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Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A singer known as 'Tom the Voice', with a five-decade career, sold 150 million albums and was praised by Elvis Presley.
On the island
Eight records
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' OnFavourite
Well, when Elvis Presley came on the scene... Everybody was saying, you know, this this is this there's this white man that sounds like a black man... And then one day I was walking through Pont de Pride with some of my friends... Jerry DeLewis a whole lot of shaking was was was coming over the speaker from the record shop. When I heard Jenny Lee Lewis with that piano... Good God, to me that was. That was it.
Well, I I love singing it in school. And, you know, little boys love westerns. And I like story songs. I like songs that paint a picture. And this definitely does.
Well, she was the first gospel singer I ever heard. On the radio. God, you know, who is that? I'd heard gospel songs, but I'd never heard them sung like that. And I love there's a song that we all sing in Wales, you know, at funerals and things called The Old Rugged Cross.
I left school when I was fifteen. I s I was working in a in a glove factory as an apprentice glove cutter... And all of a sudden this rock around the clock came on. I mean, I thought, good God, this is like... jumping out of the radio at me.
Spike Jones and his City Slickers
I was born in 1940. And Spike Jones used to come on the radio with comedy records. And he came on with one about the war. And this one is called the Furious Face. So it's really. Giving the finger to Hitler, you know, which we all loved, of course.
I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)
This was the first Aretha Franklin record that I heard. And I was driving back to London from up north. I'd been playing some gigs up there. And I had the radio on. This record came on.
This is the the first bluesinger that I was ever aware of. He came from the South and he moved into Chicago and he worked in a slaughterhouse or a meat packing factory. He was working side by side, you know, with with white men. And this white fella said that he was getting paid twice as much as Big Bill Brunsey, and why wouldn't he do something about it? So the only way that he could as far as he was concerned, was to sing about it.
This was the record that bridged the gap between traditional jazz and rock'n'roll, it it just jumped out of the radio. Wha when I heard it. I I still love to play it now, so I would if I was on a desert island I would love to play it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:46What about the showmanship? You seem very comfortable with life in the limelight.
No, I enjoy it. You do enjoy it. Oh, yeah. I always wanted it. I mean, I think it's a good idea.
Presenter asks
8:22What sort of little boy were you then? Were you a bit of a show off?
Yes. Yeah. A lot of the shore. A lot of the short... it was my strength. You know, uh a lot of boys in school, they were great rugby players or football players or, you know, something... So it was my strength... I'm dyslexic to start with. Right. So therefore I didn't like school. But I was lucky that I had this voice. It gives me confidence.
Presenter asks
14:21Did you feel confident enough to think you could support your wife and child by making a living at singing?
Yes but I couldn't make enough money as a singer in Wales. I had to get jobs in in the daytime so I could go and sing in these pubs and clubs at night. You know, I'd work on construction and I would work uh uh selling vacuum cleaners and you know, anything I could do in order to provide, I would do... I thought one day somebody is going to come to one of these clubs and see me. I take me to London. I'll go for hit record.
The keepsakes
The book
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Lawrence James
Because I've always been interested in history, and especially British history. I am Welsh, but I'm also British.
The luxury
When I used to go to Barry Island ... you never went to the beach without a bucket and spade. So, if I was on a desert island, I would have to have my bucket [and] spade.
Presenter asks
14:58When you look back at that young boy with the factory job during the day and singing in the clubs at night, but always believing he was going to be a star, what do you make of that?
Now, when I look back at it, because we went to Wales the other day... to my hometown... Pontypreith to me was a pretty big town in those days. My God, I must have had some kind of spirit... In order to think I can I can break out of here. But when you... know you have a talent, I had all the bravado to go with it.
Presenter asks
21:40Did your father tell you he was proud of you?
Oh yeah... my father at the at the beginning... after the first year and I'd had, you know, quite a few hit records. And I bought this new Jaguar. and I drove to Pontyfraith. to show my parents my new car. and my mother started cutting sandwiches for my father. And he said, Well, I'm going to work tonight. I said, You can't go to work tonight He said, Of course I can. I'm a coal miner, that's what I do. I said, Dad, please I mean, you know, I'm making all this money now. You know, I don't want to think about you In a coal mine?
Presenter asks
30:07Where do you get to when you reflect on how you've lived your life? What are your conclusions thus far?
that I've had a great time. I mean, there's more ups and downs. You know, I had a dream when I was a kid of becoming a a singer, a professional singer. And I'm still living that and I and I I haven't forgotten it, you know, I haven't I haven't finished yet, you know, because I'm loving it so much I don't want it to stop.
“I love to sing. It my my voice drives me. You know, it it it tells me that I that I have to I have to do it.”
“I love singing. Singing's like breathing to me. It's it's I've never known life without it. And I dread the time, if it ever does come, when when I can't sing.”
“I've listened the way I sing, but people see more than they hear, most of the time.”