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Monkee Mania Returns [Updated 05:48 PST Thu, Nov 30 2000]
The last train to Clarksville may never leave the station for Monkees fans if
continued interest in the 1960s made-for-TV band is any indication.
Three of the original small-screen fab four are teaming up for the first time
in four years for a 15-city "Monkee Mania Returns 2001" tour expected to
launch March 1, a spokesman told Pollstar.
Plans are to film one of the shows for a future TV special, and ultimately,
to take the Monkees all the way to Broadway.
All four original members - Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and Micky
Dolenz - embarked on a brief high-profile "reunion" tour in 1996. Then
Nesmith left and the three others stayed on the road a while longer. Why
bring them back out - with the exception of Nesmith - to do it again?
"A couple of the guys approached me to do it," explained producer David
Fishof, "and there's been a VH1 special, and an original movie and an E!
channel program about them. The ratings for all three of those programs were
good. Their ‘Greatest Hits' record went over 500,000 in sales for a gold
record this summer. That's a great combination."
Lots of exposure and a spike in record sales weren't the only motivation for
Fishof and the band to take to the road for yet another summer.
"Then I went to some of Davy Jones' shows (he performed in the Teen Idols
package with Bobby Sherman and Peter Noone), and there's eight-year-old girls
screaming at him. And I said to myself, ‘wow - this thing just keeps on
going.'"
The reaction to Jones on the Teen Idols tour was just one highlight in a year
that saw yet another rekindling of interest in the group. While Jones and
Dolenz have appeared on the Teen Idols package and as solo performers, Tork
has been performing live with his Shoe Suede Blues band and has an acoustic
act as well.
"The fans are still there and we're just going into the new millennium with
the Monkees," Fishof said. Eventually, he hopes to take them to the Great
White Way for a musical stage production on their lives and music called
"Monkee Mania."
But the tour comes first.
"We're going to tour and do the TV special first, and then we're going to go
from there and see how it goes. But Broadway's where I want to wind up," he
said.
Call them daydream believers. It's the only way to explain how the Monkees
are as hot as ever, 33 years after their career as sitcom stars ended. h
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