As Welsh singing legend sir Tom Jones’s story is brought to the stage in musical Tom, we bring you ten things you may not have known about the pop icon and his early life.

  • He was born Thomas Jones Woodward in Pontypridd on June 7, 1940, the son of a coalminer.
  • Tom was bedridden for two years from the aged of 12 after suffering tuberculosis.
  • In 1957, Tom married his high school girlfriend Linda. They are still together.
  • A month after getting married, son Mark was born.
  • While he was trying to make the big time, Tom worked in a glove factory.
  • He started as the frontman to Welsh beat band Tommy Scott and the Senators, who had a local following, in 1963.
  • Future manager Gordon Mills spotted him singing in a club called Top Hat in Cwmtillery.
  • Mills persuaded Tom to change his name to Tom Jones to capitalise on the popularity of the Oscar winning 1963 film starring Albert Finney.
  • His first single Chillls and Fever failed to chart though you may have heard of his second, It’s Not Unusual.
  • From 1967 to 2011, Tom Jones played at least one week in Las Vegas every year.

Tom the Musical is at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, from April 26 to 30 and Richmond Theatre from May 17 to 21. Go to churchilltheatre.co.uk or atgtickets.com/richmond

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