Monkee Shines

Issue 85 Fall 2013

Editor: Cindy Bryant

With a little help from my friends, The PFG Road Crew, “the crazy lot!”

An Official Monkees Fan Club Monkeeing Around Since 1987

Also in this issue: ♪ I Met Micky ♪ Yes Virginia There are Unre-leased Monkees Sings ♪ Take the Fast Train to… ♪Micky Talks About The Monkees

♪ Remembering My Brother ♪The Workshop of Dolenz and Daughters ♪ And more…..

Monkees

Parody hits NYC

Michael

Solos!

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Visit us at:

www.purpleflowergang.com

And email us at:

pfg@machlink.com

& join the Purple Flower Gang

Group on Facebook

The Purple Flower Gang 903 E 2nd Street 1A

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Monkee Shines is printed by Mailboxes & Parcel Depot

My thanks to the people who made this issue possible: Jerri Keele, Grace Ilasi, Rick Schwinden, Brenda Wylie, Hayley Lewis, Tony Sachs, Becca Nelson, Marie Gibson, Andrea Gilbey, the PFG Road Crew ( Bonnie Borgh, Colleen Johnson, Dawn Hoffman, and various and sundry others over the years for whom the fun and friendship made it all worth-while) Hazel and Robert Wilkinson, Lynda Moore, Annabel, Jessica, Sarah, and Talia for keeping the fires burning (you are forever in our hearts!), and the Monkees (Micky, Peter, Mike and David who made it all possible from the start.

If you find a stamp in this area your membership has expired with this issue. Please renew as soon as possi-ble to assure your next issue. This is

the only notice you will get.

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In this issue

Letter From The Editor .......... 3 Videos ................................. 4 I Met Micky ........................... 5 Monkeeing Around In MN ...... 5 Yes Virginia There Are Unreleased Monkees Songs .................... 9 Take The Fast Train ............ 12 WOOD You Believe ............. 16 Hey Hey Met Micky ............ 17 Hazel Sends a Thank You ... 19 Monkees Parody Hits NYC .. 20 Micky Talks About the Monkees ............................. 21 Peter News ......................... 25 Micky News......................... 27 Mike News .......................... 28 David News......................... 29 Remembering My Brother .... 32 Mike Launches Solo Tour .... 34 The Workshop of Dolenz and Daughters ........................... 36 Love Letters to the Monkees 38 PFG at Grenville Hall ........... 40

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Dear Gang,

M y apologies to Alexis Rigby and Andrea Gilbey. In the last issue of the

newsletter I was talking about TEAM PFG and the bed race in Beavertown, I mistakenly said that Alexis crocheted the purple flowers for the bed spread but it was Andrea who made them. Alexis is our TEAM PFG photog-rapher. Both women have been indispen-sable to the team and we thank them and

everyone involved for their spirit and help.. Many changes are coming. For a long time now there has been 2 PFG. One online and the official group that received the newsletter. With postage and printing costs sky rocketing the only logical thing to do was combine the two

and take the PFG online exclusively. I know this will be disappoint-ing to the few people who are not online and I apologize for that but the benefits are many: 1. There will be no membership dues. 2. There will still be a newsletter but it

will be online and can be read by

everyone for free. 3. Those who chose to print it out can

do so on their own or order a copy from ISSUU (the online site where you will be able to read the newslet-

ter. 4. We will have less constrictions on

how big the newsletter is 5. We can post more photos.

We will continue to print news-letters through Issue 88. If your last newsletter is Issue 84 you can renew for the remaining newsletters for $15 ($20 overseas) If your last issue is Issue 85 you can re-

new for the remaining newsletters for $12 ($15 overseas) If your last newsletter is Issue 86 you can renew for the remaining newsletters for $7.50 ($10 overseas) If your last newsletter is Issue 87 you can

renew for the remaining newsletters for $4 ($5 0verseas)’ After that you will be able to read them online for free at: http://issuu.com/purpleflowergang/

I hope you will book mark it. Cindy We will still continue to print issues for our honoraries.

Help Us Get Davy Jones His OWN US Postage Stamp Here’s why it ‘s important: Davy was not only a heartthrob to millions of teenage girls in the 1960’s but continued

to entertain us until his death Feb. 29,2012. He was also an advocate for horses and left 14 horse his daughters care for today. The Davy Jones Equine Memorial Fund takes care of the horses he loved so much. Support DJEMF at www.djemf.com

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION TO GET DAVY JONES HIS OWN POSTAGE

STAMP AT:

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T his is the story of when I met Micky at the Westbury Music Fair—March 2013. He was there with

Peter Noone and David Cassidy. The show was fantastic, but I had missed the meet and greet. So. After the show Micky and Peter were still sign-ing autographs, which I was lucky enough to get, But, I still wanted that picture, I spoke to an usher who in turn called her father ( who was asso-

ciated with Westbury, which I didn’t know.) and I told him that all I wanted was a picture with Micky. It was then going on eleven at night and I think Micky gave an autograph to every-one, so I was hoping when he was asked to take the picture he would say yes. He did! He said, “Come on , darling,,” and made my dream from 1966– till now come true. Thanks so much Micky!

I Met Micky! By Grace Ilasi

Micky and Grace Ilasi

P eople say I Monkee around, so it’s no surprise that I traveled about 4 ours from my home in Des Moines , Iowa on that glori-

ous day of November 15th, past weath-ered cornfields, over long stretches of interstate under construction and through town after town to reach the urban jungle

Monkee-ing Around in Minnesota By Brenda Routh Wylie

( November 2012—my apologies to Brenda for taking so long to print this. I love Brenda’s stories!)

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of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Oh, you betcha! My goal: seeing the Monkees!

The Mean Streets

My husband was doing the driving, guided by our GPS companion Tom-Tom barking out directions, some of which are actually accurate. We got stuck in gridlock traffic coming off the inter-state-freeway into “downtown”!! That city’s downtown is ten times the size of

the entire metro area of The Big D, which is relatively small in comparison. The Des Moines police would have had a heyday pulling over all the speedsters and roadhogs that hastily navigate the means treets of Minneapolis. I’ve seen better driving skills in Grand Theft Auto.

State Theater Tom Tom got us to our destination with about 90 minutes to spare until show time. I was quite dazzled by the brilliantly lit Marquee featuring The Monkees on it. I could feel the excitement rushing through me. My husband being a

NMF ( Non Monkees Fan) was less im-pressed. He drove past the State to a park-ing ramp around the corner about a block or so. We found an excellent slot. I was anxious to get to The State! We had to walk through the lower level of a mall to get to the street outside...kind of weird, but whatever… It was cold and windy while we hoofed it back to the theater.

We paused outside the State for a couple of minutes to take pictures of the Mar-quee, then we went inside. The old theater was very beau-tiful and ornate inside. It was like step-ping back in time to a past century with the gorgeous murals painted on the ceil-ings and fancy pillars. I sat down on mar-

ble stairs while we waited for the “doors to open”, so to speak, so we could find out seats.

What I Wore

It probably wasn’t cool to have on a Packers hoodie in the very heart of Vikings country, but I wore my Purple Flower Gang tee shirt under that. Yeah, I

was representing the PFG. It was warm in the joint , so I quickly shed the sweater.

The Waiting They let us in to be seated may-be an hour until show time? We found out seats with ease. We were near the exits.

After all that waiting, I made a bee line for the fancy smancy ladies room down stairs. Then, I spent at least 45 minutes waiting in line at the souvenir table. I bought a set of buttons and a program. I wanted a tambourine but by the time the one guy working the table actually got to me they were sold out.

I, then, returned to my hubby and squeezed into my craptacular fifty-five dollar seat, to wait for the concert to begin. The seats were quite cramped, and designed in another century, were not up too the task of accommodating the mod-ern day fatter American butt comfortably. They’re still better than the ones at the

Iowa State Fair though.

And So It Begins

The lights went down and the show began! The moment I saw Mike Nesmith for the first time in real life I was mesmerized! I was like a guy who just saw his first brand new Mustang! It

was short lived when the audience all jumped up and the big galoot in front of me blocked my view, so I had no choice but to stand again, I was happy when the crowd all sat back down and got to the business of really seeing the show. I spent a lot of time taking pic-tures and staring at the three miracles on

stage. I couldn’t take my eyes of of them, and my gaze kept drifting back to Mike. I felt like it was the opportunity of a life-time getting to see Mike up there. I was impressed at the fact that he sounds just like he does on TV. I was awe struck to

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say the least..

The Ushers

I could have done without them going up and down the aisles throughout the whole show. WTF? They even blocked people’s view at times. This one elderly female usher really ruffled my proverbial feathers. I took a picture and my camera flash went off. At that point, I had no idea camera flashes were frowned

upon. I saw flashes popping all over the theater., so I was oblivious to the fact it was NOT ok to use flash. So, this old battle axe comes up to me in a quite intru-sive manner and snarled, “No camera flash!” In my anger I snapped back, “How in the fudge am I supposed to take pictures then?” (BAZINGA!) Only, like

Ralphie Parker, I didn’t say fudge. I too said the f word. Yeah I REALLY said that. Surprisingly, the old bat didn’t say ZIP in return. She charged back up the aisle. Crisis averted. I, then, adjusted my camera so that the flash was off. The pictures I took amazingly came out ok. I noticed in

some of the shots I took, Micky’s sister, Coco, is in them. One of my favorites is Davy up on the big screen behind the other Monkees. It looks like Davy is looking down on them. Maybe from Heaven, he is.

They Monkee Around

I really enjoyed seeing Micky. Mike, and Peter together. They have a witty, wonderful on-stage chemistry be-tween them that seems to work well. It was nice to see they still have their sense of humor. Like Mike announcing he was going to get a sandwich, and he and Micky giving is the history of the Moog.

Peter always has comical musings and it was nice to see Micky wearing a table cloth /shawl again. These are why I love them.

The Band

I have now officially seen all four Monkees in concert, though not all together. It started with Davy in 1999. I

then saw Micky, Davy, and Peter in 2011, then Micky with the Happy Together Tour at The Iowa State Fair this past Au-gust, then Minnesota with Micky, Mike, and Peter. I thought it was great that Mike’s son and Micky’s sister, Coco, were with the band. As usual, I didn’t make a mental note of the play list but

enjoyed all the songs none the less. How-ever, no matter how great THREE Mon-kees are, without all four, there’s always the element of something missing. Thata element is Davy Jones.

Davy

Davy possibly would have en-joyed the whole group together again, but sadly, the truth is, had he not passed on, Mike wouldn't have toured with the Mon-kees at all in 2012 , or maybe ever. I felt the tears pop up in my eyes when it came time to do Daydream Believer, my FAVORITE song ever,

Micky said (mind you this is not a word for word recounting but close though) “Who’s going to sing this? I could sing it, Mike could sing it … or Peter could sing it….but YOU are going to sing it. This song doesn’t belong to us anymore. It belongs to you now!!” The entire audience began swaying and singing loudly an proudly. We sang that

song for ourselves. We sang it for The Monkees, but mostly we sang it for Davy, whose loss was no doubt felt more than ever at that moment. I am truly grateful for the privilege of knowing him while he was still here. David Thomas Jones was a class act...an idol among idols. He truly

loved his fans and cared about them. I still have the hand written pot card he sent me telling me how he was going to Hawaii. The year after that he sent me a Christmas CD titled Davy Jones Christ-mas. Few stars take the time to offer kind

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gestures to their fans but Davy did. Eric Roberts is my favorite actor in the world and he can’t even friend me on face-book!

Believe it or not, but I have two celebrity cousins. One is a popular Elvis Tribute artist, who met Davy in Las Vegas. He has opened for Cher at a football stadium, has performed for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s birthday party, hung with Ludacris, appeared on The Young and The Restless, The Next Big Thing, and

Cupcake Wars, among many other ac-complishments. We just took a cruise together with our mothers in October. Like davy, he is very popular with his fans and treats them with compassion and kindness. The other cousin is known to America as Superman.

Check my last mname and you’ll figure it out. He is said to be not so great at dealing with fans. Fans appreciate a caring enter-tainer like Davy was and Donnie is. We will soon be

approaching the first anni-versary of Davy’s death. The sting of his loss will surely be felt all overa gain, but hopefully the wonderful Memories and music he left us with will surpass the pain of losing him. He

would have been 67 on December 30th and it was sad to see Mike Nesmith’s birthday listed in the pa-per without Davy’s next to it.

In Closing

The Monkee show in Minneapolis was a truly remarkable, high energy evening. The

memory will stay with me for a life time. I appreciate the fact that Mike chose to participate on this tou to make it an over the top experience– for not only me, but

every fan who was there. I just knew I had to see Mike on this tour because I may never get the chance again. The Monnkees know that they can always draw a crowd and leave their fans want-ing more. They know just how much we love them—especially when I was will-ing to pay $40 for a toy tambou-

rine...LOL! When I was walking back to my car after the show that night, I passed a long black limo on the side street near the theater. I wonder if the Monkees were inside…..

Brenda Routh Wylie

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G reetings, this IS RL Schwinden, (St. Paul, MN.)

I have been working on a book on “The MONKEES”

titled “Here We Come: A Touring History of The MONKEES” (I have also worked on books on KISS, U2 & Tommy Bolin)

I did a project for Bill Chad-wick in 1992 (covered in Sandolval’s book) Bill Chadwick: “Friendships” Cassette Only Release. I was en-trusted with many hours of record-ings.

Where upon I received a 10″ Studio Reel containing Recording Sessions of Bill Chadwick & David Jones.

1. If You have the Time (basic track With Vocal)

2. If You have the Time (dubbing sessions)

3. Talking to The Wall” (Backing Tracks)

4. Something to Show For It All (completed take with Vocals)

5. other dubbing sessions

Bill stated these were from (23- 29) May 1969, these sessions and several other songs were record-ed for Jones to use on a TV Show “An Evening With … David Jones” in Aug 1969 or Mar 1970 . As for “Lying” I was quoting the Author, Pro-ducer, Musician who recorded the tracks, Bill Chadwick, who was in fact there.

I, with Chadwick’s permis-

sion, offered them to RHINO, through Sandoval in Sum-mer 1993 for possible inclusion on the “CHANGES” CD, I was informed “RHINO is unwilling to pay any more costs on the MONKEES catalog” I responded “We are not looking for remuneration, we are merely interest-ed in printed credit and supplying bonus tracks for the CHANGES; CD as there aren’t really any” I was then informed “We have no record of these songs” I replied, “Because Chadwick was the producer of the sessions therefore he kept the Mas-ter Reels” (a 2nd reel that contained “French Song” “Talking To The Wall” “How Can I Tell You” & “If I Knew” Was NOT made available to me) I was then informed “Be that as it may, we are not interested”

There is a reference to “Something To Show For It All” in Sandoval’s book (I forget what page) check around May 1969.

In March 1994 I was asked by David Jones (Himself) to do a research project for him , of all his recording, writing & producing cred-its. Which I did and turned into him for 2 different uses, 1 being “Just For The Record” Cassette Series.

Sometime in 1996, I again with Chadwick’s permission, ap-proached David Jones, with these outtakes for possible inclusion on Jones’s “Just For The Record” series “Volumes: 1 -4″ Jones expressed an interest and asked me to forward copies of the recordings to him in PA. I sent them to Jones. I never heard

www.mrzeros.com

"Yes Virginia, There Are Still More

Unreleased Monkees’ Songs"

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from Jones or John Blair, Blair being in charge of the “JFTR” project.

I talked to John Blair in Jul 2011 about the “JFTR” series and the out-take tapes. Blair informed me “I never received any such tapes, Many things have turned up missing from that office, resend them and I’ll get them to Jones” I did shortly before Jones died.

I have not released these recordings because I do not retain ownership, and as I have been in the Music & Acting Business (I can tell you MOST things recorded or filmed Are NEVER used) for over 30 Years I respect Copyrights. I can not help it if the Precious IntroNetts has No Re-gard For Artists, Ownerships, Royal-ties & Payment. Sorry, They are not mine to Giveaway to the SCOTT FREE IntroNetts.

The “Article” referred to here was written for a “Paper Fanzine” MONKEESHINES back in 1992 when there was not much NEW MONKEES News, and I was given permission to write about the recordings, but forbid-den to let them out.

Many of you may not realize I have followed The MONKEES quite literally all my life. My Mother wrote in a journal (which I still own) that I was watching The MONKEES since I was 3 years old.

I see a lot of comments about the TRIO (later MONKEES) and the unpalatable songs they put on “Instant Replay” & “Present” one thing I would like to add for you all to con-sider.

The MONKEES: Michael, Micky & David were at a point they could write & record whatever they wished. What They liked, were into & thought was Great were (examples):

Micky:

D.W. Washburn

Mommy & Daddy

Pillow Time

Bye Bye Baby

Little Girl

Just A Game

Shorty Blackwell

> And Even:

I Didn’t Know You Had It In You Sally

Rosemarie

Shake Em’ Up

You’re So Good

David:

You And I

French Song

If I Knew

> And Even:

How Can I Tell You aka: ‘Smile’

If You Have The Time

Time And Time Again

Talking To The Wall

Something To Show For It All

Penny Music

War Games

Party

I’m Gonna Try

Ceiling In My Room

> Michael:

Never Tell A Woman Yes

Angel Band

How Insensitive

Hollywood

These were NOT throw aways, to The MONKEES them-

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selves, these Are The Songs that They Felt Best represented Who They Were (at the time).

What was released was up to Lester Sill & the Colgems Label Powers That Be.

Follow up to my previous posting:

“How Can I Tell You” was originally written by Bill Chadwick, probably in 1967-68, but Re-Written with David Jones to become “Smile” sometime in 1968-69. Then later in 1969 they rec-orded Chadwick’s original version of “How Can I Tell You” for considera-tion on “CHANGES”

“Time And Time Again” was written by Chadwick in about 1966 or so. A full demo recording was made at MCA studios in 1967. The song changed very little when it was rec-orded by Chadwick & Jones in 1969, however Jones name was added to the writing credits. I asked Bill about this: Me: “Was David’s name added to the credits, in agreement to record the song” Chadwick “No, no way, David was not like that, it’s more like I (Chadwick) am very liberal with hand-ing out song writing credits, like my brother John on “Zor & Zam” (written in 1965) or Ric (Klein) on “Something To Show For It All” in this case, David did kind of change the feel of the song, so I gave him credit” Me: “And one word, in the lyrics”

Though “Penny Music” was not written by Jones or Chadwick, it was very much a Jones & Chadwick production, Jones wanted to record the song, and Chadwick helped him with production. This is from a con-versation I had with Chadwick fall of 1996, after “Missing Links 3″ came out and Chadwick did not receive proper credit, according to him.

Apparently the alternate version of “French Song” (with rain &

conversation of a boy “Chadwick” & a girl “Christine” & a car door) is coming out on the “Present” boxset, this alter-nate version was on the “2nd Reel” of Jones & Chadwick songs recorded for “An Evening With…” in May 1969.

Also on the “2nd Reel” was the songs “If I Knew” & “How Can I Tell You” which CAN Be Found on David Jones: “Just For The Record” Vol: 1- 4 series CD & Cassette.

The backing tracks for “Talking To The Wall” (from “1st Reel”) contain no vocals because Jones performed a dance sequence (yes,like in “HEAD”) where Jones sang a “Live” vocal on film (yes, like “33 1/3 RPM”). However the “2nd Reel” DID contain a studio vocal track for “Talking To The Wall” this version is not like Chadwick’s or Nesmith’s version. It’s along the lines of all the other Jones/Chadwick songs, Jones described as Broadway Rock.

I would like to add, when I made “samples” of the a fore men-tioned “1st Reel” available to RHINO, their Representative informed me “These songs are Not worthy of public consumption, and therefore of no real interest to us” I replied “isn’t that for the fans to decide?”

Until ……… MrZERo

Hannah Borgh, Bonnie Borgh, Rick Schewin-

den, and Craig Borgh at Rick’s store Mr.

Zero’s in Minnesota

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W hen the Borgh family finally decided our summer vacation plans, I said, “We are

not going to Great Britain without seeing Hazel.” I had visited Eng-land, Scotland, and Wales way back in 1980 without having any knowledge whatsoever of David Jones’ whereabouts. (He was probably right there under my nose.) However, without the aid of modern technology, I had no idea of what happened to The Monkees until their infamous 20th Anniver-sary Tour in 1986. At any rate, I phoned Hazel on April 29 to see if she would be available to see us the middle of June. As our travel plans materi-alized, I called again on May 09. The dates that gelled for both of us were June 21 and 22. Hazel said Premier Inns provided nice accom-modations, and we decided to stay near the Preston train station at a Premier Inn. Preston was not too far for Hazel to commute by bus to meet us. Before we even got out of Dodge on Friday, June 14, Craig, Hannah, and I had just taken some seats to wait in the Quad City International (Yeah, right) Airport for our flight to Chicago O’Hare before flying on to London Heathrow. Over the PA system, Daydream Believer (in its entirety) played. I absolutely could

not believe it. It was as if the hands of time had gone back forty-six years. I should also mention that it was the only song we heard that played over the airwaves. David likely would have passed right in front of where we were seated when he last arrived in Mo-line on November 04, 2011. We arrived safely in London on June 15 and took the 8:30 am train from London to Edinburgh, Scot-land where we stayed until June 21. We departed from Edinburgh on the 10:51 am train south to Pres-ton, England. (Incidentally, from what I’ve experienced, when they say “10:51”, they mean “10:51”.) We arrived on time at the Preston Station at 13:15 (1:15 pm) and with the aid of a map walked several blocks to the Premier Inn. I had intended to call Hazel upon our arrival, but there she was waiting to welcome us in the hotel lobby. It was such a pleasant surprise and so nice to see her again. [The last Close Encounter of the (Ken and Hazel) Wilkinson Kind was in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania in Au-gust of 2001. Hannah had just turned two. I distinctly remember at

Take The Fast Train To...

By: Bonnie Borgh

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the time she called David “Dough-Dough”.] After checking in, we exchanged goods from the hoods with the scales weighing heavily in favor of Hazel. Bless her heart, she had an entire carry-on of treasures for us including souvenirs and sweets. We learned she had made a trial run from her home to Preston earlier in the week just so she would be fully prepared as our escort SLASH tour guide. She led us to a mall where we had a bite to eat at Costa Coffee. After-wards, we had to stop and pose for a picture at one of the mer-chants, i.e. Wilkinson Cameras. It seems Hazel has kept this busi-ness venture extremely under ex-posed. Somehow I got the feeling that if this had been an actual fam-

ily business rather than a mere name coincidence and we had we brought our Monkee photos into that store in the day that Ken would have made sure that all of our endless photos of David were replaced with photos of him in-stead! We know how boring all of those monotonous photos of Da-vid could be...[Oh Ken, we miss you, too.]

Hazel introduced us to the ever popular pound world (The British version of the American Dollar Store) to maximize our vacation funds. (Thanks Hazel! You will be happy to know we shopped at that location as well as another pound world in London.) Hazel suggested the marvelous idea to meet at 10:30 am on June 22 at the bus station (which she showed us) and proposed to take us on a journey to St. Annes where the Jones’ family vaca-tioned when they were growing up. On the way to the bus station, we noticed the following poster advertising “Oliver!” playing in Preston while we were there. What are the odds?

We met Hazel bright and early Saturday morning and traveled by coach to St. Annes. She treated us to breakfast/lunch/brunch at the Orchard Tea Rooms which proved

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to be a classic English cafe with wonderful food. There was even a bouquet of purple flowers in the ladies’ room. I’m sure Hazel called ahead and had those there just for us!

Hazel showed us where they played as children and how much they enjoyed their holiday there in addition to where she would be staying during her upcoming trip to St. Annes. Hazel led us to St. Annes Pier. Due to the cool temperatures, we had the pier all to ourselves. We wound our way back from the pier through an indoor amusement area designed for children and, it seems, adults as well. Hazel even pitched in some pence to aid Hannah in her quest for One Di-rection trinkets. The day went entirely too fast. Before we knew it, it was time to say “Farewell”. We parted at the Preston bus station with such wonderful memories to treasure. When we returned to our hotel from the bus station, we spied with our little eyes another Wilkson enterprise. This one came in the form of a grocery

store which came in extremely handy to purchase several break-

fast items such as milk and cere-al. Those Wilkinson’s take care of everything from photos to food! We left Preston on Sunday, June 23 on the 10:58 train to London. Craig, Hannah, and I went to see “Les Miserables” at the Queens Theatre in London. I had intend-ed to ask Hazel if she remem-bered the name of the theatre where David performed in the pro-

duction of “Oliver!” in the early 1960’s, but I completely forgot. [Upon our return home (Why don’t I do my homework before we leave home?) I read in David’s autobiography that the theatre he performed at was called the New Theatre. As of 1987, it was re-named the Albery. It has since

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been renamed the Noel Coward Theatre. We walked right around that area of London. It was right under my nose, and I missed it!] In the queue at London’s Heathrow, I was asked by Securi-ty at Customs the typical ques-tion, i.e. Did you pack your own suitcase? I answered ‘Yes’. Then I was asked Did anyone give you anything to bring with you? At first I replied ‘No’ and then I said, ‘Well, yes...’ I remem-bered that Hazel had given me a gift bag to give to Cindy. The woman from Security asked Did you open it? I thought, ‘Of course not! It wasn’t mine!’ but I re-sponded, ‘No.’ Visions of spend-ing more quality time in the hands of Security danced in my head. Then she requested to see it. She said Do you trust this per-

son? Without rolling my eyes, I adamantly said ‘Yes.’ The parcel must have looked innocent enough because she said Oh that’s fine. It all seems like a dream now that we were there and back here in the blink of an eye. Our lives pri-marily consist of what we can see. It’s hard to fathom the day-to-day life of someone stretched out across almost 4,000 miles of land and ocean. Thanks for meeting us in Preston, Hazel. It makes the world a whole lot smaller when you can actually reach out and touch someone. As you will recall, Harry Jones worked for British Railways. I think he’d be pleased to know those trains are still connecting the lives of people together.

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WOOD You Believe it?

Cindy Bryant shared this link. If you have not already done so, check it out!

http://

www.dolenzanddaughters.com/#

It is interesting to take a look back at yester century. The fol-lowing (excerpt) article was also courtesy of Cindy Bryant:

A Day in the Life of Micky Dolenz

16’s Fall Spec ‘67

Fall 1967 (Page 12)

“A leisurely day in the life of

Micky Dolenz would require a quiet companion (at first, that is), for in direct contrast to his effer-vescent, bubbly personality, there are times when Micky is very in-trospective and meditative. The first thing Micky would show you is his new workshop. Not only is he continuing to make marvelous things by wire sculpting, but he is now also working in wood. ‘Wood is very alive-it’s very beau-tiful to touch,’ Micky explains. ‘When you carve or build some-thing out of wood-well, it may sound silly, but the wood seems to sort of come alive and help you. It’s as though you and the wood become one. And when you finish, you and the wood have shared a very rewarding experience.’”

Dolenz & Daughters Fine Furni-

ture is a family owned business

based in Los Angeles, California.

We produce handcrafted furni-

ture in our home shop. A per-

centage of the proceeds are do-

nated to a variety of charities

close to our hearts.

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E verything about this concert was epic from the moment we started planning. The plan was 3 months in the

making, but it was well worth the wait! Imet Micky Dolenz! Here begins another Monkee adventure! (I’ve been Monkeeing around since 1987!) Interior: Lakeside Casino, Osceola, Iowa. I hadn’t been at the hotel quite ten minutes when I sat on a leather couch in the lobby while my husband and my partner in crime, aka my cousin, Justin, also rabid Monkees fan, offered to take my bags to my room for me. I was putting lotion on my hands when I spotted an older gentleman dressed in black and wear-ing a tan hat approach from afar. This man passed me and looked right at me. That man was the Monkees front man, Micky Dolenz! The date was July12, 2013. My body did not react be-cause it was in a state of shock by what it was seeing, but my brain screamed “OH MY GOD IT’S MICKY DOLENZ!”If this were the 1960’s there is no way he’d be strolling around like that...all alone out in the open...no security...no weapons...no bullet proof glass… I finally put feet in motions to rush off to tell Jason but he and my better half had already seen this piece of pop royalty for themselves! Jason told Micky hi and had saluted him! I didn’t approach Micky at first because I was still gun shy about meeting ce-lebrities from the Peter Noone inci-

dent back in 1999 where he was real-ly rude upon our meeting. I didn’t want to feel inferior like before. So I stupidly did not speak t o Micky. I was, however, destined to me Micky that night. When Jason and I get together, we “Monkee around. And get into at least a little “monkee business”. Our business that night was a quest to meet Micky. Had I known that my room had a full view of the stage at the time I reserved it, I could have saved the 25 bucks and watched the show from there. I had 247. Jason was across the hall in248. We marveled over that, and how swanky the room was, then went downstairs to wait for the buffet to open up at 4. I had Jason holding our place in line. I went ot the casino gift shop to buy some earrings to wear to the concert. Micky passed by the gift shop while I was at the cash register! But when I sat on a bench with Jason later, still waiting on the buffet to open, Jason spotted Micky in the bar area! I wouldn’t miss the amazing chance to meet him again! Micky was having a salad and a tea, so I was really apprehen-sive about going up to him, but a goofy guy in an orange tee shirt went right over and started talking and shaking Micky’s hand, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. The meeting of me and the Monkee was brief, but impressiona-ble. First of all, I told Micky right away I didn’t want to interrupt him while he was eating, even though I totally DID, but I just wanted to say hi, He nodded in an understanding sort of way and

7/15/13

Hey Hey! I Met Micky! By Brenda Routh Wylie

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said hi in return. Then I told him we were going to his show. He said, “Ok.” Then I told him, “I’ll let you go back to eating,” and I retreated. My heart was pounding like crazy, but I had done it! I’d just met my second Monkee! Jason went back to hold our place in line. I sat on a bench. Micky came by with a glass of tea in his hand. He smiled at me and said, “Hi!” I returned the smile and told him “hi!” again! Wow. I felt like a teenage girl who’d just met Justin Bieber! (and probably seemed just as dorky.) Jason and I finally got in to eat at the buffet, which was free for us because my uncle (Jason’s dad) had given us coupons he’d won through the player’s club. Incidentally, our swanky hotel rooms were also gratis for the same reason! I tried a seafood sam-pling...crab legs, shrimp, and clams...hoping not to be struck down by food poisoning from improperly refrigerated shellfish like the beauty contestants in the movie mockumen-tary “Drop Dead Gorgeous.” I also tried the prime rib and a really delec-table chocolate cake. After dinner, Jason and I went to our room and we watched out the window ro sell when seating start-ed. I was wearing my new black fedo-ra just like the one Micky wears dur-ing concerts, in a nod to him, though Mike is my favorite monkee! ( tee hee hee) We got a pretty great view of the stage where we set up our chairs until 2 very rude old bags decided to plop their chairs down right in front of us, and a couple seated on a blanket! Even so, it still wasn’t too bad. The crowd was relatively small, so we had a more intimate concert experience. If the drummer would’ve as much as sneezed, he probably would have fallen ass over appetite into the lake! Micky did all the classic

Monkees staples. His sister, Coco, who is one of his back up singers and who sang on some of the early Mon-kees records, did a duet with Micky called “Crying in the Rain” and he let her sing “Different Drum” solo. Coco is a great singer! I was impressed . She was with the Monkees when I saw them in Minneapolis back in No-vember. Micky told the story of when he met the Beatles and how that meeting inspired him to write “Randy Scouse Git” , and how the song title was quite offensive in British Society due to it’s rather suggestive meaning (Translation: Horny Liverpudlian putz). After the show, Jason and I, returned to our rooms and her come Coco down our hall! She smiled and gave us a friendly hello. It was pretty cool she was staying up on our floor. Micky was down on the first floor. I totally could’ve stalked him all night if I had wanted to, but there’s laws against that, you know...LOL. Jason and I still wanted to see what was jumping off down in the casino, so we went back down to the lobby. Jason said, “Micky will proba-bly think we’re stalking him!” Sure enough, Micky came strolling by! We had my camera, so Jason asked Micky if we could get a picture with him. Micky replied, “sure, but you will have to walk with me.” Micky and Jason walked off together, so I fol-lowed after them. Micky actually stopped and waited for me to catch up to them! That was pretty cool. I turned on the camera and Jason took the picture of me and Micky together, which turned out blurry! Micky told us, “Thank you!” and went on his way. Jason was greatly disap-pointed he didn’t get his picture taken too, but hey. I was disappointed Ja-son took a blurry shot and ruined my picture! Jason grumbled about the picture a lot. I told him with a smile,

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“It’s the fedora!” I got to meet Micky. That’s what’s important here. I’ll remember it for the rest if my life, just as when I met davy, may he rest in peace. As Phil Robertson on Duck Dynasty

says, “Everybody’s happy, happy, happy! Until next time fans, keep Monkeeing around!

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Former America's Next Top Model con-testant Shandi Sullivan will appear in the production. Here We Come, a new show parody-ing the 1960s rock band/sitcom gang The Monkees, is coming to the C.O.W. Theater on the Lower East Side for two performances, on Sep-tember 27 and 28. The production is produced by the L.E.S. Brick Co. and is conceived and directed by Britton Payne with codirection by Amanda Mayer. The show follows musicians Davy, Micky, Mike, and Peter as they em-

bark on a road trip to Brooklyn, New York, for a music contest with an en-ticing $500 cash prize. Kidnappings, gun fights, cross-dressing, and gen-eral hilarity ensue along the way. The cast features a diverse group of per-formers, including Shandi Sullivan, a former contestant on the CW Net-work's hit competition show America's Next Top Model. The company also includes Lauren Sonnen, Dana Angelo, Timothy Charles Browne, Adam Luke, Veroni-ca Osorio, Jeff Cumberlin, Jessica Ivy Hunt, David Boyd, Adrienne Rhodes, and Louie Vitiello

Hey, Hey! Monkees Parody Show Here We Come Is Arriving in New York City

By Hayley Levitt • Sep 19, 2013 • New York City

Timothy Charles Browne (Davy), Dana Angelo (Mike), Lauren Sonnen (Micky), and Shandi Sullivan (Peter)

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It's kind of amazing to realize that the Monkees in their original incarnation were around for less than four years, from the debut of their TV show and their first hit single, "Last Train To Clarksville," in the fall of 1966 until remaining members Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones finally threw in the towel in 1970 (the other Monkees, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork, had already left). During that time they managed to crank out nine albums, tour the world a few times, make a creatively adventurous but commer-cially disastrous movie (Head), and of course film two seasons of a TV show that, every time it gets aired again, creates a new generation of fans. Which is why the Monkees have nev-er really gone away. Every few years, two or three members of the "Prefab Four" have hit the road, playing the old hits and occasionally even some newer songs; they did an album of new material in the '80s and again in the '90s. And the old songs keep get-ting reissued in ever more compre-hensive packages by Rhino Records, which treats the Monkees' catalog with so much care and respect you'd think they were Charlie Parker or John Coltrane, with every variation of every song worth poring over and studying. Outtakes, alternate mixes, different vocals, backing tracks for songs that never had vocals record-ed, commercials... all of it is seeing the light of day in a project that's been ongoing for the last 30 years.

If any further proof is needed that no scrap of Monkees arcana is too ar-cane for die-hard fans, I submit as evidence the new three-CD-plus-7-inch-single deluxe version of The Monkees Present. Their eighth album (and last one with Mike Nesmith; Pe-ter Tork quit in 1968), it bombed when it came out in 1969, peaking at an inglorious #100 on Billboard's album charts. It's never gained cult status or anything close to it. Apart from "Listen To The Band," a minor hit at the time and a fan favorite since then, nothing from the album has made any lasting impression among any but the most hardcore Monkeephiles. Even the cover, which appears to have been drawn with black Sharpies, is a slip-shod affair. But dammitall, The Monkees Present is a really good album. Not Abbey Road good, mind you, but a lot better than people probably gave it credit for at the time given that the Monkees' hipness factor with The Kids was about on par with Richard Nixon's by 1969. Nesmith's four crackling coun-try-rock tracks alone are worth the price of admission, including "Listen To The Band," possibly his greatest Monkees-era recording. But Dolenz turns in three nifty originals, including the subversive, downright hippie-ish "Mommy And Daddy." Even Davy Jones, who could generally be count-ed on to produce one unlistenably cornball number per album, acquits himself quite well. The only real dud

Tony Sachs Drinker of Spirits, Listener of Music, Watcher of Baseball, Writer of Words:

Micky Dolenz Talks About The Monkees

Present... And The Monkees' Future

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turns out to be an unreleased track from 1966 which was inexplicably unearthed for the occasion. The fact that Colgems, under the ru-bric of giving the Monkees "unlimited creative control" basically said, "We don't care what you do at this point" really does seem to have had some effect. Seven of the album's 12 songs were written and co-written by the Monkees, and they produced just about the whole record themselves. Whatever you think of the Monkees' musical talents (I think they're a lot better than they were given credit for at the time), you've got to give props to the musicians they worked with. Clarence White of the Byrds, Jim Gor-don of Derek & The Dominos, legend-ary drummers Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine and rockabilly guitar great James Burton are among the luminar-ies you'll hear on The Monkees Pre-sent. That's a big part of what makes going through multiple alternate takes and mixes so interesting. Even the outtakes, and there are a bunch of 'em, are killer. In fact, the Present sessions resulted in some of the best songs the Monkees ever recorded, from Dolenz's kiddie-rocker "Steam Engine" to Jones' Moog-a-licious "If You Have The Time" to Nesmith's gently twanging "The Crip-pled Lion." And those are the tracks that weren't deemed fit for release back in '69. Even a two-minute com-mercial jingle they cut for Kool-Aid is catchy as hell. It's clear that the "band" (as Micky Dolenz told me, "I never thought of it as a band, and I still don't. The Monkees was a televi-sion show about a band") was really firing on all cylinders at this point, even if neither the audience nor Colgems, their record label, was pay-ing attention. The Monkees (Dolenz, Peter Tork

and Mike Nesmith; Davy Jones died in 2012) happened to be touring the US as the deluxe version of Present was seeing its limited edition release -- 5,000 copies only, get 'em while they're hot! So technically, at least, the Monkees were on the road to pro-mote this behemoth. Which made it completely appropriate to chat with cute-as-a-button siner/"drummer" (he had to learn before they went on tour in 1967) Micky Dolenz about one of the less storied chapters in the Mon-kees' career. Not that I'd heard the box myself -- it hadn't yet been re-leased when we chatted, and Rhino Records ignored my request for an advance -- but I figured, hell, he must have heard it, right? Actually, no. "I don't tend to listen to the stuff cover to cover anymore. I'll listen to a cut that maybe is something that wasn't on a previous version, or some different version of one of the songs. You know, a deep cut or something." Well alrighty then! I figured he must at least have some cool recollections about recording the album. "It was an interesting time -- I mean, it was a long time ago, so I don't remember lots of specifics." Uh-oh. But showbiz pro that he is, he quickly recovered. "We had made Headquarters, of course [their only album where the four Monkees played all the instru-ments], but we didn't go back into the studio to do another sort of band al-bum. I hadn't done much writing at all, and it was actually Mike who encour-aged me to write and produce my own stuff. What we started doing was writing and producing our own tunes with our own people and side guys. I brought in my sister [Coco Dolenz] frequently during that period and we did songs together, and other friends

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and musicians that I knew." The Monkees hardly recorded at all together after 1967; on The Monkees Present, it was rare that two Monkees were together in the studio, let alone all three. You can hear it in the fin-ished product. "You can certainly tell a Mike Nesmith tune during that period, and myself, and David," Dolenz says. "With the Monkees, of course, there was very distinct styles, of not just singing, but also writing, and the type of music. Mike definitely was, and is, into that country, Texas, rock kind of thing. You listen now to some of that country rock stuff and you definitely hear that. Mike was doing that kind of stuff forty years ago.... David had that Broadway ballad kind of sensibility. I tended to do rock and screaming kind of Chuck Berry kind of Little Richard stuff. And so when we started having all that control, we went back and started really touching our creative roots. It became almost like three producers producing three different styles of music, using different types of songs." I asked him if the dynamic had changed given that Peter Tork, the most accomplished and eclectic musi-cian in the Monkees, had left. "Yeah, I suppose a bit, you know. But again, the way the whole project came about was so different and unique.... I've always thought of it as a show and much more like musical theater. So when Peter left, there were still re-cording contracts to be honored. It obviously changed the dynamic, like it did when David and Peter and I got back together in the '80s, and now it's a different one again. And it's not like one is better or worse than the other, it's just really different. It's like when you see Crosby, Stills & Nash, and then you see Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and then you see Crosby &

Stills, and then Stills & Nash. And it's all good." Fair enough, since seeing the Mon-kees in concert with Mike Nesmith and without Davy Jones really did make it feel more like you were watching a band and less like a musi-cal revue. The fact that Nesmith had decided to rejoin Dolenz and Tork at all in the wake of Jones' death was a miracle in itself; the fact that he re-upped for a second tour so soon after the first signals nothing less than snowballs in hell and flying pigs. But it seems, at least for now, like the 47-years-and-counting ride may be com-ing to an end for the Monkees. "There are no plans right now for anything else," Dolenz says, before quickly adding, "but I've learned never to say never." At age 67, he freely admits that touring isn't what it used to be. "The travel, especially as you get a little bit older, can be kind of wearing," he says. "I don't travel well, just gen-erally. I'm like a fine wine, I should be lying on my side in the dark. I don't do jostled very well at all. But I tell peo-ple, they pay me to travel, I sing for free." Certainly the vaults are just about bare where the Monkees' recorded legacy is concerned. The only album yet to receive the royal reissue treat-ment is Changes, a hastily recorded and creatively lacking last gasp fea-turing only Dolenz and Davy Jones, and that probably won't happen. But Dolenz is keeping busy -- last year he released Remember, easily the best solo album he's ever put out, and he's got a live DVD planned for this year, as well as the usual assortment of live performances, appearances in vari-ous musicals, and... woodworking? Dolenz seems much more jazzed about his new furniture company,

Monkee Shines

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Dolenz & Daughters Fine Furniture, which he started with his youngest daughter Georgia, than anything Mon-kees-related. "Not many people know, because I've never really publicized it -- [I've been] kind of a geek and a handyman and a do-it-yourselfer and a craftsman. I was studying to be an architect, you know, when the Mon-kees audition came along. I was in college studing architecture.... If I couldn't make it as an architect, I was gonna fall back on show business. "Over the years, I've always had a shop, full-blown, a woodworking and metal shop. I built a gyrocopter in the '60s when I was doing the Monkees -- a real one, a real flying machine -- and hang gliders. I've always had my

own shop, putting on additions, doing plumbing, electrical, the whole thing." Micky Dolenz, craftsman. Who knew? His hope chests, which sell for a mere $495 each, are a little pricey for hope chests, but not too bad when you con-sider they're handmade, numbered and signed by the craftsman himself. And at 12"x12"x24", they're big enough to hold most, if not all, of the Monkees box sets I've acquired over the years. I'll take two. Follow Tony Sachs on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RetroManNYC

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By Becca Nelson

Peter has settled down a bit after the com-pletion of the Monkees Tour this summer so here's a fun article out of my notebook of goodies from Flip, 1967…

My College Days With Peter Tork! By Steve Pope, Peter's Best Friend in College I'd just moved into Carleton's freshman dorm, when I saw Peter for the first

time. Wearing short hair, looking very puckish and plucking on one of his oldest banjos, there he was- in one of his most familiar poses. I was to see Peter often like this. It seemed as if that banjo never left him! We weren't introduced yet, but a couple

of days later I found out that we were in the same math class together and that Peter's room was just down the hall from mine. Soon, I was introduced to Peter H. Thorkelson, beginning a friendship with Peter which lasted even long after he eventually left Carleton.

Funny about that name. You'd never think that there could be two Peter Thor-kelsons in any one place at the same time. But there were actually two Peter Thorkelsons in my freshman class. The only difference was their middle initials and the fact that Peter pronounced the first part of his name "TORK" while the other pronounced his "Thork." Peter

usually used his middle initial to keep their identities separate. Right away, I knew that Peter was OK. Sophomores at Carleton haze the freshmen, but Peter would have no part of it from the start. Like, for instance, he refused to wear the beanie that all fresh-

men were supposed to wear to show the world their inferior status. Then, as al-ways, Peter kept his cool! I got to know Peter's room down the

hall from mine very well. Banjos and guitars were hanging all over the walls. (But this room was nothing compared to the room Peter would have during his sophomore year! Which I'll talk about when I get to that period of Peter's life.) The reason I got to know Peter's room so

well is that he loved to stay up all night to talk about philosophy and politics, and those of us who shared Peter's thoughts usually did so in his room. There he would talk about anything that came to his crowded and creative mind. In old faded Levis, wearing a straight T-shirt (for some reason, during his freshman

year, Peter always wore faded blue-and-white horizontally-striped T-shirts), with his banjo nearby, Peter would talk…and talk…and talk. By the time Pete would be finished talk-ing, you were convinced that what he was saying was right. He was (and still is) a

very convincing talker whose arguments and thoughts would fall nicely together as he developed them. When it came to girls, however, Peter would often let his banjo do the talk-ing. Playing love songs and ballads, he was an outgoing and popular date. As I remember, he dated very sweet and pretty

girls and he used to frequently fall in love. But that's a natural extension of Peter because he's a very loving-type person. Yet, in his own way, he was shy…if you can imagine someone being shy and outgoing at the same time. About the only place where Peter didn't

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take his banjo was class, when he went to class. When he did attend classes, he usually went barefooted. All the teachers and professors thought that he was tre-

mendously intelligent, but they would get mad at him because he wouldn't study. He'd get "A's" on all his papers, and then ruin all his brilliance by not studying for the final. Peter was already beginning to feel that he wasn't getting anything out of his for-

mal education. He believed that he was getting more knowledge from our conver-sations and bull sessions than he was getting from all his classes. But he prom-ised himself that he wouldn't decide whether or not he would come back to Carleton until after the summer.

That summer, I worked in an orchard near my hometown of Downington, Pennsyl-vania, and Peter made the first of his many trips to Greenwich Village in New York. When school was over, we prom-ised each other to keep in touch and meet again (maybe) in the fall up at Carleton. So, you can imagine my surprise when

one night in the middle of the summer, around 10 o'clock, the telephone rang and I heard a familiar voice: "I'm here, Poper…next to the Chevron station…in Paoli." When I got to the station, there was Pete, with a hamburger in one hand and a banjo in the other. And for the next two days,

we both got very little sleep. We talked a lot, as ever, and set up a Dix-ieland band which played….and played…and played. Peter serenaded my little sister, Janet, who was 12 then, with all sorts of happy songs, like "Inky Dinky Spider." And we drove around a lot, en-joying the beautiful countryside, which

Peter appreciated as much as I did. He told me that he hadn't made up his mind about whether he'd come back to school. And he was restless and anxious to move on.

So, I took him to the Pennsylvania Turn-pike entrance, from where he hoped to hitch-hike to the midwest. As I looked

back, there stood Peter- his shirt sticking out, a big old leather flight bag which was bulging in one hand, and his banjo in the other… Monkees Thank You Video

As some of you may know, I was able to put together a great Thank You video for the guys, thanking them for this last tour and for just generally being their groovy selves. Thank you so much to all of you who sent in your submissions, you made it really fantastic! And we had such a great response- not just from other fans

either! Micky posted the video to his wall and Peter's team had this to say- "Wow, Wow, Wow! Thank you, Becca Nelson for this amazing tribute to Peter, Micky & Mike (and of course, Davy). You did an incredible job & thanks to everyone who contributed, as well! This is a truly beau-tiful and wonderful tribute (we are look-

ing for tissues as we type this)- Monkees fans are THE BEST! Love you all! ~ptfb team" It was a blast to make and I'm hoping to start up a new one soon asking everyone to briefly tell how you became a Monkees fan or what your favorite song is and why so get your thinking caps on and watch for my post!

Monkees Thank You Video

As some of you may know, I was able to put together a great Thank You video for the guys, thanking them for this last tour and for just generally being their groovy selves. Thank you so much to all of you who sent in your submissions, you made it really fantastic! And we had such a great response- not just from other fans

either! Micky posted the video to his wall and Peter's team had this to say- "Wow, Wow, Wow! Thank you, Becca Nelson

Monkee Shines

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By Becca Nelson

for this amazing tribute to Peter, Micky & Mike (and of course, Davy). You did an incredible job & thanks to everyone who contributed, as well! This is a truly beau-

tiful and wonderful tribute (we are look-ing for tissues as we type this)- Monkees fans are THE BEST! Love you all! ~ptfb team" It was a blast to make and I'm hop-ing to start up a new one soon asking everyone to briefly tell how you became a Monkees fan or what your favorite song is and why so get your thinking caps on and

watch for my post!

A lright fans, here's your

Micky News...On October

2, Micky took part in the Actors For Autism Reach

For The Stars event and had "a lovely

time" with daughters Georgia and

Ami. Actors For Autism is a very

cool performing arts and digital film

making organization that provides

programs for kids to adults with disa-

bilities.

Micky's new CD, "Live at B.B.

Kings" is now available and can be

purchased signed to you from Micky's ebay store. A selection of 6 of the 23

tracks is available for purchase on

iTunes. The track listing includes:

Introduction by Jim Kerr, I'm Not

Your Stepping Stone, That Was Then,

This Is Now, She,

Words, Sometime In The Morning,

D.W. Washburn, Last Train to

Clarksville, Johnny B. Goode, Purple

Haze, Blackbird, Crying In The Rain,

Different Drum, Sugar, Sugar, Randy

Scouse Git, Daydream Believer, A

Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, Oh!

Darling, White Rabbit, Goin' Down,

Pleasant Valley Sunday, Listen To The Band, and I'm A Believ-

er. Micky sounds fantastic as always

alongside his sister Coco who has an

awesome rendition of White Rab-

bit. This album is definitely worth a

listen!

Dolenz and Daughters Fine Furniture

is really taking off! They are now

offering a bench chest, coffee table,

and side table along with the hope

chest! Seems like they're having a blast with this new venture- "We are

having so much fun building the new

pieces and can't wait to build these

Hope Chests again. Thank you for

everyone's support and purchases. We

hope our furniture will be with your

families for generations to come! "

Micky's daughter Emily is busy sell-

ing her work with her new Etsy

store. Make sure you check it out, she has some beautiful pieces! Ami

Dolenz has also been busy, she just

put out a new children's book called

"Harold and Agatha: The Mysterious

Jewel." She has also said in a recent

interview that she is working on an-

other picture book with her dad, so be

watching for that!

Monkee Shines

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By Marie Gibson

Happy Beginning of Fall everyone!

F all is a fantastic time of

year, the kiddies are back in

school, we get to look for-ward to Halloween and (my

personal favorite), Thanksgiving.

Fall also appears to be pretty event-

ful for our Mr. Nesmith as well.

The Monkees tour ended on August

20, and though he says he enjoyed

himself, he was glad to be home.

Mike will be starting his five-date

tour on October at the MIM Music Theater in Phoenix, AZ and ending

on November 24th at the Turner

Ballroom in Milwaukee, MI. He will

be touring with the same band he had

during his last tour:

Paul Lym on rhythms

Joe Chemey on bass

Chris Scruggs on steel, mandolin and

guitars

And Boh Cooper on keys

He has stated that for this tour, he

will be sticking to his solo work, but

may play “Listen to the Band” as he

says, “because it is so much fun to

play.” He added that he really hasn’t

decided yet, that it depends on how

rehearsals go.

At the end of August, it was reported

on Videoranch’s Tumblr page that

Mike was filming an episode of the

series “Portlandia’ (which stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein)

along with Kyle MacLachlan

(formerly of “Twin Peaks”). So, fans

of “Portlandia”, keep a look out for

Nez!

On a sadder note, Nez made this an-

nouncement on his Facebook page

on September 5th:

“Dale, the dog, died.

She had been wan and weary these

last few weeks and finally stopped

eating. This morning she slipped

away.

I will bury her next to Roy and Lily

in the back fields of Roysdale.”

We all know how much he loved and

doted on Dale, the dog that would

bury the sandwiches he made for her, and then dig them up later.

RIP Dale.

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D avid may be gone from

this earth but he has been

far from forgotten.

In October the Manchester Memorial took place with niece, Beverley Bar-

ber hosting. Daughter Annabel was

scheduled to appear, as well as many

other family members. We hope to

have more on this event in the next

issue.

The PFG raised $200 for the Multiple

Sclerosis in David’s name this sum-

mer. I would like to thank those who

participated and donated.

The plan next year is to raise money

again for The Trees Remember and

have trees planted in David’s name in

area’s of the west where fires have

devastated the forest and our eco sys-tem.

The big news continues to be the

Written In Our Hearts Cookbook. I

don’t think any of us on the cookbook

team expected this to take off as it has

which s wonderful. The book is full

of great recipes and peppered with

sweet little stories from people who

knew David and worked with David

with recipes from his family members

and friends—some of David’s own recipes.

We’ve received recipes from Anna-

bel, Talia, Anita and Linda, Hazel,

Marion Seidel ( who helped with Da-

vid’s horse and still cares for Billy

Jones), Valerie Kariys Venet , Rose

Marie and more are coming in daily..

It’s going to be a fun book and I can

tell you personally , having tried

some of the submitted recipes, there are some great recipes inside. So, stay

tuned. We will let you know when it

is available. Remember ALL pro-

ceeds from the sale of this book go to

the DJEMF and the David T. Jones

estate.

By Cindy Bryant

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30

C all it a chemical reaction:

The group's co-founding

member talks with THR

about the AMC series'

placement of 1967 B-side "Goin' Down" in Sunday's episode.

Here’s a combination you probably

never imagined coming together on

television: beloved '60s pop-rock

group The Monkees and many

pounds of crystal meth.

Leave it to Breaking Bad creator

Vince Gilligan and the show’s music

team to pair a montage of chemistry

in action with the song “Goin’ Down,” the B-side to The Monkees'

1967 hit “Daydream Believer.”

Spoiler alert: The scene was a key

moment during Sunday’s episode,

when Walter White (Bryan Cranston)

essentially passed the torch to new

protégé Todd (Jesse Plemons) in an

all-night cook. The double-time, kick-

in-the-step vocal styling of singer

Micky Dolenz served as the sound-

track, and an unlikely one at that -- yet, strangely, it worked.

The sync lit up Twitter’s music-

centric community and had the

“Monkee-net abuzz,” Dolenz, who

sings “Goin’ Down,” tells The Holly-

wood Reporter. Although the singer

and drummer was on the road with

his solo show, he found out about the

music cue almost instantly via the

group’s Facebook fans. “It’s one of

my favorite Monkees songs,” he says. “Great lyrics by the band and Diane

Hilderbrand. … A very smart call.”

As it turns out, Dolenz is a fan of the

AMC series, and for that reason, he

says he’s “a little torn” about the

song’s use in the scene. “ ’Goin’

Down' has nothing to do with drugs,

obviously,” he tells THR. “And I

certainly don't condone meth -- that is

nasty stuff that kills a lot of people

and ruins a lot of lives. ... On the oth-

er hand, I like the TV show, it's very well-made. … And no, I didn't make

a penny.”

Indeed, Dolenz won’t see much if any

financial reward to the song’s use.

Formed in concept as a made-for-TV

group, at least originally, The Mon-

kees' individual members forfeited

rights to their recordings and image,

which is one reason the band wasn’t

informed of the placement ahead of

time or asked for a sign-off.

“The record company controls the

licensing and mechanicals for all the

material that you do,” Dolenz ex-

plains. “In movies and TV they don't

even have to ask, unless you wrote

the song. Like I had no idea ‘I'm a

Breaking Bad' Uses Monkees Song in

Key Meth Cooking Scene; Micky Dolenz Weighs In

From The Hollywood Reporter

By Shirley Halperin

Monkee Shines

31

Believer’ was going to be in Shrek.”

While the long-haired, beads-wearing

and paisley-sporting Monkees were

no strangers to an affiliation with

psychedelics and marijuana (“I smoked my fair share,” Dolenz readi-

ly admits), the group’s co-founder

insists creative endeavors like their

1968 movie Head, written by Bob

Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, had a

greater purpose than simply being an

accompaniment to mind-altering

drugs. “Head was more about the

deconstruction of the Hollywood big

movie studio monopoly, using the

Monkees metaphorically for attack-

ing that system,” he says. “It had

more to do with the cerebral ele-ment.” That and leaving the door

open for a second movie, so that the

makers could say “from the produc-

ers who gave you Head.”

Adds Dolenz, “Like they say, any

publicity is good publicity -- just

spell the name right.” That’s Micky

with no E.

Micky discussed his solo Album

'Remember' in an article in the LA

Times in September. The CD features

such songs as the Beatles’ “Good

Morning, Good Morning,” Chuck Berry’s “Johnnny B. Goode,” the

Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” and Harry

Nilsson’s title tune, along with new

arrangements of a handful of songs

the Monkees recorded: “I’m a Be-

liever,” “Sometime in the Morning”

and a relative obscurity, “Do Not Ask

for Love.”

The idea for the CD was, at least in

part, a salute to Davy. Micky said the

whole idea is that the album would be a kind of scrapbook of his life.

For an example, Micky said he chose

to cover the Beatles' 'Good Morning,

Good Morning' because Paul

McCartney had invited him to come

to Abbey Road and listen to 'Sgt.

Pepper' when they were recording it.

When Micky walked into the studio,

John Lennon said, Hey Monkee man,

would you like to hear what we’ve

been working on?’ George Martin

played that song and it was etched

into his brain forever after that,

'Johnny B. Goode' was the song that Micky sang at his Monkees audition.

'Sugar Sugar' was the infamous song

that Don Kirshner brought to the

Monkees which, in turn, led to Mike's

revolt. Micky went to England and

met up with Paul and John while

Mike battled it out. Kirshner lost the

battle, created the cartoon group The

Archies and recorded recorded 'Sugar

Sugar' which went to #1 even though

Ron Dante and the REAL singers behind the Archies got no recognition

until much much later.

The album's title song was chosen

because Micky was with Nilsson

when he wrote it. And, of course, The

Monkees recorded Nilsson's 'Cuddly

Toy' which allowed the struggling

singer/songwriter to quit his day job

at a bank.

Micky Discusses “Remember’

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32

From David’s sister, Lynda Moore. An interview Lynda did for a local magazine,

Monkee Shines

33

Monkee Shines

34

8 October 2013

Michael Nesmith‘s return to perform-

ing continues, as the Monkees singer/

guitarist has lined up a new series of

fall U.S. dates. The trek gets under way October 27 in Phoenix and will

wind around the States through a

November 24 show in Milwaukee.

Nesmith discussed his plans for the

upcoming tour in some recent Face-

book posts, explaining that the new

solo shows will be similar in structure

to the ones he did this past spring,

“but with different songs.”

The 70-year-old musician reports that he intends to perform only material

from solo career, with the one excep-

tion possibly being the Monkees tune

“Listen to the Band,” which he says

“is so much fun to play.” Fans can

expect to hear such Nesmith compo-

sitions as “Joanne,” “Some of

Shelley’s Blues” and “Different

Drum,” the song with which Linda Ronstadt scored her first hit.

For select shows, Nesmith is selling

special “Conversation Reception

Passes,” which will give fans the op-

portunity to chat in person and take a

photo with the veteran artist, as well

as having an item autographed by

him.

In addition, Michael reveals that he’s

planning to put together a limited-edition live CD featuring his favorite

performances from the upcoming

trek.

The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith

to Launch New US Solo Tour

Later This Month

http://www.classichitsandoldies.com/v2/

Monkee Shines

35

Here are all of Nesmith’s upcoming solo tour dates, according to his website

VideoRanch3D.com:

10/27 — Phoenix, AZ, MIM Music Theater

10/29 — Austin, TX, One World Theatre

10/30 — Dallas, TX, The Kessler Theater 11/1 — Birmingham, AL, The WorkPlay SoundStage

11/2 — Atlanta, GA, Variety Playhouse

11/4 — Vienna, VA, The Barns at Wolf Trap

11/5 — Annapolis, MD, Rams Head On Stage

11/7 — Bay Shore, NY, YMCA Boulton Center for the Performing Arts

11/8 — Phoenixville, PA, The Colonial Theatre

11/10 — Shirley, MA, The Bull Run Concert Series

11/11 — Fall River, MA, Narrow Center for the Arts

11/12 — Englewood, NJ, Bergen Performing Arts Center

11/14 — Elyria, OH, Stocker Arts Center

11/15 — Chicago, IL, City Winery

11/17 — Franklin, TN, The Franklin Theatre 11/18 — Franklin, TN, The Franklin Theatre

11/19 — St. Louis, MO, Old Rock House

11/22 — Bloomington, IN, Buskirk-Chumley Theater

11/21 — Ferndale, MI, The Magic Bag

11/23 — Chicago, IL, City Winery

11/24 — Milwaukee, WI, Turner Hall Ballroom

Nesmith, who also has begun touring

again with his fellow surviving Mon-

kees band mates, says of his return to

the stage, “Live performance is such

a wonderful experience and I am

happy to be back and out among the

stars. It is the most fulfilling aspect

of a music career to me.”

Monkee Shines

36

Georgia’s Bookcase

Donna Bench Chest

Monkee Shines

37

Emily’s Hope Chest

Ami’s Kitchen Cart

Leo’s Coffee Table

Charlotte’s Side Table

After several years of building our own pieces of furniture we decided to ex-

pand the idea into something greater. All of our pieces are 100% handcrafted in

our home workshop. We source only the highest quality materials and use tra-

ditional woodworking techniques.

We design each piece from scratch! Once we have a new piece that we are

ready to sell we will post the details on the SHOP page

Visit: www.dolenz&daughters.com

Monkee Shines

38

Actual letters written to the Monkees taken from the book, Love Letters to the Monkees.

Monkee Shines

39

Monkee Shines

40

We do lots of fun things in the PFG group on facebook. If you haven’t joined us yet. I hope you will. Next fall we will be exclusively on facebook. We have over 700 members online now. One of the things we did recently was to make a quilt for the Jones girls for Christmas.. Everyone who wanted to participate signed a

square of material and sent it to our seamstress extraordinaire, Andrea Gilbey, who put the whole thing together and presented it to Jessica and Annabel at the Grenville Hall Christmas Fest. Annabel said we spoil them...I hope so! More on the Christmas Fest in the next issue of Monkee Shines.

PFG Christmas At Grenville Hall

Jessica and Annabel show off the PFG quilt given to them by Andrea Gilbey