The Monkees Live Almanac turns four years old today, having launched on July 4, 2011. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for their continued support, contributions, and encouragement. Please keep visiting. 

A highlight from the last year was presenting an exclusive interview with Chip Douglas. Chip is fondly remembered by fans as the producer of The Monkees' most acclaimed albums, Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., along with some of their best singles, including "Daydream Believer," "Goin' Down," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." A big thanks to Iain Lee, who conducted and recorded the interview this past winter.

In late May 2014, a Twitter account was opened for the Live Almanac. I've been posting some exclusive content there separate from this website. If you haven't done so already, please follow me on Twitter.

Take a moment to check out the videos on the Live Almanac's YouTube channel, which have currently been viewed 1,187,067 times!

Feel free to contact me if you would like to submit something to the site, or you could leave a comment with feedback and suggestions. I enjoy hearing from everyone and your contributions have been many...

For those of us in the United States, enjoy the 4th!

The Monkees Live Almanac website has been up and running for three years now, debuting online on July 4, 2011. The site has grown leaps and bounds since that point! I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for their continued support, contributions, and encouragement. Please keep visiting.

In late May of this year, a Twitter account was opened for the website. I've been posting updates and other items on it, including some exclusive material separate from the website, so be sure to follow me to keep up with everything. 

The Live Almanac's YouTube channel has also seen some new additions recently after a lull in activity. Currently the channel has been visited 923,406 times. Getting closer to that one million mark!

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to submit something to the site, or you could leave a comment with feedback and suggestions. I enjoy hearing from everyone and your contributions have been many...

For those of us in the United States, enjoy the 4th!

The Monkees Live Almanac website debuted online on July 4, 2011. At the time, Micky, Davy and Peter were on tour in the United States celebrating the band's 45th Anniversary. In the year since the site's first birthday, Monkees fans have mourned the loss of Davy Jones. And then Micky, Mike and Peter reunited for a brief tour to celebrate Davy and the group's legacy. On the Live Almanac's second birthday today, fans are eagerly anticipating more Monkee business as Micky, Mike and Peter prepare to launch a new summer tour on July 15 and await the release of The Monkees Present deluxe edition in August.

Over the course of the past year, the Live Almanac website has broadened to include revised and expanded tour summaries, listings of tour dates (thanks to Malcolm Searles), a new Instruments & Gear page, and a more active blog that is usually updated several times daily. I gave my best attempt to live blog the 2012 tour, an event that continued to expand the traffic the website experiences. I am continually amazed at the amount of visits the site receives daily, and the recent unveiling of the Gear page provided the most one day traffic since the kickoff of the 2012 tour.

The blog is by far the most visited area on the Live Almanac site. The homepage is the second. After that, the following pages have been frequented the most in the last year:

1. 2012 Monkees Tour
2. 1969 North American Tour
3. 1967 American/British Tour
4. Links
5. 1966-1967 North American Tour
6. 1986 20th Anniversary Tour
7. 1968 Australia/Japan Tour
8. 2011 45th Anniversary World Tour
9. 1966 Promotional Tour
10. Head (Original Motion Picture Concert)

The top 3 most viewed categories in the blog since last July are the following:

1. Michael Nesmith (pushed by his recent spring solo tour)
2. 2012 Monkees Tour
3. Monkees Present Deluxe Edition

And the single blog post that received the most traffic in the last year was the 2012 Tour Merchandise post.

The Live Almanac's YouTube channel debuted in late December 2011 and on this site's first birthday, the channel had been viewed 321,956 times. That figure has almost doubled in a year with a total of 636,836 channel views. The number of subscribers has also doubled to 827. Here are the ten most viewed videos in the lifetime of the channel:

1. "I'm a Believer" - Live on British TV 1989
2. Monkees interviewed on The Tonight Show in 1996
3. "Steppin' Stone" live on The Tonight Show in 2001
4. The Monkees perform on The Rosie O'Donnell Show in 1996
5. "Daydream Believer" - Live 1989
6. The Monkees 1989 Reunion on USA Today
7. Mike Nesmith on A.M. Chicago in 1982
8. The Monkees on Regis & Kelly in 2001 (Part 1/2)
9. Micky Dolenz Kelloggs Sugar Pops commercial
10. Monkees 1969 concert bootleg clips

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed information, pictures and more to the website. There are too many to mention here and I don't want to leave anyone out, but you know who you are. Please be in touch. I must give a special thanks, however, to Kevin Schmid, who recently assisted with the new Gear page and who has always contributed pictures and more. A big thanks to Al Bigley as well, who is responsible for the cool banners (including the one on the homepage) that you see around the site and which were added over the last several months. 

And don't forget these great Monkees resources online, including Monkee45s, Monkee Bootlegs (thanks to Iain Lee and Suzanne Gee for providing some very rare footage for Monkees fans over the course of the last year!), Monkees Mixography and more.

Please continue to visit! And feel free to contact me here.

Today is the 4th of July, America's birthday, but The Monkees Live Almanac is celebrating a birthday as well...the website is 1 year old today. I thought I'd share a few things about the site after a year online.

I have been somewhat surprised by how much traffic the Almanac has received and continues to receive on a daily basis. The site experienced the most visits for one day after two events. Peter Tork's Facebook team posted a link to the Almanac on Peter's Facebook page in October 2011, calling it a "Really well done website for Monkees fans." Sadly, the other event was Davy's passing on February 29. Visitors have come from all around the world, but the following five countries generate the most traffic: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia.  (Japan is 6th!)  

When you remove the homepage and the blog, the ten most visited pages on the site are the following:

1. 1969 North American Tour
2. 1967 American/British Tour
3. 2011 45th Anniversary Tour
4. 1966-1967 North American Tour
5. 1986 20th Anniversary Tour
6. 1968 Far East Tour 
7. Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart
8. 1997 UK Justus Tour
9. Head concert
10. 1987 North American Tour
(The 1996 North American Tour was 11th, followed closely by the 2001 Tour page.) 

The least viewed subject page? That technically would go to the 1966 Promotional Tour. However, it's the newest page on the site (added only a month ago) and it was one of the pages most visited during the month of June (and continues to see a lot of visits). Otherwise, the honor would go to the 1987 Sound of The Monkees Australian Tour page.

The most viewed subject area in the blog revolves around the Instant Replay deluxe edition topic.

The Live Almanac's YouTube channel debuted in late December 2011 and has been visited 321,956 times. The channel currently has over 400 subscribers. The ten most viewed videos to date are the following:

1. The Monkees interviewed on The Tonight Show (1996)
2. Mike Nesmith on A.M. Chicago (1982)
3. The Monkees perform "I'm a Believer" live on British television (1989)
4. The Monkees 1989 reunion on USA Today television show
5. The Monkees perform on the Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996)
6. Monkees on Regis & Kelly - Part 1/2 (2001)
7. Monkees 1969 concert bootleg clips
8. Monkees performing on The Tonight Show (1969)
9. Davy Jones - "It's Now" - Live in Japan (1981)
10. Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz interviewed at the Greek Theater (1986)

Of all the emails I receive, most concern the request to add tour dates to the individual pages. It is something I continue to think about, though it would be a massive undertaking. I'm also not sure it could be 100% accurate (and accuracy is important to me). Andrew Sandoval's book is the best and most reliable source for tour dates between 1966-1969, and the Reilly/McManus/Chadwick Manufactured Image book has the 1986 tour schedule. The trick comes after 1986.  Old issues of Monkee Business Fanzine have the original itineraries plus all the shows added along the way for every tour from 1987 to 2002 (but would have to be assembled and checked for the site). The 2011 tour dates are readily available online and I've often thought of starting there. Keep checking back on this one!

Finally, thanks to everyone who has contributed to the site with their pictures, information and stories. 

I'd love to hear from you with any suggestions, requests, or just general comments. Feel free to contact me. And thanks to the Sunshine Factory website for most of the screenshots you see above.  

Please continue to visit!