Did you ever see the Monkees or the First National Band in person back in the day?

I saw the Monkees twice, once in Toronto and once in Detroit. I won the trip to Detroit from the Toronto AM rock station after sending in the cardboard package from a pimple cream product. Although I did see the Monkees I didn't hear any of the music whatsoever because of all the screaming.

 

I saw The Monkees in the summer of 1967 at Miami Beach Convention Hall.(warm-up acts Lynne Randell & the then-unknown Jimi Hendrix Experience).It was the first concert that I ever went to(I was 11 years old).My then 19-year old sister took me to the show.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience played a very brief set,3 songs.(My sister bought the album "Are You Experienced" a few days later,so I can confirm that "Purple Haze" & "Foxy Lady" were amongst the songs played).When these three guys with frizzy afro hairdos came on stage with big amplifiers,I thought "these guys are going to be something like Cream"(my sister had one of Cream's albums)


The kids stood on their seats and screamed constantly throughout The Monkees set,which was similar(but not identical) to the shows(recorded several weeks later) that appear on Rhino Handmade's 4-CD "Summer 1967" boxed set.

I recall that the group played an extremely long introduction to the opening song,perhaps(in retrospect) to make the point that they were really playing.My friends and I who had The Monkees records weren't aware of the controversy over whether or not The Monkees played on the records.

But I do recall that The Monkees didn't play very well.It was a fun show though.Because of the screaming audience,my sister swore that she would never take me to another concert again(trivia note:she did take me to one more concertonovan)

 

Great story, Steve!

Unfortunately, I was 8 through most of 1970 and... no...not a chance in hell of seeing them ever came my way.

Until, Oct. 1979 when I saw Davy Jones do a week long stint at a local bar called Kip's West.
I was amazed that the place wasn't even half full. I also kick myself for not returning every night he was there. My mom took me (even though I just turned 18) and we sat right up to the stage and he seemed to perform the whole show for us- lots of glances and smiles. It was a lot of fun.

I saw the reunion shows of '86 and '89 and met them all (except Nesmith) eventually.

 

The Monkees were my very first concert. I went absolutely nuts when I got the tickets for my 12th birthday. My older brother went with me and my parents dropped us off. I wore my "mod" shirt. I was such a dweeb.
The opening acts were Lynn....somebody, and then The Sundowners. Neither were heard from again, to my knowledge.
Here are my hazy decades old memories of their show:
They popped out of some large speakers on the stage wearing red velvet suits and white turtlenecks. The place went nuts. Much like a Beatles concert, the music was just a roar mostly drowned out by the screaming of the audience throughout the show. The awful acoustics of the sports hall didn't help. I tried screaming once or twice because I thought I was supposed to want to, but I felt like an idiot.
I don't remember individual songs, but I know that each had a solo spot. I think Peter played something on the banjo and Davy did some crooning. Mike probably played one of his songs, and, to my mind, was the serious musician of the group. My most vivid recollection was a moment when Davy went back behind the drums while Mickey was playing and took the sticks out of his hands to continue playing without missing a beat. Sounds kinda impossible, but it sure worked visually. I thought it was about the coolest thing I ever saw. I am betting that Mickey did "Goin' Down" with the whole James Brown cape/exhastion thing.
There were many rumors afterward that The Sundowners were backstage actually playing the instruments while the boys on stage merely sang and mugged. I never believed it. It sure looked to me like they were playing, and the drum handoff definitely happened.
My next concert three years later was Neil Young on his first solo tour with Crazy Horse - quite a different vibe - my first smell of grass and hearing the gratuitous usage of the f-word (by the crowd, not Neil).
Since I never saw The Beatles, quite honestly, seeing the Monkees was the next best thing.

 

I never saw the vintage Monkees, but I did see the three of them on the 1986 reunion tour. Like so many others, my then six-year-old son had become a fan through the MTV reruns.

They played our local county fair (actually a very big deal around here...and the large grandstand was completely full.). We didn't tell my son what was going on, and managed to shield him from any signs...we just walked in and sat through the opening act, Weird Al.

When The Monkees came on, my son's eyes got real big! He had a ball, and they were really very good, very entertaining.


Though I didn't see the First National Band, I did see Mike Nesmith do a solo show in 1972 at Dennison University in Ohio. Just a small coffee house setting. I've told parts of this story before...I had gone there with my roommate, who booked all of the musical acts for our school, Ohio University. He had been approached to book Mike and wanted to see what kind of a show he put on.

Mike was very good and was well-received by the Dennison audience. He did most of the Magnetic South songs and showed an engaging personality. My roommate booked him for a subsequent appearance at OU, and when he came to town, I interviewed him, as at the time I was a DJ on the regular Athens station playing underground rock. (The tape malfunctioned somehow, much to my everlasting chagrin.)

When I finished the interview, Mike asked us what we were doing for dinner. We told him we didn't have any plans (!), so he took us out to a Chinese restaurant in town, and we had a lovely visit with him. A truly nice guy.

I wasn't able to catch Mike's show in Athens, as I was working that night. But my roommate told me that a few in the audience gave him some s**t about the Monkees, so he clammed up and did a very perfunctory show, as he did under those circumstances. A pity.



P.S. Ron. You and I were both at your second show (Neil Young and Crazy Horse)...we just didn't know each other at the time! And it's always easy to remember the date...February 25, 1970, my 18th birthday!

 

I saw the Monkees in prime time, summer of 1967 right after HEADQUARTERS came out. I don't actually remember where it was (my parents drove us) but I think it was maybe Long Beach Arena...could also have been Anaheim Convention Center. I wore my Mickey Dolenz authorized black belt with huge silver buckle and gold cord pants. Gawd, no wonder Jimmy Ross tried to beat me up all the time at recess!

 

My first concert, Dec. '66, was the Monkees, had to be the same tour ronton was speaking of. I was 12, we screamed our heads off. I don't remember a whole lot except the guys coming out of those fake speakers. Jewel Aiken (The Birds and the Bees) opened.

 

Great story Steve, thanks for sharing it. One of the many great things about this place is reading stuff like this.
Bruce

 

Never got the chance but I saw Mickey do a solo a few years ago. I have been a big Nesmith fan since Joanne and Silver Moon hit the radio and I heard Magnetic South .

 

I remember catching Micky Dolenz on the Grease tour back in '95. He was playing D.J. Vince Fontaine, and one of his shticks was going out into the audience to take "requests". He read out a request and then do a little comedy bit, until he got to mine which was "Shorty Blackwell". With that one a thin smile glided across his face, and he quietly said "Don't think I have that one". Next year I did an interview with Davy when The Monkee reunion tour came through. Lovely, lovely guy. Sadly, I was too young to see the original four.

 

No. I had no interest in the Monkees at the time and had never heard of The First National Band.

 

I didn't, but my uncle was one of the lucky (?) ones to attend one of the infamous Monkees/Jimi Hendrix double-bills, in Baltimore I believe.

 

I was a toddler when The Monkees first hit the scene, and though I loved 'em, I didn't get any first hand experience with them until the 80's and 90's.

After that though, hoo boy...

 

Reechie,
We must be the same age
When the Monkees came to Miami in 1967, I was not old enough to make a request to Mommy and Daddy to attend...
I have seen them many times since 1986, and, well...

 

Interestingly, this month's (April) Uncut magazine has an article on the First National Band.

I never saw the Monkees or the FNB. As a Beatles fan, I considered the Monkees to be a "rip-off".

 

What he's not telling anyone was that the Monkees were indirectly responsible for us becoming a couple!

(I guess he got an unexpected souvenir out of THAT experience!)

 

Sorry, the only Nesmith show I ever attended was when he played the Roadhouse in NYC about 15 years ago.

I have pictures from that trip and it's spooky because the Twin Towers were in the background and now not only are the towers gone but so is the club we saw him at.

 

My sister went to see the Monkees in Boston the summer of the first tour. However, by the time they went back to school, it was no longer "cool" to talk about it!

I have a VHS of Mike in NY around the time of his PBS troubles.

Closest I've gotten to date...

--tob

 

Just been checking this out in Andrew's brilliant Monkees book. They did a few gigs... they actually did 2 weeks of Cabaret in England. And Davy Jones "and his band" supported them at one gig in October 1970!

 

Was just too young to catch em at the time tho I caught Mike & Red at the Roundhouse in London (74)... fantastic, as was John Stewart earlier in the bill. Next year solo at the Victoria Palace (where IO got to meet him and my avatar pic was taken) and again at the Theatre Royal, London with a pick-upband that included Dave Mattacks and Dave Pegg (Fairport + Tull). (A little known fact is that Led Zep were across the way at Earls Court; a fact Mike referred to on stage).

The following week I got to meet meet him and have a good chat at a solo gig at Trent Polytechnic college in Nottingham. I arrived very early, it was raining and someone let me in to the venue before doors opened. Mike was wandering around, looking just like the photo on the inner sleeve of "And The Hits... ". Amongst other things, he told me he'd travelled up alone by train with just his 12 string. A really nice guy to talk to and a natural on stage*. Total calm.


Thanks for the story Steve


* And the support that night was a band called Slender Loris. They're possibly jamming with The Eloquent Elephant as I type...

 

The FNB played out quite a bit, but it's highly undocumented where & when they played. A lot of shows were cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

Great stories, guys! Cool that Mr. H saw the FNB debut show. Supposedly, Pete was in the crowd well, perhaps you didn't spot him, Steve. I was 3 when The Monkees called it quits in 1970, so I caught the 70's reruns and countless live shows between 1986 & 2002. Once with Nez at The Universal Amphitheatre in July '89. Of the hundreds & hundreds of concerts I've seen to date, I've never experienced such electricity from an audience. Incredible!

I would kill to have seen this show! Someone please invent time travel! After 1971 Nez didn't do too many solo shows in the US. Lots in the UK.

 

Frodis and I were there as well. Just about exactly one year before we got married.

 

I was 10 when a neighbor kid told me he his parents were taking him to see The Monkees. This was around '69, and as they pulled out of the driveway to go to the show, I was standing there bummed, because I was a bigger fan then he was.
I finally got to see them in '86, then again in '02 at the infamous show, where they had fired Peter the day before.
I saw Nez in '93 at the Cubby Bear near Wrigley Field.