Tom Jones says he faced sexual harassment in the music industry

‘What’s tried on women is tried on men as well,’ singer tells BBC during conversation about Harvey Weinstein repercussions

Tom Jones has said sexual abuse is widespread in the music industry, and talked about the harassment he faced in the early days of his career.

Jones was discussing the Harvey Weinstein allegations with a reporter from BBC 5 Live’s Afternoon Edition when he mentioned an incident from early in his career, which he said made him feel terrible.

During the interview, also broadcast this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme, reporter Colin Paterson asked if the singer thought allegations similar to those against Weinstein could surface in the music industry. “Things have always happened in the music industry as well,” said Jones. “There’s been people complaining about publicists and different things that they’ve been expected to do to get a record contract, just like they’d do to get a film contract.”

Asked whether he had ever “had anyone try it on”, Jones said: “At the beginning, yes, there were a few things like that. “What’s tried on women is tried on men as well.”

When asked whether he was able to tell anyone, the veteran singer said: “Yeah, but it wasn’t bad [...] Somebody tried to pull. It was a question, and I said no thank you.

“There’s always been that element there that people with power sometimes abuse it, but they don’t all abuse it – there are good people.”

His comments come as the wave of accusations against Harvey Weinstein of sexual impropriety have expanded to figures in the music world. The Icelandic singer Björk accused a Danish film director of sexual harassment, accusing him of “unwanted whispered sexual offers” and of attempting to climb into her bedroom “with a clear sexual intention”. She left him unnamed, but it is widely believed to be Lars Von Trier, given that the singer’s only film role was in the Danish director’s film Dancer in the Dark. Von Trier has denied the claims.

The Gaslamp Killer, a Los Angeles-based electronic music producer, was accused this week of drugging and raping two women, in a Twitter statement by one of the alleged victims. He denied the claims, saying: “I would never hurt or endanger a woman. I would never drug a woman, and I would never put anyone in a situation where they were not in control, or take anything that they weren’t offering.”

Meanwhile Matt Mondanile, an indie musician who records as Ducktails, was accused by seven women of groping or kissing them without their consent. Real Estate, another band Mondanile played in, revealed he was fired in 2016 thanks to “allegations of unacceptable treatment of women the accusations”. Mondanile has also denied wrongdoing, saying: “There’s nothing I can tell you other than that I’ve done nothing wrong at all.”

Isabella Manfredi, singer for Australian band the Preatures, shared a Facebook post telling of “multiple executives at a corporate gig in Vegas who slipped their hands up my dress”, and a label head who, knowing she had a boyfriend, invited her to bathe with him.

Meanwhile music promoter Sarah Bowden told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire that sexual assault and exploitation was “all the way down through the industry”, giving alleged examples of male promoters promising jobs in exchange for sexual favours.

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