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29 October 2014
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You must have got a sense of the Bling Bling culture when you were working with Wyclef. Are you an ardent Blinger?
Tom: I've always worn jewellery but for a time it went out of fashion. Like grungy and punk bands didn't wear jewellery because it was stupid.

You must be in your element now then.
Tom: Of course, for Wyclef and these Hip Hop guys, the more jewellery you have is a status symbol. I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef. He's got a big diamond ring and I said "That's a fantastic ring" and he said "That's a complement coming from the King of Rings".

Do you ever get ring envy?
Tom: He's got a bigger diamond than I have and on him it looks great because he is who he is. If I was to wear it people would look at it in a different way.

At the end of Mars Attacks there's a chaffinch that lands on your arm while you're singing. Is that special effects or your power over the birds?
Tom: (Laughter) I didn't think of it that way when it happened because it's a different kind of bird. (More laughter). I can't answer that because I've never thought about it before.

You're de-mystifying it all now.
Tom: It didn't enter my mind. When a real bird lands on your arm … you know.

Would you react in the same way?
Tom: If a real woman jumped on my arm, I wouldn't be able to hold her up in the same way.

I want to show you this picture we have in the archive from 1966. What do you think of this picture?
Tom: I never liked that one because it was theTom Jones first time I had ever worn make up on television. They had put too much on. I thought I am never going to wear that much again because it looks false.

To read Tom's biog, click here.

Simply Red
"That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. "
Robin Gibb
"There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer."
Paul Roberts - The Stranglers
"We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers."
Lisa Stansfield
"I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?"
Soft Cell
"I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound."
Erasure
"Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey."
INXS
"We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there."
Kim Wilde
"I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous."
Dollar
"Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good."
Human League
"We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash."
Altered Images
"Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981."
Belle Stars
"The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now."
Steve Strange
"Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that."
Five Star
"We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..."
Phillip from Ruby Flipper
"At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..."
Glen Campbell
"I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..."
David Gray
"Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot"
Robert Palmer
"There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip."
Marilyn
"I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity"
Tom Jones
"I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef"
Ruth From Pan's People
"I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..."
Badly Drawn Boy
"Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single"
John Otway
"I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..."
Jimmy Cliff
"I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling."
Human League
"We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner."
Status Quo
"I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans"
Gary Numan
"There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of."
McAlmont and Butler
"We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged."
Primal Scream
"The producer at the time told us we'd never work again."
Oasis
"I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live."


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