Tom Waite

Before his New Faces appearance 23 year-old Tom Waite was an unknown singer in a Cardiff club. Immediately after winning his heat, and securing a place in the grand final, he had nine record companies on the phone wanting to sign him up. Less than a week after the show aired on 10 November 1973, Tom was in London signing a recording contract with Pye Records. The deal to sign the Airdrie born singer was formally announced just a few weeks after his victory in the Grand Final. He continued to perform at cabaret venues in 1974, playing shows in Southend, Liverpool, Hull, Manchester, Nottingham and Bolton and also featured on TV shows across Europe, including France, Germany and Portugal. Tom was also sought after for the lead role in a West End musical for late 1974, however the musical was never produced. In July 1974, Tom explained to The Stage, “Following the New Faces everything just started happening fast and furious and that’s the way it’s been ever since.” He also appeared on the lunchtime TV programme Songs That Stopped The Shows with a New Faces regular, Arthur Askey. Without a hit single to follow his TV success Tom faded from the big time and he spent the summer of 1977 singing in Portugal. He set himself up with a new business associate, Max Clifford, who was convinced that although he wasn’t ready for the sudden leap into stardom before, he was going to make it the second time around. Between 1980 and 1983 he was named as one of the many cabaret acts lined up to appear during the summer season at one of many Pontin’s Holiday Centres around the UK and Tom was still receiving great reviews in 1986 when following a show at Wakefield’s Roof Top Gardens it was reported that he “wouldn’t know a flat note if he slipped on one.” 5In February 1991, some 17 years after his TV talent show winning performance Tom was still being billed as a New Faces winner in this advert for his show at The Montrose Club, taken from the Liverpool Echo, shows. Tom reappeared in the mainstream media in 2014 during the trial of publicist Max Clifford (2), where he gave evidence about their visit to a Spanish resort in 1977.