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Delilah Banned:
Choirs have been told they can no longer sing the Tom Jones hit ‘Delilah’ while performing during Wales rugby international matchdays at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
The lyrics of the song, an enduring standard for Welsh pop star Jones since it first charted in the late 1960s, include a reference to a woman being murdered by her jealous partner. One line of the song reads: “I crossed the street to her house and she opened the door; she stood there laughing, I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.”
Wednesday’s announcement came with the Welsh Rugby Union still reeling from allegations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia within the ranks of the governing body. Claims of a “toxic culture” at the WRU were aired in a television documentary last week, resulting in the resignation of chief executive Steve Phillips on Sunday.
The WRU took ‘Delilah’ off its half-time entertainment and music playlist during Test matches in 2015. And now guest choirs have also been asked to avoid singing the song.
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Meanwhile . . .
Angry Welsh rugby fans have vowed to sing Delilah at the Principality Stadium after one current international star criticised the decision to ban it. One of Cardiff's most famous match-day pubs, The Old Arcade, has also responded by tweeting: "We will be playing Delilah… It will be loud… It will be on a loop…" Supporters with tickets have pledged to follow suit.
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Tom Jones commented on the issue in 2014:
"I love to hear it sung at rugby games. "It makes me very proud to be Welsh. I think if they're looking into the lyric about a man killing a woman, it's not a political statement. It's just something that happens in life [and] he just loses it.
He added that rugby fans "don't think about" the words and instead focus on the iconic chorus.
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By the way . . .
You have listened to the lyrics of that other sweet hit of Tom Jones, the Green Green Bross of Home, haven’t you?
A man returns to his childhood home for what seems to be his first visit there since leaving in his youth. When he steps down from the train, his parents are there to greet him, and his beloved, Mary, comes running to join them. They meet him with "arms reaching, smiling sweetly". With Mary, the man strolls at ease among the monuments of his childhood, including "the old oak tree that I used to play on", feeling that "it's good to touch the green, green grass of home".
Abruptly, the man switches from song to speech, as he awakens and sees "four grey walls" surrounding him and remembers that he is in prison. As he resumes singing, we learn that the man is waking on the day of his scheduled execution. He sees a guard and "a sad old padre" who will walk with him to his execution at daybreak, and then he will return home "in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home".
Hey, maybe he is being executed for killing Delilah.
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Part of an interview with Tom Jones by Terry Gross, May 14, 2021:
GROSS: One of the things that apparently always happens at your concerts is that there are some women who throw their panties at you, throw them onto the stage. Do you remember the very first time that happened?JONES: Yeah. It was in the Copacabana in New York in 1968. It was a supper club. And the singer is on the same - the stage - the band is on the stage. But the singer is on the dance floor, which is at - and all these tables - you know, tables and chairs all around you with the people. And I was perspiring a lot, so these ladies were handing me table napkins. And then this one woman stood up and took her underwear off and, you know, handed them to me. And it was written up in the newspaper the following day. And that's what started it. And that was in '68, and I went to Vegas the same year. And then the room keys, you know, started because people that are in Vegas are staying in the hotels. And they have, you know, room keys in their handbags or their purses.So, you know, it was - the stage would be showered with underwear and room keys. So that went on for quite a while. But, you know, when it first started, it was very sexy because I don't think any woman had ever thrown underwear at a singer before. I don't think it ever happened before that or, for that matter, throwing a room key up there, you know? So it was very sexy at the time. But then it - you know, it became a bit of a joke because people would bring underwear, you know, in handbags and just throw them up there because they thought it was the thing to do. So it backfired on me a bit.
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Jones was born on 7 June 1940,so is aged 82, and is still performing, although these days are more likely to throw incontinence pads on stage than underwear
Tom Jones at the Queen’s burthday party, 2018
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Meanwhile, in other news . . .
Kids banned:
A Melbourne woman has called for the creation of “adults only” suburbs in Australia so she can have “peace and quiet”.
The TikTok user, who goes by the name Baby Soja online, uploaded the video over the weekend following a visit to her local pool, saying she was “so sick” of having to put up with “screaming” children. “I would like to know when somebody is planning on opening an adult’s only suburb, where everything in it is only for adults,” she said. “Because I am so sick of going places and kids are just everywhere screaming and I just have to put up with it.”
She said she had just gone for a swim and, despite there being a separate pool for children, claimed there were kids “jumping and screaming” in the lap lane pool. “And that is just allowed because they are allowed everywhere,” she said.
“I just feel like for people like me that are evil and hate kids we should have our own suburb where we can just be quiet and undisturbed.”
Many people, even parents, agreed that there need to be more child-free areas available. “I love kids and I still love this idea and would move there,” one person said. “As a parent of two small children, I completely understand what you’re saying and respect that child-free people need space too,” another commented.
One person said they would like to see more adult only spaces that are centred around alcohol or just for night time. Other commenters there should be adult only restaurants, parks and supermarkets as well. “Child free pools, restaurants, movies and planes would be amazing - from a mum,” one person wrote.
One person suggested she was basically talking about a retirement village, to which the TikTok user said she wish they would “let her move in already’.
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