Watch: Music promoter Peter Aiken on the day his father drove Tom Jones into a ditch
Music promoter Peter Aiken later told how his father Jim drove Tom Jones into a ditch the first time the Welsh crooner came to this country.
The late and legendary rock promoter, who brought the Rolling Stones to Slane Castle in 1982, had just bought what is believed to be a Ford Zephyr.
The car, one of Ford’s so-called Z-Cars, had what was at the time an impressive top speed of 155 km/h and could go from 0-80km/h in 9.1 seconds.
“He has been coming here since 1967,” Mr Aiken said of Tom Jones’ arrival in Ireland. “My father drove him the first time he came here.
The Green Green Grass of Home was a number one and he had bought a new car and the old fella was showing him how fast it could go, when he crashed it.
“Tom Jones never forgot that.”
Whether or not either man was injured isn’t known, but it led to a friendship between Jones and the Aiken family that obviously endures to this day.
More than 1.1m tickets have been sold for Live at the Marquee concerts since the music festival first came to Cork 14 years ago.
The former 11.3-acre Ford depot site was on the market for €8.5m after Nama put it up for sale.
The site had been previously earmarked for a hotel and office complex when it was owned by Howard Holdings — which bought it for €35m.
It was sold to Glenveagh Properties for €15m in 2018. Up to 1,000 homes are expected to be built on the land to tie in with the expansion of the city into brownfield dockland sites.
He recalled the anecdote as it was announced that Jones, Dido, Diana Ross and Sinead O’Connor are among acts performing this summer at Live at the Marquee 2020.
