Monday 16th May

In the mid-sixties ‘Pop’ exploded and nowhere more so than TV, which suddenly embraced this youth culture as its own.  We had shows like Ready Steady Go and Top of the Pops and Juke Box Jury….and The Monkees.  ‘Hey hey we’re the Monkees’, they sang in an imitation of The Beatles in their suits and long hair – and kids all over the world loved them.  First there was the idea, create a TV show about an unsuccessful Beatles look-alike band and fill it with songs and jokes.  Next, find the actors – and here it gets weird, the creators didn’t really think they had to be able to sing or play any instruments; it just so happened that Davy Jones had already sung in Musicals and that Peter Tork could play bass guitar.  Micky Dolenz had been Circus Boy and also could play drums and Mike Nesmith was a guitarist who auditioned for the show on the off-chance.  So we actually had a band, though of course they got in ‘real’ musicians for the records.  At first, but slowly the boys insisted on playing themselves and even writing their own material.

The Monkees didn’t last long and neither did the show, but Mike Nesmith secured a recording contract with RCA on the back of it.  However I am sure they didn’t like what he came up with.  It was a back-to basics country sound, and sold miserably despite Mike’s “fame”.  Well, I was one of those who bought his records and, here I find it hard to explain but though they were really not the sort of thing I was listening to, I kept on buying them.  There was something in the way he sang, some twist of humour or irony that kept me coming back for more.  And now re-listening there are some gems in there, though a lot now seems pretty boring.  Then along came the single Rio, with its lovely line “I probably won’t fly down to Rio, but then again I just might”, a great song.  And his later work is more melodic, more rounded and less country.  Mike has, apart from his stint in The Monkees, never sought fame, in fact he seems to deliberately avoid it.  An interesting musician, almost an anti-musician really.  The Newer Stuff is his best record.