Davy Tour Dates! Season One DVD Reviews!

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From: Anthony

–The Monkeesrule43 Fan Site Mailing List–

***Davy Jones Tour Dates***
Three new tour dates have been added to Davy Jones’ 2003/2004
schedule. The following is his current complete itinerary: 6/6-7/03
Halifax, NS Casino Nova Scotia */*/* 6/21/03 Fresno, CA Chaffee Zoo
*/*/* 7/3/03 Mason, OH Pine Hill Lakes Park */*/* 7/5/03 Arlington
Heights, IL Frontier Days */*/* 7/4/03 New Kent, VA Colonial Downs
*/*/* 7/10/03 Chippewa Falls, WI No. Wisconsin St. Fair */*/*
7/12/03 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Casino */*/* 7/19/03 Westbury, NY
Westbury Music Fair */*/* 7/27/03 Waukesha, WI Riverfest */*/*
8/2/03 Summit Station, PA Schuylkill County Fair */*/* 8/3/03 Red
Bank, NJ Count Basie Theatre */*/* 8/8/03 Santa Cruz, CA Santa Cruz
Beach Boardwalk */*/* 9/1/03 Dundas, ON Flamboro Race Track */*/*
9/13/03 Florence, IN Belterra Casino & Resort */*/* 10/4/03 Tulsa,
OK Tulsa State Fair */*/* 10/18/03 Lockport, IL East High School
*/*/* 12/31/03 Maricopa, AZ Harrah’s AK-Chin Casino */*/* 2/7/04
Tiffin, OH Ritz Theatre */*/* To view Micky Dolenz & Peter Tork’s
full tour schedules, visit the Solo Tour Dates page.

***On TV / Revised Saved By The Blues***
Micky Dolenz’s “Mom, Can I Keep Her?” will be showing again on May
27 at 7pm EST on SHOFe. Additionally, Micky’s mid-90s appearance on
the popular comedy, “Boy Meets World” will air on the Disney Channel
on June 1 at 12pm EST. Shoe Suede Blues’s 2002 album release, “Saved
By The Blues” has gotten new cover art to feature only the band’s
current members (Tork, Sunday, Palmer, & Mikuls). Although former
member, Tadg Galleran, has been removed from the cover, his songs
are still included on the revised album. Also, the CD is going to be
made available outside the SSB website & concerts for the first time
on June 3, when it gets a wider release.

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mailing list, rare MP3s & more!

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From: “Sally Carpenter”

Today (May 13) in the Los Angeles Daily News, NBC announced its new
schedule for 2003-2004. Simon Fuller’s “New Monkees” was not in the
line-up or even mentioned, either as a fall show or as a midseason
replacement. It could possibly still appear midseason if any of
NBC’s three new comedies fail.

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From: “Sally Carpenter”

The first of two “Simpsons” episodes of May 18 had a Monkees joke!
In the show’s first act, Bart and Milhouse sneak into Ned Flander’s
house and find a secret room full of Beatles memorabilia, including
the original Ed Sullivan show suits. The police arrive after Ned
trips an alarm button, and Chief Wiggum tells the boys, “Looks like
you boys will be taking the last train to Clarksville.” The black
police officer says, “That’s the Monkees, chief,” and cut to
commercial.

++++++++++++++++++

From: “Al Bigley”

Hey, hey, it’s Davy!
Monkees pop star returns to horse-loving roots in Indiantown
By Louis Hillary Park staff writer
May 13, 2003

On an Indiantown morning as sticky as a cotton candy daydream, ’60s
pop posterboy Davy Jones emerges from a curtain of golden ground
fog. Wearing tight black leathers that could make nearly 40 years of
Monkees fans whimper and palpitate, he is hunched over the back of a
fast Florida-bred.”These horses aren’t a hobby to him. They’re the
love of his life,” says Dave Smither, who helps Jones train a dozen
thoroughbreds out of a rented barn off State Road 710 in western
Martin County. “He’d rather be doing this than the show business
thing.” Back at the stalls, the 57-year-old Jones slides off the
saddle with the alacrity of the professional jockey he longed to be.
This grandpa pulls off his riding helmet and, aside from his salt-
and-pepper whiskers and the dirt under his nails, he looks
remarkably unchanged from 1966, when the Monkees’ TV series first
appeared on NBC.”There’s just something about going out to the barn
yard,” the diminutive Jones says in the sprightly British accent
that has melted at least two generations of teen-age hearts through
records, CDs and reruns.”I’m out here every morning at 6 when I’m
not off somewhere (touring),” says Jones.”Feeding them, mucking out
the stalls, the whole bit. It’s a lot of work. I’m usually in bed by
nine o’clock. Pretty boring, really.””Boring?” says Stuart resident
Renee Favor, 32, Jones’ girlfriend of two years. “Trust me, he’s the
opposite of boring.” Monkees mania Spin the clock back a week and
head to Disney World in Orlando. To the 1,800-seat American Gardens
Theatre at Epcot, where you’ll find the Davy Jones of yesteryear.
Seven hours before his first show, a handful of Monkees fans already
are lined up by the ropes. It’s Jones’ sixth straight year at
Disney. Who cares that the jokes and song sets are almost identical
in each of his three shows? Nearly the same as last year, and the
year before.”I saw him for the first time in 1997. I just love him,”
says Kristi Domke, an Orlando resident who in six years has missed
only two of nearly two dozen Davy Jones shows at Disney. “I’m a die-
hard Monkees fan. “At 29, Domke is a second-generation fan who
discovered the long-disbanded band as a teen-ager in the mid-80s
when MTV began showing reruns of the quirky TV show. “I fell in love
with him when I was 14,” says first-generation fan Cheryl Bridges,
49, who saw the Monkees live in Buffalo in 1968. “Davy was always my
favorite because he’s so little and cute. And that accent. I saw him
in the ’60s, the ’80s, the ’90s and now this. . . . I talked to him
one time, and my knees were shaking.” Then, as Jones’ eight-piece
band strikes up the theme from the TV series, onto the stage trots
the 5-foot-4-inch ball of energy — clean-shaven and wearing an open-
neck black suit. “I don’t care how old he is,” says Domke. “He looks
great!” Decades of believersFor 35 minutes, Davy Jones sings the
hits — “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”; “(I’m Not Your)
Steppin’ Stone”; “Valerie”; and, of course, his signature
song, “Daydream Believer,” which went to No. 1 in December 1967.He
takes a 40-minute break and does it again, then again. The next day
there are three more shows, and so on, and on it goes. Jones has
about 20 tour stops scheduled this year, most with multiple same-old-
oldies performances. “He’s gracious about it,” says Favor, who also
wears the hats of tour manager and secretary for Jones. “But, you
know, he’s already sung “Daydream Believer” twice today, and he’ll
do it again (in the late show). That’s 12 times in four days.”Jones
isn’t complaining, mind you. The Disney dates have been good to him,
as have the last 17 or so years as a second generation of fans
discovered the Monkees. The band consisted of Connecticut-bred folk
singer Peter Tork; Micky Dolenz, a Los Angeles-born child actor;
Michael Nesmith, a young singer-songwriter; and Jones.
The Artful Dodger At age 11, David T. Jones of Manchester, England,
answered an advertisement for youngsters who wanted to work on radio
and got a part on a BBC soap opera, “Coronation Street.” But by age
15, Jones had his fill of show business and went to the track at
Newmarket to pursue his real ambition — to become a jockey. He’d
never ridden a horse, but he quickly took to them.”He could
ride . . . (and) all he wanted to do was go into horses,” says Basil
Foster, the English trainer for whom Jones worked. “But I knew he
belonged on stage or radio.” Foster, who now is retired to the
Indiantown area, encouraged Jones to try out for the part of the
mischievous Artful Dodger in the London production of the
play “Oliver.” He got the part, and a year later found himself on
Broadway and nominated for a Tony Award.Within three years, Jones
would become “the cute Monkee” for the band that was cobbled
together by Hollywood TV producers as a small-screen takeoff — some
would say “rip-off” — of the Beatles’ movies “Hard Day’s Night”
and “Help!”By the time the TV series debuted on Sept. 12, 1966,
their first single — “Last Train To Clarksville” — was rocketing
up the charts on its way to No. 1. During the next 15 months, the
Monkees would score four No. 1 albums and win an Emmy for best
comedy series. But by June of ’68, the TV show was canceled because
of creative differences with the producers — mainly that band
members wanted to write and perform more of their own music.By 1969,
the band was finished and so was the $450-a-week salary Jones earned
as a Monkee. That and some modest concert fees was virtually all he
earned as a Monkee, he said.Jones says the Monkees were four
strangers with some musical talent hired to play roles in a TV
series.”We were never close,” he says. “We don’t keep in
touch.”Anniversary Tour After years of bit parts, albums that didn’t
make it and a failed marriage, Jones’ career hit pop-rock bottom in
the early ’80s. “It was tap city. I was broke,” says Jones. “The
only thing I owned was a grave next to my father.” Then, in 1985,
Peter Tork came around with the idea of a 20th-anniversary Monkees
tour. Micky Dolenz signed on and even the enigmatic Nesmith joined
the band in Europe.In 1986, Jones earned $1 million on the oldies
tour — and he’s been a hot commodity on the retro-celebrity circuit
ever since. He now owns a 20-room home in Pennsylvania and a
historic nearby church, which he is renovating for use as a museum
or restaurant.Jones came to Martin County in the late ’80s to visit
trainer Basil Foster, and before long was wintering here with his
horses. He’s thinking about buying a ranch, building a house and
moving permanently to Indiantown.For now, he lives five minutes from
his barn in a two-bedroom trailer he bought second-hand from a guy
in a bar. He knows where in Indiantown you can get a week’s worth of
Guatemalan lunches and dinners for $35 and a round of golf for
$12.50. He looks forward to the VFW potluck suppers each Friday
night. “People here sort of watch out for me. I feel so cared for
out here,” he says over a vegetarian omelet at The Good Times
Caf. “They treat me like any other cowboy.”Jones says the renewed
fame and the modest fortune have allowed him to better provide for
his four daughters — Talia, Sarah, Jessica and Annabel — and to
return to his first love, horse racing.”I should have never gone to
London to play the Artful Dodger,” he says now. “But I’m blessed to
have been able to see the world the way I have.”In 1996, Jones
fulfilled his dream of riding a winner in a thoroughbred race —
taking Digpast, a horse he owned and trained, first across the
finish line in England.This summer, Jones plans to compete in
Virginia and at Calder Race Course in Miami between tour dates, and
he is working a stage musical that he hopes to debut at Stuart’s
Lyric Theatre within the next year.”I could be sitting on my butt in
a big house on Hobe Sound beach smoking cigars and getting fat,”
says Jones. “But I don’t want to be a little fat guy. It’s tough
enough being short.” – louis.park@scripps.com

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Reviews
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From: “Chris Coyle”

Here’s my take on the new Best Of set.

The packaging is quite good and the dull slip case art is enhanced
at least by the nice glossy logo and color back art work.

The inside art is very appealing and includes a small fold out lyric
book for the enclosed Karaoke CD. The CD booklet does include that
famous 33 1/3 promo shot and has a nice fold out center with a photo
spread and CD credits. There’s one or 2 alternate shots, but most of
the pictures have been published before. A few of them I notice
straight out of Rhino’s “Hey Hey We’re The Monkees” book. The
alternate rainbow back cover photo is not new, it’s from the center
intro spread for the 2nd section of the “Music Box” book found on
pages 28/29.

The CD’s themselves are red/white and blue/ white with the same
cartoon characters used on the CD faces of “The Music Box”.

Among the CD credits, Rhino Monkee family Andrew Sandoval, Bill
Inglot, Gary Peterson, and Dan Hersch return along with Patrick
Milligan, who returns as project supervisor from the credits of “The
Music Box”. We have new names Komeka Freeman, Steve P. Gorman, Hugh
Brown and Bryan Lasley. this time out, for the artwork and other
project assistance. Notice long time art design Lisa Sutton is
missing.

Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch are responsible for the remastering, the
same team who worked on The Music Box. Bill Inglot, of course, has
worked with Rhino since their beginnings. His name and Monkees
masters go hand in hand.

Andrew Sandoval’s liner notes is just a quick overview of Monkees
history, mainly pointing out all their successes, with a few un-
published commentary in the notes from Mike Nesmith and James
Fawley.
Song credits include chart placing, album and single release dates
as well as lead and backing vocal and producer credits. No musician
credits are found except for The Monkees instrument list
(ala “Headquarters”) inside the center fold out section.

Now for the music…let’s take the new Karaoke CD+G first. This CD
will play in both standard CD players as well as karaoke machines,
where I suppose the lyrics will also scroll. I don not have a
karaoke machine, so I could not test this function. It will not work
in a DVD player, other then play as a standard CD.

Five tracks (Monkees Theme-the short TV version/ I’m A
Believer/Stepping Stone/Pleasant Valley Sunday/Daydream Believer)
have been remixed from their multi-track tapes, thus allowing the
removal of the lead vocal, as well as any harmony lines going along
with the main verses. This is a great way for the rare Monkee fan
who enjoys hearing and getting into the original tapes as much as
Rhino has allowed. What you get is a nice new creation of those
songs, with the backing vocals in place and noticeably more up front
in the mix then originally produced. Like on the 2nd and last chorus
of “Daydream Believer”, Micky’s harmony is pushed up in the song,
while Davy’s is pushed down. Another example is Tommy Boyce’s
backing vocal on “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, you can actually
make it him out loud and clear, nice!

If playing in a standard CD player, the songs have before and after
pauses, and they start either around 15 secs of 20 secs into the
track. Don’t be alarmed..

The main CD is sourced from their stereo album mixes, not single
mixes as previously reported. The only single mixes used were for “A
Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” , which is the mono mix and “Listen
To The Band”, which is the stereo single mixed released many times
over. Going with the stereo mixes for 99 % of the album is a good
marketing approach as young people these days might not care for the
mono mixes. Though not, as pure as most purist would like, it’s
almost sounding fresh, as Rhino has released many songs like “(I’m
Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday” many times
over in their original mono single mixes, making their stereo
counterparts almost a rarity unless you own the original or re-
issued albums, while still keeping the rare stereo mix for “A Little
Bit Me, A Little Bit You” hidden on their Flashback series of
Monkees CDs.

As for the sound, I did a side by side comparison using Cool Edit
Pro of a few songs off of “Music Box” and this new collection, and I
did not detect any new sound enhancement. It looks like they used
the newly mastered sources they used for “Music Box” in 2001.

Not a bad release, and a good place to start for future Monkees
fans. It’s only for completists and session die hards who will want
to ad the new remixed backing tracks to their collections.

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From: “Kretchgrrl3”

The Best of Monkees CD is sooo GROOVY! The kids and I are digging
the karaoke cd too! I wish they would have put more songs on it but
it’s still a blast! It’s a welcomed addition to any fans
collection!!

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From: “Fred Velez”

I picked up the Monkees First Season DVD boxset yesterday at Best
Buy, which had a good price for them nat $59.95, averaging about $10
a disc, which is not a bad deal. The box set is beautifully designed
to resemble an old carry-around record player from the 1960’s, which
I actually owned at one time, even showing the record speeds at 33,
45 and 78 rpms! The discs are packaged in cardboard replicas of some
of the original Monkees 45 picture sleeves, including a few import
sleeves, a very cool touch from Rhino. The only problem I see with
them is that the DVDs might tend to slip out too easily from the
sleeves and get damaged, so I’d advise everyone who buys the set to
be careful how they handle the discs.

The booklet has some photos and interesting information on the
Monkees first season, but it’s very thin and not nearly as nice and
colorful as the booklet from the VHS version of the box set of the
entire series.

A sampling of some of the shows on DVD has them in pristine
condition, the best I’ve ever seen them. There are special audio
commentaries spread out on some of the episodes on the discs by Bob
Rafelson, Michael Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork. (I guess Micky
Dolenz was too busy to comment on some of the episodes, a pity,
would have loved to hear what he thought of ‘Monkees at the Circus’.
Maybe he’ll record some commentaries when Season 2 is released on
DVD.)

The sixth disc has the most bonus material, including the 16mm
version of the original Monkees pilot with Boyce & Hart singing the
songs, an interview by Bobby Hart, a gallery of photos and rare
memorabilia, audio commentary by Mike and Peter on the ‘Monkees on
Tour’ episode, and original Monkees commercials, though some of the
commercials looked like they came from video dupes, a pity Rhino
couldn’t seem to find original film sources.

Overall, this is an excellent presentation of the first season of
the Monkees, beautifully produced and packaged. Hopefully, Season 2
on DVD will be just as handsomely produced. Suggestions I’d make to
Rhino for the Second Season box set is to definitely include the ’33
& 1/3′ TV special (and please Rhino, marry the better video picture
from the VHS box set with the better sound of the single tape
release of the special), the 1976 ‘Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart’
special, the 1997 ‘Hey Hey, It’s The Monkees’ TV special, the Rhino
produced ‘Hey Hey, We’re The Monkees’ documentary, some of the
Monkees rare late 1960’s TV appearances, like Johnny Cash, Glen
Campbell, Hollywood Squares and others, more rare commercials,
including the Kool Aid commercials, which were the last things
Nesmith did with the Monkees before he quit.

Also, if any rare outtakes exist from the show, they must be
included, and get commentaries on some of the episodes from all four
Monkees, I definitely want to hear Micky’s commentary on ‘The Frodis
Caper’, the episode he directed. What would also be nice would be to
include the videos the Monkees did in the 1980’s for ‘That Was Then,
This Is Now’, ‘Heart & Soul’, ‘Every Step Of The Way’, and
the ‘Justus’ videos as well. Rhino should make the second box set as
complete as possible to make it appealing to the fans. If the second
season box set comes out by Christmas, I definitely want to see it
under my tree.

Kudos to Rhino for putting together a really great DVD set that does
justice to the first season of the Monkees TV series.

++++++++++++++++++

From: “Chris Coyle”

I have to say I’m more then happy with the work Rhino has put forth
with this new box. First off..if you have yet to buy yourself a DVD
player, what better reason to do it then now. Second..VHS is dead!!
with this set, there’s no other reason to own or want to ever look
at the old VHS box except for a conversation piece and its booklet.

The package blows away any Monkees related release released thus far
from Rhino. The DVD sleeves are housed in a record player box on the
floating turntable . A booklet of liner notes of episode info is
found underneath. It’s a very clever looking piece and the enclosed
45 single sleeves ,housing the DVDs themselves, re-creating various
picture sleeves from around the world in 1967 (Like “Clarksville”
and “I’m a Believer”) makes the package artwork perfect. The DVD
themselves look like mini records, a nice nod to a vintage format I
love so much!

I’ve test driven a few of the DVDs so far, mostly checking out the
special features and tuning in to Mike’s, Peter’s and Rafelson’s
commentaries. Mike’s commentaries beats them all out and he shows a
side of himself many fans have disputed over and over again. He
truly knows his stuff and loves this project. His little stories
will keep you glued to his every word and wanting more. He’s a pro
at these commentaries. Peter’s are much the same as you would
expect. Funny how he disputes a few things you’ll hear Mike say in
his for “The Monkees On Tour” commentaries, like whether or not
David Winters did the tour pre-production (as credited) Peter says
no…Peter gets a kick out of the farm report and the stick in the
hotel room. Good stuff!

I also found Bob Rafelson’s to be very enlightening, and you start
to remember what has made this show last and take a bow for the many
of the original idea’s that were made by all new comers to this type
of medium. They had people like Rafelson (who directed his first
piece of film w/ Monkee Vs Machine) and others going from
commercials to working on a network TV show. This was, done on
purpose along with getting co-actors who did their usual roles on
the fringe of Hollywood. The young people taking over, doing
it “outside” of the rules, so to speak. The other commentaries
include director James Frawley, Bobby Hart, and Davy Jones.

The bonus Kellogg/Yardley Label commercials are nice, but I’ve got
better quality of some of these clips in my own collection. Not sure
why they didn’t search around better then what they came up with.
That Kellogg’s commercial of Davy doing the flip flop w/ his cereal
has been forever going around certainly in better quality then what
is on the DVD. There are btw..at least 2 commercials that I never
knew existed..nice! Where are the Kool Aid and Nerf Football
commercials? Next box?

Now for the sound. This is where I only wished The Monkees were more
important and worth the $$ for Rhino and Warner to want to give a
little more in this department. They could’ve for one, taken more
advantage of the various soundtracks and given the fans the alt
syndicated soundtracks from the late 60’s, when many of the original
songs were replaced w/ the newer material off of the later albums
like “Changes” and stuff like “Love To Love”, “Apple, Peaces,
Bananas and Pears”, and “Steam Engine” which were not even released
on record until the 80s. I remember these sound tracks the best, as
they were the ones I knew in the late 70’s and early 80s when I
first saw the show. Then, how about some real 5.1 mixes, instead of
these bogus electronic stereo simulated mixes given here. Even some
stereo mixes, as an alternate choice would’ve been nice. Don’t
forget, a few alternate mixes creep up in these episodes, that have
yet to find their way out on CD. Check out “Saturday’s Child”
in “Monkee Vs Machine” “This Just Doesn’t Seem To Be My Day”
in “Royal Flush” and “Take a Giant Step” in “The Chaperone”.

The picture looks great and looking forward to Season Two, hopefully
by Christmas.

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