Drinks with Tom Jones put Script star in hospital

Singer Danny O'Donoghue has described how a six-hour champagne drinking session with Sir Tom Jones landed him in hospital.

Sir Tom and Danny, vocalist with Irish band The Script, were part of the original judging line up on The Voice TV singing show from 2012 with Jessie J and Will.i.am.

O'Donoghue said although he was 40 years younger than Sir Tom, he struggled to keep up with the Welsh legend, who is about to turn 84.

He finally got home and went to bed but "by the time I'd woken up, my heart had flipped into a different rhythm".

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, O'Donoghue said the boozy session went on all night.

He recalled: "It was after one show on The Voice and we were in the Lowry [hotel] up in Manchester and we went drinking that night, and he was telling me all these stories about Elvis and the Rat Pack and every time the champagne got to like a certain level, he'd be clicking [his fingers] to get another bottle of champagne.

"And he said you can't leave the table until the champagne is done. And it just wouldn't stop."

"We're probably there six hours or something from 12 o'clock to six in the morning.

"And I just remember thinking 'what's all the clinking going on' and they were putting out the things for breakfast in the morning."

After finally getting to bed and waking up, he knew something was up.

"I didn't know what was going on so I went to the hospital - and I got atrial fibrillation from drinking nothing but champagne for six hours."

He said he "missed one or two days of filming" of The Voice.

"It was my fault because I should have stopped drinking very early."

A global study published in the Lancet in 2018 confirmed previous research which has shown that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.

Danny described Sir Tom, from the south Wales town of Pontypridd, as a "super guy".

"I don't mean to age him but he's from the same era as my dad but he's a man's man, grew up in the coal mines, loves songs, loved drinking.

"What an amazing career that guy's had.

"And like all Welsh people they're so down to earth, it's easy to forget how big and how legendary Tom is but he makes you feel that way himself, but I really, really loved my time with him."

After 10 billion streams, 12 million album sales, six UK number 1 albums, The Script return with a new single Both Ways taken from a new album Satellites, released in August.

It follows the death of the band's co-founder and guitarist, Mark Sheehan, in April last year, following a brief illness.

O'Donoghue said making music was cathartic after "we had the worst year of our lives after the loss of Mark".

"We're heading into a brand new year now and coming out of the dark period now and... leaving the grief behind and trying to be optimistic about the year we have in front of us.

"The grief and the grieving will always be there but we want to start celebrating now and really get back to work again and honour what we've always worked toward."

The 43-year-old singer admitted he struggled to cope after his bandmate's death.

"I spent all last year in that hole and I needed a hand out of it and my friends, my family, music gave me the hand that reached into that black pit and pulled me out of it."

Now the band want to celebrate his life and O'Donoghue said that, although he may not be with them, he still has a huge influence on their music.

"He cracked the whip a lot of the times on the standards.

"He was an obviously genius lyricist and great musician and when I finish a song I always go 'what would he think of it?' Nine times out of 10 it's not good enough.

"He had such high standards and he wanted us to, not just be a band, but be a band that other people respected, not just the lyrics need to be good, the music needs to be great, the singing needs to be impeccable.

"So, all of it, the whole way across the board, he's still there, the standards are still there.

"I play his guitar a lot which always makes me feel a lot closer to him so he's definitely involved in the album."

• Listen to Danny O'Donoghue’s interview with Lucy Owen on Bank Holiday Monday on BBC Radio Wales between 14:00 BST and 17:00 and then on BBC Sounds