Hey Hey It's The Monkees, Forty years later

The Monkees was a four man pop group which was put together in 1966, especially for the American TV show The Monkees. Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were American and the fourth member, Davy Jones was from Manchester in England.

It was Davy's accent that marked him out from the rest and made him so popular on both sides of the Atlantic. He was actually encouraged to utilise his accent as much as possible and had already starred in Oliver and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Texan, Michael Nesmith was a singer and songwriter who had already had some success with recording under the name of Michael Blessing.

Peter Tork was an excellent, skilled musician who had enjoyed limited success and had been working as dishwasher before he became a Monkee.

Micky Dolenz had been the star of Circus Boy during the 1950's when he was just 10 years old and was actually a working actor when the group was formed.

Don Kirshner was the man who organised the group and marketed it. The idea was to establish the name of The Monkees as a brand name similar to that forged by The Beatles, but the group was considered by many to be lacking in real talent and to have an image that was totally false and manufactured.

At first the group was totally managed and really had little say on the subject of their own musical output and an ongoing battle ensued until they eventually got at least some control.

As a group they did various concert tours as well as appearing in the television series until it was cancelled two years later in 1968. The Monkees released albums right up until the 1970's and the 1980's spawned revival tours and there was a renewed interest in their music.

Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones toured Britain in 2002. Then in 2005 Ebay used the group's hit 'Day Dream Believer' in a promotional advertising campaign and two years later the same song was used in a campaign by Evergreen.

Davy Jones has been seen at various venues over the past few years and photographs can now be seen on his website http://www.davyjones.net/

He has appeared several times in as a solo singer and even revealed his much expanding torso to the world at a concert in Staten Island. Davy can be seen displaying his man boobs and abs here

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