Just Help Yourself : Tom Jones, The Squires and the Road to Stardom

Just Help Yourself is the classic story of the difficult path to fame trod by so many bands and artists in the 1960s. It tells the story of Rhydyfelin rock group The Senators (later the Squires), of founder Vernon Hopkins’s discovery of Tom Jones, and their launch towards international stardom. This is the band’s story from their gigging days in south Wales when Tom and Vernon were as close as brothers, to their eventual and inevitable painful falling out in 1969 when Vernon was sacked by manager (and fellow south Walian) Gordon Mills: since then Hopkins has seen Tom on only a handful of occasions. This is a no-holds-barred account of their time together, gigging in Working Men’s Clubs in south Wales, living a less-than-glamorous life in Notting Hill, waiting for their breakthrough in London. When fame finally did arrive, with it came the uncoupling of the star singer from the band by an unscrupulous manager.

Just Help Yourself gives new insight into Tom Jones himself, and into the world of pop music in the late Sixties and early Seventies in a grittily authentic narrative. Hopkins experienced both the pop star high life, touring America, Australia and Europe, and the low points of being a jobbing musician. The music business really was – and is – as cut throat as reported.