so before the show and it’s always good to play a few songs on a speaker to inspire the mood, perhaps along with a glass of wine or a beer. Striking a balance between health and vice is key for me - it makes for a much more enjoyable experience both on and off stage. So I make sure to exercise regularly, in particular running - which is also a great way to see places.

Apart from the shows mentioned above, there have been so many memorable moments on this tour, too many to mention, although I love the day-to-day variety that comes along with it - one moment on a boat in New Zealand, the next running up a mountain in Chile, then dancing in a Brazilian samba club then tasting some mezcal in Mexico. But most of the memorable moments revolve around people, either folks from the tour or wonderful people we’ve met along the way.

"Tom has always been super easy when it comes to the shows."

He consistently delivers for his audiences and very rarely has anything critical to say about what we do - and when he does, there’s always good reason behind it. It’s clear he loves performing and shows no signs of stopping! As he says at the end of each show, ‘we’ve been touring the world for many years and plan to be touring it for many many more years to come!’.

Overall, it’s a really wonderful situation to be in and I hope to be along for at least some of that ride - and we’ll be around the UK/Europe this summer for starters."

Learn Blues Piano with Paddy Milner. Check out his courses here.