Almost 37 years after bursting onto the scene with It's Not Unusual, Tom Jones is still performing with the same gusto, the same dodgy dance moves and, amazingly, the same remarkable voice. He turns 60 this year, yet at the RDS on Saturday he showed all the swagger and vigour of the man who regularly brought the house down in Caesar's Palace more than three decades ago.
As dusk fell, he arrived on stage to the strains of The Ballad of Tom Jones - what else? - and instantly had the near 20,000-strong crowd on its feet. His band struggled with muddy sound for a short while, but Jones instantly got into his stride, launching "the voice" from his throat, soaring above the band, and completely engaging everyone present.
The delighted crowd didn't care about the undertones of domestic violence in Delilah, or that the homely The Green, Green Grass of Home is the deluded dream of a condemned inmate. This was a happy occasion - a 90-minute, body-swaying, hand-clapping singalong.
From 30-year-old classics to his last album, Reload, Jones ran through his usual fare of hits and covers - Burnin' Down The House, Hard to Handle, Sexbomb, What's New Pussycat, Leave Your Hat On, It's Not Unusual - with Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way and Prince's Kiss for the encore. His version of Walkin' in Memphis was sung back to him with such force that all he could do was leave the crowd to it.
Aside from his powerful talent, Jones's appeal on the night came from his genuine humility. His iconic persona comes across as personable. He gave pointers to Elvis, but you'd still go for a pint (or a cup of tea) with him after the gig. Onstage was "The Tom Jones Show", starring the down-to-earth superstar as himself.
