Tom Jones at York Races

I've been a Tom Jones fan for longer than I can remember. Long before he became a regular on Saturday evening TV, and far before it was cool in an anti-cool hipster kind of way to like Tom Jones. In fact, on my wedding day, I walked down the aisle to 'It's not unusual' much to the amusement of our handful of guests. In fact, lets rewind even further back than that, in my karaoke loving student days, there was many a time I'd regale a drunken audience with Delilah.

So, when Tom Jones was announced to play at York Racecourse this summer, you bet I was ready and waiting to buy my ticket. How could I possibly miss it? In fact, if I had a bucket list (which I don't), I reckon seeing Tom Jones live would have been on it.

Hat - Christy's, Denim Jacket - Gap, Dress - Hell Bunny Vixen, Bag - Luella

I was so excited when Friday finally came around, I've been waiting for it for ages. We went straight to the racecourse after work, being it's only a short distance from work anyway. Having sold around 30,000 tickets, the racecourse was a bustling place to be, and the early evening shenanigans started with horse racing. I'm not much of a gambler, but being 'in the moment' decided to put £2 on a horse. It actually won, and I ended up £12 better off. That's the first time in my life that I have ever won on a horse, so I was quite excited and didn't dare put the money back on another horse for fear of losing it. Yep, that's about as big as my gambling gets.

Crowds pile in to see Sir Tom

Sir Tom wasn't on stage until after 9pm, but as soon as the racing was over the posh folks from the grandstands descended to surround the stage, and then the place really was packed. You could barely move, and we were quite far back from the stage.

Even so, we could still see plenty on the big screens, and of course Tom Jones' powerful voice bellowed out across the racecourse anyway. It was quite amusing to see knickers (clean of course) making their way up to the stage, many people had written messages on them.

He did all the old favourites, some of them with slightly new angles, and certainly, where I was standing, we were having a right old boogie. One lady even borrowed my beloved bowler hat so she could dance to 'You can keep your hat on'... It's ok, she asked my permission first.

Enjoying the concert atmosphere

He also did some of his more modern gospel stuff, but the whole concert was really good. I had wondered beforehand what the juxtaposition of horse racing and live music would be like, but I wouldn't hesitate to visit again. It was a fantastic night out, and thankfully, the weather held out too.