Tom Jones The Life (NF8) by Sean Smith

Author:Sean Smith [Smith, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008104450
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-04-20T23:00:00+00:00

14

On Top of Miss World

Dai Perry was having a pint in the Wheatsheaf when he took a call from his best mate Tom, inviting him to catch a flight to Las Vegas and become his new bodyguard. Dai was going through a messy divorce, so it seemed the perfect antidote. He had all the physical credentials for the job, but he had never learned that tact and diplomacy were just as important as a smack in the face.

When This Is Tom Jones came to an end in 1971, beaten in the ratings by A Man Called Ironside, Tom’s constant touring provoked travelling hysteria. He needed protection from fans intent on tearing the shirt off his back. Dai was the man for that, his eyes darting from side to side, constantly watching for any threat. He was able to step in when things got out of hand at Madison Square Garden in New York, and Tom had his crucifix ripped off and his trousers torn to shreds.

Tom was determined to have his ‘butty’ Dai with him, even though his manager was never keen on the new arrangement. Gordon recognised that after a few drinks there was a danger of Tom and Dai becoming Treforest Teds once more. The rough edges that he had spent years smoothing were beginning to reappear. Tom was the headline act at Caesars Palace, not the Bucket of Blood. The inherent risk was apparent when Tom visited Madison, Wisconsin, in June 1971. He was enjoying a party with his entourage in his hotel suite, when a local boxer tried to gatecrash the celebration. His entry was barred on three separate occasions by Dai, until the man shouted out that the bodyguard was a ‘pumped-up Welsh factory worker’ and called Tom a ‘coal-mining prick’. Tom saw red and punched him, then Dai punched him and the two of them proceeded to kick him all the way to the elevator. He looked like the victim of a hit-and-run accident and needed hospital treatment.

Chris Hutchins, who wasn’t at the party, observes, ‘Tom was out of order and I think he regretted it. Tom could handle himself, but he doesn’t get into fights. I don’t think he has any vengeance in his heart.’

The problem was that Chris and Gordon would use Dai shamelessly to deal with paparazzi they wanted to discourage from taking pictures. They would just send him in to get rid of them without asking any questions first. Chris admits, ‘We could have helped him. I felt a bit guilty about Dai. There was no diplomacy about him and we could have taught him that.’

A few months after the Madison fracas, alcohol led to another unsavoury scene – this time on a plane. It was an eventful day. Tom was travelling with Linda in a limo bound for Kennedy Airport in New York, where they were catching a plane home to London. They had already enjoyed a drink or two, when Linda told him she wished he had never become so famous.

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