Aug 12, 2006 - Brookfield Zoo

My next encounter with any of the Monkees was a little over 5 years later. There were many changes in my life. The biggest one was that my husb was diagnosed with colon cancer in May of '02, and passed in April of '04. Thank heavens the worst of the disease struck him only in the last 8 months of his battle. He was 47, I was 49. Then my parents passed in the following year, 2005, 6 months apart. I'm talking major grief. Barely healed over my husb passing, my heart broke all over again when my parents did. And then my sons were beginning to get older and go off on their own as well, now being in their 20's. You know, empty nest. In Feb of '06 I got online. I'd been online before on other people's computers, but now I had an e-mail address and a laptop, and was beginning to communicate within the www. Wow, what a world. By the month of May it occurred to me to see what would come up when I typed in the word 'Monkees'.

Jackpot!!! So THAT'S where all their fans were. I was VERY truly amazed when I saw soooo many pages and websites that had been created since the mid-1990's on and about them (though some were no longer functional by now). And all the pictures! Omg I hadn't seen them since I was 13 and 14 when they were on my bedroom walls, lol. Flashback time! That's when I first heard of the name for me - a first generation fan. And also when I first heard of the word 'dormant' being used. (That was also a name for me, in between the years of 1970 and 1999.) And I was also surprized to see that fans in the younger generations knew an awful lot about the episodes of the show, and were also even dissecting their music a bit. Who said what in which episode, who sang what where on a record, what is the story behind this song or that one, who played what when, who even wore what when....they knew a lot of details that really seemed like too much to know, lol. How can I explain it? True we fans all could barely wait for the next week's show to air, and we bought the music and magazines, and went screaming our heads off at concerts...but it was not quite like how many of their fans are today. Also, dare I say that back then, when a group fell in popularity like yesterday's news, that was it. You didn't really hear much about a group anymore. How was the general populace of Monkee fans to know anything about any of them anymore? No www back then, that's for sure. No people with little cameras in their cell phones, no cell phones even. It truely was a different world back then.

There was lots of talk in this newish (new to me anyway) online fandom in 2006, because it was the 40th anniversary since their show premiered on NBC. Wow it was hard to believe it was 40 years since I first held a Tiger Beat in my hands and swooned over pictures of Micky, lol. I had lived a lifetime. So off I went on the www, curiosity definitely getting the better of me as a fan. I was everywhere you can think of online, and even places you wouldn't think of, iso of ALL things Monkee, lol. And I found 'em!
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On a Chicago's oldies station, I heard a commercial for a concert with the Missing Links. This is a Monkees tribute band, what? I'd never heard of one for them before. I'd heard of tribute bands for other groups, locally. A band that played Santana music was a favorite of mine, called the Soundz of Santana. But I never heard of one for the Monkees. I was quite curious to hear how they sounded. So I figured since it looked like the Monkees weren't going to go on tour as a band, I'd go hear them!

They were to be playing at Brookfield Zoo on August 12th, 2006. The zoo had a promo that summer, a different animal was a star each week. The week of Aug 6-12 featured what else but monkeys. So the zoo booked the Missing Links on Saturday the 12th! My oldest son came with me. We took the South Shore to the city, and then caught the Metra to Brookfield for the 2 o'clock show. (There were 2 performances, this first one at 11.) Several other passengers walked through a nice tree lined section of town with us, which had arrows pointing the way to the zoo. Once we got to the area the concert was being held, an older man nearby me said that Peter had been to the 11 o'clock performance. Whaaaat? Rats! I missed it! The man said he might be back for the 2 o'clock who knows. But I figured he was gone already.

The Missing Links arrived in a limo. They were dressed in the 8-button shirts the Monkees wore in the first season, red ones. A small crowd gathered around them as they posed for pictures. Pretty neat, I told my son. One even wore a wool hat like Mike did. Everyone soon began moving to the stage area for the concert. These Missing Links were pretty good! Played the songs true to the record. An intermission came. When they came back on the stage, they were dressed like the Monkees were in the second season. And then they said, "We have a surprise performer." I grabbed my son's arm and shrieked, "Could it be Peter they are talking about!?" It was!!



He came bounding up onto the stage from my right. Great interaction between him and the band. At one point, one of them even held up a sign and pointed to Peter - the sign said 'He's really playing this!', lol, too funny. And I was literally only several feet away from watching Peter perform. Wow.

I later learned that Peter just happened to be in the Chicago area when he caught word the ML were to play at Brookfield. (It was promo'd on tv news but I didn't see that, myself..) He called them to ask if he could come and play along. Naturally they said yes! He was only going to do the 11 am show, but was talked into doing the 2 pm as well. Lucky me! I guess Peter was on hand to greet people earlier, but had to leave right away now, to catch a plane, they were saying afterwards. I was completely on Monkee-auto-pilot by that point, so I was absolutely drawn to follow Peter parallel from the audience side, as he walked off the stage and past some tables to a waiting golf-cart. He was quite friendly to everyone. "Hi Peter!", I said as he caught my gaze. "Hi there!" he said to me and flashed his great smile. He gave out 2 autographs, but when more people began to ask him all at once, he simply didn't have the time for any more.

Whoosh! They wisked him away in that golf-cart!

I had just signed into a fan site a couple weeks before, and when I got back on it later that day, I learned there was another member who was also there. We compared notes of the show and found she was only a little ways to the left side of me. I still will not forget this particular Saturday afternoon soon!

March 25, 2001 - Star Plaza, Merrillville

January's wknd papers showed upcoming performers at the Holiday Star Plaza Theater in Merrillville. On this date the Monkees were scheduled! What luck I was having, seeing one or another of them 3 yrs in a row! This time the group meant Peter instead of Mike. Of course, I HAD to go, because I'd seen them without Peter that long ago magical day. So off Bob and I went.



The concert itself was great, naturally. I really had no idea what to expect, though I knew it couldn't be 1969 again. But I wasn't disappointed in the least, especially as to what happened afterwards. I saw women of all ages, and suddenly realized they now had fans both young and old, because of their resurgence in popularity from the reunion in the 1980's. I just didn't partake in all that as a fan at the time. Real life and growing up or growing out of them as time went by, ya know? I did pay attention to any current news of them at that time, however, a Hollywood star on the walk of fame, Mike performing with them, etc.....and the first time I heard That Was Then on the radio I had to do a double-take. Whaa?? Is that Micky's voice? Nah, I must be hearing things, I said to myself. But I'd recognize that voice anywhere, and I knew it was. Anyway.....

Before the concert, I saw they were selling pictures of the 3 of them. Ah-hah! That meant they'd be around somewhere after the show to sign them, I figured. Well, outside the venue somewhere was a door marked 'stage', with a line of people quickly forming when the show was over. I got in the line while my husb brought the car closer. It got even longer behind me, when a man poked his head out that door and said, "If you want to see them, they'll be in the Khaki Lounge around in front, shortly."
I shouted at my husb as I went running to the car, "We've got to go to the lounge in front! A man said that's where they will be! Com'on, hurry!" I was screaming at him and jumping up and down like a madwoman.
"Calm down", he laughed. "I'll get you there." So around to the front we drove, and in we went.

After we were seated at a table around the perimeter of the bar, my husb went up and got a couple of beers for us. I sat and watched the place fill up with people quickly, but I didn't see any Monkees - yet. When he came back, he said, "You know, Micky is up there sitting on a stool.."
"You SAW him already?!??"
"Yep, over in that corner there", he gestured. "He's eating."
"Where? Where?", I said as I began to stand-up-sit-down.
"Over there. There's a line already forming."
"There is?!??"
"Ya, go check it out." So I got up and tried to head in that direction. TRIED is the word. People were everywhere the closer I got. I could hear them talking to one another, "He'll sign pictures when he's done eating", the word was passed down. I couldn't see him, so I sat back down. "He's eating", I said. "He'll sign when he's done."
"Told ya he was eating" my husb said.
At that moment, in walks PETER! At that point, my husb began to chuckle, watching the little fangirl in me. I was totally in Monkee heaven. Up-down-up-down watching Peter move about, and still trying to see Micky through the crowd. And THEN - in walks Davy!! Not only that, but he sits down at a table right near me. He had 2 women with him, who were dressed in business-type clothes. "Oh-my-god", I say. "I can't believe they are all right here in front of me!!" Mind you, by now I am hysterical, but whispering.
"The line's moving for Micky now...you'd better get in it", he says.
I took in a very deep breath, picture in hand, and went to the line. I can't believe this is happening I think to myself. My turn, and all I could do was say, "Hi Micky! Will you sign my picture?"
"Sure darlin'," he said and took the picture. Then he gave me a puzzled look, like as if to say 'anything else?'
But I just shook his hand and said, "Thanks! I've been a fan since I was 13."
"Really?", he said as he smiled at me.
"Yep!", and I quickly made my exit. I was so thrilled, I had to just sit down a minute!
Then I saw Peter standing alone, so I went up to him before he became otherwise occupied. At the same time, another woman was approaching him. "Well hello", Peter said to us. "And what can I do for you?"
"Umm...uh...um...", the other woman stammered, holding a picture. It was clear to me that she could not speak.
So I said, "We'd like to have your autograph." The woman just shook her head in agreement, and sorta thrust out her picture for Peter to sign. She stepped back and then she was gone. My turn.
"You two know each other?", Peter asked me.
"No...", I replied. "I just could see her, uh....dilemma, cuz I could barely hold it together when I met Micky a few minutes ago."
"Oh!", Peter said, laughing. "That was very kind of you."
"Bah, it was nothing," I answered. Then I suddenly realized that I was having a conversation with him. Now it was my turn to exit. "Thanks", I told Peter, and off I went back to my husb. Up-down-up-down, where's Micky, over there, where's Peter, there he is. He thought it was hilarious, watching me watch them.
Of course, I also approached Davy, who was still seated near me. "Hi," I said. "I saw you just a couple years ago at a concert in Hammond."
"Did you now," he said, as he took the picture.
"Yes, but you probably don't remember me."
"No but I remember Hammond," he said. And he signed the picture.

After a bit more time passing in which I watched and whispered hysterically to my husband, who thought it was hysterical to watch me, I was ready to go. He needed to get up in the morning for work. One more thing, I didn't bring a camera! Nor when I went to Navy Pier. Especially here - I had no idea that I'd be in this proximity to Micky, Davy, and Peter. I coulda kicked myself royal! Ah well, but I have the memory of it, etched in this little fangirls' mind forever.

July 29, 2000 - Navy Pier, Chicago

I heard on the oldies station that Micky would be at Navy Pier, on this date on a Teen Idols tour. Bobby Sherman and Peter Noone were the other two acts with him. "I have to go to this one definitely", I told my husb. "It's Micky!"

So off we went. Micky was the middle performer. His sister Coco was with him. That's the first time I heard that she sang backup with him on several recordings from the past. Bobby Sherman came on first - he has aged pretty good! For that matter, so did Micky. Peter Noone was very entertaining. I knew the music because I had a friend who was a Bobby Sherman fan. I also had a babysitter who was ga-ga over Herman's Hermits when I was younger. The whole show had me up and singing/dancing to the music. I had fun!

After the concert, I noticed others going to the back of the place, so my husb and I followed. Peter Noone was standing on the other side of these big black iron gates at the Skyline Stage. He was signing some autographs and cracking jokes with the fans. I asked him if Micky was going to come out, but he said Micky had already left! I was disappointed of course. But it was a good time nevertheless.


I later learned that Davy was the one usually on these tours, but he had cancelled out on some of the dates. I don't know why. So Micky was there in his stead. Pretty good of him to pick it up I thought, because he most likely had to re-arrange things in order to do that.

Early August 1999 - Augustfest, Hammond

I grew up, got married in 1976 on Valentine's Day image, and had 3 sons, now in their late teens. There was a yearly festival called Augustfest in Hammond. My husband and I attended regularly, because of the nightly free concerts every year. It only cost a $5 parking fee. We'd seen soooo many groups and singers that way, music people from the 60's onward.

Earlier that year, I happened across Micky's autobiography at a local library. Naturally, I was very curious to read what he had to say in it. Whoa, a real eye-opener. I mean all I had to go on was what I had read in those teen fan magazines back in the day. You know, all the fluff and squeaky clean stuff. I couldn't put his book down, lol. Nearly read all of it at once. It made a lot of sense to me. And it began to re-spark the fan in me.

So now here comes the line-up of acts at the Augustfest. DAVY was one of them! Whaaaat??!!? "I'm going! Are you coming along? I'm going.", I said to my husb. No if-ands-or-buts. He knew I had been a fan. It was such a good show Davy put on! His jokes were hilarious first time hearing them, and the music was great of course. Afterwards, he sat at a table at the back end of the concert area, and met the fans. In the next day's local paper, it was reported that there was around 500 in that line, whoa! He had stayed till the line was gone. My husb and I were about mid-way into the line. My turn, and I say, "Hi Davy! I was a fan in the very beginning, and I just want to tell you thank you, for bringing a bright spot to my life with your music and the show."
He said, "Why thank you for saying that....". To my husband, he said, "What's her name?" He wanted to include him in the conversation.
"------", my husb said.
"I appreciate you saying that, -----. Thank you very much.", Davy said. I shook his hand and my husb took a picture, but it didn't come out!! Light had gotten into the film or something, I dunno. A few other pictures from that roll didn't come out either.

But anyway, so I met Davy. He was so kind and pleasant to all the people in line. Wow.

April 26, 1969 - Auditorium Theater, Chicago

Intro: Flashback
In March of 1967, I was in the 7th grade. I had a friend named Virginia. If I called her on a Monday evening after dinner, she wouldn't talk to me. "I'll see you in school tomorrow", she'd say. After a couple times of that, I asked her what was happening that she didn't want to talk. She told me she was watching a tv show called The Monkees. So I tuned in.

Virginia, myself, another girl named Holly, and another named Janice, brought fan magazines to school, to look through during our lunch hour. We'd pour over all the info and pics of the Monkees in Tiger Beat, 16, Flip, and Fave.



Virginia and Holly were able to go to a Monkees concert in the summer, at the Chicago Stadium on July 30th. I pleaded with my Dad to let me go with them. They wanted me to, but he just refused. Holly's father was even going along, but Dad said no. I remember asking Virginia about the concert in the days afterwards. But she could barely speak about it, completely awestruck. She said her ears were ringing from all the screaming and noise, and that's about all I could get out of her. She said when Davy sang I Wanna Be Free, the crowd went wild. (Davy was her favorite one.) And she said that Peter was awesome on the banjo.

By the time their 2nd season began, my favorite Monkee had changed. It was now Micky. I thought he was soooo hot looking, and all over the place on the screen. I was completely under his spell.



After I began buying their records, I even found myself singing along to them in whatever part HE was singing, be it lead or harmony.

I wrote to his fan club, headed by his grandmother, a couple of times when I was 13. One day I finally got a reply - a handwritten envelop and a handwritten 'Dear ---'....the content said he was recording a lot and about to go to the desert to film a movie called Head. I'm not sure in hindsight if he actually wrote the content of the letter. I thought he did at the time. It WAS his handwriting.....But it could have just been the standard thing sent. But back then I was thrilled to receive a reply! Alas, this little gem has been long gone to the four winds by now.
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So here comes 1969. We fans know that the show was off the air in primetime, and Peter had left the group at the end of Dec '68. By then I was a freshman in h.s., and met new friends who were Monkee fans. (My other friends were moving away.) One day in March on the radio, I heard the Monkees were coming to Chicago on April the 26th. 'Oh my gosh I've got to go!', I thought. 'I probably will never get another chance!' Begging Dad as the date got closer became an everyday thing for me. And when their special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee aired only 2 wks before the date, I really went to town with that. FINALLY, Dad came home with 2 tickets for my sister Marie and I, and one for him. My 2 new friends already had their tickets. Lucky them, they were a whole lot closer to the stage on the main floor than I was. My tickets were for seats right in the first row of the center balcony. No real matter though - I was GOING and that's all that counted!



Upon arriving at a South Shore station, we took a train into the city. I could hear other girls at the opposite end of the car we were in, talking about the Monkees. They were going to the concert too. After debarking the train, it was a short walk to the Auditorium Theater. I couldn't believe this day had come! Sam and the Goodtimers were their back-up band. And then....THERE THEY WERE! Micky, Mike, and Davy, omg! I was absolutely caught up in the moment, screaming and shouting their names with everyone else around me. My Dad put cotton in his ears. The place was at capacity. The whole experience is a blur of exitement to me today, but I still carry flashes of memory of them on the stage. Each one sang separately, and also together. There was a big movie screen behind and above them, showing them in the show and other places. All three of them wore black suits with white ruffly shirts. I remember they sang Tapioca Tundra, because that was my latest favorite song of theirs. And when Davy sang For Once In My Life, (a recent Stevie Wonder song), it was pandemonium. When Mike sang by himself, he told everyone to quiet down so they could hear him sing. Everyone DID. When Micky sang Goin' Down, I thought I was gonna pass out for a minute. I couldn't believe he was right there, singing it IN PERSON!

And then it was over! OVER!

In school the following Monday, my 2 friends and I compared our experiences, because of being in 2 different places in the A.T. For that matter, most of that week we had free time together, the topic usually turned to the concert. It took another few days after that for this little 14-yr-old to come back to earth and get on with end-of-the-school-year things.

By the time I finished my next (sophomore) year, however, that was about it. No more Monkees in the magazines much, and no more music...in fact, in my jr year I happened to see an album called Changes in the store. Apparently, Micky and Davy were the only ones on this, their last album. I hadn't even known it was out there. But you know, that's life, isn't it? Many yrs later I finally saw Head, their movie, on cable tv. I completely understood it, right off the bat.

Little did I know that 30 yrs later, in 1999 and for at least the next 10 yrs or so, I'd revisit my Monkee fandom, after reading a copy of Micky's autobiography that I happened across in a library....and that I'd be meeting up with other fans as well as the Monkees themselves!

(to be continued.....)