Tom Jones sets the pulse racing at the Marquee

Joan from Northern Ireland was showing off her heart-monitoring wristband to her friends as John Blek and the Rats warmed up the crowd for Tom Jones.

“See, it’s at 82 now, that’s pretty good,” she said, “but wait until Tom comes on stage. I’ll be checking it then!”

It was seating room only at Live at the Marquee last night, and nearly a full house too, with plenty of couples who must have been contemporaries of the 76-year-old crooner out for a trip down memory lane, mingling with younger fans who discovered Jones in his come-back era in the early 2000s, when he recorded with fellow Welsh artists such as Stereophonics and Cerys Matthews.