Tom Jones at The Piece Hall, Halifax: Legendary baritone shows no signs of slowing down on return to Yorkshire

“Well, it’s lovely to be back in Halifax again,” Sir Tom Jones tells a sell-out crowd spilling over the Piece Hall courtyard.

Returning to the West Yorkshire mill town for the second time in two years, the veteran singer might not possess the spring-loaded gyrations that once fuelled his steps and his loins, but amid the Calderdale valleys that roll up to the horizon, he still has a twinkle in his eye that is resolutely undimmed.

It is testament to such longevity that he remains not only at eighty-four, with his peerless baritone still in glorious amber-bourbon form, but that he continues to stave off the familiar draw of a greatest hits revue when he could conceivably coast by on the power of his catalogue.

With a dash of latter-day Johnny Cash, Jones has forged a fruitful partnership with producer Ethan Johns, delivering a clutch of records to confound nostalgic expectations; here, the national treasure refuses to rest on his laurels with a magnificent show drawn towards mortality.

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Much is taken from 2021’s Surrounded by Time, a record which took the singer back to the top of the charts after several decades. Filled with experimental soul flourishes and art-rock stylings, it underscores not merely his generational appeal but also his position as an elder statesman whose tenure is closer to the end than to the start.

Opener I’m Growing Old is tremulously stripped, as is the terrifically I Won't Crumble with You If You Fall; others, such as Not Dark Yet, recast from its nineties-era Dylan balladry into a big, driving rocker, temper lyrical concerns with a determination to push against the dying of the light.

Not everything pays off - the sung-spoken prog-psych interludes Talking Reality Television Blues and Lazarus Man send more punters rushing to the portaloos than polite applause. But Jones is so wonderfully warm that few begrudge these diversions.

When the classics do come, their reinventions make for leftfield delights too; It’s Not Unusual and What’s New Pussycat? are lashed with accordion, while Sex Bomb and Delilah arrive as thrillingly dirty blues cuts.

By the encore, as he is spinning anecdotes about catching Chuck Berry in Las Vegas with late friend Elvis Presley, nobody wants him to go home. “Turn on the lights!” he cries during You Can Leave Your Hat On, and Halifax screams.

May they stay turned on for a while yet too.