TOM Jones, the horny hippo, and Jools Holland, the boogie-woogie butler to the stars, have a stab at Jerry Lee Lewis rock'n'roll and alas it isn't a killer.

There's so much frenetic joy going on that, like Jools's whisky adverts or Bowie and Jagger's Dancing In The Street, the desperation to please and tease is wearisome. "Life's too short to be with you," hollers leather-tongued Tom at the start, and 19 slices of ham and one hour later, who could argue with that sentiment? Tom is in self-parody paradise on the vocal Viagra of Howlin' Wolf's 200lbs Of Heavenly Joy, but Jones & Holland's big-production blues and gospel would be as out of place in an old bar room as a Gaggia coffee machine.

Updated: 08:40 Thursday, October 07, 2004