Snifter has received information that may make licensees interested in hiring a certain Tom Jones impersonator think again. A crowd had gathered at La Barbacoa in Crosby, Liverpool, to hear the impersonator TJ Slater from Preston belt out a few of Tom's hits like It's Not Unusual, You Can Keep Your Hat On, Green Green Grass Of Home and Delilah. But Slater made such a poor impression on some of his audience, they left in protest. Slater, who has appeared on the TV talent show Stars In Their Eyes, was accused of making sexually explicit jokes and offending a group of special-needs people. Slater defended his actions by saying: "They were not a real Tom Jones crowd. There were only about 25 people in. "There were about eight women in front of me, but the rest of them were these special needs people who were out with their social workers or carers and I inadvertently insulted someone. I don't know exactly what I said, I can't remember, there were lots of comments going back and forth. The audience were heckling me, so I heckled them back. "It was just a joke, something along the lines of I bet you wish your **** was as big as your mouth', or Is your mother coming to pick you up?', but anyway, they all walked out." Needless to say, La Barbacoa's manager Gordon Tart says he will not be using the 55-year-old impersonator again.
