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Davy Jones is not fed up of Monkeeing around with his band mates
The Monkees have been closeted in a small room all day doing interviews. It’s a nice room, a book-filled nook of a London members’ club, and there’s endless tea and biscuits, but a small room nonetheless.
Davy Jones, who was born in Openshaw and lived near Debdale Park, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz are here to talk about their forthcoming 45th anniversary tour and two-CD Best Of, Monkeemania.
This morning they were probably fresh and full of the joys of spring, but now, several hours in to their promotional duties, the trio are starting to flag.
The band’s drummer, Dolenz, is sitting, nay lying, on the end of the couch, hat pulled down
over his eyes like a cowboy catching an afternoon nap.
He’s snatched a few hours off from performing in an award-winning touring production of Sixties-set musical Hairspray.
Jones, however, is up on his feet. He’s 65 now, but still has the glint in his eye of a former teen idol. The band’s only Brit now lives in the States and only a trace of a British accent remains. Despite this, he doesn’t sound American either.
He chats 50 to the dozen, with Tork and Dolenz rarely getting a word in. They seem happy enough, though, perhaps used to him after all these years.
“I’m doing great,” Jones says. “I’m doing exactly what I want to do, I’m still riding my horses, I’
ve got beautiful kids and I’m with my lovely wife,” he adds, referring to his 33-year-old third spouse Jessica Pacheco, a model, dancer and actress from Miami.
“And here I am with my buddies. We’re here to play music and I do that all the time, but it’s not the same if I’m not with them.”
The Monkees were the first made-for-TV band, formed when two young film-makers, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, inspired by The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night, pitched an idea for a TV show about a band.
Dolenz and Jones were already child stars of stage and screen, Tork and Mike Nesmith answered the casting call and starred in the series for two years.
During this time, the band made their TV show, which was exported around the world and is still repeated today, and released albums of songs written by the best on offer at the ‘Brill Building’ – the New York hit factory that boasted Neil Sedaka, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond and, chiefly, prolific duo Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart among its ranks of staff songwriters.
The formula, however contrived, worked a treat. During 1967 The Monkees outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined in the US, going on to sell around 50m records worldwide.
Strangely, when the trio talk today about their songs, they get confused over which of the writers was responsible for which hit. As Jones explains, though, it’s understandable. “We’ve just got so many hits! That’s the problem when we’re picking a set list.”
Dolenz adds: “The last time we were together like this in a room was 2002.
“Davy and I haven’t spoken or seen each other for a few years, but the things we all went through in the sixties and the time we spent together means we’re just as tight now as we were then.”
Nesmith, the band’s former guitarist, opted not to join in on the reunion. Jones says he just didn’t fancy it, but he was asked and there’s no animosity.
“You have to be ready to play, prepared, and I don’t think Mike was up for this level of involvement – the up and down and all over the place.
“I wanted to do this because every time I go anywhere, people say, ‘Where’s Micky?’ or, ‘Where’s Peter?’ or, ‘Are The Monkees going to get back together?” Settling into his flow, Jones adds there was a point a couple of years ago when he thought he wouldn’t do it again (this is technically the band’s fourth reformation).
“I’ve enjoyed doing my own shows for the past few years –cabaret, singing hit after hit and all that schtick, but it’s just not the same playing I’m A Believer or Stepping Stone without these guys.
“I have other songs I do, a bit of country, big band stuff, but it’s The Monkees’ songs people want to hear. I get letters all the time from people asking about the band.”
Looking forward, the trio aren’t too sure what’ll happen next, whether they will carry on for another tour or call it a day for good. Jones remains optimistic and believes that as long as they keep performing the hits such as Daydream Believer, Last Train To Clarkesville and the aforementioned Stepping Stone and I’m A Believer, audiences will accept other material they want to try too.
Ultimately, the threesome are just excited to be back on the road after all this time.
»The Monkees play Manchester Apollo on May 14. Monkeemania: The Very Best Of The Monkees is released on Monday May 9.
