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Melody Maker savages The Monkees live at Wembley in 1997

3/29/2016

2 Comments

 
In March 1997, all four Monkees embarked on a tour of the United Kingdom to promote their 1996 album, Justus. The quartet appeared on numerous UK television talk shows to hype the concerts. The tour played to full venues at almost every stop in England, Scotland, and Ireland, including two sold-out appearances at Wembley Arena. The group was enthusiastically greeted by fans, but the British press was another story.

Though they widely documented the tour, most coverage was negative and unflattering. Nonetheless, fans were thrilled with the show and the chance to see all four Monkees performing an entire concert tour together for the first time since 1968. Michael Nesmith, on the other hand, decided to cease live concert appearances with The Monkees after the UK tour. "The UK shows were fun enough," Nesmith told Record Collector in August 1997.  "It's always fun to play at an arena level. And Monkees fans being what they are, they had a good time. So there wasn't anything unpleasant about that side of it. But on a global level, it's understood that the UK press is the worst in the world. So I knew I was walking into the absolutely worst possible place I could go. Even so, I had forgotten how mean-spirited the press could be. I knew that it was substandard and unintelligent and tied to what advertisers want, but I didn't realize it was mean-spirited. And that was devastating, to see that operating as the voice of the public. It put me right off. I walked right into that and thought, 'My God, this is a terrible thing to be involved in.'" 
​
Despite mostly negative reviews in the UK, the reception by the fans, management, and some of the band members remained upbeat. "We had a great time and got a fabulous reaction," Micky told Monkee Business Fanzine after the tour was completed. "I enjoyed seeing the fans," Michael enthused to Melody Maker. "We came because of a mandate from the fans and that was satisfying." Ward Sylvester, The Monkees' manager, said the UK tour was "just great, well-attended, lots of sellouts and near sellouts." Asked about some of the less than stellar assessments, Sylvester shrugged it off, saying "The British press tends to be unpleasant. They do a lot of posturing to sell newspapers." Q, a popular British music magazine, spoke to The Monkees during the tour. When the interviewer said to the group that "journalists hope you'll say you hate each other and you're just doing it for the money," Nesmith responded with "We're all rich and we all like each other."

Here's a particularly bruising review of one of the Wembley Arena concerts (despite ending on somewhat of a positive note) from the British publication Melody Maker. Thanks to Rosemary Reedman for submitting this article to The Monkees Live Almanac.
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(Click to enlarge)
2 Comments
Tom Czarnota
3/29/2016 22:35:06

fascinating review, which I'd never seen before. The author is obviously a fan, its just that a lot fo the show was not what he imagined a Monkees show should be all about.

Reply
Jan
3/30/2016 09:20:38

I remember this Melody Maker review very well- in 1997 I was so angry after reading this review when I was on vacation in Wales and when I finally found a concert review at all the tone was so very negative. I couldn't believe it. And someway I understood Nez' decision to quit the rest of the Monkees' tour because of "reviews or insults" from the UK press like that. I am so glad he decided to go on a short tour after all in the UK & Scotland again around 2011. And as far as I've read the press reactions were much nicer this time and in 2012 when the guys toured the UK with Davy. Surely magazines like Melody Maker then didn't exist any longer...

Reply



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  • HOME
  • '60s
    • 1966 PROMOTIONAL TOUR
    • 1966 - 1967 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
    • 1967 US / BRITISH TOUR
    • "HEAD" (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE) CONCERT
    • AUSTRALIA & JAPAN 1968
    • 1969 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
  • '70s
    • THE MONKEES LIVE IN 1970
    • THE GREAT GOLDEN HITS OF THE MONKEES (Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart)
  • '80s
    • 1986 'SOUND OF THE MONKEES' AUSTRALIAN TOUR
    • 1986 '20th ANNIVERSARY' NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
    • THE GREEK THEATRE 1986 (all four Monkees reunited)
    • 1987 'SOUND OF THE MONKEES' AUSTRALIAN TOUR
    • 1987 NORTH AMERICAN 'HERE WE COME AGAIN' TOUR
    • 1988 AUSTRALIAN TOUR
    • 1989 EUROPEAN TOUR
    • 1989 NORTH AMERICAN / JAPANESE TOUR
    • UNIVERSAL AMPHITHEATRE 1989 (all four Monkees reunited)
  • '90s
    • 'MICKY AND DAVY: TOGETHER AGAIN'
    • 1996 '30th ANNIVERSARY' NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
    • BILLBOARD LIVE 1996
    • 1997 UNITED KINGDOM 'JUSTUS' TOUR
    • 1997 US TOUR
  • '00s
    • 2001 US TOUR
    • 2002 NORTH AMERICAN / UNITED KINGDOM 'MONKEEMANIA' TOUR
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    • A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT WITH THE MONKEES (THE 2013 TOUR)
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    • AN EVENING WITH THE MONKEES (FEATURING MICKY DOLENZ & PETER TORK)
    • GOOD TIMES: THE 50th ANNIVERSARY TOUR
    • THE PANTAGES THEATRE 2016 (Michael Nesmith's final Monkees concert)
    • THE MONKEES PRESENT: THE MIKE NESMITH & MICKY DOLENZ SHOW
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