Tom Jones I Geoffrev Wansell Jones the voice returned to London last night, a ma,ture and confident entertainer riding a wave of international success. He opened a three-week season at the London Palladiunm. 'But his - marvellous sinewy Pontypridd tenor voice-the key to his enormous success-bore the sCars of seven years of singing his heart out to lay the ladies of his audience in the aisles. It showed the stress of the seemingly endless series of television spectaculars, concerts and cabaret..Still splendid -deep and often sensuous-it is nevertheless in danger of not remaining so. For as he himself remarked during his 55-minute performance- bnly half as a joke -"!can't we just talk for five minutes ". Tom Jones amply proved, though, that,at 32 he is still bring- itig a substantial flutter to the hearts of millions of young mothers and a tremble to many a more mature female knee. That, after all, was always one of the bases of his appeal, he has the earthiness of the labourer catcalling from the scaffolding and it is one of bis most endearing qualities. His smooth and professional act included a mixture of his old hits and some more unusual material including a quietly individual ver- sion of Paui Anka's ' My Way" which ignored the brilliant Sinatra version. Fittingly, hetended.with his first hit, " ft's not unusual" which showed.that his prescntation may not have .altered ;greatly over the years but his confidence has growh beyond all bounds-thatpre- surnably is what Las Vegas does for an entertainer. He may be slightly too professional to take them quite as much by storm as he used to but 'he does a great deal better than drizzle. ln the end, however, it. is his voice on which he depends. Last night he guarded it and protected it against too much strain with pro- fessional canning but 4it was still. plainly overstretched. For he has sung too loud too long and too often for his own oood. It is to be hoped that an ever insistent and voracious public will allow him a rest after this tNvice-nightly sea- son. time for his voice to recover its full strength. For that is what makes Tom Jones a remarkable. entertainer. Without it, despite the sexy hip swivelling and charm, all would be lost and that would be a great pity. We would be without one of our most exciting younger performers. Tom Jones London Palladium