The Monkees' expansive 1969 tour stopped at the California State Fair in Sacramento on September 4, 1969. John Hurst of the Sacramento Bee reviewed the show, as documented by Andrew Sandoval in his book The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation: "The audience game them the Star Spangled Banner treatment last night when they appeared in front of the State Fair grandstand - [meaning they] stood through the entire first half of [the group's] show ... When Micky Dolenz dangled his legs over the edge [of the stage] as he sat to sing a song, there was a stampede to touch him. He quickly retrieved his feet and the girls went back to flinging their crumpled wads of paper onto the stage. ... The concert opened with a group called Queen Lily Soap, playing a kind of Hebraic-psychedelic rock with occasional lapses into the dance tempo of the hora. Then Sam & The Goodtimers, the six-man group that backs up The Monkees, took over to warm up the audience. ... [The Monkees] gave the huge crowd a good show."
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Rarely seen coverage and photos of The Monkees at Tampa, Florida's Curtis Hixon Hall in 19698/2/2019 In 2014 the former president of The Monkees Unofficial Fan Club (published in the early 1980s), Michael Luciano, passed along images and newspaper articles to the Live Almanac from his private collection that documented The Monkees' appearance at Curtis Hixon Hall on August 1, 1969. Yesterday, in honor of the 50th anniversary of that particular concert, I shared the post from 2014 on the Live Almanac's Facebook page, which generated considerable attention. And now, Michael has been kind enough to provide the Live Almanac with more exclusive coverage of this show, starting with this piece originally published on August 7, 1969 in the St. Petersburg Times: Also from the August 7, 1969 issue of the St. Petersburg Times is a photo of Micky Dolenz performing in Tampa: And thanks to Michael, we can enjoy this wonderful photo of Davy Jones onstage with the band that supported The Monkees in 1969, Sam & The Goodtimers: Finally, here's a photo of fans and the crowd assembled at Curtis Hixon Hall: Thank you very much to Michael Luciano for sharing these fantastic pieces from his collection with The Monkees Live Almanac!!
The Monkees visited the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee when they were guests on the July 19, 1969 edition of The Johnny Cash Show. The trio sang Michael Nesmith's "Nine Times Blue" in an appearance that was filmed earlier that May. Micky, Davy, and Mike were later joined by Johnny for a comedic take of "Everybody Loves a Nut," originally featured on Cash's 1966 novelty album. Micky, Davy, and Michael were guests on Glen Campbell's variety show on February 5, 1969. The trio performed "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer," and "Salesman" live and lip-synced "Tear Drop City" (their brand new single at the time) after a series of comedy sketches.
Tonight "The Mike & Micky Show" made its second stop in Canada with a performance at Centre in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario. This show, along with last night's in Toronto, Ontario, constitute Michael Nesmith's first appearances in Canada as a member of The Monkees since August 25, 1969, when Micky, Davy, and Nez played two shows at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto (videos below).
Also noteworthy in Kitchener tonight was the addition of "D.W. Washburn" to the set. This 1968 Monkees single peaked at #2 in Canada (while it stalled at #19 in the United States). "Sometime in the Morning" and "Propinquity," both of which have been soundchecked as of late, also made their debut in the set in Kitchener. "St. Matthew," "You Told Me," "You Just May Be the One," "Birth of an Accidental Hipster," and "The Door Into Summer" all took the night off. And for those keeping track, the regular set was played last night in Toronto sans "Steam Engine" and "Grand Ennui." Here is a copy of Michael's Kitchener set list, courtesy of Andrew Sandoval:
And check out this silent footage of The Monkees performing on August 25, 1969 in Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition:
Here's some great footage of Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones walking the streets of New York City in 1969 while in town for The Monkees' appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Micky and Davy seemingly encounter members of The Motions, a 1960s Dutch group they had seen perform live in concert the previous night at the Manhattan nightclub The Scene. Thanks a lot to David Cox for reminding me about this video on YouTube! Thanks much to Jeremy Maine who recently shared on Facebook this April 1969 article about Peter Tork's departure from The Monkees, including a photo from the filming of 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee (featuring Davy Jones with Rip Taylor):
The Monkees, reduced to a trio after Peter Tork's departure, appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on June 17, 1969 (their visit being taped the previous day). They sang two songs, "Daydream Believer" and "Goin' Down," and were backed by their 1969 touring band, Sam & The Goodtimers. Here's the audio of their performance, courtesy of the Live Almanac's YouTube channel: Between songs, Carson conducted an interview with The Monkees, a segment that seemingly grew cringeworthy as Micky talked about things like Robitussin cough syrup and holograms. Monkees archivist Andrew Sandoval documented the event in his book, The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation: Videotape of this appearance no longer exists. In the 1960s, NBC infamously erased old programming because tape was expensive, a move that later infuriated Carson after he asked for classic clips for a retrospective show and nothing was available. "No one was doing reruns, there was no home video, there was no cable TV, there was no other outlet," Carson's nephew Jeff Sotzing said in a 2012 interview. "There were only 3 television source outlets; ABC, CBS, NBC, that was it — they didn’t have any place to re-run them." It was after this occurrence that Carson requested that his shows be permanently archived. Sotzing went on to say that less than 1% of Tonight Show material from 1962 to 1972 has been accounted for, and to date, The Monkees' appearance is not part of the small amount of footage from that era to have survived.
Ann Moses was the editor of Tiger Beat from 1966–1972, writing countless stories about The Monkees during their heyday. Ann also acted as Hollywood correspondent to Britain's New Musical Express from 1968-1971. She has visited with The Monkees backstage during their most recent tours, and had the opportunity to interview Monkees archivist and tour producer Andrew Sandoval before Micky and Michael performed in Phoenix, Arizona last summer. The European tour referenced above never took place, as this article from the May 1969 issue of Monkees Monthly explains.
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