YOU Can Leave Your Hat On but not your underwear, apparently, when seeing Tom Jones perform at Blackpool Opera House.

Numerous knickers and even a bra were flung at the 60-year-old superstar on November 26 as he belted out hits old and new to a mainly female audience who hung on his every note and cheeky aside.

Soberly dressed entirely in black and sporting his trademark tan, Tom may wear freer trousers than he used to, but still effortlessly turned normally sane women into giggling girlies with a storming set which included classics like It's Not Unusual and the wonderful What's New Pussycat?

But Wales's favourite son, backed by an outstanding band and a trio of the coolest singers around, chiefly entertained with tracks from his latest album Reload (a timely reminder for wives' and girlfriends' Christmas stockings).

Maybe the velvet-tonsiled Tom should have left the Lenny Kravitz rock anthem Are You Gonna Go My Way alone, but standouts were the Van Morrison-penned Sometimes We Cry, Stereophonics duet Mama Told Me Not To Come (sadly without the sexy Kelly Jones) and of course the smash hit Sexbomb (featured on the excellent--if expensive--tour T-shirts!)