Following on from the phenomenal success of the world premiere of Ghost the Musical, the Opera House, Manchester is proud to reveal the next major new musical to be launched at the theatre will be Monkee Business the Musical, a landmark new production for the whole family featuring the hit songs of the iconic band The Monkees.

Monkee Business is premiering at the Opera House as part of Manchester Gets It First, Ambassador Theatre Group’s commitment to making Manchester the UK’s official city for launching theatre’s biggest and best new musicals, a scheme which has won the backing of the city council.

Ghost the Musical was the first Manchester Gets it First show, with almost 100,000 tickets being sold during its seven-week run earlier this year. Now Manchester audiences will again get the chance to enjoy a brand new musical here before anywhere else in the world.

With a cast of 20, a live band of eight, fabulous costumes and sets, a madcap ‘Austin Powers-style’ plot featuring all new characters and a score packed with iconic hits of the swinging sixties, Monkee Business, from the producers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Spamalot, will premiere in Manchester March 2012.

Made instant world-wide stars by the famous 1960s TV series, The Monkees, made up of Manchester’s Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith, became one of most successful bands of their generation – at one time even outselling The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - releasing 121 songs on nine albums and influencing many future artists.

Monkee Business will pay homage to both the crazy chaos of the Emmy Award winning TV series and the brilliant music of The Monkees featuring hit after hit including I’m A Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, My Boy Lollipop, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, Hey, Hey We’re The Monkees and the smash hit Daydream Believer alongside many more iconic songs from the era.

Monkee Business follows four normal young lads who with the help of a few sexy Russian spies, nonsensical nuns and the odd tambourine, unwittingly get caught up in a memorably madcap adventure!

With a hilarious mix of groovy adventure, dreamy romance and zany comedy, Monkee Business is the ultimate feel-good family musical which will have audiences of all ages twisting and monkeeing in the aisles.

Howard Panter, ATG’s Joint Chief Executive & Creative Director, said: "Following the incredible success of the world premiere of Ghost the Musical at the Opera House earlier in the year, we’re delighted to be premiering yet another landmark new musical, Monkee Business, as part of our Manchester Gets It First campaign. This major new stage musical will be packed with iconic hit songs from the Sixties, Austin Powers-style zany humour, romance and adventure, which Manchester audiences will get to enjoy before anywhere else in the world. Manchester is the ideal place for the original creative process necessary for developing large-scale new musicals like Monkee Business, as it is a city with a great foundation in music with knowledgeable and sophisticated audiences who love and understand fantastic musical theatre.

Michael Rose said: "I am so excited that Michael Rose Ltd together with ATG are premiering a brand new musical at the Manchester Opera House as part of Manchester Gets It First. Monkee Business the Musical is a real feel-good night out for all the family and I am so pleased we are getting to share it with Manchester first, having seen what great audiences the city has when we brought Chitty Chitty Bang Bang there in 2006 and 2010. It is a real privilege that EMI have given the production musical access to some of the greatest songs of the 20th Century. I can’t wait to hear the Manchester response."

Welcoming the news about Monkee Business, Councillor Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure at Manchester City Council, said: "These are exciting times for Manchester, and this is yet another world first which has come to Manchester before going to London's West End or Broadway. Manchester has become an artistic powerhouse, bringing thousands of people into the city who will also spend their money in our hotels, bars and restaurants.

"This is added to the success of last summer's Manchester International Festival (MIF), a world-class event which was hosted in the city and drawing massive audiences. As well as their huge economic benefit, events such as MIF and major musicals like Monkee Business, also boost the production capacity of Manchester, using our expert creative skills and creating further jobs in the industry."

Peter Tork of The Monkees performs at Pompano Beach Amphitheatre in Pompano Beach, Florida
Larry Marano/Getty Images

Peter Tork: Monkees Canceled Tour Due to a 'Glitch'
By Andy Greene
Rolling Stone.com
October 11, 2011

'I'd say the odds of another tour are better than 50/50,' says the bassist

Earlier this year, the Monkees put aside a decade of acrimony and toured in support of their 45th anniversary. They did 43 dates in Europe and America before the tour was called off with little explanation in August. "I'm not really at liberty to get into detail about what happened," Monkees bassist/guitarist Peter Tork tells Rolling Stone. "But there were some business affairs that couldn't be coordinated correctly. We hit a glitch and there was just this weird dislocation at one point. I can't say anything more without getting into the stuff that we have to keep down. We need to work on this stuff outside of the public eye."

According to Tork, the group's internal problems from the 2001 tour didn't resurface. "I find myself much less reactive than I used to be," he says. "Between everybody's behavior changing enough and restructuring the way that we related to one another . . . We did it all right. We had a good time on stage, laughed and created jokes. Jonsey [Davy Jones] and [Micky] Dolenz are funny guys. Some nights Micky sang [to the tune of 'I'm A Believer'], 'I saw her face, not Justin Bieber . . .'"

Unlike previous Monkees shows which featured mainly the hits, the group dug deep into their catalog and regularly played a 43-song set that lasted over two hours. "We managed to pile in a lot of songs because we dropped the middle verse from some of them," says Tork. "We tried it with an intermission, but it just stopped our pace."

The tour earned the group some rave reviews. "The residual flack that we were getting back in the Sixties for being a fake group only stopped just before this tour," Tork says. "In 1997 we did a tour of the U.K. and we regularly had houses of 8,000 people screaming from beginning to end. Every single reviewer in the UK said, 'Boy, these people are so deluded. They just can't tell when something's awful. What's the matter with these stupid people?'"

That 1997 UK tour was the last time that Michael Nesmith shared the stage with his fellow Monkees. All subsequent tours have featured the three-man line-up of Tork, Jones and Dolenz. "The fans call us the 'Threekees,'" says Tork. "I'd say that the odds of another Threekees tour are better than 50/50. As far as the four-man line-up, or the 'Fourkees,' I'd say odds are in the single digits." Back in the 1980s, Nesmith occasionally joined the band for one or two songs when they came through Los Angeles. "I would imagine even that happening again is unlikely," says Tork. "Though it's a much higher percentage possibility than us going out as a four-piece."

If The Monkees do ever tour again, Tork doesn't think it'll be another 10-year wait for the fans. "It would probably be in the next year or two," he says. "But obviously nothing is settled yet, and until we see a settlement in sight, we can't even begin to arrange a tour. Once you start arranging a tour, you may be able to get it mounted about six or seven months down the road."

Despite the accolades from the latest tour, Tork still feels that the Monkees don't get the respect that they deserve. "With all due modesty since I had little to do with it, the Monkees' songbook is one of the better songbooks in pop history," he says. "Certainly in the top five in terms of breadth and depth. It was revealed that we didn't play our own instruments on the records much at the very moment when the idealism of early Beatlemania in rock was at its peak. So we became the ultimate betrayers. The origins of the group were obvious and everyone understood that, but suddenly some little switch was flipped and all that stuff came crashing down around our ears."

While he waits for the Monkees to sort through their issues, Tork is hitting the road for a series of solo acoustic dates as well as shows with his blues band Shoe Suede Blues. "With the band, we do a third Monkees songs, a third originals and a third blues pop covers," Tork says. "With my solo show, I bring a banjo and the keyboard and I do folk songs and I usually do a Bach keyboard piece just for the fun of it. But I know that if I don't do some Monkees songs, the audience will be all kinds of disappointed."

Mickey Dolenz still Monkee-ing around
By Mike Morsch
Delaware County Daily Times
September 7, 2011

The first clue Micky Dolenz got that the Monkees were a huge success could just have easily been a fire drill.

Dolenz - who along with Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith formed a musical acting quartet in 1966 that served as America’s answer to the Beatles - had been sequestered for months in the studio, engulfed in rehearsing, filming and recording.

In essence, they had no idea of the public reaction to “The Monkees” television show because they hadn’t yet been out in public to experience it.

Just before Christmas of 1966, the band members got a week off. Dolenz decided to do a little Christmas shopping at his local mall in Los Angeles, where he grew up, with plans to head up to San Jose, Calif., after that to see his family for the holidays.

“I get out of my car and I have my list and I go through the big glass doors of the mall and all of a sudden I hear screaming and people are running toward me,” said Dolenz in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles. “And I thought it was a fire. So I turned around and I opened the glass doors and I go, ‘This way! This way! Don’t panic! Calm down! Walk slowly this way!’

“All of a sudden I realized there was no fire; it’s all these people - mostly kids - running at me. So I ran back and got in my car and I was kind of pissed because I couldn’t do my Christmas shopping. That was the first inkling I had of the success of ‘The Monkees,’” he said.

And 45 years later, Dolenz is still a success. Local fans will get a chance to see what all the screaming was about back in the mid-1960s when Dolenz brings his solo act to the 360 Club at the Parx Casino in Bensalem for one free admission show at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18.

Dolenz - who along with Jones and Tork had been busy with a successful 45th anniversary tour for the Monkees before it was abruptly stopped recently - had sprinkled a few solo gigs into his summer and early fall schedule.

There has been no official reason given for the stoppage of the tour, which began in England in May, reached the U.S. in June and had its plug pulled in early August.

Although he wouldn’t comment further, Dolenz did say that the band was having fun during the tour.

“The shows were really great, some of the best we’ve ever done. It was very gratifying,” he said.

The Monkees had a number of hits in the late 1960s, including “Last Train to Clarksville” (the group’s first No. 1 in 1966); “I’m a Believer” (No. 1 in 1966); “Daydream Believer” (No. 1 in 1967); and “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (No. 3 in 1967). The group has reunited off and on over the years as a trio, mostly without the participation of Nesmith.

Dolenz, 66, has had a career that not only includes being a musician, but also a stage actor, television director and radio personality. But there has always been the music.

“‘The Monkees’ was a television show, so we had little or no control over what was being recorded. I didn’t have a big problem with it at the time in the early days because I’d take it as an assignment, more or less,” said Dolenz, who by the time “The Monkees” gig rolled around had already starred in the television series “Circus Boy” in 1956.

“But you look at the songwriters who wrote those songs [for the Monkees] and it’s unbelievable; it’s a Who’s Who of songwriting: Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Harry Nilsson, Paul Williams...just amazing songwriters,” he said.

In his solo act, Dolenz makes sure to give the fans what they came to hear - all those hits from the Monkees. He also said he’s gotten better over the years at relating to his audience.

“In the early days, we couldn’t relate to an audience because they were all just screaming,” said Dolenz. “In the early days of my solo show, I would just stand there with a guitar and play and sing. But then I started doing a lot of musical theater and I got a lot better at being comfortable without an instrument in my hands.”

Previously published reviews indicate that Dolenz’s voice remains strong, and he agrees.

“Most of that I attribute to the training that I’ve been doing for musical theater,” said Dolenz, whose most recent stage work was a successful run of starring in “Hairspray” in London. “I warm up and train properly and keep my voice in shape.”

And like most artists, Dolenz said he doesn’t like the travel, but he still gets a kick out of performing.

“Like I tell people, they pay me to travel...I sing for free. I love doing these shows,” he said.

Micky Dolenz will perform at Parx Casino’s 360 Club, 2999 Street Road, Bensalem, PA 19020, Saturday, Sept. 18, 5 p.m. Standing room only. Free. Info: 1-888-588-PARX or www.parxcasino.com.

Davy Jones and David Cassidy team up at bergenPAC
By Bill Ervolino - Staff writer
NorthJersey.com
September 5, 2011

Hey, hey, it's the Monkee!

Davy Jones, that is, who will be appearing Wednesday, with special guest David Cassidy, at bergenPAC in Englewood, after an exhausting year that began with solo shows in Las Vegas, Indiana and Florida in January; reunited him with old pal Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits) in Greensburg, Pa., in February; followed by another two months of solo gigs and then ... hey, hey ... a reunion tour with Monkees Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz, through the U.K., the United States and Canada.

And how did that go?

By all accounts, the lads were cooking. Fans turned out in force to see the trio - minus original band mate Michael Nesmith, who has appeared with them only sporadically since the 1970s - perform 43 shows in two months.

"Let me tell you," the 65-year-old Jones says by phone, "to play Albert Hall, sold out, 7,500 people and you can't get a ticket ... it's an adrenaline rush. It's like, 'Wow! These guys still have it!' "

And having it, Jones adds, is great. Until you've had it.

Dolenz and Tork had been scheduled to appear with him this week at bergenPAC and 10 other dates, or so it was announced. In fact, Jones says, "the tour was only supposed to go until July. And it was great, the best time we've had because we're all on the same page now. We gelled onstage and off. But then more dates were being added. And more. And then the next thing we knew, they were talking about Japan, Australia, Brazil, and we were like, 'Wait a second. This is turning into something more than a tour.' "

The lads, alas, aren't lads anymore. "We were doing 40 songs a night, plus other material. Some of these shows were 2 1/2 hours long. … Then there was the travel, getting to the next venue with no time to revive. … The audiences were great. But, let's face it, we're not kids."

The demands were a lot easier to deal with 45 years ago, when they signed on to star in a sitcom that had been inspired by the madcap Beatles films "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

The Monkees were an instant sensation, and their songs ("Pleasant Valley Sunday," "I'm a Believer" and dozens of others) sold millions of copies.

As Jones is the first to admit, most of the group's early recordings were made in a studio, featuring top-notch session musicians like the Wrecking Crew. But Tork, Dolenz and Nesmith knew a thing or two about guitars, drums and keyboards, and when it came time to tour, they had no problems duplicating their sound.

"In a sense," Jones says today, with a laugh, "we were our own cover band."

Once they were on the road, Jones, who performed most of the vocals and shook a mean tambourine, finally realized what sensations he and The Monkees had become. It was a fact of life that sometimes made it difficult for their opening acts, ranging from The Fifth Dimension and Ike and Tina Turner to - egads! - Jimi Hendrix, who opened seven shows before calling it quits, because Monkees fans literally booed him off the stage.

"Not my cup of tea," Jones recalls of Hendrix. "Micky, Peter and Mike were musicians and it was different for them. Musicians revere him. Our fans didn't like him. And, you know, it was a strange fit. But that's what happened in those days. If we had played Vegas back then, they probably would have put us up there with Don Rickles."

Although he still performs regularly, the Manchester, England-born Jones now tries to devote a decent amount of time to his family - and to his horses. He's been breeding and racing horses for years at his primary residence in Beavertown, Pa., and admits it is a bit of an addiction.

"It's kind of like the Mafia," he says. "Once you're in, you're in."

The same could be said for performing, which has been a part of Jones' life since he was 11. By the early '60s, he was already a Broadway star, and a Tony nominee for his performance as the Artful Dodger in "Oliver!"

He appeared with the "Oliver!" cast on "The Ed Sullivan Show" the same night as the Beatles did in 1964. And he soon found himself palling around with the likes of Judy Garland and the stage stars Shirley Jones and her husband Jack Cassidy, father of David. (In the early 1970s, thanks to his success on "The Partridge Family," the younger Cassidy followed in Davy Jones' footsteps, becoming that decade's ultimate teen idol.)

Today, when Jones performs solo, he tosses in some Broadway tunes, some original compositions, lots of stories and, oh yes, a whole bunch of Monkees songs.

"People still enjoy them," Jones says, "and that's great. Although it worries you, sometimes. My biggest fear, years ago, when I played Jesus in 'Godspell,' was that I'd be dying on the cross one night and someone would yell out, 'Hey, Davy! Do 'Daydream Believer!' "

It never happened, then. And it won't happen on Wednesday, either, because there's no way Jones would leave out one of his biggest hits.

With or without the Monkees, he doesn't monkey around.

The Monkees Previously Scheduled At bergenPAC Will Now Be Davy Jones Of The Monkees Joined By David Cassidy Of Patridge Family
By Mel Fabrikant - The Paramus Post - News and Lifestyle Webzine
August 13, 2011

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Mickie Dolenz and Peter Tork will be unable to join us in performance as The Monkees on September 7th at bergenPAC in Englewood, New Jersey. David Cassidy of the Patridge Family will join Davy Jones. Davy Jones will still perform an evening of rock including many of the Monkee's greatest hits. As a special bonus, David Cassidy has been added to the bill performing all of his hits from the Partridge Family and more. Those who purchased platinum meet and greet tickets will still have the opportunity to meet David Cassidy and Davy Jones together. While we regret the unavoidable change, we are pleased to bring together two of their generation's most loved teen idols on one stage.

Two great vocalists on one stage with hits including Last Train to Clarksville, I’m a Believer, Valerie, Mary Mary, A little Bit You A Little Bit Me, and Daydream Believer as well as David Cassidy's Partridge Family hits: including Come on Get Happy, I Think I Love You, Havin’ a Ball, and I Can Hear Your Heartbeat. This once in a lifetime show will be a show you won’t forget. If you would like a full refund of your ticket price or to exchange your seats for another show please contact the box office in the next 10 days --if not your prior ticket will be honored and gain you access to the show with the same seating.

Our apologies for any inconvenience - please call with any questions or concerns. Look forward to seeing you at this one time only show! Do know that all tickets previously purchased for The Monkees will be honored at this show.

bergenPAC
30 North Van Brunt Street
Englewood, NJ 07631
(201) 227-1030
www.bergenpac.org

About Bergen Performing Arts Center: Known as The John Harms Center for 27 years, this cultural hub in Englewood New Jersey and has been reborn as Bergen Performing Arts Center or bergenPAC. This 1367- seat theater is a landmark, and in its seventh season as bergenPAC it remains one of the finest acoustic halls in the United States. The legendary Tony Bennett and Canadian crooner k.d. lang recorded their 2003 Grammy award-winning CD live on bergenPAC’s own stage through a broadband fiber-optic connection with Bennett Studios. bergenPAC is the home of a media production system that is unparalleled, upholding its reputation as a venue for outstanding music, dance and theater. As a non-profit corporation, bergenPAC has thrived thanks to the aid and generosity of sponsors, donors and patrons.

The Monkees cut short 45th anniversary tour
nzcity.co.nz
August 12, 2011

The Monkees have cut short their 45th anniversary tour dates in the US due to reported backstage disputes and "group issues".

The Monkees have reportedly scrapped their reunion tour due to fall outs between the group.

The 'Daydream Believer' hitmakers – consisting of original members Micky Dolenz, 66, Peter Tork, 69, and Davy Jones, 65 – have axed a number of US dates to mark their 45th anniversary, with organisers at one concert venue telling the Daily Mirror newspaper their show was called off because of "internal group issues and conflicts”.

Micky wrote on his Facebook page: "Dear Fans and Friends, The Monkee Tour has, indeed, been cancelled but for reasons that I cannot discuss at this time. I can say that the reasons pertain to business and are internal matters.

"Needless to say, I am disappointed but the situation was unavoidable and I want to apologise to all the fans out there who will not be able to experience what was a wonderful show indeed. Regretfully, Micky (sic)."

The trio have denied reports they cut the concerts because the 66-year-old musician is going to rehab for substance abuse.

A statement on behalf of Micky read: "Management booked dates with venues without running them by the group so we had to cancel the remaining dates. It has nothing to do with any sort of substance abuse whatsoever."

The group – whose fourth original member Michael Nesmith did not rejoin the band for their latest shows - are no stranger to internal conflict. Peter was forced to quit their 35th anniversary tour in 2001 due to him being a recovering alcoholic.

The Monkees Cancel Their Final Ten Stops on 45th Anniversary Tour
Posted by George H. Sirois
411mania.com: Music
August 11, 2011

But not because of Micky Dolenz's alleged substance abuse...

NME.com reports that The Monkees are denying rumors that the cancellation of their North American tour was due to drummer Micky Dolenz's alleged substance abuse.

The '60s band reunited earlier this year to celebrate their 45th anniversary, but cited "business" issues as their reason behind cancelling the final ten dates on their North American tour.

Albany Palace Theatre suggested "internal issues and conflicts" were to blame.

A statement on Dolenz's behalf was made, saying that the gigs were booked without the band's consent, so the remaining dates were cancelled.

The Monkees deny 'substance abuse' is to blame for US tour cancellation
Micky Dolenz is not heading to rehab, according to a statement
NME.COM
August 11, 2011

The Monkees have denied reports that drummer Micky Dolenz's alleged substance abuse is to blame for the cancellation of their North American tour.

The '60s band, who reunited earlier this year to celebrate their 45th anniversary, cited "business" issues as they scrapped the final ten dates of the North American leg of the jaunt, which visited the UK last May.

However, Albany Palace Theatre, one of the venues due to feature on the tour, suggested that "internal issues and conflicts" were to blame for the cancellation.

A statement put out on behalf of Dolenz denied that drugs were involved in the decision and instead claimed the gigs were booked without the band's consent. It said:

Management booked dates with venues without running them by the group so we had to cancel the remaining dates. It has nothing to do with any sort of substance abuse whatsoever.

Meanwhile, in a message later posted on his Facebook page, Dolenz said that the tour had been cancelled for "reasons I cannot discuss at this time".

The sticksman has apparently admitted to experimenting with drugs "a lot" early in the band's career.

The Monkees scored hits with the likes of 'I'm A Believer' and 'Daydream Believer' after being put together for a TV show that shared their name in 1966.

The Monkees' Family Arena show is canceled
By Kevin C. Johnson
stltoday.com
August 11, 2011

Hey hey we're the Monkees -- and we're not coming to St. Charles.

The Monkees' Sept. 12 concert at Family Arena is off.

In fact, the band's entire tour is off.

Tickets had been scheduled to go on sale Friday.

The Monkees' Micky Dolenz was quoted as saying on his Facebook page: "Dear Fans and Friends, The Monkees Tour has, indeed, been cancelled but for reasons that I cannot discuss at this time. I can say that the reasons pertain to business and are internal matters. Needless to say, I am disappointed but the situation was unavoidable and I want to apologize to all the fans out there who will not be able to experience what was a wonderful show indeed. Regretfully, Micky."

The Monkees cancel 45th reunion tour over 'business matters'
By Ann Lee
Metro.co.uk
August 11, 2011

The Monkees have apologised to fans after cancelling the remaining dates of their 45th anniversary tour over 'business' and 'internal matters'.

Original band member Micky Dolenz announced on his Facebook page that the rest of the band's tour in the US and UK had been shelved.

The 66-year-old wrote: 'The Monkee Tour has, indeed, been cancelled but for reasons that I cannot discuss at this time.

'I can say that the reasons pertain to business and are internal matters.'

He added: 'I am disappointed but the situation was unavoidable and I want to apologise to all the fans.'

Dolenz had joined Davy Jones and Peter Tork on the road earlier this year - the first time they performed together since their 35th anniversary tour in 2001.

There have been rumours that the tour was axed over a scheduling dispute but Tork, 69, also blamed business issues in his statement posted on his Facebook page.

'I can only say that it has to do with business matters,' he said.

'I sincerely regret that it is not possible to continue this wonderful tour. I especially regret the inconvenience to those of you whose plans have been disrupted.

'Thank you for all your love and support. I hope to see you on the road sometime.'

Dolenz has vowed to continue with his solo tour, with his spokesman denying allegations that he had checked himself into rehab.

Mike Nesmith, who was part of the original line-up, did not join them of the tour.

The Monkees cancel nine remaining tour dates
BBC News - bbc.co.uk
August 11, 2011

Sixties pop group The Monkees have abruptly cancelled the remaining dates on their reunion tour.

Three of the original band members - Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork - went back on the road earlier this year, after a decade apart.

But they announced on Tuesday that all further dates were cancelled, citing "business" issues.

"I am disappointed but the situation was unavoidable and I want to apologise to all the fans, " wrote Dolenz.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Dolenz, 66, wrote: "The Monkee Tour has, indeed, been cancelled but for reasons that I cannot discuss at this time.

"I can say that the reasons pertain to business and are internal matters."

His words were echoed by fellow band member Peter Tork, 69: "I can only say that it has to do with business matters," he wrote in a statement, also on Facebook.

"I sincerely regret that it is not possible to continue this wonderful tour. I especially regret the inconvenience to those of you whose plans have been disrupted.

"Thank you for all your love and support. I hope to see you on the road sometime."

CHART-TOPPERS

Reports have attributed the cancellation to a scheduling dispute.

Drummer and vocalist Dolenz has vowed to continue with his solo tour, with his spokesman firmly rejecting rumours that the musician had checked himself into rehab.

"It has nothing to do with any sort of substance abuse whatsoever."

The tour, which included dates in the UK and US, marked the group's 45th anniversary.

The foursome, including Mike Nesmith - were propelled to stardom by the Monkees TV show, which first appeared on NBC in 1966.

Hits included chart-toppers I'm A Believer and Daydream Believer, but the band split after just three years.

The original quartet got together in 1996 to record a new album - but Nesmith eventually dropped out.

The remaining three reunited for a tour a 35th anniversary tour in 2001.

Exclusive: Micky Dolenz talks about the Monkees tour and those health rumors
Steve Marinucci, Vintage Rock 'n' Roll Examiner
Examiner.com
August 10, 2011

This past week saw headlines explode with news about the Monkees and the abrupt end of their 45th anniversary tour. On the phone from Los Angeles, Micky Dolenz acknowledged it's been a crazy week.

"There's no business like show business, like no business I know" he sings as the interview begins.

He says the posting on his Facebook page gives the reasons for the tour ending. "It's strictly about business and internal business affairs, and that's all I can say at the moment."

(The statement on the page reads, "Dear Fans and Friends, The Monkee Tour has, indeed, been cancelled but for reasons that I cannot discuss at this time. I can say that the reasons pertain to business and are internal matters. Needless to say, I am disappointed but the situation was unavoidable and I want to apologize to all the fans out there who will not be able to experience what was a wonderful show indeed. Regretfully, Micky.")

He says, though, he was pleased the show was received so well. "We got the best reviews I think we ever had. And I particularly am very pleased with some of the reviews I got for my vocal work."

He said his musical work in "Hairspray" and "Aida" and work with a vocal coach was a big help for the Monkees shows.

"And, by the way, you don't sing like that when you have health problems, shall we say?," he says making a reference to an internet rumor that claimed he was going into rehab. He termed the rumor "absolute h-------. You can quote me on that."

Dolenz said he went right from "Hairspray" into rehearsals for the Monkees tour, then the tour itself. How does he feel now that the tour is over?" "I'm relieved to some degree because it was tough being on the road. I've been on the road for a year and a half. And it beats you up, especially one nighters and we were doing six a week."

He says suggestions that the Monkees weren't getting along during the tour weren't true. Fans cited the fact members leaving the stage during certain numbers as an indication there was unhappiness. But he says that's was just part of the show.

"I know that we were going offstage, each one of us, to change. We had two or three costume changes. I left the stage two or three times to do costume changes, to rest and take a breather. It's not like all three had to be on stage all the time. It was a bit more than just a bunch of songs strung together. There was kind of a show quality to it."

There were rumors that Mike Nesmith might appear at least one show, but it never happened. "He's always been invited. He's always welcome, as far as I'm concerned, and I can only speak for myself. I didn't speak to him personally, (but) I know that he was contacted," he said.

Dolenz says the show was not recorded for future CD or DVD release because, he says, there was so much happening onstage. "We never officially recorded the show. That doesn't bother me, really. You don't record musicals either. And the reason is that is that a) you want people to come and see the show, but also, especially theatrical productions, they never look good when you try to film or tape them. You can't just capture the three-dimensionality of a space. It's like shooting the front of a house."

He said he especially loved the Monkees footage on the screen behind him during the show, some of which he said he hadn't seen before the tour. "It was really cool and wonderfully edited. It was great seeing some of that footage. I hadn't even seen some of it. I kept turning around in the middle of a show and going, 'Whoa, that's cool."

Is there any chance of the tour starting back up? "Not at this point, no," he says.

Dolenz said he's also not aware of any new Monkees reissues coming soon. "I think Rhino's done a very good job of repackaging some of that stuff. The repackaging is just beautiful and they've done a real good job with some of that stuff.. But no, I'm not aware of anything."

Meanwhile, he has other things lined up, including solo shows through the end of the year. "I'm kind of back into it now and going to New York for meetings about another Broadway thing, then back to London for meetings on possibly another Broadway show in the West End."

Another solo album is also in the planning stages. "I have a project I've been working on, a very personal kind of project. I don't like to hype things that aren't really happening that aren't for real, but I'm very proud of it. We're right now looking for a home for it."

But he will definitely be back on the stage. "I do love performing live, especially in musical theater. That is now and has been for a number of years the love of my life. The real deal, you know. It's the real deal."

Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees
By Paul Prado
Special to Highland Community News
July 21, 2011

“Here we come, walking down the street. Get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet. Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees!” This mantra was sung by many a child and young adult in the mid-to-late ‘60s. Last Friday night, that mantra came alive at the Morongo Casino, when three of the original band members of the Monkees performed in front of a sold out crowd that knew practically every word that was sung.

Before the concert started, the stage, which brought the band comfortably close to their fans, was lit up with their trademark guitar that read Monkees in bright red lights. Clips of commercials with the Monkees and their television show also titillated the audience before the band took to the stage.

Opening their set with “I’m a Believer” started the cheering that did not seem to cease until the last applause after their encore. Popular hits like “Mary, Mary,” “Valerie,” Day Dream Believer,” “Saturday’s Child,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” and others, were performed and supported by a well adept backup band.

Each band member, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork, took turns holding the spotlight, as each sang their respective songs. Tork played guitar and keyboards. He sang the television show’s ending song, “For Pete’s Sake.” Dolenz sang the “Porpoise Song.” Jones, at one point, came on stage in a white tux and tails singing “Daddy’s Song.” Jones performed, danced, and sang as though time had not gone by. Dolenz, much to the delight of the audience, sat on the throne of the drum set on several numbers and sang his heart out.

During one of the songs, all three Monkees threw on a guitar and sang. Near the end, Jones started to sing “Day Dream Believer,” and the entire crowd got to its feet and started singing. During a chorus of the song, Jones held out his microphone and asked the audience to sing, which they obliged him with loud voices.

The band left the stage, but, after repeated audience whistling and calling for an encore, the band took the stage one more time. The crowd cheered even louder. They sang three more songs and finally ended the concert with the theme music from the television show. As they left the stage for the last time, all three Monkees joined arms and walked leg over leg, as they did on their television show. It seemed that everyone that attended left with a huge smile on their face. Some were even singing some of the songs as they left the theater.

A VIP meet and greet was held just outside of the concert hall.

While some guests were able to meet Micky Dolenz and take a picture with Davy Jones, Peter Tork took it on himself to go outside of the ropes to greet the fans. Tork was amiable and approachable, as he posed for pictures and signed autographs. This show was a definite “must see” for hard core Monkees fans.

For Micky Dolenz, life is about more than being a Monkee
By Duane Dudek
JSOnline.com
July 19, 2011

Here's what you may not know about the Monkees.

Their television series was the first to portray the counterculture.

Their movie "Head" was the first by members of an auteur generation of filmmakers who would help reinvent Hollywood. And the soundtrack of that film featured Ry Cooder, Neil Young and Leon Russell.

Here's what you may not know about Micky Dolenz, who starred in the show and is performing with fellow Monkees Peter Tork and Davy Jones at Festa Italiana on Saturday: He has spent the last two decades on Broadway and in touring companies of musicals such as "Pippin," "Aida," "Grease" and "Hairspray," in which he plays not Edna Turnblad, but her husband.

There were discussions about playing Edna, Dolenz said, but "I just don't see myself in the fat suit yet."

And at home, he listens to show tunes and standards.

"I'm afraid I couldn't even name anybody on the charts today," Dolenz said in a wide-ranging chat about - what else - the Monkees.

The Monkees was never a band, he said.

It was "a television show about an imaginary group that lived in that imaginary beach house," Dolenz said.

"And we were cast as singer-musicians. The closest thing I've seen to it today is 'Glee,' which is a television show about an imaginary glee club at an imaginary school. Yet they can all sing and dance."

While Tork and Mike Nesmith came to the show as musicians, Dolenz was an actor.

He grew up in Los Angeles, and his parents were performers. He made his TV debut in 1956, at the age of 10, when he starred in "Circus Boy," and "The Monkees" debuted in 1966.

Dolenz said that while growing up, "Oklahoma!" and "West Side Story" were his favorite films, and "in an interesting side note, that's what 'The Monkees' was - musical theater." He said the show's kinetic style and the characters' antics were "similar in style to a Marx Brothers movie," like Richard Lester's work on the Beatles' "A Hard Days Night," which was released in 1964.

During their heyday, the Monkees had a remarkable string of hits, most of which were written by Brill Building alumni such as Carole King and Gerry Goffin ("Pleasant Valley Sunday"), Neil Diamond ("I'm a Believer"), and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who produced all the music for the group's first album and wrote the show's theme, as well as "Last Train to Clarksville."

In an early example of synergy, the TV show was "connected through a corporate structure" to its Brill Building songwriters, who were "given assignments to write songs" for the show, Dolenz said.

The Monkees "had absolutely no control of what was being done musically" until the album "Headquarters," he said, "on which we played on every single song."

The show, Dolenz said, "was the first time radio, record and television industries sort of joined forces in a concerted attack on the consumer. But it was also the first time that young people were ever seen on television as masters of their own destiny."

"On other shows, it was a parent, a favorite uncle or a parental figure giving advice," he said. "On 'The Monkees,' we were on our own as kids - and that was a big sticking point with the network, in fact. They were quite worried about showing these kids on their own."

"And the other thing the Monkees represented was the counterculture. The only other time you saw long-haired people on TV, they were being arrested," Dolenz said.

And like other young people of the time, the band members eventually came to resent working for The Man.

"We wanted to express ourselves creatively," Dolenz said.

The band members' "big break" with their squeaky clean image came to a head with "Head," the psychedelic movie co-written by Jack Nicholson, directed by Bob Rafelson and produced by Bert Schneider.

"That movie had a lot to do with not just the deconstruction of the Monkees, but the deconstruction of Hollywood," Dolenz said.

In fact, Rafelson and Schneider, who also produced the series, later produced "Five Easy Pieces," "The King of Marvin Gardens" and "Easy Rider" - all with Nicholson.

"But 'Head' is the first one of that group," Dolenz said.

After the show was canceled, Dolenz went to England for 15 years, where "all I did was direct TV films. I didn't do any acting or Monkee business at all."

His stage career followed and remains his first love. People have mentioned staging a "jukebox" musical about the Monkees - like "Jersey Boys," about the Four Seasons, which starts an extended run Wednesday at the Marcus Center - but the idea has not gained traction, Dolenz said.

Coincidentally, Frankie Valli, leader of the Four Seasons, will appear at Festa Italiana on Sunday, the day after the Monkees.

A Monkees concert is "very different" from a Broadway musical, yet also is "a theatrical kind of enterprise," Dolenz said. "The music is mostly the same, and you do develop a pattern and routine. But it's a lot looser" and includes "shtick and dialogue."

When describing his role in it, Dolenz sounds like someone speaking in third person breaking through the fourth wall.

"I approach the Monkee experience and any Monkee concert as me, Micky Dolenz the actor, recreating the role of Mickey, the wacky drummer, on 'The Monkees.'"

The Monkees deliver big fun at Greek reunion - Soundcheck
By Robert Kinsler
The Orange County Register
July 17, 2011

It’s been 45 years since Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith burst on the scene with the release of their first hit single, “Last Train to Clarksville,” and the debut of their weekly NBC series. But watching three of the four Monkees perform Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at the Greek Theatre, it seemed as if it was 1966 all over again.

Sure, the band (minus Nesmith, who hasn’t participated in any such reunions since the late ’90s) and the majority of fans who filled the venue have seen the decades race by. But I can’t remember a concert that was as much fun as the Monkees’ nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Just in the past couple of months I’ve caught amazing concerts by Steely Dan and U2, but those were mostly serious affairs staged in front of crowds often disengaged from the performances. This appearance was both a concert and a revival complete with the integration of artful footage from the television series, the cult film Head, even old commercials. Based on what was going on around me, the majority of fans seemed to be excited and genuinely interested in the show.

Not so long ago it looked as if there wouldn’t be any more Monkees resurrections when word reached the faithful in early 2009 that Tork had to undergo surgery and treatment for a rare form of head and neck cancer. His successful battle against the disease may not have been front-and-center Saturday, but it certainly added weight to the celebration at the Greek.

The most amazing aspect of Saturday’s 135-minute show, however, was how the Monkees (backed by a sharp seven-member group) delivered strong, poignant performances of their diverse material. There were the rollicking rockers usually sung by Dolenz, such as “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”and “Goin’ Down”; humorous material from Tork, like “Your Auntie Grizelda”; singalong favorites like “Daydream Believer”; and plenty of well-played hits, from “I’m a Believer” to “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”

On the whole, there was truly something for every sort of Monkeemaniac.

This outing also reminded how the Monkees’ brief initial recording run (1966-1971) saw them stretch beyond tuneful radio-ready hits for which they remain best known. A block of songs from Head explored their artistic spirit, with the lush theme from the 1968 film (“Porpoise Song”) drawing sonic comparisons to Radiohead or Pink Floyd. “Shades of Gray” had all three singing in distinctive harmony, while Dolenz led a rousing version of “Randy Scouse Git,” belting out the song while banging on a large drum positioned at the front of the stage.

All three Monkees displayed the same chemistry and wit that made their popular show such a hit decades ago and during subsequent reruns (it currently airs on Antenna TV at noon on Saturdays and Sundays). “I’m Davy’s dad,” said Jones (pictured) in the early moments of the concert. “Davy will be out in a minute.”

At one point, Tork - impressive on guitar, keyboards and five-string banjo - talked at length about how the Monkees had to fight to play their own songs in the beginning. To be certain, all three played various instruments throughout the lengthy show; Dolenz’s drumming was particularly effective on “Can You Dig It.”

Still, if this rewarding tour proves to be a finale for the group, that would be too bad. It would be great if Nesmith would team up with the other guys and celebrate just one more time. He might find it as fun for himself as for the thousands of fans who would welcome him back with open arms.

Setlist: The Monkees at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, July 16, 2011

Main set: Overture and Monkees Theme / I’m a Believer / Mary, Mary / Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow) / The Girl I Knew Somewhere / Love Comes Knockin’ / Randy Scouse Git / Valleri / Papa Gene’s Blues / Saturday’s Child / I Wanna Be Free / That Was Then / I Don’t Think You Know / All of Your Toys / Hard to Believe / What Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round? / She / She Hangs Out / Sometime in the Morning / Someday Man / Circle Sky / Can You Dig It / As We Go Along / Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again? / Porpoise Song (Theme from “Head”) / Daddy’s Song / For Pete’s Sake / Cuddly Toy / Words / Shades of Gray / Goin’ Down / It’s Nice to Be With You / Your Auntie Grizelda / Last Train to Clarksville / A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You / (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone / Daydream Believer

Encore: Pleasant Valley Sunday / I’m a Believer / Exit music (the band played the Monkees’ theme while clowning around on stage and thanking the audience)

The Monkees
By Robert Bernstein
Santa Barbara Edhat
July 15, 2011

Last night the 1960s TV show band The Monkees was reunited at the Chumash Casino for an energetic 2 1/2 hours peformance.

Americans Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork and Englishman Davy Jones were part of the reunion. Michael Nesmith was not.

They performed almost all of their top hits: I'm a Believer, Valerie, Last Train to Clarksville, I Wanna Be Free, She, Daydream Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Listen to the Band, Shades of Gray. Plus many lesser-known songs. And the rest of the band finished with the Monkees Theme.

The evening was made more interesting with some inside stories of the band and the times. Their contract forbid them to talk about the US war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the environmental movement or anything "controversial" or "political" happening at the time. This was the height of the 1960s!

The band was really created as a prop for a TV show based on the Beatles' film "Hard Day's Night". It was never intended to be a real band that would go on tour, let alone be performing 45 years later! The Beatles were flattered by the imitation and befriended the group.

At first they said "their" Monkees records were released without them even knowing about it! The Monkees band members fought to have control over their music and performances. Many well-known musicians wrote their music behind the scenes, including Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson and Carole King, who was especially noted.

It was a trip back in time, complete with continuous video of the original Monkees performances from the 1960s running in the background. Most enjoyable as well as a window to behind the scenes.

Peter Tork said we were welcome to take photos and even videos of their performance. He said we could even make money off of it! He just asked one thing: "If you figure out a way to make money off of us, please let us know how you did it. We have never figured out how ourselves!"

Robert's concert photos:

The Monkees - Chumash Casino - 14 July 2011 - Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Davy Jones

Photos and Site Courtesy of Robert Bernstein

Concert Review: The Monkees at Old National Center
Author: James A. Gardner
blogcritics.org
July 11, 2011

The Monkees have reunited and are on tour?! Right. Next you’ll be telling me someone’s staged a play about The Shaggs!

Putting aside issues of their age and ability, and their potential to draw an audience decades past the height of their popularity, a Monkees tour was an unlikely prospect due to their experience last time around. In 2001, Peter Tork (a recovering alcoholic) quit before the tour’s end, alleging excessive drinking and abusive behavior by Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz. As recently as two years ago, Tork was quoted saying he had no interest in either another reunion or in sharing a stage with Dolenz.

The lure of a 45th anniversary commemoration of the band must have proved irresistible to all concerned, because Tork is currently sharing a stage with Dolenz and Jones on a 30-some-city tour. And however he felt in the recent past, Tork at least gives the appearance of having a blast onstage with the other two. (Mike Nesmith, who reportedly dislikes touring and can’t possibly need the money, is sitting this one out, as he has nearly all the previous Monkees reunions).

Given their origins as a “pre-fabricated” band created for a TV show, along with the “boys’” advanced ages (65-68), modest expectations for a contemporary Monkees concert seemed reasonable. Personally, I would not have been surprised if the show had been a blatant cash grab—brief, heavy on hits medleys and schmaltz—a “hand wave” farewell gesture to their fans. At best I expected the kind of competent yet uninspired “nothing but hits” performances that constitute so many oldies package tours.

What we got instead, at the recent concert my wife and I attended (on June 26, in the fabulous Egyptian Room of Old National Center, Indianapolis, Indiana), couldn’t have been much further from my cynical forecast. Over the course of more than two hours, The Monkees delved some 40 songs deep into their catalog, proving themselves to be at least the equal of any of the nostalgia acts we’ve seen. The song selection, energy, and musicianship so exceeded the typical nostalgia show, in fact, I’d put this among the top ten concerts I’ve attended in recent years.

Having experienced the Monkees’ phenomena first-hand the first time around, with all the fallout over the “pre-fab four” not being a “real” band, it was extremely gratifying to witness Davy, Mickey, and Peter’s energy and proficiency belying their age and the group’s origins. The three took turns providing surprisingly strong lead vocals; Mickey did several numbers from behind his drum kit; Peter contributed integral keyboard, guitar, and French horn parts; and even Davy strapped on an acoustic guitar for a song or two. Tork is singing particularly well, maybe better than he was during the band’s heyday, delivering both his traditional leads and Nesmith’s with truer pitch and authority than I’d ever heard from him, (especially impressive given his recent bout with cancer on his tongue).

And not to get too sidetracked, but it always seemed to me that all that righteous outrage over The Monkeesshould have been aimed at Hollywood for co-opting yet another facet of youth culture, not over their legitimacy as a band. The four Monkees were hired as actors, not as musicians. And how many rock bands are competent comic actors?

The set list—reportedly developed with fan input—strayed into album cuts, B-sides, and non-hit singles for a nice balance of the inevitable and the unexpected. Nesmith’s “Mary, Mary” is more substantial than its under-powered studio version (if still not as heavy as the Butterfield Blues Band cover); the long-unreleased “All of Your Toys” sparkles with Tork’s harpsichording and Dolenz offering more evidence that he was among the 60s underrated rock vocalists; Tork’s “For Pete’s Sake,” the TV show’s season two closing theme, has all the vibrancy of an essential period classic; and on the pure pop confection, “She Hangs Out,” Jones still shing-a-lings like a man his wife’s age.

Tork also shined on “Shades of Gray,” a gem from songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, one of the highlights from The Monkees’ breakthrough album, Headquarters (the one where they forcibly took away the reins from Don Kirshner and played nearly everything themselves), an LP especially well represented in the concert. If Peter was responsible for some of the evening’s finest moments, though, he also must answer for the inclusion of “Auntie Grizelda,” which was considerably more appealing to the 11-year-old me than to the current version. At least, unlike some UK stops on the tour, we were spared “Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky.”

One would think that The Monkees must have mixed emotions regarding their sole film, Head, its legacy, and its effect on the band’s fortunes. While the film spotlighted some of their most sophisticated music, it also led to the dissolution of their working relationship with director Bob Rafelson and producer Bert Schneider. Now considered a cult classic, the film effectively ended the brief era of intense popularity that accounts for the band’s continued appeal.

Any misgivings they may have about Head, however, are swept away by their dazzling mini-set of the best of the film’s soundtrack. Peter led the band through powerful takes on his “Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?” and “Can You Dig It” (the latter just bit disappointing with the absence of the live belly dancer of earlier shows). The six song stretch was a high point of the night and a well-earned reward for the film's apologists.

The Head set, in particular, benefitted from the continuous videos projected above the band, although clips from the Monkees’ TV show enhanced the entire concert. At times the show felt like watching an episode with a live soundtrack, a very pleasant sensation for those with any affection for the TV series.

And who could have grown up then not liking The Monkees? Or at the very least, envying them, living on the beach, driving a customized GTO, and playing in a band. All the girls wanted to be with them, all the boys wanted to be them. And even 45 years on, Dolenz, Jones, and Tork make being a Monkee look and sound like a whole lot of fun.

The Monkees Reunite at the Chumash Casino
By Rebecca Lee Benwitt
The Santa Barbara Independent
July 11, 2011

Davy Jones Talks Touring, Teenage Fame, and Coming Home

Good news, Monkees junkies: It’s time to get your paisley-emblazoned velvet tunic and board the last train to Santa Ynez, because this Thursday the hippie, happy boys in the famous ’60s band will be appearing at the Chumash Casino.

The upcoming valley visit will be a one-night stop on the guys’ 45th Anniversary Tour, a multimedia show featuring three of the original members of the pop-rock quartet—Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz. In addition to performing hits, including “I’m A Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Daydream Believer,” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” the trio will also do songs from their cult-classic movie, Head. Of the reunion concert tour (the band’s first in a decade), Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said, “It’s hard to imagine anybody disappointed by it, unless they just plain hate life.”

The Monkees were originally a made-for-TV band, cobbled together in 1966 for the program of the same name. A musical comedy series echoing the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, The Monkees was about the zany mishaps, antics, and adventures of four members of a struggling rock band. The show was written with the already-existing Los Angeles band Lovin’ Spoonful in mind, but when they didn’t work out, creators put out an ad for “four insane boys” in Variety. Out of the woodwork came the musical goof-niks who ultimately made up the group, and the rest, as they say, is pop music history.

Eventually, of course, the foursome managed to turn the television concept into a fully functional, self-contained musical group that created and produced catchy, phenomenally successful tunes. They scored a dozen Billboard Top 40 hits, outselling both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in 1967, as well as Top 10 hits in more than 25 countries.

“Everybody knows The Monkees,” Jones told me from the band’s tour bus as the guys were en route to Detroit. In addition to his singing and tambourine talents, the 5’3” Jones held the position of pocket-pin-up for the group.

“I used to be a heartthrob, but now I’m a coronary!” he laughed. “We’re just having a great time, though, now, Micky, Peter, and I. The audiences are really enjoying what we’re doing. It’s a two-hour show with all the hits, plus many songs we’ve never done onstage before.”

About the missing Monkee on this tour, Mike Nesmith (“Nez” to his fans), Jones explained, “Mike is not road-worthy, really. We’re all in our sixties now. He couldn’t be on this bus right now. He’d want to take his private jet, like the Eagles do.”

For Jones, the Santa Barbara appearance will be a homecoming of sorts, as he first lived in this area beginning in 1974, when he and his then-wife, Linda, moved here to raise their two daughters. While the now Beaverton, PA, resident no longer calls Santa Barbara home, he added that he “never totally left.”

“I have a place at the polo fields. I like to visit Santa Barbara. Two of my daughters live there still, where they grew up. What better place to live your life than Santa Barbara?”

Born and raised in Manchester, England, Jones had a career as a child actor there (on TV and in West End theater) before arriving in the United States in 1962 to appear in Broadway’s Oliver (a role that won the 16-year-old a Tony Award nomination). In 1964, he landed on The Ed Sullivan Show (the same night the Beatles made their first appearance), singing a song from Oliver, and wondering, as he put it, “What am I going to do after this?”

A year later, his question was answered when he signed up as the first Monkee. When three other appealing gents were found, “We instantly clicked,” Jones recalled. The resulting TV show, with one of the most hummable theme songs ever written, ran for two years and captured two Emmys. After it was cancelled, each Monkee went on to pursue individual artistic endeavors, but the band reformed from time to time over the decades for new albums, tours, and TV specials.

“Whenever we want to get together, we do,” Jones said. “It works. We have a great time still! Some people like to have fun and not be so serious. Micky, Peter, and I get together either on the bus, in the hotel, or we sit down to breakfast, and it’s like a TV show itself. It’s forever 21 when we get together.”

The Monkees’ tour has taken them to dozens of cities all over the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S., but the upcoming visit to the Chumash Casino has a unique appeal and a promise.

“I like it because it’s over there, near where Michael [Jackson] had his place,” Jones said. “We’re playing all kinds of places, but out there it’s immediately intimate when we walk onstage. We’re all very ordinary, you know? Until the curtain open....”

Daydream belivers: The Monkees reunite at the Chumash Casino
By Patrick S. Pemberton
The Tribune & SanLuisObispo.com
July 7, 2011

Brought together to portray a Beatles-like group on television, The Monkees turned a studio fabrication into a real phenomenon

After finishing the pilot for “The Monkees” TV show, Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz were driving home to their rented house when they heard a familiar song on the radio.

“Last Train to Clarksville,” a happy-sounding pop song secretly about the Vietnam war, had been recorded by The Monkees for the pilot. But before the show even aired, it was sent to radio stations across the country.

“We had never thought about it going on the radio,” Jones said. “We were making it for a television show. And all of the sudden it’s on the radio, and all of the sudden it’s No. 1 for six weeks.”

It was a curious beginning for what was designed to be a pretend band. But 45 years later, The Monkees are still singing “Last Train to Clarksville,” along with several other hits that proved they were for real.

Their reunion tour will stop at the Chumash Casino next Thursday.

While the TV show made the Monkees both TV stars and recording stars - they outsold both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in 1967 - the four members were entertainers before the show, which debuted in 1966. Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were both folk singers. Dolenz had been a child actor in the TV show “Circus Boy.” And despite a short stint as a jockey apprentice, Jones, who grew up in the English city of Manchester, had a theater background, most notably appearing as the Artful Dodger in the Broadway play “Oliver!”

It was with that production that he appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 - on the same episode that featured the Beatles’ first Sullivan appearance. While a handful of kids waited outside for his autograph, streets outside the theatre were barricaded for the throng of crazed Beatles fans.

“Soon after that - I was signed to Columbia Pictures at the time - I said, ‘I want to start recording because I think this is a great way to meet girls,’ ” he said.

It was actually a Beatles film - “A Hard Day’s Night” - that inspired the concept for a silly TV show about an unknown band that performed Beatlesque tunes. While Jones had auditioned for shows like “Batman,” “F-Troop” and “Hogan’s Heroes” to no avail, Columbia decided to build “The Monkees” around him, holding auditions for the three other Monkees.

After rejecting people like Stephen Stills and Harry Nilsson, the quartet was chosen. Jones and Dolenz had more acting skills, while Nesmith and Tork had more music skills. Still, they were quick studies. And they were aided with a stable of great songwriters, which included Nilsson, Neil Diamond and Carole King.

Each week, the show’s Vaudeville-style humor was paired with a couple of songs, including “Daydream Believer,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”

Yet, even though they were a new act created by the studio, The Monkees quickly demanded more control over their music. So their third album, “Headquarters,” featured mostly songs written by the band, who also demanded to play their own instruments.

“You listen to ‘Headquarters,’ and it sounds raw,” Jones said. “It was fun. It didn’t sell as many - it only sold a million and a half. The rest of them sold three and five million. That was because they didn’t get behind it. They didn’t support it.”

The show lasted only two seasons. And “Head,” a psychedelic movie starring The Monkees, was a commercial failure, seemingly signaling the end of the band’s short run. But the TV show lived on in reruns. Then in the ’80s, MTV hosted a “Monkees” marathon, allowing the show to reach a new generation and sparking a successful reunion tour.

The Monkees would tour again in the late ’90s - selling out two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. But Nesmith would soon part ways.

By then a successful businessman and producer, Nesmith didn’t need the money, having inherited more than $20 million in 1980 from his mother, who invented Liquid Paper. Still, Jones said, Nesmith was never that committed to The Monkees.

“We’re a better show - we’re a better act-with him not being there,” Jones said. “I wish him all the best in everything he does. But he was never a part of The Monkees. Visually, yes. But not in the heart.”

At various times the different Monkees have quarreled. As recently as 2005, Jones told The Bergen County (N. J.) Record, “There’s absolutely no way on earth that I would ever work with them together or individually ever, ever, ever again.”

But today he’s singing a different tune. In fact, he’s singing many tunes - all with those guys he vowed to never ever, ever perform with again.

“Micky and Peter have come to another place in their lives, which is very attractive to me,” Jones said. “That’s why I’m working with them. I love to be on stage on my own, showing off and telling my stupid jokes and enjoying my own solo career. But they have changed. Or maybe it’s me that’s changed and realized that I’m viewing this from the wrong angle.”

Hey, hey...he's a Monkee
By Jim Fink
bizjournals.com
June 30, 2011

As the Monkees' 45th anniversary tour is winding down, Micky Dolenz is in a reflective mood.

And, like his on-stage persona, it is a happy, cheerful mood.

The Monkees - okay, three-fourths of the original band, Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones - have been on the road since early spring playing two-hour greatest hits-filled sets to packed crowds. Only Michael Nesmith has opted not to take part in the tour. The band played two sold-out shows earlier this month at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ont.

"This tour has been absolutely incredible," Dolenz said. "The crowds have been amazing, probably some of the best we've ever played before."

With all of the Monkees nearing 70, Dolenz is reluctant to say if there will be another tour or if this is the grand finale for what has been an amazing, roller coaster-like run that began in 1966 when the band, dubbed by many as the "pre-Fab Four" were introduced to audiences via their weekly NBC show.

"The proof is in the pudding," Dolenz said. "We're still here and our songs are standing up. Quite well in some cases."

The current shows dispel one preconceived notion that the Monkees couldn't play their own instruments. Dolenz plays drums and guitar. Tork alternates between keyboards and guitar. Jones strums an acoustic guitar here and there. The Monkees are backed up by eight other musicians.

"You have to," Dolenz said. "Audiences want you to re-create the sounds from those 45s and albums they bought way back when. If we don't, we are just singing to a bunch of pre-recorded tapes. That's not us. We are about the live experience."

Dolenz is quick to point out the Monkees were not alone in using often times unnamed studio musicians on their records. Among them was Grand Island's Tom Tedesco, a talented and underrated guitarist. Others like Leon Russell and Dean Parks played on the records.

"Okay, we used back up, studio musicians," Dolenz said almost defensively. "Guess what? So did the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Mamas & Papas and the Association. We were not alone."

The Monkees had an incredible run between 1966 and 1969, the heyday of AM rock radio. Songs like "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" and "Daydream Believer" still sound fresh. The audiences, especially those at Fallsview Casino, clearly responded to the band's hits.

Dolenz said he and his bandmates feed off of that energy.

"When I walk out on stage and I hear the roar from the audience, I feel like it is my birthday," Dolenz said. "I still get that same kind of rush."

When this tour ends in late July, Dolenz will not be heading to a rocking chair. Rather, he'll be back on the road doing some solo dates. Some Broadway musicals might also be in the offing. Dolenz has already toured with Elton John/Tim Rice's "Aida," along with other shows like "Pippin" and "Grease."

"I'm a Monkee, but I'm an entertainer first," Dolenz said.

Monkees tell own tale in multi-media performance
By Andrew S. Hughes
South Bend Tribune
June 29, 2011

SOUTH BEND The Monkees’ concert Tuesday at the Morris Performing Arts Center was as much an exercise in nostalgia as in re-self-definition.

Mostly, though, it was entertaining.

The show had weaknesses, but its strengths far outweighed them as the three reunited Monkees - Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork; Michael Nesmith declined their invitation to join them - played, sang and danced their way through more than two hours of hits, album cuts and - the musical highlight of the concert - a suite of songs from "Head," the band’s 1968 avant-garde film.

As singers, Dolenz, Jones and Tork each started the night a little shaky, but each of them found his voice.

After almost a decade of working in musical theater, Dolenz emerged as the strongest and most consistent singer of the three.

He has always leaned toward R&B music with his singing, and Dolenz demonstrated that by the end of the concert-opening "I’m a Believer." On such songs as "Saturday’s Child," "As I Go Along," "Words" and "She," his voice had grit and dramatic delivery, but throughout the concert, Dolenz had complete control of each song’s melody and phrasing.

He also played steady if no-frills drums on about a third of the concert’s numbers, doubling with the band’s full-time drummer and often singing lead at the same time.

On such songs as "When Love Comes Knockin’ (at Your Door)," "Someday Man," "Daddy’s Song," "Cuddly Toy" and "Daydream Believer," Jones did employed his charming, mid-range voice to a mid-tempo song with a strong melody to produce a joyous, showman’s rendition.

The band’s keyboardist doubled the lead vocal with Tork on Nesmith’s "Papa Gene’s Blues," which made it difficult to hear Tork - who has been treated successfully for tongue cancer - in the mix.

But on "I Don’t Think You Know Me," Tork sang with feeling and could be heard, and he sounded relaxed and stronger on "What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round?" and his parts on "Words" and "Shades of Gray."

His best moments of the night, however, came on his two compositions from "Head," "Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?" and "Can You Dig It," and "Your Auntie Grizelda." On these songs, Tork looked more animated than at any other time, and his voice was at its most assured, vigorous and in command of the melody.

A talented multi-instrumentalist, Tork also played keyboards, guitar and solid rhythm and melodic picking on the banjo for "What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round?" and a plaintive French horn solo on "Shades of Gray."

But the music was only one part of Tuesday’s show.

Footage from the television series, the television special "Thirty-Three and One-Third Revolutions Per Monkee," "Head" and concerts from the ’60s supplemented by photographs of album and singles covers, magazine covers and off-camera on-the-set played above the band on a video screen.

On some songs, such as "Saturday’s Child" and "Last Train to Clarksville," the video was the same "romp" used on the television show for the song, while "She" featured a montage of scenes with each Monkee in several romantic situations.

Even The Monkees’ most critical television role - in NBC’s long-ago eyes - made an appearance: Before The Monkees took the stage, a montage of their commercials for Kellogg’s, Kool-Aid and Black Label after shave played on the video screen.

Early in the concert, the three Monkees bantered between songs with the sort of pun-filled and silly but subtly pointed humor that made the television series funny. Later, their song introductions became stories about being in The Monkees or the recording of the upcoming song.

After The Monkees were cast for the television show and records began to be made with session musicians, for instance, Tork said he resented that the four of them weren’t allowed to play on those records. Now, he said, he was wrong and that with their 18-hour work days on the television set and singing vocals in the recording studio, they didn’t have time to record the instruments, too. After the first season finished filming, The Monkees recorded 1967’s "Headquarters" with little assistance from studio musicians.

"We fought for and won the right to make our own records, which is more than we can say about some members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," Tork said, referring to the band’s controversial - and unfair - snub by that organization.

Yes, The Monkees have something to say, and they said it better than well Tuesday as a nostalgic but context-based work of multi-media entertainment.

Concert Review: The Monkees: Madcap reunion a good vibes escape
By Curtis Schieber
The Columbus Dispatch
June 25, 2011

Time lost its grip on a couple of thousand people last night in the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion as the Monkees delivered two hours of nonstop nostalgia. The 1960s group ranged from the faintly familiar to Beatles-sized hits.

The Monkees, often called the "Prefab Four, outsold the Beatles in 1967. They, rather the brain trust that created the phenomenon with actors of varying musical competence, did it with a madcap sitcom featuring musical showcases, screaming girls, and a foursome carefully chosen for maximum appeal. This, as the Summer Of Love lit the bomb of cultural upheaval.

Last night, they were three, with Michael Nesmith declining again to join Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz in their newest reunion after four decades apart. Though they vaguely resembled an aging trio of Dudley Moore, Keith Carradine, and Bob Hope, The Monkees drew considerable charm from gentle anachronism.

"We were signed to a 45-year contract," Jones said about the band's formation, adding that the pact forbade it from mentioning controversies such as the Vietnam War, drugs, and gay rights. The happy present times, he joked, made his performance of I Wanna be Free so much more meaningful.

Shades of Gray was more potent and interestingly ironic: "I remember when the answers seemed so clear/We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear Today there is no black or white/Only shades of gray."

The Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil song offered respite from the turmoil of the '60s, which from today's vantage point - and the vintage video clips that accompanied the performance - seem clearly a contrast of awareness and innocence; today's issues once again feel muddled as gray.

As always, Jones and his pals skirted such concerns, focusing on fun and good vibes.

Issues such as the quartet's slim role in the original recordings were aired (Tork said that filming schedules and producers' demands interfered.)

Last Train to Clarksville lost no luster with its mix of slack desire and a killer melody. The Neil Diamond tunes ( A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You) competed for appeal with the equally distinctive Boyce and Hart songs ( Clarksville), while the Carole King songs ( Sometime in the Morning) outclassed them all.

And all of us got a break from the woes of 2011.

Concert review: Monkee-ing around one more time
By Gary Graff
dailytribune.com
June 24, 2011

DETROIT -- "Are there some Monkees fans out there?" Davy Jones queried a nearly sold-out Fox Theatre on Thursday night.

As if he had to ask.

An abundance of Monkee maniacs, overwhelmingly boomer-age adults and mostly female, turned out for a night of unabashed nostalgia to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the TV-formed group that was once slammed as the Pre-Fab Four but has withstood the test of time to become a well-loved part of the pop culture past. Credit that to the material, of course - songs by august composers such as Carole King, Paul Williams and Neil Diamond that have become so entrenched the Fox crowd was singing along to nearly every word from the opening "I'm a Believer" to the closing...well, reprise of "I'm a Believer."

In fact, the fans were so loud they often drowned out Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, whose vocals were under-mixed throughout the show (fourth Monkee Mike Nesmith is, as usual, sitting out the tour but has given his blessing to the other three). Few of the fans seemed to mind, however; they were there to sing -- and to scream a little for the onetime teenybop heroes who appeared fit and friendly with each other, which has not always been the case in the past.

The three Monkees were happy to feed the memories, too, offering short stories of their past exploits - Dolenz talked about meeting the Beatles, Tork spoke of fighting for some degree of creative control over the music - and showing plenty of footage from the show, including outtakes, on a video screen at the rear of the stage. They even preceded their performance with Kool Aid and Rice Krispies commercials the group had filmed during the mid-'60s.

Most striking, however, was the setlist. There were, of course, plenty of hits - "Last Train to Clarksville," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "She," "Listen to the Band," "Daydream Believer" - but the Monkees, backed by a solid eight-piece band, made a case for the depth of their legacy with the strong caliber of B-list material they played. Non-hit tunes such as "When Love Comes Knockin' (At Your Door)," "Saturday's Child," "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" and "For Pete's Sake" sounded fresh next to the more familiar fare, although the more cabaret-flavored songs such as "Cuddly Toy" and "Words" have not aged as well.

The trio also picked some of the better tracks from its trippy 1968 film "Head," including "Can You Dig It," "Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?" and "Porpoise Song (Theme From 'Head')."

Tork, at one point, took a brief potshot at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not (yet) including his band in its ranks, but that also didn't matter to the Fox faithful. On Thursday night, they were just happy to be Monkeeing around one more time.

Dolenz, Jones and Tork are back to 'Monkee' around
By Tom Lounges
nwi.com
June 24, 2011

The lads are back on the road and in town June 30 at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville.

The group had an explosive resurgence for a couple of years after regrouping in 1986 for their 20th anniversary.

"We thought that 20-year reunion would be a short–lived thing. We never thought it would be like it was," said Davy Jones. The hugeness of the tour spawned the best–selling greatest hits package, "That Was Then, This Is Now" in 1987 (featuring three newly recorded songs), followed in1988 by "Pool It," an album of all new songs.

This summer's road trip is the group's first time back together since 1997.

Though Mike Nesmith has declined to be a part of the current tour, Jones, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz are once again Monkee–ing around and busting out such hits as "I'm A Believer," "Daydream Believer," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "Last Train To Clarksville," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and others.

"We all still play a lot of the Monkees songs in our own shows," said Dolenz. "We're proud of our past, we still have our health, and there's still a demand and an audience, so why not do it?

"People want to hear music from the past, from a time when they were young and carefree and happy," said Jones of the reunion and the group's enduring popularity. "Monkees songs are being played all the time, everywhere. The fans are still there, and we're still here, so we've decided to do it."

The Monkees were truly the first "corporate rock" band. Designed to fill a void in pop culture left wide open when the Beatles tired of being adorable mop–tops.

"If something is good it stands the test of time," Dolenz said. "And while I'd like to think the four of us were a big part of that, there were so many amazingly talented people behind the Monkees ... the writers, the producers, the songwriters. Just so many gifted people who went on to great things in their own careers. We were blessed to have such a talented team and much of our success is owed to them and of course to the amazing songs."

Along with all the expected hits, the Monkees set list for this tour is said to contain some deeper album cuts and a few songs from their psychedelic cult classic film, "Head."

Humor has always been a huge part of the Monkees legacy and Dolenz promised that has not changed. "And we share a lot of great stories too," he concluded.

Monkees reunion is all about the fans
By Dan Pearson
Lake County News-Sun
June 23, 2011

Davy Jones of the Monkees said he still hears the funniest lines from people he meets.

“I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, ‘Do you know who you are?’ Or ‘I used to kiss the television when you appeared.’”

Now a vibrant 65, Jones is one of three original members of the Monkees quartet who will be appearing as part of “An Evening With The Monkees: the 45th Anniversary Tour” June 29 at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan.

For this two-hour, multi-media concert presentation, Jones will be joined onstage by Micky Dolenz, 66, and Peter Tork, 69, and a back-up band as they offer a set list with more than 40 songs.

“Everything sounds the way it was, but it’s just a little more 2011,” said Jones.

HAPPY TO BE THERE

The singer said he considers himself blessed to still be on stage.

“Are we sick of singing ‘Daydream Believer,’ ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ or ‘(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone?’ Is Tony Bennett sick of singing ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco?’ No. He wishes he had 10 more of those.”

Absent from this reunion will be Mike Nesmith, who last toured as a Monkee in 1998.

“For that tour he stayed at a different hotel than the three of us. He traveled in his own transport. What does that tell you?” said Jones.

But the tour still includes the music from the original foursome, and his contributions will be recognized. “We do four of Mike’s songs in this show. Mike stands there with Carole King, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart who also wrote for the Monkees,” Jones explained.

Once known as the Pre-Fab Four, the group was assembled in a Hollywood studio as characters in their own TV sitcom. That show’s band was designed to rival the popularity of the Beatles and its members did. In 1967, the Monkees outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined.

“The TV show was all about four guys trying to make it in show business,” said Jones. “We never made it on the TV show. We played bar mitzvahs and elevators. But in real life, we had hit records on the radio, one after another and another for two years and we all decided, as most young men do, I think we will move on now.”

Jones, Tork and Dolenz last toured together in 2001 before personalities clashed and Tork went his separate way. A decade later lessons have been learned.

“We are all a lot wiser. Peter (Tork) just came in and he kissed me on the cheek. Micky and I hug every time before we go on stage,” said Jones. “I love the fact that Peter plays four or five different instruments on this show. I just wish he wouldn’t play them all at the same time.”

However this isn’t meant to be a comeback, and Jones jokes that “Justin Bieber stole my haircut and Axel Rose stole my dance. What have I got left? I guess it’s the music.”

And the fans who have been waiting for the Monkees to get back together again.

“Some of these people haven’t been out at a concert for years and we’re just renewing a friendship that has never gone away, really,” Jones said.

FAN-DRIVEN SHOW

He noted that fans were surveyed online to find out what they wanted to hear in this concert, and they’ll get what they want.

“We have never done live half the material we are do in this show,” said Jones. “We have a whole segment of songs from our movie ‘Head.’”

Jones added that “Head,” the only Monkees film, was co-written by Jack Nicholson, and was overlooked when it opened in 1968.

Jones said it hasn’t been decided yet if there will be a DVD or CD recording of this reunion tour which continues through July, but he hopes to keep the fans happy.

Monkeyshines aside, band still spreading joy
By Kevin Joy
The Columbus Dispatch
June 23, 2011

It's no secret that many of today's chart-topping teen acts aren't as genuine as they seem - with artists routinely embracing shadow players, digital voice manipulation, an army of songwriters and even lip-syncing (well, for Britney, at least).

Such trade secrets were once highly guarded, said Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, the televised 1960s pop-rock band famous for breezy melodies and squeaky-clean mischief - but later lambasted by the news media and public when the quartet's studio puppetry became known.

Those "discoveries" didn't discourage him.

"To be honest, when you're that famous and rich and popular with so many fans, quite frankly, I didn't give a (expletive)," the lively 66-year-old said from Boston. "Now, of course, everybody's admitting what they knew at the time.

"There's not one Beach Boy (playing an instrument) on Good Vibrations. The Byrds didn't play on ... ( Mr. Tambourine Man); neither did the Mamas & the Papas. Everyone was using studio musicians. They just never talked about it."

Central Ohioans who remember Last Train to Clarksville and A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You can watch Dolenz and fellow Monkees Davy Jones and Peter Tork perform on Friday at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion - live, up close and at face value.

Conceived by Hollywood filmmakers - and featuring actors found through a classified ad seeking "4 Insane Boys, Age 17-21" - plotlines of The Monkees were meant to mimic the 1964 Beatles mockumentary A Hard Day's Night.

Famed songwriters such as Neil Diamond ( I'm a Believer) and Carole King ( Pleasant Valley Sunday) contributed to the Monkees catalog, which - at first - featured outside musicians on instruments.

Dolenz, the band's drummer, hadn't even played the instrument until being assigned his role.

"When they sold the pilot, I started taking lessons," the longtime guitarist said. "It wasn't like I was training to be a studio musician. I only was focused on learning the material I needed."

Critics called the group the "prefab four."

The shift from filming numbers to gigging as a full-fledged band wasn't without challenges, said Dolenz, recalling the Monkees' first live concert (in 1966 in Honolulu).

"That was a huge shock to the system," he said. "No one had any idea what to expect.

"We'd rehearsed on the soundstage as we were filming this television show. It was insane. I couldn't hear myself or anyone else playing because all the kids were screaming so loud."

With growing disdain toward corporate oversight, meanwhile, the actors fought for creative rights to their destiny - recording much of the 1967 album Headquarters alone and starring in a bizarre, unsuccessful film titled Head.

But Monkee magic didn't last. An exhausted Tork left in 1969, while Michael Nesmith decamped a year later. The group fizzled in 1971.

Although Dolenz doesn't follow the trials or tunes of modern teen idols - he prefers High School Musical over Justin Bieber - the popular series Glee has found particular affection.

"It's probably the closest thing to what The Monkees was like in the sense that our show was about an imaginary band but everybody in the cast could sing and play and dance," said Dolenz, who has since pursued a theatrical career amid musical commitments.

" Glee is an imaginary show about a glee club. They can all actually do it, and they tour, so are they a real glee club or not?"

That debate could ring true for Dolenz, who has toured with various Monkees reunions and side projects.

It doesn't take a lot to initiate a road trip - "It's like 'Make me an offer,'" the Los Angeles resident said jokingly - but the physical demands of performance and travel take their toll. (Nesmith isn't touring with the group; Tork has repeatedly battled a rare head-and-neck cancer but was given a clean bill of health in 2009.)

"In some degrees, it's tougher," Dolenz said, "but the quality of the show and the lights and the video are infinitely better."

The hordes of screaming young women may have grown older, yet memories of the band's heyday haven't dissipated.

"It tends to be three generations now" in the crowd, he said. "I'll see a grandmother, a mother and a daughter; they've all turned each other on to the Monkees. It's very amusing."

Try finding that at a Jonas Brothers concert.

The Monkees monkee around too much at Stage AE
By Scott Mervis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 23, 2011

At some point the Monkees really did start to think they were the Beatles.

How else to explain "The Evening with the Monkees" concert Wednesday night at Stage AE that spanned more than 35 songs over two hours.

There had to be some fans on hand who didn't even know The Monkees had 35 songs!

Most people, and I'm not talking about the screaming fan club ladies in the first few rows (God bless them), probably couldn't even name more than six of their greatest hits off the top of their heads.

With that in mind, The Monkees could do a killer 14-song, hour-long set, perhaps with Herman's Hermits, The Rascals and The Grass Roots. Wednesday night, The Monkees pushed it way too far, opening with "I'm a Believer" and then going about 28 songs before they got to another blockbuster hit.

Micky Dolenz -- looking almost punk in his black jeans, black vest and fedora -- sang it reasonably close to the original version, drew a big applause and then yelled ... "Thank you, Cleveland!" Davy Jones muttered something to him like "No, no, this is Pittsburgh," but Mr. Dolenz was already off and running to the drums. If it were a joke -- like Mr. Jones cracking, "I'm Davy's dad, Davy will be out here in a minute" -- you'd think he would have hammed it up a bit.

Already off on a weird and baffling foot, the Monkees and their eight-piece band ventured deep into the non-greatest hits, which did show the range of their catalog. There were bubblegum Jones songs such as "When Love Comes Knocking at Your Door" and "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," sung in his still-boyish voice. He was on much shakier ground taking on a ballad like "I Wanna Be Free."

There were Peter Tork blues songs such as "Do I Have to Do This All Over Again" and "For Pete's Sake," delivered with even shakier vocals but surprisingly stinging guitar solos.

With footage from the TV shows and "Head" playing behind them, they touched on songs that sounded like acid-laced Beatles ("Can You Dig It?") and organ-drenched Animals ("Words").

Micky? Well, he's a character. I spent half the night trying to figure out who or what exactly he sounded like on "Saturday's Child," "I Don't Think You Know Me" and other lesser songs. The best I could come up with was an odd combination of Tiny Tim, Kermit the Frog and the typical guy who yells "hot dogs!" at a baseball game.

To his credit, though, he seemed to be enjoying himself and giving 110 percent, even if he did think the Ohio River was Lake Erie.

When they got to "Last Train to Clarksville" somewhere around song 30, I threw my arms to the heavens and praised the Lord. By some miracle, Mr. Dolenz sounded dead-on that one, and the show went on a roll with a run of crowd-pleasers they could play in their sleep, including Davy's cute "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," garage-rock classic "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and climactic sing-alongs on "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Daydream Believer."

Bang. That's all the Monkees had to do. There was no need for a career-spanning two hours of Monkee-ing around.

The Monkees reunite: Band plays favorities and rarities on 45th-anniversary tour, including three shows in Indiana
By James Grant
The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN
June 23, 2011

It's been 45 years since a television show about a madcap group of musicians called the Monkees burst onto TV screens around the world. In honor of that milestone, three of the group's original members — Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork — are reuniting for a 45th-anniversary concert tour.

The Monkees will come to Indiana for three shows: Sunday at Murat Theatre at Old National Centre in Indianapolis, Tuesday at Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend and June 30 at Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville.

For those of you who don't remember or weren't even born yet, “The Monkees” was a television show about a struggling rock group that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1968.

While the show was a hit and earned two Emmy Awards, the recordings made by the group were phenomenally successful, almost dwarfing the success of the series.

The band had three No. 1 hits (“Last Train to Clarksville,” “I'm a Believer” and “Daydream Believer”), three more top-10 hits (“A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Valleri”) and four No. 1 albums between 1966 and 1968. At the Monkees' peak in 1967, they outsold both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Monkees' saga is that, at the height of their fame, the group fought for and won the right to perform the music on their recordings, which had previously been performed by studio musicians. Thus the fictional TV group became a bona fide recording and touring band.

The group broke up in 1970 but reunited for several popular concert tours - most notably their very successful 1986 tour, which got a big boost from MTV running several marathons of their show.

While it's been 10 years since the Monkees last performed together, Peter Tork says this tour has been a happy experience for the group, especially for him.

“It's been going great,” Tork said in a telephone interview. “And I do enjoy myself on stage, and the other two are actors, so I can't tell. They're pranksters - they might be pretending to have a great time and really be soured (laughs). No, I'm sure they're having a great time. They're happy and cheerful and well-fed and sassy.”

For a group that took so much flak in the '60s for not playing the music on their first records, audiences will be impressed with the wide range of instruments group members now play.

Tork, a trained musician, plays bass, guitar, banjo, keyboards and French horn. Dolenz, who came to the group mainly as an actor, plays drums and guitar. Jones, who also came to the group mainly as an actor, plays guitar, tambourine and maracas.

Mike Nesmith, the fourth original member of the group, isn't participating in this tour. Tork said there are no plans for him to perform at any of the shows, but Tork didn't rule out a one-time appearance by Nesmith sometime before the tour ends.

At the concerts, longtime fans will be thrilled to hear several songs the Monkees have never performed live, including “All of Your Toys,” one of the first tunes the band ever recorded as a truly self-contained group.

Other rarities that fans can expect to hear include “I Don't Think You Know Me,” “Someday Man,” “Saturday's Child” and “Words,” as well as all their major hits and songs from their only movie, “Head.”

Tork says the nearly 40 songs that fill their two-hour show and the staging, which includes projected video clips from their TV show and movie “Head,” are all determined by one person - Jones.

“What Davy says goes in that department,” Tork said. “I've always had questions whether we didn't have to stick to absolutely all the tried-and-true songs. But Davy and some of the promoter people also said let's give the die-hard fans what they want – the songs that are a little bit more obscure.”

“I enjoy playing music,” Tork added. “It's not a question of whether I'm playing some of the best-known songs or some of the least-known songs. I like the music. If it's good music, I like to play it.”

Throughout his more than 45-year career, Tork has struggled with personal problems, survived a bout with cancer, seen fame come and go, and maneuvered through the sometimes turbulent relationships with his fellow Monkees. Yet one thing has remained constant - his love of music.

“I love to play in front of people,” Tork said. “I love the life on the road, the life of rehearsing and recording and performing. All of those kinds of things are just wonderful.

“If I could do the Monkees four days a week for the rest of my life, I'd be a very happy camper. It's about performing and being an entertainer. That's the lovely part of my life.”

Music: Talking with Peter Tork of the Monkees
By Scott Mervis
The Republic.com
June 22, 2011

How mind-blowing would it have been if someone told you in 1968 that the Beatles would play live one more time but that the Monkees would still be going 43 years later?

The Monkees, of course, didn't form organically and hone their skills playing marathon club sets of R&B and rock 'n' roll. They were assembled for an NBC TV series inspired by the Beatles, earning the nickname "Pre-Fab Four" or, as John Lennon called them, "the Marx Brothers of rock 'n' roll."

Frontman Davy Jones was a British stage actor and jockey. Micky Dolenz was a former child actor who needed drum lessons just to be the fake drummer. Both had good voices for pop songs, and then adding authenticity and antics were two real musicians, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, who both played in folk groups.

"The Monkees" lasted from 1966-68, which was just long enough for the band members to become superstars with such enduring hits as "I'm a Believer," "Last Train to Clarksville" and "Daydream Believer," a song recently revived by Scottish phenom Susan Boyle.

"I happen to think that the Monkees' songbook is a very, very good songbook," Tork says. "I think it stacks up with the Beatles' and the Stones' songbook -- much more in the kind of poppy, bubble-gum vein than some of the Stones and Beatles' songs, of course."

The 69-year-old guitarist backs up that claim, citing the songwriting of people like Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and Carol Bayer Sager.

The Monkees, who initially sang but did not play on their recordings, went beyond expectations to become a touring act between 1967 and 1970. They became a Fab Three when Tork left in 1969 and then a Fab Two when Nesmith -- "the smart one" and the band's most accomplished songwriter -- left to pursue country-rock songwriting and a video-production company.

He was the only one who did not return when the band reunited in 1986 or 2001, but he did come back briefly in the '90s. Nesmith, whose family made a fortune on Liquid Paper, isn't touring with the group now.

"Mike is personally disposed somewhat differently for the most part," Tork says. "Not entirely. He joined us in '97 in the U.K. Of course, there's no amount of money we can offer him that's going to tempt him. And he's got projects, things he likes to do that keep him away from us."

The last time they were together at all was a Jones-Dolenz duo tour in 2002, when Tork chose to focus on his blues band. Then, in 2009, he suffered a bout with a rare head and neck cancer, which was successfully treated by the end of that year.

The impetus for the current reunion was pretty simple, he says.

"Somebody made us an offer. That's the long and short of it. Management came to me a year ago and said, 'I think we can all have a good time and make a little money at it, if you're game to do it.' I said, 'You know, as a matter of fact, I'm just about ready for a little fun.' "

When the three Monkees get back together, he says, they don't have much trouble getting back in the groove.

"It comes back pretty easily. Every time we do this, when we're off for a while, we go over every arrangement, making sure we have the gist of the original cuts. We have horns. We always have horns on the road, so that means that every record that didn't have horns has to have horn parts added. Once you've taken care of that, everything falls into place."

At this point, six decades in, he says, having fun and connecting with the fans is more important to him than how people view the band's legacy.

"I'm not interested in you or anyone else acknowledging what a wonderful (song)book it is, because it's really a matter of taste. I'm just glad that enough people have had enough of a good experience with the Monkees to want to come to the shows. That's really where it comes down for me."

Still Monkeying Around
The Monkees celebrate 45th anniversary with tour
By Steven Rosen - citybeat.com
June 22, 2011

Yes, the appearance of The Monkees - Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork - at the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Saturday night could be considered merely an oldies/nostalgia show. But it's much more.

The group, augmented by a veritable orchestra of musicians, will play the hit songs first recorded when their stylish, Beatles-influenced 1966-1968 television show was the rage - “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Daydream Believer,” “Words,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Valleri” and more were smashes. (Mike Nesmith, the group’s fourth member, only rarely participates in these intermittent Monkees reunions and is not part of this - although he has a standing invitation.)

“We’re going through the whole Monkee catalogue,” says Micky Dolenz, the group’s drummer and dynamic co-lead singer, during a telephone interview. “As we started to grow, many of the songs had horns and strings and percussion and much more of a big-band sound. So we’re bringing a bunch of friends - it’s more like Mad Dogs and Monkees.” (That last reference is a play on Mad Dogs and Englishmen, the name of a famous-at-the-time 1970 touring troupe that backed British Rock singer Joe Cocker as he became a major star.)

The Aronoff show is a chance to look back and appreciate the cultural relevancy - even avant-gardism - of The Monkees in their heyday. For instance, there was the 1968 movie Head, which came out after the series had ended and was so psychedelically surreal and narratively irreverent that it freaked out those who saw its initial theatrical release.

Yet the reputation of the film and its soundtrack album - featuring Gerry Goffin/Carole King’s lovely, dreamy “Porpoise Song” - keeps growing. Last fall, Rhino Records released a boxed set featuring the original album, bonus material and outtakes and rarities. And this year the prestigious Criterion Collection, which releases films of artistic merit on DVD/Blu-ray, featured Head as part of its seven-film America Lost and Found: The BBS Story set - along with Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show.

The BBS production company - which stands for Bob Rafelson, Burt Schneider and Steve Blauner - used revenue from Rafelson and Schneider’s creation of The Monkees' TV show to start the New Hollywood film revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rafelson directed Head, BBS’s first film, and co-wrote its script with Jack Nicholson, with much creative contribution from The Monkees. After that, BBS produced Easy Rider, which contained Nicholson’s breakthrough acting role, and Rafelson’s classic Five Easy Pieces, which featured Nicholson as its star.

“It’s a real little cult favorite,” Dolenz says of Head. “We do the whole album in our show with video from the movie. It’s a great part of the show. I’m very proud of it. I’m proud of the movie. I’m not sure what it was about, myself, but it sure looked good.

“We didn’t want to do a 90-minute version of our television show. And we met Jack Nicholson and all agreed he’d write the film, and we had a lot of input. At the time, it was strange and the fans didn’t get it. The hip-eoisie didn’t get it, either. But the proof is in the pudding - it’s starting to get its due.”

There were other ways, too, that The Monkees were avant garde. After hearing the new, revolutionary Moog synthesizer, Dolenz bought one - the first on the West Coast, he believes. He used it on “Daily Nightly,” a song on The Monkees’ 1967 album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd.

A drummer playing Moog?

“I was cast as the drummer and had to learn the instrument for show,” says Dolenz, who was a child actor featured in the TV series Circus Boy. “My instrument of choice was the guitar, actually classical guitar and Spanish. Then I morphed from that into Folk music and then Rock & Roll. My audition piece for The Monkees was ‘Johnny B. Goode’ on guitar.”

Dolenz eventually sold his Moog to Bobby Sherman, a late-1960s teen idol who starred in the TV series Here Come the Brides and sang on several hit records.

“He had a studio, and also was a collector of stuff,” Dolenz explains. “He helped me build my first studio. It’s a good question - I wonder what he did with it? I should call him up and ask.”

Magical 'homecoming' for Monkees fans at Lowell's Memorial Auditorium
By Margaret Smith
wickedlocal.com
June 21, 2011

Lowell - So they’re no longer the Young Generation.

But at a 45th anniversary reunion concert June 15 at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the Monkees - with three of the four original members Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz – proved they still had plenty to say.

And so did their devoted fans, from those who adored them from the days of their launch as a comic television act in 1966, to those believers of more recent daydreams.

Yes, they were still very funny, cracking wise with self-deprecating remarks about themselves and each other. And the clips of the show, with the wonderfully disarming psychedelic backdrops and hoards of screaming females giving chase in miniskirts, created an atmosphere of period charm.

But make no mistake - the Monkees were and are a good band, with a range of songs now firmly rooted in the subconscious of popular culture, from the starry-eyed “Daydream Believer” to edgier fare such as “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”

A particularly endearing sequence - images of covers of magazines for teens, such as “Tiger Beat” and “16,” and the hilarious product placement moments, such as a day out with the kids and ice-cold glasses of Kool-Aid.

For many who grew up in the Boston area, there were many recollections not only of the music, but the show, which aired in reruns on what was then WLVI Channel 56 and the conduit for a latter generation’s introduction to the group.

While transporting the venue back on a groovy time trip of four and a half decades, there was nothing tired or wistfully nostalgic in the show, with unflagging energy right to the finale.

Only one aspect of the evening that disappointed was a crude reminder that we’re not in the 1960s, but the year 2011 - the constant flashes from cameras, and shutter bugs literally working in shifts, parading to and from the front of the stage to take souvenir snaps.

Just tryin’ to be friendly? More like a gross sense of entitlement and the assumption that merely being in possession of the technology means decorum is so 20th century.

This virtual lightning storm that plagues many concerts nowadays not only detracts from the enjoyment, it is potentially dangerous to performers on the stage.

There was a lot of love in that room, to be sure - but a first-rate act such as the Monkees also deserves respect, as do audience members who invested in tickets during a challenging time. Neither deserves, as goes another vintage song, to be blinded by the light.

Monkees bring more than novelty and nostalgia to Lowell
By Scott McLennan
Boston.com
June 18, 2011

Forty-five years after first creating a frenzy by bringing teen-approved pop to the small screen, the Monkees still resonate, as seen Wednesday at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium where the band performed a two-hour show that went beyond surface nostalgia.

Michael Nesmith bowed out of the current anniversary tour, leaving Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz to make the case that the Monkees were more than a prefab four cooked up in the 1960s by American entertainment executives to capitalize on Beatlemania. Tackling more than 30 songs may have been excessive, but the Monkees were persuasive in selling a catalog of indelible pop from the AM radio era. The band is still not to be mistaken for a Beatles doppelganger, but did prove itself an uncanny cipher of song styles influencing rock ’n’ roll through the music’s adolescence.

The Monkees’ catalog, largely written by outside aces such as Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, and Carole King, reflects the period’s merger of folk and rock, its rise of garage and psychedelic styles, and the ironic appropriation of Tin Pan Alley innocence. Musical purists may have once bristled at the overt cashing in on flower power, but time has been kind to the Monkees, and the band members themselves seem to understand that what they wield is entertainment gold; no more, no less.

The Monkees’ eight-piece band kicked off the concert by playing the troupe’s television theme song. Jones, Dolenz and Tork trotted out on the high of “I’m a Believer.’’ The principal players’ voices are a little flatter and their comedic timing a tad off, but there was no doubting their investment in the video-enhanced show. Dolenz dashed from drum kit to center stage throughout the concert. Tork played guitar, keys, banjo, and French horn. Jones donned white tails to reprise the “Daddy’s Song’’ dance routine from the cult film “Head.’’

A backbone of hits - “Pleasant Valley Sunday,’’ “Daydream Believer,’’ “Last Train to Clarksville’’ and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone’’ - ably supported lesser-known but solid fare such as “Someday Man,’’ “Your Auntie Grizelda’’ and “As We Go Along.’’

Music and Nightlife : Hey, hey! Monkees friendly at Fox
By Susan Whitall/ Detroit News Music Writer
The Detroit News
June 18, 2011

Singer Micky Dolenz compares vintage TV group's situation to 'Glee'

In the late '60s, the Monkees were derided by some as a band put together by soulless TV executives for crassly commercial purposes. By today's less rigid parameters, the concept would be seen as what it was — a zany TV experiment, a proto-reality show featuring four talented, wisecracking actor/musicians thrown together to enact a Beatles-like pop group.

The line between fantasy and reality was happily muddy, because somewhere along the way, the Monkees became a performing band - to such an extent that 45 years later, they are performing a reunion show at the Fox Theatre on Thursday (Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork will appear; Mike Nesmith has again decided not to tour).

"It's just a misnomer. It's inaccurate," says Dolenz of the charges they were a "manufactured" band. The actor/singer is on the phone from a tour stop; the U.S. leg of the group's 45th anniversary tour started in early June and features all of the group's hits, including "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Steppin' Stone," "Daydream Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You."

"The Monkees were not a band. It was a television show about an imaginary band that didn't exist, except on television," says Dolenz. "You know what? The most similar thing today would be 'Glee.' It's a television show about an imaginary glee club. But they can all sing, and dance and act, they can do it all. So is that a manufactured glee club? The Monkees were not a band, yet we did it all. Now that 'Glee' is on the road … are they a real glee club now, or not?"

Such existential queries are right in line with the Monkees' oeuvre. This was, after all, the band that gave the world the psychedelic 1968 movie "Head," one of director Quentin Tarentino's favorite films. Among the fans of their innovative NBC-TV show, which ran from 1966-68 and won two Emmys, was Frank Zappa, who appeared on one episode impersonating Mike Nesmith (as Nesmith impersonated him).

"Frank was a big fan," Dolenz affirms. "He did the show with Mike and also he was in the movie 'Head.' And also, at the end of that era, it might have been 1970 or so, he asked me to be the drummer for the Mothers of Invention, but my record company wouldn't let me out of the contract."

Indeed, it was a casual friendship with rocker Jimi Hendrix that led to the infamous pairing of the guitar great with the Monkees for a brief time on tour in the summer of 1967. The pairing isn't as odd as it may sound; Hendrix was still somewhat obscure and craved more mainstream fame.

His "Purple Haze" was being played on the same AM stations that played the Monkees, and the group loved his music.

"At the time, it sounded like a great idea mainly because his act was very theatrical, and the Monkees of course was a very theatrical act," says Dolenz, who suggested that Hendrix open for the group. "That's why I kind of thought it would work."

But Hendrix hopped onto the tour in the South, and the teenaged fans (and their parents) weren't quite ready for his molten, note-bending psychedelia.

When "Purple Haze" started to hit, Hendrix asked to be let off the tour, and the group agreed.

There was another dramatic happening that summer.

"If I'm not mistaken, we had to cancel the first Detroit date because of the (July) riots. We eventually did the gig, a bit later," Dolenz recalls. The group played Olympia Stadium on Aug. 13. One of Dolenz's schticks on that tour was a cape routine he borrowed from James Brown, in which he was led offstage by a roadie, only to throw the cape off and come running back to the microphone.

The tip of the hat to the Godfather of Soul flew over the heads of most of his teenaged audience, but no matter. "It was a takeoff on James Brown; I'm a big fan," he says.

The current tour, the Monkees' first in a decade, has gone well. The group's famous fans include actors Kevin Costner and Billy Bob Thornton (who shows up at numerous gigs), but Dolenz admits the travel can be arduous.

"I always tell people, they pay me to travel, I sing for free," he says. Dolenz sings so many of the leads - "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Steppin' Stone," etc., while Davy Jones leads on "Daydream Believer," "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," etc. that he knows what he's in for, and as a veteran of musical theatre, he trains vocally to keep his voice up.

For the three veterans, falling into their old comic interactions after months and years apart is "instantaneous," Dolenz says.

The show opens with vintage Monkees clips, which also run periodically through the show. Another extra feature: Clips from notable cover versions of their songs by other artists are played at the end of the show.

"We always do all of the hits, but we change up on the additional material like the album cuts," as the songs from "Head," Dolenz points out. "I jump around a lot so it's physically demanding, but for me that's the easy part."

As for Detroit, the Motor City has always been a favorite stop of Dolenz's because "being a southern California guy, I'm a car guy," he says. He reminisces lovingly about the cars he bought with his Monkees money; a Mustang 350 GT fastback, a Pontiac Grand Prix and most specially, a 1959, two-door white Impala coupe.

"The one with the fins that look like a spaceship," Dolenz says, sighing. "If I were ever to go buy a classic car to relive my youth, that would be the one."

The Monkees Return, Terrific as Ever
By Rob Sheffield
Rolling Stone.com
June 17, 2011

The last time we all saw Micky Dolenz, he was playing himself in the Syfy original movie Mega-Python vs. Gatoroid, which starred Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, back in January. He had a cameo where he appeared onstage to sing some hits for an Everglades preservation benefit, except the show got interrupted when he was eaten by a mega-python. Or maybe that was a gatoroid. I'll have to watch the movie again.

The point is, the Monkees have never been far from the heart of American culture. People are always glad when they show up. Their hits have never left the radio. And their first reunion tour in 10 years is a marathon. Last night at New York's Beacon Theater, they played over two hours and did literally dozens of songs. Thirty-six songs? 40? Who's counting?

You can't accuse the Monkees of phoning it in - this was an excellent show from a legendary pop band giving out much, much, much more than they had to. Hardcore crowd, too – the kind of Monkeemaniacs who roar when they see the roadies wheel a kettledrum onstage, because they know that means it's time for Micky's psychedelic rant "Randy Scouse Git."

Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork seem to have fixed the glitches from their 2001 tour. Of course, Mike Nesmith has apparently hung up his shades and sideburns for good. But his absence just meant Peter sang the Mike songs, doing a new banjo-driven arrangement of "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round," which by any sane standard is one of the greatest pop songs ever.

The Tork quotient was peaking all night, in fact. (Awesome French-horn solo on "Shades of Grey"! Anyone know where I can score one of his black velvet silver-buttoned tunics?) And predictably, they threw in plenty of Monkee-esque clowning. (Micky: "I dressed up in my hippie regalia." Peter: "I almost drowned in one of those once!")

The set list was just nuts, with one welcome surprise after another. Along with their eight-piece backing band, the trio did deep cuts, obscurities, even a long string of non-hits from their drug-addled 1968 film Head, which hardly anybody has seen except for us Monkees freaks. ("As We Go Along" - damn what a song.) Maracas master Davy Jones showed off his surprisingly nimble boogaloo moves to "She Hangs Out," while Micky scatted the lung-busting R&B workout "Goin' Down."

Davy also sang "I Wanna Be Free," one of my least favorite Monkees songs, yet even that one sounded kind of cool. (Never really noticed before, but it's basically the exact same song as Lou Reed's "Sunday Morning.")

They saved the really big hits for the final half hour – "Daydream Believer," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Last Train To Clarksville." But nobody in the audience left or got restless. People tend to become Monkees fans when they're little kids, so they adopt weird personal favorites, which means nobody wanted a straightforward greatest-hits show. And the Monkees left nothing out. It's hard to imagine anybody disappointed by this show unless they just plain hate life. Or unless they're a mega-python.

The Monkees band together for reunion tour
Courier-Post : courierpostonline.com
June 17, 2011

The back-story of The Monkees latest attempt at a reunion reads more like a soap opera than a milestone moment in popular music.

A decade ago, the last time the pre-fab boy band attempted a tour, it had an ugly ending when Peter Tork quit near the end of the run and accused his two stage mates, Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz, of booze-fueled abusive behavior toward him.

Just two years ago, as Tork underwent career-threatening cancer surgery and treatment, Jones told the National Enquirer he couldn't imagine ever sharing a stage again with Dolenz and then slammed each of his former partners.

So it was something of a minor stunner in March when The Monkees announced a spring and summer world tour to celebrate the group's 45th anniversary.

Tork, 69, has since accepted responsibility for the problems that derailed the 2001 tour by admitting he, Jones, 65, and Dolenz, 66, were getting along just fine until he had a "meltdown."

"I ticked the other guys off good and proper and it was a serious mistake on my part," Tork admitted to Rolling Stone in March when the latest tour was announced. "I was not in charge of myself to the best of my ability -- the way I hope I have become since. I really just behaved inappropriately, honestly. I apologized to them."

As they've done during past reunion tours, The Monkees, who swing into Borgata for a one-night stand on Saturday, will cover all of the hits they recorded during their run on the pop charts from 1966 until 1970, when the band split up.

With former Monkee Mike Nesmith still sitting out any reunions with his former partners, Tork, Jones and Dolenz will perform songs such as "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm A Believer," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Day Dream Believer."

And they'll do it in front of a giant HD screen that will occasionally create a set that looks like the apartment from the band's 1966-1968 television series, which was the whole reason the band was formed in the first place.

The Monkees came by their "pre-fab" designation quite naturally. The four original members were more actors than musicians and didn't know one another when they auditioned for roles on a TV series that was being created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, with music supervised by rock impresario Don Kirshner.

Inspired by The Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night," Rafelson and Schneider wanted to develop a show about a rock 'n roll band and had initially wanted to cast an established group, the Lovin' Spoonful, in the series. But the Spoonful was already signed to a record label, so the producers of the TV series wouldn't have been able to market the band's music.

Although The Monkees originally provided most of the vocals for songs performed on the show, they weren't skilled enough musicians to back themselves up. Although their singles and albums went gold and platinum and they were among the top-selling artists of the era - rivaled in many cases only by The Beatles - The Monkees were constantly locking horns with management and the studio for the rights to create their own music and control their own sound.

It wasn't until after the series was canceled in 1968, and they each mastered their instruments, that they took control of their music to continue on as a viable band.

Then and now, a love-hate relationship always seemed to pervade the members of the band. There have been bumps in the road for The Monkees as far back as 1969, when Tork - citing exhaustion - became the first member to quit following a tour of Asia.

Jones, Dolenz and Nesmith continued on as a trio until 1970, when Nesmith - whose mother invented Liquid Paper and then died, leaving him her fortune - also quit.

For the past 40 years, Tork, Jones and Dolenz have occasionally reunited for tours to celebrate milestone anniversaries. Nesmith briefly joined the band in 1996 to work on an album and participate in a short European tour before leaving the group again.

Tork, who successfully recovered from a rare form of head and neck cancer in 2009, said he hasn't spoken to Nesmith, a successful music and movie producer, for 14 years. But he won't rule out the possibility of working with him again.

"It's possible," Tork said. "I'd be game for it. Michael's always welcome."

The Monkees : Still Rockin’ Strong In Concert After 45 Years !
By Tim Estiloz
Boston Movie : Examiner.com
June 16, 2011

This week, a packed house filled with Boston and New England area fans of the Monkees proved that more four decades after they hit the TV and music airwaves in the 1960's, "Monkee-Mania" is still definitely alive and well.

Long before You Tube helped make Justin Beiber today's teen superstar heartthrob.

Long before MTV of the 80's helped make Michael Jackson the future "King of Pop", a unique music and comedy-infused TV show titled "The Monkees" featuring a fictional pop band in 1966 created a near insane sensation back in the day, back then.

"Monkee-Mania" was almost on a par with "Beatlemania" with the Monkees showing up everywhere with screaming fans. They were on TV with their weekly show, doing commercials, performing sold out concerts, and appeared on a wide variety of merchandising products and more. The Monkees were a pop phenomenon created solely for a TV show, at first not taken seriously as real musicians.

In fact, a then unknown novice singer-songwriter named Neil Diamond wrote one of the band's first hits, "I'm a Believer" and despite receiving almost as much derision in their day by so-called legitimate musicians… as insane adulation by their millions of fans, overall the band still managed to sell 50 million records worldwide.

The Monkees did try to make a transition into film on the big screen in a very odd film called "Head" co-written by Jack Nicholson. The film was a hodge-podge of weirdly comedic scenes that flew against The Monkees carefully crafted TV image and was a bust at the box office. Though, now the film has regained some notoriety as a cult classic.

However, despite that one misstep, The Monkees were truly a pop culture and music phenomenon forever etched in America's nostalgic psyche and their songs still played on radio stations everywhere.

45 years later, the after effects of "Monkee-Mania" continued among throngs of nostalgic fans at Lowell's Memorial Auditorium outside of Boston as Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz hit the stage with an energy and enthusiasm that almost seemed to rival their mop-topped youthful heyday.

The three members of the "Pre-Fab Four" as some used to call the group during the peak of their incredible fame ( minus the reclusive fourth Monkee, Michael Nesmith ) took the stage in Lowell to show their formidable talent as musicians, singers and timeless pop-performers has only gotten sweeter, more skilled and more fun with age.

Taking the stage to the familiar strains of their show's opening theme song "Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees", the trio kicked into high gear from the outset for the adoring crowd with drummer/singer Dolenz offering of powerful rendition of the familiar hit, "I'm A Believer" and "Mary, Mary".

Helping take the crowd back to the nostalgic 60's, the stage was backed by a large screen showing a non-stop barrage of clips, videos, home movies and photos of The Monkees as they were back at the height of their youthful popularity. With the trio now in their 60's, you might think such a move might only highlight the possibility that they should be seriously thinking about retirement.

However, the effect quite the contrary. The videos lovingly urged the audience back to fondly recall why the group was so lovably cheesy, innocent and popular… while their songs had a genuine pop infectiousness that, even today, is hard to resist and not enjoy.

To make the matters even better, Jones, Tork and Dolenz demonstrated throughout the nearly two-hour long concert that they've still got musical skills and playfulness with each other that made for a highly entertaining show for the baby-boomers, as well as plenty of sign-carrying, T-shirt wearing young adults and youngsters who were also definite Monkee-maniacs by osmosis from TV reruns, radio and You Tube.

MICKEY DOLENZ OF THE MONKEES TALKS WITH WEEKENDER ABOUT THE BIRTH OF A REAL BAND
By Jonas Beals
Fredericksburg.com
June 16, 2011

MICKY DOLENZ said that The Monkees "didn't develop in the traditional way."

True enough. There aren't a whole lot of bands that were picked by a casting agent, and fewer still that were put together for their onscreen TV skills rather than their sound.

Yes, The Monkees were created to take advantage of Beatlemania, and yes, they were criticized for being pawns of the corporate entertainment industry.

But I think there are reasons to question this conventional wisdom about one of the most maligned, and most popular, 1960s rock bands.

The first reason happened in Hawaii in 1966. That was the beginning of The Monkees' first live tour. Dolenz said it was "maybe the first time the four of us stood on stage."

He remembers being nervous and excited.

Three of the four original members will play Wolf Trap this Sunday. Perhaps fittingly, they will play after a two-night stand by Rain, a Beatles cover band.

Dolenz said that Mike Nesmith calls the concert in Hawaii the moment when Pinocchio became a boy.

It was a risky proposition. Before that moment, The Monkees' music was made under the thumb of managers, record labels and TV producers.

And it was extremely successful.

There was much success after that live debut--"Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Daydream Believer" were still to come. But that first taste of creative freedom unleashed a very interesting beast that eventually spawned the psychedelic film "Head."

"It was almost like there were two bands," Dolenz said.

He pointed to the album "Headquarters" as the one that captured the shift. It was the first album The Monkees wrote and recorded mostly on their own.

It spent one week at the top of the charts before The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" knocked it off.

Unlike most rock bands, The Monkees found their voice in public. That awkward formative stage usually happens in garages and basements and high school gyms, away from the ridicule of future fans.

In a way, The Monkees took their creative frustrations and funneled them into song. It was a display of punkish bravado that proved rock is a wonderfully accessible medium.

The group was also a harbinger of the sort of cross-platform entertainers we see today.

"All the cast members could sing and play and act," Dolenz said.

Not only was that skill set a throwback to the days of Vaudeville stage shows, it is exactly where pop music is today.

Justin Timberlake is only one of many superstars who followed The Monkees' template. He started as an actor on "The Mickey Mouse Club," earned international fame with "manufactured" pop group 'N Sync and parlayed it into a formidable solo career.

These days, we expect to see our stars on TV or in movies.

"Now, the huge acts are almost all visual," Dolenz said.

The Monkees certainly deserve some credit for that, and perhaps more. Their TV show acted as a music video for their songs, and proved the marketing power of media crossovers.

Hit shows like "American Idol" and "Glee" use the same formula today.

And that's fine with Dolenz, who was an actor for 10 years before lending his notable voice to The Monkees.

"I see it as a good thing," he said. "It's creating a whole new generation of fans who will appreciate musical theater."

The Monkees at the Mayo: True confessions in Morristown
By Kevin Coughlin
Morristown Green
June 13, 2011

Somewhere, buried in a drawer or packing trunk, along with NASA pictures of the Apollo program, I have a postcard from the Monkees.

From their fan club, actually.

The postcard isn’t in color, and it’s not black-and-white. It has this reddish tint, sepia almost.

They are singing and playing, even though in those days, as rumor had it, their instruments were played by others. (Wonder who dubbed Davy’s tambourine? Glen Campbell? Neil Young?)

As revelations go, this postcard does not rank up there with, say, Weiner-gate. Yet I admit some trepidation, realizing that such a public confession precludes my hoping for another date with anyone born after the Johnson administration.

Still, the back story is important for purposes of reviewing the Monkees in Morristown on June 9.

Because the show was not about them. It was about us. The people who packed the Mayo Performing Arts Center to trigger some rusty synapses before they shut down for good.

Everyone in there had a Monkees story. Here is mine.

First, it’s essential to realize that reality has very little to do with any of this. Entertainment is about fantasy and illusion and escapism.

The Monkees began as the “prefab four,” a made-for-TV knockoff of the Fab Four, a real-life band.

“Whatever happened to those guys?” Mickey Dolenz wisecracked about the Beatles, before launching into Randy Scouse Git, a song he wrote after partying with England’s “other Royal Family.”

From 1966 to 1968, the Monkees beamed into America’s living rooms every week as a musical sitcom. They were on lunchboxes. They were on the radio. One of their albums supposedly charted longer than any Beatles record in the ’60s.

(Every group from that era boasts of outselling the Beatles for 20 minutes…which raises the question: When, exactly, did the Liverpudlians sell all those gazillions of records?)

In our family, the Beatles always will be number one. They were so different that even a kindergartner got hooked– bad news for neighbors forced to endure the little twerp banging on a backyard trash can wailing I Want to Hold Your Hand.

That 45 single (a distant ancestor of the MP3, kids), with its potent flip side, I Saw Her Standing There, joined Peter & the Wolf, The Singing Nun, Mary Poppins and Petula Clark’s Downtown on what must rank among the strangest playlists of all time.

These records blared endlessly from a crude stereo with a cast-iron business end that practically showered sparks from the vinyl. Many thousands of dollars of audio gear later, I can honestly say nothing ever sounded as good.

The challenging thing about the Beatles was their remoteness. Scarcity was part of their marketing campaign. Concerts ran 20 minutes. In the days before e-blasts and social media, a little kid was lucky to find out about a TV appearance. If you missed the broadcast, that was it. No YouTube replays. There was a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon series. Otherwise, access amounted to scanning the magazine racks, spinning the bedside AM dial as long as you could stay awake, and cajoling your grandmother to take you to each year’s Beatles movie. (R.I.P., Grandma. We’ll always have ‘Help!’)

The Monkees were more accessible. Every week, you knew exactly where to find them. They served goofy fun and catchy songs written by pros like Neil Diamond, Carole King, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and later, by the Monkees themselves:

(Theme from) The Monkees…Last Train to Clarksville…Pleasant Valley Sunday…I’m a Believer…(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone…Daydream Believer…Mary, Mary…She…For Pete’s Sake…The Girl that I Knew Somewhere… Papa Gene’s Blues…I Wanna Be Free…

These songs, and many more, formed much of the soundtrack of my youth. They drove me and my siblings into a cave-like duplex basement in Winchester, Mass., for “concerts” with plastic guitars, bongos and wheezy organs. Thank God there were no Flip Cams.

At the Mayo on Thursday, the audience heard reasonable facsimiles of all those Monkees tunes with the help of a seven-piece backing band that assisted Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones with the high notes.

Here is where we get to the illusion part. And it’s almost as odd as Head, the Monkees’ trippy film with Jack Nicholson that virtually nobody (including me) has ever seen in its entirety.

Strictly speaking, the trio on stage was not the Monkees.

The original group was a quartet. Michael Nesmith has been AWOL for a long time.

(Playing banjo, Peter Tork sang Michael’s What Am I Doing Hanging Round? Curiously, Peter sounded more like his former band mate–and at times, like Ringo Starr–than like the Peter Tork of yesteryear. One exception was on Your Auntie Grizelda, which still channels my inner second-grader.)

All that TV camaraderie flashing onscreen throughout the concert? Hollywood, baby.

Critics can debate the Monkees’ artistic legacy. When it comes to dysfunctional musical families, the Monkees rank with the legendary acts of rock and roll.

Mathematicians may know how many combinations are possible with four people; the Monkees seem to have gone exponential. On their 45th anniversary tour, they appear to have made peace after many years of sniping at each other in between gigs at stadiums and high school gyms.

My first reality check came in the early ’80s, as a cub reporter for a small newspaper in Paterson.

I was excited–and nervous–about scoring an interview with Peter Tork. For better or worse, people used to say I looked like Peter. I figured my story about the fan club postcard would amuse him.

It did not.

To put things in perspective, the Monkees’ heyday already was a long way in the rear-view mirror at that point. The Go-Go’s, who brought their nostalgia act to the Mayo earlier this month, were just starting their careers.

Peter, who was launching a new band, called his agent and snarled: What the hell am I doing here with some kid from Paterson, N.J.?

Fast forward to somewhere near the turn of the new millennium. Three of the Monkees were playing Vegas. House of Blues, if memory serves.

What that show lacked were the impressive visuals that were the highlight–and the most unsettling part–of the Morristown concert.

Watching clips of four Monkees cavorting on screen for two hours, complete with ’60s commercials for Kool-Aid, was like cannon-balling into the Fountain of Youth. Or rather, like dashing through the lawn sprinkler back in Winchester.

It got weird only if you paused to remind yourself that all their television bonhomie was scripted…and a diversion from the fact that the real Monkees on stage were creeping up on 70.

Imagine your grandparents having to compete with their larval forms, preserved in celluloid amber.

Technology has made such spectacles possible. It’s hard to picture Charlie Chaplin, in his golden years, dancing with a larger-than-life projection of his Tramp, as Davy Jones did with his ’60s mop-topped self.

Can you even call a 65-year-old man “Davy”?

Time flies.

Like I said, it’s not about them. It’s about us.

Monkees revive past hits at Mohegan Sun Arena
By Keith O'Connor
masslive.com
June 11, 2011

UNCASVILLE, Conn - It was a “young” crowd who attended the Monkees’ 45th Anniversary Tour on Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Young, that is, if you closed your eyes and considered the fact that most were only in their teens when the TV-manufactured pop group hit the small screen back in the mod 1960s.

America’s answer to the Beatles, the Monkees debuted on NBC television along with a No. 1 single, “Last Train to Clarksville,” in 1966. The show won two Emmy Awards, and they scored a dozen Billboard Top 40 hits - outselling both the Beatles and  Rolling Stones in 1967. They are the only artists ever to have four No. 1 albums in the same year and they had Top 10 hits in more than 25 countries.

And they played all of those hits and more in a 90-minute concert which allowed each group member – Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork – to shine throughout the evening.

Backed by an eight-piece band – in addition to Dolenz playing guitar, drums and percussion, Jones playing guitar, and Tork playing keyboards and guitar – the Monkees performed a set list of nearly 30 songs including the hits “I’m a Believer,” “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone,” “Someday Man,” “Valleri,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Listen to the Band,” “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” “Goin’ Down” and more.

But it wasn’t until they launched into “Last Train to Clarksville” nearly half-way through the show that some in the audience actually got up to move to the music and that arms began to sway in the air during “Daydream Believer.”

There were other favorites, too, and some obscurities, as well, including “Mary, Mary,” “Cuddly Toy,” “All of Your Toys,” “She Hangs Out,” “Saturday’s Child,” “Your Auntie Grizelda” and for the first time on stage, “Porpoise Song” from their groundbreaking movie “Head.”

While the songs still had a freshness to them, the group should have had new stage banter written for them, instead of relying on many of the same lines they’ve used over they years such as Dolenz talking about their meeting the Beatles before writing “Randy Scouse Git” and Jones admonishing the audience not to sing along because it “puts me off.”

Given the fact it has been a decade since the group’s last tour - minus original member Mike Nesmith who has seldom participated in their reunion tours, except for a short jaunt through the United Kingdom - Friday night’s concert in the nearly-full arena was probably the last opportunity for hardcore fans to enjoy a little Monkeemania on stage. Tork is 69 and his bandmates are both in their mid-60s, not to mention most of their fans.

A large screen on center stage behind the group, which played videos and scenes from their comical television show, was fun to watch, but added to the stark difference from their youthful days of the '60s to the present.

It comes as no surprise, then, that Dolenz, in an obvious joke on their advancing age, closed the concert by saying, “Farewell, Chicago.”

The tour, which began in North America on June 3, includes some 30 cities before ending later in July.

Jones, Monkees still busy singing
By Kevin T. Baldwin
Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com
June 8, 2011

The interview with Davy Jones was to have begun at 10 a.m. sharp. But it took three different numbers and a bit of time to finally get connected.

The 65-year-old Monkee was warm and genial, explaining he was delayed because he was gathering paperwork on a horse he hoped to race.

He obviously has a lot going on, but he claimed during the interview that he was not a multitasker.

“Michael Nesmith was a multitasker, and I envy those who can do it, delegate a job to one person, take a phone call from another, and do this and do that. I just can’t do it,” Jones said.

Looking at Jones’ schedule, that’s very hard to believe.

Since the “The Monkees” television show ended in 1968, Jones has continued touring virtually nonstop for 40 plus years. He has toured either on his own with the Davy Jones Band, with fellow Monkees Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz as The Monkees, with friends and Monkees composers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart or with Peter Noone (of Herman’s Hermits fame) and other acts.

Jones also makes appearances in upcoming films “Jackie Goldberg Private Dick,” starring Jackie Mason, and the animated feature “The Dreamsters: Welcome to the Dreamery,” where he works with Ron Dante, Barry Manilow’s original producer.

Jones has also had a full theatrical career, with a stint in his youth as the Artful Dodger in “Oliver,” as well as roles in “Godspell” in the ’80s on the London stage and in “Grease” on Broadway in the mid-’90s.

When he’s not touring, Jones has been busy jockeying and racing horses in the UK and the U.S. He currently raises horses on his Pennsylvania farm.

His personal life has been equally active, marrying three times (first to Linda Haines then to former Playboy bunny Anita Pollinger and most recently to Telemundo actress Jessica Pacheco) and fathering four daughters (Talia, Sarah, Jessica and Annabel).

Now Jones has somehow worked into his schedule a 45th Anniversary Monkees Tour with bandmates Dolenz and Tork. This is multitasking.

Jones admits to some internal friction over the past 40 years, and the three remaining Monkees (Nesmith hasn’t toured with the group since a 1997 UK tour) have joked about the reunion tours being only about the “deal.”

But Jones contends it’s not just about the money. The journey for the four actor-musicians as the Monkees has created a truly unique bond, he says, especially for him, Micky and Peter.

Of Micky Dolenz he says, “He’s multitalented in many ways as a director, producer, singer, songwriter. He’s working constantly. He’s always doing theater.”

According to Jones, even in the early Monkees days he and Dolenz were the closest of the group.

“Our kids grew up together,” he said. “We always played softball on Sundays. But now it’s more of a professional relationship because he’s working all the time, but then again so am I.”

When Peter Tork was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2009, Jones said he kept in touch. “I would inquire as to his progress and was obviously very concerned,” Jones says. “We have all had medical problems, but as we age there are things we all have to deal with. I had an operation on my spine. But now Peter seems fine and seems very happy being in Connecticut.”

Jones notes there’s been more tension with Nesmith, who abandoned a 1997 U.S. tour because his company was in the middle of lawsuit. During a 2001 VH1 interview, Jones said Nesmith “walked off the tour plane out of the terminal and I haven’t seen him since.”

But Jones contends the relationship really has not changed.

“At the time I was very disappointed that we didn’t tour with Mike in America and felt it did take the fire out of us,” Jones said. “But we continued the tour and did some good shows. Peter is much more adaptable to a jam session than Mike ever was. Mike was always ‘wood shedding’ as he called it, meaning rehearse. He doesn’t like to travel. To each his own.”

With the new tour kicking off, can fans expect to hear any new music on the horizon for the Monkees?

“Well a new song is certainly something that should be thought about,” Jones says. “I mean, we are going out on the road. There is a real opportunity here for a new song and it should happen.”

But, according to Jones, Monkees fans can definitely look forward to hearing all the Monkees hits once again on this new tour.

“We do all the classic tunes,” he said. “Everything we feel is appropriate and that the people who come to see us want to hear.”

The Monkees tour kicked off May 12 in Liverpool, England, and will end July 16 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, commemorating a 1986 concert that had been the first time in 20 years when all four Monkees reunited on stage. The band will appear June 10 at Mohegan Sun and June 15 at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

Jones will continue to tour with his own band, the Davy Jones Band, after the Monkees tour ends.

Concertgoers embrace nostalgia at Monkees show
By Curtis Ross
The Tampa Tribune
June 5, 2011

CLEARWATER -- "The Monkees weren't about music," Marge's psychiatrist tells her in an episode of "The Simpsons." "They were about rebellion, about political and social upheaval!"

Well, sure, but that was 45 years ago. In 2011 the reunited Monkees are about nostalgia, pure and simple. And while it may not make for a healthy steady diet, on a hot Saturday night in June a couple of hours of it went over quite well.

Powered by an eight-piece band, all of whom pitched in on backing vocals, the trio of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork (fourth Monkee Michael Nesmith is sitting out this reunion tour, as he has most others) ran through two sets of hits and enough less familiar material to make a Monkees fanatic swoon.

The band played to a sold out Ruth Eckerd Hall crowd of 2,180. It was the second date of the U.S. leg of the tour commemorating the 45th anniversary of the band's debut.

The second set opened with every proper song from the soundtrack to "Head," the band's 1968 feature film in which they savagely trashed their pre-fab four image in garish, psychedelic splendor.

The first set included slamming takes on "Mary Mary," "Randy Scouse Git" and "Words," as well as a sweet run-through of Nesmith's "Papa Gene's Blues."

Scenes from "The Monkees" TV series and montages of period photographs played on the video screen. Dolenz and Tork fell into their TV personas – over-the-top ham and space-case, respectively – with ease. Jones poked fun at his age – "I'm Davy's dad, he'll be out in a minute," he told the crowd early on – while during "Shades of Gray," Jones and Tork began inspecting each other's graying locks.

The occasional rough patch was down to the lead voices, all now in their mid- to late-60s. Jones has lost the least vocally, or knows best how to compensate. Tork, who sang the fewest leads during The Monkees' first run, was game and able on most tunes, but his efforts on Nesmith's "What Am I Doing Hanging Around?" were weak enough to make a fan wish it had been left off the set list.

Dolenz would have fared better had he not tried so hard. His harsh, theatrical approach torpedoed the beautiful "Sometime in the Morning" and nearly did the same to the more buoyant "Porpoise Song."

But the flaws were mostly overshadowed in the barrage of hits which closed the show, including "Last Train to Clarksville," "Saturday's Child," "She Hangs Out," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "Daydream Believer" and an encore of "Pleasant Valley Sunday."

A cynic could argue that The Monkees' success paved the way for today's pre-packaged pop commodities. If so, Saturday's show confirms standards were far higher 45 years ago.

TBOEXTRA.com :: Monkees in Concert

The Monkees (from left to right) Peter Tork, Davey Jones and Micky Dolenz announce the band's UK tour (Pic: Getty Images)

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