Crooner Tom Jones Gets Fans in a Lather at County Fair Concert : Entertainment: The wiggling Welsh heartthrob attracts lots of avid female admirers, some of them with reluctant husbands in tow.

For 6 1/2 hours, Hilda Gauthier patiently sat on a pale blue park bench at the Ventura County Fairgrounds waiting for the man who makes her 60-year-old heart flutter--Tom Jones.

She had seen him--twice--in Las Vegas. She had seen him on television. And now the pop legend was center stage at the 1995 Ventura County Fair, and a $3 senior ticket would put her in the front row to ogle her suave and sweaty songbird.

“He’s sexy!” Gauthier said with a sly smile, coyly adjusting an electric-blue, sequined hat she bought especially for the show Wednesday night. “I just came to see him.”

An hour before the performance, a line of hundreds of concert-goers snaked through the fairgrounds, with teen-agers, seniors and giddy, middle-age wives--some dragging reluctant husbands--lining up for the event.

Raul Contreras and his wife, Juanita, both 62-year-old Santa Paula residents, were among the first in line, showing up four hours early to claim good seats. Juanita loves Tom Jones, but Raul is indifferent.

“He wiggles. They like his wiggles,” Raul said.

“Husbands,” his wife replied. “They get jealous.”

Riverside resident Betty Kaye, 66, also arrived early for Wednesday’s concert. A member of Tom’s Boosters, a West Coast fan club, Kaye has been to roughly 40 shows. She planned to follow her favorite singer to Las Vegas today, where he will perform this weekend.

“I get in that car and go,” she said, admitting that she is about as devoted a fan as they come. “I have it in my will that he has to sing ‘Pussycat’ at my funeral. You think I’m joking? I’m not.”

Three decades after his first hit, “It’s Not Unusual,” the 55-year-old Welshman renowned for tight pants and cultural anthems like “What’s New, Pussycat?” is still reeling in audiences.

An MTV video in 1988 and a rock-heavy CD this year have enabled him to reach a younger crop of fans.

In the last year, Jones has played countless venues, including Philadelphia dance halls, the Vegas strip, the House of Blues in Hollywood and various county and state fairs.

And people close to the famed balladeer say he enjoys playing the small, campy gigs as much as the big-name amphitheaters and casinos.

“He enjoys those fair dates,” said Bea Marks, an avid fan who works at Jones’ Century City publicity office. “He always ends up trying to buy a cow.”

By playing low-key venues like fairs, fan-club members say, Jones is reaching wider, and often younger, audiences.

“That gives the younger kids an opportunity to see him,” said 70-year-old Marian Shannon, president of Tom Jones’ Fans of Soul, based in Miami. The 22-year-old club was formerly known as Women of Soul for Tom Jones until 1980, when men wanted to join, she said.

Although Jones’ most devoted fans continue to be middle-age women wooed by his hip-shaking bravado, a growing number of men and teen-agers are discovering his new sound as a born-again rocker, Marks and Shannon said.

“He is really contemporary, even though he is a legend,” said Shannon, who has seen no less than 50 concerts.

“It used to be bedlam in the first three rows,” she recalled. “Oh Lord, getting up to his face was outta sight. He had a hard time doing his act because of the ladies.”

Jones did not appear to have any trouble with the ladies Wednesday night, however. They howled when he trotted on stage in tight black pants, a black shirt and a red jacket. They screamed every time he thrust a hip their way. But otherwise, the fans were fairly tame.

Unlike during his early days in Las Vegas, women did not litter the stage with underwear when Jones sauntered into the spotlight, although a security guard had to run interference between the crooner and a fan who tried to toss a stuffed moose and black lace underwear at his feet early in the show.

“He’s asked us not to give him panties anymore,” Kaye said. “He wants to be remembered for his voice, not his sex appeal. But in my estimate, he’s going to be remembered for both.”