Monkee Shines

Fall 2004 Issue 60

Editor: Cindy Bryant with a little help from my friends, The Road Crew. The whole crazy lot!

Monkeeing around since 1987

The Purple Flower Gang

Monkee Shines

In This Issue: Micky and Coco in Oshkosh

Waterfest Saved By The Blues

A Special Family Wedding

Keeping uUp With The PFG

One Small Gift

A Monkee Halloween In Canada

Viva Las vegas

And much much more!!!!

Celebrating 17 years

of Monkee Shines

You CRAZY lot!

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Membership dues are $10 (US &

Canada) and $15 (Overseas). Ads

are $25 for a full page, $10 for

half page, and $5 for a quarter

page. Money orders are pre-ferred. Cash at own risk. Make

all payments payable to Cindy

Bryant NOT the PFG. Mail to:

The Purple Flower Gang, 1803

Lucas Street, Muscatine, Iowa

52761.

If you find a stamp in this area, your membership has expired with this issue. Please renew as soon as possi-ble to assure your next issue. This is

the only notice you will get.

pfg@machlink.com

Monkee Shines

is printed by

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Depot

Table of Contents Letter From the Editor ............................. 3

Personals ................................................... 4

Purple SUV ............................................... 5

From Bobby Hart ..................................... 6

A Special Family Wedding...................... 7

Come Monday .......................................... 12

Crazy Lot .................................................. 13

Keeping Up With The PFG ..................... 14

One Small Gift.......................................... 41

A Monkee Halloween .............................. 43

Pen Pals ..................................................... 44

E-Pals ........................................................ 45

Birthdays ................................................... 46

Waterfest Saved By The Blues ................ 48

Peter’s News ............................................. 56

David’s News ........................................... 57

Micky’s News ........................................... 58

Mike’s News ............................................. 59

Viva Las Vegas ........................................ 60

Micky & Coco in Oshkosh ...................... 62

A Christmas Card From Hazel & Ken .... 68

My sincerest thanks to all who

made this issue possible:

The Road Crew as al-

ways...Bonnie Borgh, Shane

Worden, Kimmi Janvrin, Colleen Johnson, and Janet Litterio. Den-

ise Gautier, Pat Smith, Bobby

Hart, Hazel & Ken Wilkinson,

Micky Dolenz and sister Coco,

Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and

Davy Jones!

http://purpleflowergang.tripod.com/

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Monkee Shines

Dear Gang, I hope everyone had a

wonderful Christmas. I didn’t send

out Christmas cards this year to

save money but I want to thank

everyone for the beautiful cards I

received.

A couple of people con-

tacted me to say they did not re-

ceive the last issue. Please let me know if you believe this has hap-

pened to you. While I did not get

any back from the post office, it is

possible that the mailing labels

came off and they were not deliv-

ered. I have been posting the date

the newsletters are mailed on the

website for those of you with in-

ternet access also.

Even though the guys are

not together these days there is

plenty of activity. Micky’s on the

radio, Blue Suede Shoes and Da-

vid touring...you just never know

where the guys are going to show up!

In this issue you will find

a wonderful story from Hazel

about her niece’s wedding. Thanks

so much Hazel!

There’s also another PFG

road trip to Lockport. What a trip

that was!! Also Micky and Peter’s

appearances at Waterfest and

much much more.

There’s a road trip in

March shaping up. Hello Colleen! From the looks of winter so far it

will be much needed!

We’re always looking for

your stories so send them in!!!!! In

the meantime I hope you enjoy

ours!

From the Editor!

Notice

We have tried to stick to a regular schedule for the newsletter but something always gets in the way/ We have a choice to throw something together or take a little longer and do something we can be proud of. We hope you think it is worth the wait.

As always, if you are unhappy with your membership for any reason, we will be happy to refund the remainder of your membership dues upon request.

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Monkee Shines

Happy '05 everybody! All the

best to my friends in the road

crew, to our readers, and the

Monkees who make it possi-

ble.

Shane

Guestbook readers,

Am I real or just a

figment of my imagination?

"Faked out" in WI

David.

I got my tax

form...but I haven’t got your

form. I’m waiting!

Bonnie

Colleen,

Thanks for the poster (and

CD)! Another addition for my

living room! Shane

Jahn,

So...was the draw-

bridge open or closed? En-

quiring minds NEED to know.

Bahnknee

David,

"And once again such

anxious men find questions

but no answers".

The Crazy Lot

You Crazy Lot!

I miss you already!

Cindy

Shane,

Are you real...or vividly imag-

ined?

The Phantom

Hey Jones!!

I am now the proud

owner of the Lord of The

Rings Trilogy. 12 Hours of

hobbits, elves, and dwarves! Oh my!!

Kimmi

David,

Be afraid...be very

afraid!!!

Someone who knows Kimmi

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Monkee Shines

Purple SUV

Who Writes This Stuff?

By: Bonnie Borgh

(To the tune of Yellow Submarine by The Beatles) In the state of Iowa Lived some girls who longed to see, And they hoped with all their hearts To someday meet a Monkee. In ‘86, their dream came true, And they saw them face-to-face. They met up with other fans Who traveled from place to place. They became The Purple Flower Gang Purple Flower Gang/Purple Flower Gang They became The Purple Flower Gang Purple Flower Gang/Purple Flower Gang While their friends were all alike Some liked Peter, Micky, and Mike, But Davy Jones will always be… And they have such Good Clean Fun Meeting new friends along the way, And it’s simply all because Of the band that came to play! They all rode in a purple SUV Purple SUV, Purple SUV They all rode in a purple SUV Purple SUV, Purple SUV

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October marks the

17th anniversary of

the PFG!

Time flies when

you are having fun!

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A Special Family Wedding

Article Courtesy of: Hazel Wilkinson

There had not been a wedding in our family since Sarah and John got married in Santa Barbara in 1999. August the 7th was the date in our diaries that was to be a great celebration and Jones’ Family Reunion and Knees-up! Beverley, Beryl and Allan’s daughter, was to marry Mat-thew Barber at his family church, and our family were to attend from all parts of Eng-land and, of course, brother David from America. He was Beverley’s Godfather at her Christening, and Deborah was Godmother. I knew it would be a lavish affair as I had a sneak preview of the table decorations, candle displays, and floral arrangements when I visited Beverley’s home months before, and her theme was butterflies and feathers in turquoise and silver. Little did I realize how elaborate the “reception” dining room at the chosen hotel would look like. Beverley (a trained window dresser) is very artistic, orga-nized, and her detail and plan-ning was outstanding to make this a special day for her and

Matthew. The invitations were hand-made (stamped by Bever-ley) with the silver butterflies. There were eighty guests and over one hundred forty at the evening reception. Many phone calls were made be-tween Lynda, Beryl, Anita, and myself. “What are you wear-ing?” “Will you wear a big hat?” Ken said everyone would be looking at his outfit and not at us so why all the fuss; he doesn’t alter, but he did find a tasteful tie in apple green to match my suit, and he told eve-ryone it was his wedding suit (just got it out of mothballs, it was antique like him). [Where do you go to be abused, Ken?] The hotel in Cheadle near to Beryl’s home was booked for the weekend as guests would be staying over, and the recep-

David Jones and Robert Wilkinson

[Robert is just a carbon copy of that dash-

ing and debonair man, Ken!]

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tion held there. On August the 3rd, Ken and I were just about to start lunch when in walked David (fish and chips in hand). He had arrived in Manchester, got a hire car, and decided he would stay with us and rest here, but there was one problem. No luggage had arrived. [What was that line from Sledgehammer? “It al-ways arrives after you do.”] He had checked in at Philadelphia Airport having driven from Bea-vertown, and his suit for the wedding was in a suit carrier over his shoulder. (He will be often seen going to gigs like that as you will all know.) The guy at the desk said his suit-case wasn’t too heavy so he put the suit in the case and just had his carry-on bag. His over-night flight landed in London at 8:30 am, and he took the shut-tle to Manchester and went to collect his belongings, but no case, and there were about ten people all in the same position. He wasn’t too bothered at this point. He was more concerned about the young people on holi-day from Japan and Australia who had cases missing. He could at least borrow a t-shirt from Ken! Who cares if it looks like a dress on him? Luckily, there was a pair of Robert’s old pajamas here. Nobody would see him if he sat in our garden. We paid a visit to our local Mark’s and Spencer’s and stocked up on socks and under-

wear [David will love your atten-tion to detail, Hazel!], and we found a Super Gents Outfitters in our town, so he bought trou-sers, shirts, and a couple of nice stage tops, no doubt you will be seeing those. That guy must have sold more in that hour than he had done all month. The guy didn’t know who he was, and it was nice for David to try on—no hassle. Ken sat in the car on the car park waiting and thought we had skipped town. He rested in our garden, enjoyed all his fa-vorite English meals I cooked, and we even had an impromptu concert when he found Debo-rah’s guitar. He often tries out new songs on us! He enjoyed a couple of long walks (in the sunshine!) around our town. We are surrounded by hills which he loves and visited our Town Hall and purchased post-cards. We did have a huge storm one afternoon, and we heard fifty planes were delayed and people stranded. At least he got here. Robert called in to catch up on news after work, and Ken practiced his jokes which will be used at a later date (You have been warned!) The day before the wedding, David decided to head back (one hour) to the Manchester Airport and protest in person as the luggage had still not arrived here. He had a five-hour wait and finally the cases were found, and guess what? All the contents were wet through. It had been left on a trolley in the

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pouring rain for days, and the other ten in London. At least he was only ten minutes from Beryl’s and the hotel and would meet up with all his family and had time to get the wedding suit pressed, etc. Anita, Jessica, Phoenix, Scott, and Annabel were all there to greet him. It was a glorious day on the 7th of August (couldn’t be better-nearly 80 degrees), and Robert set off to get into his wedding suit at Matthew’s home only five minutes walk from the church. Robert was an Usher and had to meet and greet guests outside the church and show guests to their places inside and hand out the order of service. He looked great in his navy morning suit, top hat, and silver gray waist coast and cra-vat. (All the men were dressed alike.) Ken and I set off for the one hour journey in plenty of time, and I took my apple green lace suit (long skirt and coatee) and navy hat, shoes, and bag. We found a car park nearby, and I changed there as I didn’t want it to be creased. Our cousin, Gerald, appeared whilst I was doing my quick striptease but was busy talking to Ken. [Busy just like Shane was when he saw Kimmi make a ward-robe change in the car!] The church was very old in a lovely garden through an arch all trimmed up by the ladies of the church. Matthew and Best Man were having pictures taken, and there was a video expert there.

Robert greeted us, and I must admit I got a lump in my throat; he looked quite handsome. We chatted with some of our old neighbors we hadn’t seen since our wedding. Lynda and family arrived. She looked elegant in a lilac suit [What a lovely color!], large hat to match, and navy accesso-ries. She had son, Mark, and wife, Debbie, and her beautiful grandchild, Rebecca, eighteen months with her and Kirsty (daughter) and Steve and her two grandsons, Liam (twelve) and Ryan (nine). Oh how these children have grown. Next came Anita and her gang [not to be confused with The Purple Flower Gang] with little Phoenix. “He’s gorgeous!” Jessica looked like a model with red sun dress and cute little white modern flower hat. Scott carried Phoenix. He looks so much like David at that age. (Well, we would say that!) Ken said Annabel looked pretty in her yellow dress and shoes. David and Bobbi Boyce were taking pictures of all the family, and everyone seemed to be arriving together. There was just time to snap Beryl and the Bridesmaids ar-riving. Beryl was in turquoise and navy, (Beverley had made her feathery hat) and the Bridesmaids were in turquoise (long satin dresses and chiffon overlay) and carried white roses

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Monkee Shines

Beverley’s friend. Whilst the wedding party went into the Vestry, the congregation sang “Lord Of The Dance”. [That is a beautiful song!] The Wedding March struck up, and we got our cameras at the ready to snap the newly wed couple. Outside the sun was shining, and we had official photos tak-en of each family group, and chatted with family members. I had trimmed my shoes with gold fan earrings and lost one so I got the children searching amongst the many legs and feet. Anita spotted it the se-cond time lost. It was pretty hard to get pictures of relatives as everyone was mixing and moving around so we decided to head back to the hotel as soon as the Bride and Groom got into the car to go back to the reception. We were all greeted with Bucks Fizz [I’m sure that’s like lemon-ade.] and mingled whilst the wedding party were taken to a local country park for more pho-tos. The Master of Ceremonies in his red/black uniform and top hat set up a Greeting Line, and we were all called by names to congratulate the parents and Bride and Groom and take our seats in the dining room. I knew the decorations would be spectacular (Beverley and friends had been there from 7:00 am, and it would have needed an army of helpers to transport the displays.)

and silver posies, silver butter-flies, turquoise and white feathers with headdresses to match, and a cute Page Boy (five) in matching suit and hat like the men. We were all giv-en buttonholes of white steph-anotis and feathers and were ushered into church by Robert where we took our places in the first four rows awaiting for the entrance of the Bride. Mat-thew and his Best Man were glancing round, and we caught his eye and smiled. At 2:00 pm, Beverley arrived in a white open-topped (1927) Rolls Royce [Nice wheels!], and as the organ played “Here Comes The Bride” Beverley appeared at the church door on the arm of Allan, her Dad. There was a rattle of tissues out of handbags. She looked beautiful in a strapless fitted dress in white duchess satin with fitted waist and a train with a lace panel in the back with diamantes. She had a pearl coronet and necklace to match and carried a bouquet of white roses and cala lilies with feathers and butterflies. The church choir led the Hymns, and we sang “Lead Us Heavenly Father Lead Us”. Prayers followed, and then the vows. Matthew answered too quickly, and everyone started laughing, and the Vicar said he was too eager and started again! Rings were exchanged, and there was a reading by

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Monkee Shines

There were huge silver cande-labras draped in turquoise chif-fon and silver butterflies and greenery dripping in silver beads. The top table was draped in turquoise chiffon, and a center piece flower arrange-ment. The ten round tables each had a huge circular mirror in the middle, and there was a huge vase on each one filled with turquoise sand and huge silk roses and grasses. Even the menus were stamped with silver and turquoise butterflies. We sat with Anita and compa-ny, and we enjoyed the meal and caught up with their news. Phoenix didn’t make it all the way through and was taken up to the bedroom. Speeches were made, a champagne toast, and flowers presented to Mums, Bridesmaids, and the little Page Boy was given his promised “Bat Man Suit”. Rob-ert received a silver hip flask with his name engraved on it. We retired to various areas in the hotel for a quiet hour before the evening guests arrived. Lynda and family and Anita and company retired to their rooms for a rest. They had all had long journeys the day before. The ballroom was made ready, and we gathered again ready for the Bride and Groom. David had brought a backing tape made by David Alexander, and he started off the evening by singing “I’ll Love You Forever” as Beverley and Matthew

danced as Man and Wife. Next he sang “Daydream Believer”, and we got on the dance floor to strut our stuff. “Not a pretty sight!” said Ken. The guests were thrilled to hear “Uncle David” sing, and he got a great reception. Beryl, Lynda, and I were dancing (You can’t keep the Jones girls down.), but I wish you could have seen Lynda’s grandchild, Rebecca, eighteen months old and al-ready a “star” in her white frilly dress. She stood in the middle of the dance floor right in front of David and took the spotlight moving her arms and legs and ignoring everyone and danced away, and that was her first family party. I think she will be the next entertainer in our fami-ly. The evening flew past with buf-fet supper and more dancing, and soon it was time for good-byes. Some guests were stay-ing overnight, and David had to leave very early on the Sunday to catch his flight to Philadelph-ia and back to Beavertown to tend his horses. It was a per-fect wedding and a great family gathering, and as the inscription on front of the invitation said, “United In Love”. [Many thanks to Hazel for shar-ing with us “The rest of the sto-ry!” ]

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Come Monday

words by Cindy Bryant with help from Shane Worden (apologies to Jimmy Buffet)

Headin' up to old Chicago

With my friends for a week-end show We've got Monkees tees on

I guess we never were meant for glitter Versachi clothes And Davy we didn't know

That we'd be missin' you so

Chorus: Come Monday, it'll be all gone

Come Monday, we'll be holdin' on We spent four crazy days in a PFG haze

And we just want you back by our side

Yes, it's been quite a summer Rent-a-cars and caravan trains

And now we're off on vacation Something we’ve tried to explain

And Davy we love you so That's the reason we just had to go

Come Monday, it'll be all gone

Come Monday, we'll be holdin' on We spent four crazy days in a PFG haze

And we just want you back by our side

We can't help it Davy You're that much a part of us now

Remember that night in Lockport What a show you did…WOW!

You know we’re enjoyin' the scen'ry

We know that it's pretty up there We can go to a signing on tuesday

With you we'd go anywhere Working has worn us quite thin

We just can't wait to see you again

Come Monday, it'll be all gone

Come Monday, we’ll be holdin' on

We spent four crazy days in a PFG haze And we just want you back by our side

We spent four crazy days in a PFG haze

And we just want you back by our side

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Crazy Lot Words by Shane Worden

(sung to the tune of Chicago's Stay The Night)

We don't want you to misunderstand us We just wanna laugh and have some fun No need to pay us with your gratitude

Although it's nice to have it done

We want you to know one thing's for certain We truly love your company

And we'll never go until you're smilin' At least that's our philosophy

Crazy Lot--that's what he called us that day

Crazy Lot--we'd have it no other way Crazy Lot--that's what he called us on stage

Nothing can stop us to prove it on every page

Have some lovely backstage flowers And take the big "JONES FOR PREZ" sign

Until that "questionaire" we've got in mind... There's reviews to write online

Crazy Lot--that's what he called us that night

Crazy Lot--we think that he got it right Crazy Lot--that's what he called us on stage

Nothing can stop us to prove it on every page

Just to have you with us... Here by our side

Just to have you READ us... and when you tell us that we're funny...

We want to tell you something, Make it perfectly clear

We always have a very good time.

Crazy Lot--that's what he called us that day Crazy Lot--we'd have it no other way

Crazy Lot--that's what he called us on stage Nothing can stop us to prove it on every page

I hope you'll always say...Crazy Lot. Crazy Lot.....

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not. Cindy: Poor Shanie! Bonnie: As you may recall, for the October 18, 2003 Lockport show I was in Minnesota for my girlfriend’s daughter’s wedding, and Kimmi was in sunny Flori-da. Janet: Ah yes, I recall where I was that day. Kimmi: I was wondering if Kevin would notice me gone for about thirty-five hours. “I was just out for a walk enjoying the ocean, Honey, I swear!” Cindy: And boy are my legs tired! Bonnie: When I learned about “Almost Same Time This Year”, I said, “No weddings, no funer-als, no bar mitzvah’s, etc. would prevent me from going.” This included the annual school night scheduled for October 23. I was asked, “Are you going to (Paul) Norton Night?” I would reply, “No, I have plans.” The response was, “What?!” I would repeat, “No, I’m not going. I have plans.” Perhaps I should

Bonnie: It was a picture-perfect fall morning as we departed Lockport at 11:07 am on Sun-day, October 24. The Carpen-ter’s song, Top Of The World (Imagine that, wrong group!) played in my head: “Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eye, and I won’t be sur-prised if it’s a dream…” Shane: "Psychologically speak-ing, the human mind, or brain, or whatever, is almost incapa-ble of distinguishing between the real and the vividly imag-ined experience." Cindy: If only the forty-eight hours prior to that departure had been as nice! Bonnie: It had been fifteen months and seventeen days since I had a Close Encounter of the Jones Kind. Cindy: But who’s counting? Shane: That's true. Oshkosh was a NOT EVEN CLOSE en-counter. Not that I'm bitter, mind you. Kimmi: Yeah, um, obviously

KEEPING UP WITH THE PFG POLITICALLY INCORRECT

THE ROAD TO LOCKPORT By: Bonnie Borgh

(With A Lotta Help From My Friends) a.k.a. The Crazy Lot

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have said, “No I have a plan!”; Right Cindy? Cindy: The best laid plans of mice and men.. Bonnie: Our plans were to travel to Lockport on Saturday, October 23, but when we learned about David’s booksigning at Harrison’s from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm on Satur-day, we had to reconfigure our schedules to arrive there in am-ple time. Cindy: See? Bonnie: Cindy arrived in Bet-tendorf about 3:00 pm on Thursday, October 21 after hav-ing spent the morning at a cam-paign rally for John (not Len-non-God rest his soul) at Mus-catine High School. Yes, I agree, he is very handsome, but he’s no Davy Jones. He definitely gets a point for having “I’m A Believer” playing in the background prior to his arrival, but that’s all I’m going to say about that! Cindy: Yes, Mr. Edwards was quite an inspirational speaker, but his choice of music was even more inspirational! You gotta love a politician who plays Monkees’ music at his rallies. Shane: My goodness, can that be true? It seemed politics was all anyone wanted to talk about when we weren't discussing Monkees that weekend!

Kimmi: Don’t get me start-ed...again. Cindy: It was a lively debate that went on all weekend until we found one candidate whom we could all agree on! Bonnie: Meanwhile, Diane Klosak (who unfortunately had alternative plans for the Lock-port weekend) accompanied me as we waited in line an hour and a half to obtain tickets to see George (not Harrison-God rest his soul) in Davenport on Monday, October 25. Shane: See? What did I tell ya? Cindy: Shanie, are you gonna whine through another “He Said SLASH She Said”? Bonnie: Cindy and I picked up Hannah from school. Kimmi and Kevin arrived in Bettendorf shortly thereafter just in time to refocus Hannah from an acci-dent on the tree swing just mo-ments before. Kimmi: Mumsy, you should be ashamed! Cindy: You’ve heard of Midget Tossing? Well, now there is Hannah Tossing. I don’t know what happened. One minute she was on her tummy in the tree swing, and the next she was flying through the air with the greatest of ease. I reached

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being en route for over twelve hours. The trip went amazingly smooth. Everything went exact-ly according to clockwork de-spite some heavy fog as we were leaving town. Bonnie: The fog was probably due to the atmospheric chang-es of Jones being in the Mid-west. Shane: The only scary part was the old mentally ill man at the terminal in Oshkosh who snapped at me for no apparent reason as I walked in the door that morning. That scared me for a moment or two, but at least he wasn't riding the bus. Kimmi: Were we walking into the station, and I looked up and there was my brother staring at me. I swear I saw him take a deep breath before approach-ing me. Bonnie: We then journeyed to Lunardi’s (official Italian restau-rant of the PFG) where we en-joyed wonderful food, and Cin-dy presented Kimmi with her belated birthday present which was her very own re-appropriated (as opposed to stolen)... Cindy: You say Po – tay – toe, I say Po tah – toe… Bonnie: Whatever happened to Dan? ROBY FOR SUPERVI-SOR yard sign. I told Cindy she should have called upon her

for her, but she slid right through my hands. Poor kid…I am sorry, Hannah. I usually save all of my abuse for Sha-nie. Fortunately, Hannah was so excited about Kimmi com-ing that she soon forgot the scrape on her forehead. Bonnie: Craig came home from work, and we all migrated (since that’s what birds of a feather do this time of year) to the bus station in downtown Davenport. Shane’s bus was scheduled to arrive at 5:50 pm. It was right on time which was a good thing because it’s not a place I would want to hang (a)round very long. Shane: Oh Bonnie, the Dav-enport bus station is nothing compared to the downtown Chicago terminal, and if I can survive that, anybody can! Janet: Us Chicagoans, or per-haps I should say us IllinoiS-ans, are a pretty tough bunch! Bonnie: Well, we are a Gang! Shane: Thanks to a recently reconfigured connection schedule, I am now able to get to the Quad Cities a great deal sooner than I ever used to be-fore. It is so nice to be able to get into town now in time for dinner. In the past, it was all I could do just to get into town without losing my sanity after

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Republican friend, and I would have been happy to pick up one of those signs for her, but she insisted that Kimmi would much prefer one hot off the market. Needless to say, she was thrilled. Cindy: Just as lyrics are im-portant to the song, the story is important to the gift, and what a story this one had. I had been seeing these signs all over town before the election, and I thought, ’If I only had guts to take one out of someone’s yard.’ Being a good Democrat, I couldn’t bear to walk into Re-publican Headquarters and ASK for one. While riding around town with three of my fiftysomething friends from work, I saw two signs in one yard. I explained to them the significance of the name and how I would love to “borrow” one as a gift for Kimmi. When the car stopped at the corner, one of my friends simply jumped out of the car in broad daylight and …ahem…acquired the sign. The gal driving had vanity plates with her name on them and was dying at the idea someone would report her. The next day at work one of the guys told her he had seen the police in the parking lot looking at her car, and she spent half the day waiting for the police to escort her out in handcuffs. We were laughing so hard we were in tears. Bonnie: I’d heard on the local

NBC news of the reported thefts of political signs in Mus-catine. I thought (in the nicest possible way), “Cindy’s been working the streets.” However, I thought she would be heisting to destroy rather than preserve! Kimmi: I have the best Mom ever!! (Sorry, Aunt Bonnie; You’re less than one centimeter behind, I swear!) It’s the great-est!! Robey and Mrs. Robey were both very happy to sign it. They, too, got a big kick out of it. It now has a special home in my room with the rest of my memorabilia. Thank you, Mum-sy! Cindy: The things I do for my kids! By the way…Diane Roby won the election by ONE vote! Bonnie: All for the good of your party, of course, but per-haps you should have taken both signs. Seriously, the Presidential De-bates filled us with such friendly fire that we decided we would nominate DAVID JONES FOR PRESIDENT since he is a can-didate we all support, and we even made a little sign for him. Shane: Little sign? I should probably provide a little bit of history on the origin of this par-ticular "backstage goodie". One of the neat things about being a part of this peculiar order of the PFG Road Crew (that crazy lot) are the things that happen

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“Good Clean Fun”. After dinner, the Gang came back to the Borgh’s for lemon-ades (actually it was Whitey’s pumpkin ice cream and home-made Halloween chocolate chip cookies). Kimmi: Mmmmmmmmm...is it dinner time? Cindy: You people spend en-tirely too much time thinking about FOOD!!! Bonnie: Unfortunately, we had to make it a short night as it was “a school night”. After I dropped Hannah off at school Friday morning, the Gang came over to our house about 8:45 am, and we depart-ed for the Amana Colonies for lunch. Craig said, “You mean, you’re going to Amana for lunch (due west), and we’re going to Lockport (due east) tonight for dinner?” He learns so quickly! Shane: North, South, East, West (Chapter 2).

when we aren't working on the newsletter at all and are just goofing around. Most of the time, our ideas and thoughts wind up in the newsletter any-way, and that's where the "Jones for President" sign came up. Quite often, Cindy, Kimmi, Janet, Bonnie, and I will find ourselves in the middle of these hilarious group mass e-mails that just develop lives of their own, and for some reason, one night we started coming up with political slogans that had a "Davy Jones angle”, i.e. “I’m Davy Jones, and I am standing up.”, “No (flower) child left be-hind.” You get the idea. Before we knew it, Bonnie had incorpo-rated all of these ideas into this huge poster board sign that Janet agreed to leave back-stage for Jones. Pretty funny stuff, if I do say so myself. Bonnie: It’s hard to read the fine print, but the sign also in-cluded David’s website since most politicians these days have one. It also credited: Paid For By: The Entertain-ment Party. It was just simply

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Cindy: There’s your sign! We’ve beaten the odds thus far! Bonnie: We had a wonderful lunch. The coconut cream pie was killer! Janet: You spotted a MonkeE at lunch? Hmmm…interesting! Lots of that going around on Friday afternoon. Bonnie: Oh, that’s too weird, Girl! Same Bat-time! Kimmi: I love that food! The chicken! The potatoes! The sal-ad! The dessertssssss!!! Uhhh... Bonnie: In the pouring rain, we stopped briefly at an Amish chocolate shop and winery. Janet: Was it raining “Cats and Dogs”? Bonnie: Who writes that stuff?! Janet: I don’t remember much about the weather on Friday. I don’t think it was raining here. David and Dave Robicheau were on the WGN Morning news, and from there they went to an interview at the Chicago Oldies Station-WJMK. I was at the office taking ticket calls until noon. Work, work, work! Lucki-ly I was free in the afternoon. I had quite the enjoyable and relaxing Friday afternoon before all the activity of Saturday. I never realized just how tasty a calamari appetizer and halibut

Cindy: East, West?! Silly boy! That’s Herman’s Hermits! Bonnie: It rained most of the way to and from Amana. Vi-sions of Oshkosh danced in our heads. Shane: Rub it in, rub it in. I can take it; I'm not bitter. Bonnie: The majority vote was to eat at the Colony Inn even though Craig took the liberty to find us a “Buy One Get One Free” coupon at the Ox Yoke Inn. I have such fond memories of the Colony Inn. My family and I would travel there to eat on special occasions. Shane: And this is another one! How often do we get to-gether and actually have the time to go out to Amana to eat there? It's been a few years for me. I am sure we all appreciat-ed Craig's efforts, but the Colo-ny Inn is just one of our special places, just like Lunardi's. Sometimes you just gotta splurge. Bonnie: The place was still the same authentic German style restaurant. When we sat down, I looked up. I could not believe what I saw! There was a white Monkee hanging upon a coat rack just staring at me. (It would seem fitting, though, with a Monkee in Amish country.) I said, “Did you see that?” What were the odds?

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lunch could be. Bonnie: So you did really eat what wasn’t taken from you and eaten? Shane: I also appreciated the stop at the mall along the way. I picked up some really cool DVDs while I was wander-ing/wondering around. Kingdom Hospital is so much better on DVD. Bonnie: It seems the conver-sation in the car to and fro con-tinued to gravitate toward a po-litical nature. Shane: sigh Bonnie: I said, ‘I was a brave woman being the only Republi-can in a car filled with Demo-crats.’ Cindy said, “Now you know how I feel being a Peter fan with all you David fans.” It’s not easy being purple! Shane: Hey Cindy, I like Peter too! I wouldn't have gone all the way to Lewisville if I didn't! Cindy: I thought you went along for the abuse Now that was a trip and what a way to break you in on road trips!!! Kimmi: I will now take this op-portunity and speak for myself and all of the other millions up-on millions of Micky fans and say “Skillet face or not, I love him!! Go Micky!” But I love you, too, Davy.

Cindy: True, but let’s face it, throughout the seventeen-year history of this group, I was way out numbered! Bonnie: It’s just like the polls! Speaking of which, we arrived back in the Quad Cities just in time to pick up a red, white, and blue bouquet to complement our nomination sign and refuel for our next departure. I picked Hannah up from school. Craig returned home from work. The rest of the Gang decided to de-part after refueling their auto-mobiles. In other words, they had a head start on us. Craig, Hannah, and I were almost out of Dodge when I realized a few blocks down the road I had for-gotten my pillow. Like VISA, I don’t leave home without it. It was a good thing we returned home for it, too, because the door from the garage to our family room was locked but not shut. I wonder who the last one out of the door was, Craig? As I explained to the Gang, get-ting the Borgh family out of the house is not an easy task any time of day which was why we opted to leave on Friday after-noon SLASH evening rather than Saturday morning as origi-nally intended. Of course, it rained (kittens and puppies) almost all of the way to Lock-port. Craig wanted to stop at a Shell station (since we get 5% back on gasoline charges on our Shell card), but we ended

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we missed the same exact turn the previous year, as our direc-tions via Map Quest on the in-ternet were a bit misleading. We soon got on the right track again, and shortly thereafter Kimmi, Kevin, Cindy and I were at the hotel. Cindy: Yeah, well, I would have had a tape player if some-one who shall remain nameless (KIMMI) hadn’t poured Pepsi in it!!! Shane: Now, before we con-tinue, I need to remind every-body of what happened last year when Cindy and I arrived at the hotel in Orland Park. Bonnie: Shane, you don’t have to remind me. I remem-ber I was in Minnesota! Shane: As I approached the front desk to check in at that time, I noticed that Aviva was checking in right in front of me. Everyone remember that story? No? Well, why not?! Aren't you paying attention? As we were loading a luggage cart on the way to checking in, I happened to relate last year's encounter to Kimmi, but alas, nobody was at the front desk this year. That makes what happens next all the more interesting. This is Kimmi's story to tell, and I don't want to step on her toes. Kimmi: Bring it on, Sister! Shane: Well, okay, maybe I

up at JC Penney’s to use their facilities. A mall makes a fabu-lous pit stop to quickly enter and exit. Of course, the Gang was miles ahead of us at that point. Shane: Kimmi and Kevin did a really good job of staying close behind Cindy's lead on the way down. Kimmi: As soon as Mumsy quit fiddling with her phone and her jacket and her whatev-er and found an accurate speed! Cindy: Hey, it’s been a while since I was on a proper road trip so it took a while to settle in! Shane: Unfortunately, Cindy's new (used) car does not have a CD player, so we played around with the radio dial, scoping out the oldies stations on the way down. One of the stations played a tune that gave me an idea for a new addition to the PFG songbook. Bonnie: What was it, Shane? Shane: Cindy has gone to town on that one, and I am sure the results are some-where in these pages. We did have potty breaks of our own along the way, although some-how we managed to avoid Penney's, and missed a turn as we got close to Orland Park. Cindy and I recalled that

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do, but I don't care if I've of-fended her, ‘cause she can't catch me. Kimmi: Really? Care to find out??? Cindy: Shane, my money’s on Kimmi! Shane: So I'll be nice and let her relate the events of check-in. All I want to say is “deja-vu” all over again. Kimmi: We were checking in, and the front desk couldn’t find my reservation. I, of course, couldn’t find my confirmation number. After searching the depths of my purse SLASH suitcase (Why do I need such a large purse?! It’s only more room for more crap!!) I found it! Then they found it under Kim-berly Maloney! “Hello, Kimberly Maloney. Nice to meet you.” “Please, no autographs. I’m in a hurry.” It didn’t trigger at first, but Shanie was quick to ex-plain. Then I caught on. “Ah, hah!” We told Mum what hap-pened, then, “Uh-oh.” “Hey, Aviva!” We told her the story, and she said they had her name as Kimberly Maloney, too. That crazy lot! Cindy: Not that we are super-stitious, but don’t you find it in-teresting how many signs we get? There’s your sign!!! Bonnie: Cindy called about 7:30 pm just as I was about to

turn off my cell phone as we were blocks away from the ho-tel in Orland Park. They had just arrived. We were actually minutes behind them. I’m not sure how that happened. Cindy: I still cannot figure out how you made up forty minutes that quickly! Kimmi: Um, Uncle Craig is a Mad Man behind the wheel!! Bonnie: We were on a mission, I guess. After we all checked in, we had a wonderful late din-ner at the nearby “Fire and Ice” restaurant. Kimmi: Again, delicious! Fan-tastic Cheezy Broccoli Soup Platter! Shane: This place has under-gone some drastic changes since Cindy and I had our "little snack" there last year. I'm not sure whether or not they are changes for the better or worse. The seating arrangements and atmosphere inside have been totally changed to more of a modern/club theme. (A polite way of saying that people of a certain age have a hard time hearing themselves think.) The food, while very good, was also quite expensive. I recall so vivdly the conversation Cindy and I had with David in the ele-vator at the hotel last year when he said that the restaurant was "reasonably priced". No more. Good food, just not what I had

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remembered or expected.

Cindy: It was good but expen-sive. I really liked the place bet-ter last year though. Janet: Actually the restaurant that occupied that space last year, Alexis, is now in the Reg-ister of Historic Places in Illi-noiS... Bonnie: Pardon me, Janet, but I think it’s pronounced SLASH spelled “Illi-NOISE!” Janet:…after Davy Jones ate there last year!!! It’s TRRUUEE! No, actually Fire and Ice was just renovated...It had to be because mad fans stole the booths, bar stools, plates, and beer mugs after Davy Jones was there last year. Everything was gone!! Cindy: We did not! I only steal signs!!! Janet: Not buyin’ it…Okay, it really just opened two weeks before you arrived. I hadn’t been in the new establishment until the Saturday evening after the show. Bonnie: Again, we needed to cut the evening short to get Hannah to bed. We had a busy day planned for Saturday. I enjoyed an early morning 6:00 am swim despite the fact I thought the torrential rain was going to come through the roof.

Shane: Just like Oshkosh. No, I'm not bitter. Whatever gave you that idea? Kimmi: Don’t make me come over there and hurt you! Wait, that’s not a good threat, is it? Bonnie: I noticed the “Pool Rules” sign said “Absolutely No Swimming Alone”, but there was no one besides me there. I thought, “Oh well, what are you gonna do?” I thought to myself, “It’s no different than swimming laps at the fitness center with our lifeguard “on duty”. He’s out of the room more than he’s in it.” Craig brought Hannah down to swim shortly after 7:00 am (It must be genetic.) We pooled it for awhile before showering and eating breakfast. Shane: Cindy and I employed the "HELLO” system at the con-tinental breakfast in the lobby. However, Kimmi broke protocol and showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time. See??? Now you've even got-ten ME talking in political-ese. Heavy sigh. Kimmi: I stumbled down even-tually. I needed my beauty sleep, though it never seems to do much good. Cindy: Ah, yeah, beauty sleep...

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Bonnie: We left shortly before 11:00 am to leave for the booksigning at Harrison’s. We saw Janet in the breakfast area going over details with Deb Ro-bicheau and spoke very briefly as we knew she was busy. We were one of the first groups to arrive at the restaurant and were greeted very warmly by... Janet: All the plans were set, but I had to pick up a few things before I went to Harrison’s. Shane: The hostess? Cindy: No, definitely not her. Bonnie:…Tom Litterio. The hostess obviously didn’t know who we were, but Tom told her! Who are we again? Oh yeah, we’re the “crazy lot.” Tom of-fered us a little out of the way

place that nobody goes where we could just sit and take pic-tures. We settled in comfortably after a little drapery redecorat-ing. Kimmi: Heh, yeah...great idea, Aunt Bonnie! Bonnie: Thank you, Girl. Too much natural light emitted from behind is not good for photos. David arrived promptly at high noon. When he sat down, he said, “Hello, Bonnie.” We had a fabulous view of whatever. Da-vid is so gracious with his fans, and it’s so wonderful to see how excited people are when they meet him. I heard numer-ous people say, “That was fun!” One time, I heard David say, “Would you look at that? I signed right over Micky’s face!” Janet: I’ve heard from so many

David poses with someone else’s daughter’s...also all girls! Photo by Bonnie Borgh

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people that attended the events of the weekend. All of them were so impressed at David’s graciousness and warm-heartedness with everyone he met while he was here. It is wonderful to see how happy people are upon meeting him…the look of pure joy in their faces was priceless. Cindy: He certainly was ani-mated and in a good mood wasn’t he?! Shane: I had debated about going through the line myself. Since I was lucky enough to get an autographed copy of David's book (a little present from an "old friend") when the book first came out, I decided to just peo-ple watch this time. I perched myself on some bar stools be-hind Cindy, Bonnie, and Kimmi and took some overhead shots whenever I could get a good glimpse of whatever. It WAS fun to watch Jones react with all the different people, young and old alike. When fellow PFGer Karen Barnes came through with her daughter, I was able to get a really funny shot of them with David as he is trying to locate where I was taking my photos of them from. I still get a chuckle out of that picture. (Thanks, Karen, for the pre-sents! The Peter CD has been in constant rotation in my play-er ever since I got home!) Cindy: Yes, Karen! Thanks so much for the music and photos!

It was great to see all of the PFG! The crazy lot! Bonnie: Kimmi and Kevin were kind enough to stand in line for us. Kimmi wanted David to au-tograph her copy of “Daydream Believin’”. I asked Kimmi if she would ask David to sign another copy of his autobiography for Renee, a friend of mine, who is dealing with cancer. Cindy thought it would be nice if David would autograph Oliver (the stuffed Monkee which rides in her car). The paparazzi were ready and aimed to take a pho-to of Kimmi, Kevin, and David. Kimmi was also thrilled to have Deb Robicheau autograph her “ROBY FOR SUPERVISOR” sign. Deb suggested Kimmi bring it to the concert to have Dave autograph it, too. I think Kevin was impressed with his first Close Encounter of the Jones Kind (despite the fact that he looked like he was go-ing to visit the dentist) because he was having second thoughts about going to the concert after-wards. Kimmi: Yes, Kevin and I stood in line with our 50 lbs. of books and 50 lbs. of monke(e) and eventually mission was accom-plished. I think Kevin had a good time. I’m slowly sucking him in. Mah, hah, haahhhh! Bonnie: That’s English for? Cindy: Kimmi, the Monkey(ee) is a pillow so he probably only

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weighs 49.5 pounds and I ap-preciate you taking him up to be autographed. He’s too young to be standing in line by him-self. Shane: Kevin must be going to the wrong dentist! He needs one that plays Monkees’ music in his office! I've got to give Kevin a lot of credit. He was a real trooper, even when he wasn't feeling well and would just have rather gone back to the hotel. It says a lot for a per-son who really isn't into this like the rest of us are to have been so willing and patient all week-end. Bonnie: Just like Craig and Hannah, right? Shane: You've got a good 'un Kimmi; I'd chain him to the couch if I were you.

Cindy: Kevin is a sweetie and now that we’ve bonded Kimmi, you had better behave! Kimmi: I use the basement wall. More stable. Bonnie: When David was fin-ished, he passed by the Gang and waved. Unfortunately, most of us missed it. David was defi-nitely working overtime be-cause he did not leave until about 2:45 pm. I don’t know how almost three hours could pass so quickly! Janet: I can’t believe how quickly the entire day flew by. Time seems to go by SO fast! Bonnie: Kevin had a request to eat at Denny’s. (Isn’t there an alternative name for that?)

Kimmi and Kevin with David at the booksigning. Photo by Bonnie Borgh

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Cindy: Like maybe Crummy’s? Bonnie: By George, I think she’s got it! Shane: We've had plenty of requests, but we're gonna eat anyway. Cindy: Rim shot please, Sandy! Bonnie: Unfortunately, Kevin developed a nasty headache on site and was unable to even finish his late lunch SLASH ear-ly dinner. Kimmi took care of that! Kimmi: Eat one little onion ring off of someone else’s plate… Cindy: People have lost fin-gers for less! Janet: It’s always a nice ges-ture to share part of your lunch...be it an onion ring or say a bowl of soup with whomever you’re dining with...to get a good sample of the fare of the day. Bonnie: What was the special of the day again, Janet? Shane: The headache or the dinner? Kimmi: Hmm, hmm. What do you think? Bonnie: We made a quick cos-tume change and agreed to meet at 6:00 pm to leave for the

concert. We were on the road again until Kimmi remembered she had forgotten her tickets (to the really big shoe) in her car! Shane: At least she didn't LOSE them or anything Kimmi: Nope! They were right inside the glove box where I had put them so I wouldn’t lose them! Bonnie: After a quick circle tour, we were once again en-route to Lockport East High School. Shane: This is where experi-ence pays off. Cindy and I learned from last year's wrong turn out of the hotel on the way to the show, and we were on the right track immediately. Fa-miliar landmarks passed by as we were heading towards the high school, so we weren't nearly as frazzled when we got there this time as we were last year. Janet: It always helps the se-cond time around! Bonnie: We made arrange-ments with Tom at the booksigning if he would be able to stick our sign (in the nicest possible way) in David’s dress-ing room along with the patriotic flowers. Ironically, Tom was the first person we saw moments after parking the car. We once again handed off the goods from the hoods.

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Shane: Tom, I must tell you, I do so enjoy this car to dressing room delivery service you were running. From one room server to another, ya done good. Kimmi: Thank you, Tom!! Cindy: Thanks for all your kind-nesses, Tom! Janet: Boy, talk about a real trouper throughout all this…that’s Tom!!! Always in the right place at the right time. Bonnie: There’s another politi-cal comment right on the tip of my tongue, but that’s all I’m going to say about that! We arrived well in time to sign the guest book for David which was

a fantastic idea. Janet: I had a little help with that suggestion…Thanks to Cindy. We had a guestbook last year as well. I wanted the peo-ple to be able to leave a mes-sage for David so he would be able to read for himself what I had been hearing the last sev-eral months. Cindy: I thought it would be a nice way for HIM to remember the evening. Shane: I told him not to forget about us poor, rained out fans in Oshkosh. What, me bitter? Pshaw! Cindy: Keep beating that dead horse, son!

Kimmi and Roby with the..ahem...borrowed sign!. Photo by Bonnie Borgh

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Kimmi: Sigh! Bonnie: When the band began to assemble their equipment, Cindy encouraged Kimmi to ask Dave to autograph her sign. Kimmi: Encourage? Is that what you call threatening your children these days? Actually, it was Shanie that made me! Thank you, Bro!! :-D Bonnie: What is this ”:-D”? I never learned that in typing class. Cindy: Bonnie! Bonnie! Bon-nie! It’s a smilie face! Where have you been? Kimmi, don’t mess with me! I already threw one little kid out of her swing and I’m not afraid to do it again!! Bonnie: With a little coercing,

Kimmi agreed. From our van-tage point, Dave seemed to find it most amusing. He was kind enough to hop off the stage, pose with Kimmi for a picture, and kiss her on the cheek. I’m sure she will never wash her cheek again! Shane: No wonder Kevin gets sick. :-) Bonnie: There it is again! “:-)” Kimmi: Yeah, he was getting annoyed with the dried saliva so I finally had to wash it. My saliva, not Dave’s. Like you never drool in your sleep! Bonnie: We anxiously awaited for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin SLASH David Jones. Shane: We had the most sin-cere audience around. Sinceri-ty as far as the eye can see....

Reports of my death……. Photo by Tom Litterio

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Bonnie: At approximately 8:05 pm, David appeared on stage (in Hannah’s words) wearing a “snazzy jazzy” sparkly white and black short-sleeved shirt with black pants. Whoever dec-orated the stage with the “dummy” in Dave Alexander’s station and the JONES tomb-stone was (What’s the word?) Cindy: The only thing I would have done differently is I would have had a green wool hat on the mummy! Shane: "Really something"? Bonnie: Artistic? It reminded me of the stage props yester decade or two ago in the Mon-kees’ 1987 Pool It tour.

Cindy: Autistic! Janet: I’m not quite sure whose handiwork that was. I did remember seeing the JONES tombstone last year. And I know that Ken, the theater manager, was working on the “monster” on Friday evening when we arrived to set up. He made that himself. What talent, huh? I suspect the culprit may have been Bobby…the chap that helps us every year with tattoos nearly as big as David. Bobby is SUCH a nice guy!! Although from my vantage point, I still haven’t seen his face. He’s quite tall. Bonnie: David was so funny through the entire show opting

David and Bobby the sound tech! Photo by Tom Litterio

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more for conversational dia-logue and humor. In fact, I think a half hour had passed, and he had only sung two songs! “I’m a Believer” it’s the first concert I’ve attended where he omitted his standard “I Wanna Be Free” in lieu of storytelling. I absolute-ly loved his schtick about odd expressions, i.e. “raining cats and dogs” where he dramatized sound effects of cats meowing and dogs barking. I’m sure David’s sister, Hazel, and his brother-in-law, Ken, would love to hear all of the big, kind-hearted words he said about them following their re-cent visit at Beverley’s wedding in August. Cindy: She will, she will! Kimmi: Hazel, make sure you ask Davy about it!

Shane: Time and again we have extolled the virtues of Da-vid's storytelling in this newslet-ter, so it should come as no surprise that we were extremely happy with the show's focus (whether it was planned or not) on the stories and using the music almost as a secondary aspect of the concert. I swear that the guy touched on all kinds of topics, from Oprah Winfrey's car giveaway (I be-lieve the joke was that he was giving everybody in the audi-ence a car, but you had to sup-ply your own keys), to reality television, (David is thinking of starting something called "Cooking For One" (a good idea, if you ask me!), to his trav-els through airports and the security checkpoints, therein, even mentioning some sculp-ture he found fascinating in one of them. Bonnie: Michelangelo’s “David”, right? Shane: For all of the talk and all of the jokes, the funniest part of the entire concert had very little to do with anything that David did. During the perfor-mance of "Girl", most of the audience members who had purchased flowers for Jones took that song as a cue to come to the front of the stage to hand him their gifts. He got absolute-ly deluged with flowers, but that's not the funny part. Once all of the women were through,

Photo By Bonnie Borgh

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up comes this big, burly biker guy in a black leather Harley vest, chains, and the whole nine yards (the sound tech from what I'm told), who hands him his own flowers. Talk about drop dead funny! I would have LOVED to have gotten a picture of that, but I was just laughing so hard that I couldn't even think about picking up my cam-era!! Bonnie: If you didn’t know it, one would have thought it was all part of the show. It was hi-larious! Janet: The big, burly biker guy was one of our soundmen, Bob-by. What a stitch!! Back in March when it seemed that an-other concert was on the hori-zon, I called Bobby to line up the service of the company for which he works. He told me then that he’d be working on some new material for Davy’s upcoming show. Little did I know he’d become part of the show! Oh yes, speaking of “Girl”, talk about an honor. That was totally an unexpected, but a VERY thoughtful surprise. Bonnie: Just for the record, David sang: Look Out (Here Comes Tomor-row) Valleri Who Will Buy? (Intro) Meatloaf impression Nobody Cares About The Rail-roads Anymore

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You Last Train To Clarksville Consider Yourself I'd Do Anything Who Will Buy? Wasted Days and Wasted Nights It’s Nice To Be With You Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby? I’m A Believer Why All In The Family skit Bright Side Of The Road (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone Girl (dedicated to Janet) (I’ll) Love You Forever Daydream Believer No Time I loved hearing David sing the song Janet has talked about entitled, “Why”. Janet: When David started talk-ing about being in a cathedral in Ireland on Good Friday, I knew what song was coming next. You see, a few years ago Tom and I were talking with David at a booksigning at the Hard Rock Café in Downtown Chicago. At one point in the conversation, I was talking with him about the possibility of him coming and doing a benefit for our church, and I remember thinking at that time, yeah right, like THAT would EVER happen-who knew. As we were talking at the booksigning then, David started telling me about a song that he had heard that moved him and began singing that beautiful song to me. That was some-

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thing I will never, ever forget. I was so moved that when he stopped singing, I literally could not find my voice. Bonnie: It was a beautiful song; I’d love to hear more of where that came from. I also enjoyed hearing the tunes Wasted Days and Wasted Nights and Bright Side of the Road. I had not heard Nobody Cares About the Railroads Any-more since David’s Prairie Meadows concert in Altoona in January of 1999. Shane: Just a few overall com-ments from me about the mu-sic. I was very impressed to see some change-ups in the setlist from the typical Davy Jones concert (if there is such a thing). For one thing, I was pleasantly surprised to see "Nobody Cares About The Rail-roads" back in the lineup. I had-n't heard that one in quite a while, and I was afraid that this was just another tune that he'd do for a while and then cast aside like so many of the other non-Monkees’ songs that we've seen in his concerts. Keep this song, David, and bring back a few others like "Here Comes My Baby", "Somebody Slap Me", and "When All Else Fails" (original version). I was also enchanted by the impromptu performance of "Why" (a per-sonal request from Janet I have no doubt). Janet: No, it wasn’t a personal

request from me. I was as sur-prised as everyone else when David sang that song. But it is SUCH a pretty song, I was hon-ored that people that attended our show were treated to the same song to which I was treat-ed a few years before. Shane: It shouldn't be too hard to dig up the music for this song somewhere, as Jones had won-dered about onstage. Janet: I found the words to that song shortly after I heard it pre-viously. Consider the words as having been shared. Shane: I also enjoyed the fact that David tried his hand at "Clarksville". Yes, he did flub up the lyrics a bit... Bonnie: When was that? Shane: He covered well, and I have to give him his "props" for trying. What makes these three examples all the more excep-tional to me is that NONE of these were on the official set list that the band was supplied with before the show. (Aviva gave me hers after the show, so that's how I know...swoon!) In other words, David probably chose all of these tunes on the spur of the moment, which I think makes his performance more "real" and "down to earth". Bonnie: Grandpa Borgh said David was a “down-to-earth,

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kind of guy”. David was very appreciative and thanked Janet and Tom for all their hard work. He also said, “All the guys from the Purple Flower Gang came out” to which arose select ap-plause. David looked out into the audience toward the sound, smiled, and said, “You crazy lot!” and just laughed. Some-times the insane act quite nor-mal; Isn’t that right, Ken? David said, “I get the newsletters all the time, and I read them…” It does go with notice. Cindy: Select applause? Kimmi and Shane came out of their seats!!! Shane: Better a crazy lot than a vacant lot... Cindy: Been there, done that! Kimmi: Well, depends on the day or the minute. Cindy: Or where the pool is or was… Bonnie: There’s another politi-cal comment there, but my tongue is still tied! David performed for close to two and a half hours. It was nice to see Mike Bush and talk with Beverly. It was also nice to see some other Monkees’ fans from another lifetime ago. Shane: That's always part of the fun; isn't it? Chatting with folks before and after the show

is almost like a little cocktail party, sans lemonades. Janet: Yeah, the only drawback to having the show in such a beautiful theater is lemonades are not allowed on school prop-erty. Bonnie: Someone once said that wasn’t a problem. Shane: I've said this before, but it's always true. One starts seeing a lot of the same people whenever there's a Monkee performing in the general geo-graphic area. The Midwest seems to have a very loyal con-tingent, which I think is part of the reason why David comes back to these parts as often as he seems to. Bonnie: I dunno, Shane. I’ve seen George Bush more times in the Quad Cities since 1999 than I’ve seen David Jones. What is wrong with that picture? Oh, I’m sorry. My tongue was tied! We stopped at “Fire and Ice” for something to eat and drink after the show since we had not eat-en since mid afternoon, and it was approaching midnight. Kimmi: Awesome popcorn shrimp! Shane: We all must have our three squares a day...breakfast, lunch, and dinner...in that precise order.

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Cindy: Shane, don’t you think they are just a bit obsessed? What happened to Tic Tacs, Vivarin, and Pop Tarts? Kimmi: But pancakes for din-ner are the best!! Right, Aunt Bonnie? Cindy: Don’t confuse her!!! Bonnie: That’s right; Pancakes are for breakfast! I slept until 6:15 am and swam from 6:30 am to 7:30 am. Once again, it was wonderful to have the pool to myself. I estimated that one hundred forty-eight pool lengths was close to a mile. I got out when I started to feel like a gup-py. Shane: It was probably around 11:30 pm or so when we got back to the hotel from our late meal. I can understand that Bonnie wanted to check on her family, and Kimmi wanted to see how Kevin was feeling. As for myself, I was too wired to even think about sleeping. I got to my room in just enough time to flip on the TV to Saturday Night Live as Ashlee Simpson was performing her now infa-mous lip-synching goof. I had no idea at the time how much press that blunder was going to receive! I wonder what David might think about it... Shortly after that, I just laid there on the bed and waited for sleep to come. That was a long time in coming, though. No sooner had

I drifted off to la-la land, or so it seemed, than I was wakened by a large, reckless and boister-ous party making their way through the hallways. I'm not sure if it was the remnants of one of the many weddings go-ing on that weekend or what, but it was certainly unwelcome. Not only were they yelling, but I heard them throwing things around in the hallway, as well. It wasn't until I decided that I was-n't going to be able to sleep any longer and finally just got up and ready to go that I noticed that this group had shattered a great many beer bottles all over the hallway. How mature, sigh. Well, I hadn't come all that way to sleep anyhow. I showered, dressed, packed, and met Cin-dy down at breakfast. Cindy: We were all on different floors, and we all had to deal with the party. It must have been one heck of a party! In younger days I would have joined them, but let’s face it, I’m too old for this crap now! Bonnie: I didn’t hear a thing. I probably had water in my ears from the previous morning. Janet: We left “Fire and Ice” around 2:00 am. It probably was the remnants of one of the wedding parties that we saw there. They were still going great guns when we left. Bonnie: Cindy and Shane were having breakfast, and I told

36

Monkee Shines

them I would be down as soon as I had showered and dressed. Hannah woke up when I came in the room so Craig went downstairs (no doubt) to fire up another politi-cal conversation. Shane: HEAVY sigh Cindy: ((((just grinning)))) Bonnie: Actually, he was prob-ably reading the newspaper and eating a pre-breakfast. Shane: PRE-breakfast? Wow! Meal times at your house must be sumthin' else! Cindy: I told you OBSESSED! Kimmi: Don’t you know about second breakfast? Cindy: And elevensies.. Bonnie: Every Saturday morn-ing for breakfast, Craig makes awesome homemade whole-wheat blueberry (or strawberry) pancakes with whipped cream. At any rate, back to the story. Hannah and I arrived some-where between 8:15 am and 8:30 pm. I was standing at the juice decanter when I saw Da-vid appear. (I’m not sure where he came from.) Shane: "Heaven...I'm in Heav-en”... Cindy: Now you are Fred

Astaire? Bonnie: I didn’t think he was Eric Clapton. Cindy: It was a nice way to start your day! Bonnie: David approached the beverages. He had a mischie-vous smile, and I thought, “Okay buddy…” and I said, “Good morning, Mr. Jones!” He said, “Hey, how ya doing? Hey, thanks for all that stuff you sent me.” I said, “You’re welcome. We had fun doing it.” (He has no idea!) He said, “I’m working on the form…” I knew exactly what he was talking about, and it wasn’t IRS. I said, “That’s good. Take your time.” and he was gone. Dorothy thought people came and went quickly in Oz! About fifteen minutes later, Da-vid reappeared again. Once again, I was back at the orange juice. Anita Bryant (Cindy’s cousin) would be proud of me. I said, “Hey, that was a great show last night. You were so funny!” He started to chuckle at himself as if to say, “Yeah, I’m not sure where it all came from…” I said, “I loved that bit about ’raining cats and dogs’ with the meowing cats and barking dogs.” He said, “Yeah” and then said something about another odd language expres-sion, “hard as nails”, I think. David came over to our table

37

Monkee Shines

before departing. I was going to ask him to join us, but it was obvious his bagel was “to go”. He chatted with us for a few moments, and as he was leav-ing he said he would “drop the interview in the mail tomorrow” (tomorrow on Jones’ watch). I am still waiting, David! [“There’s always tomorrow for dreams to come true.”] He must have been reconsidering his answers because as he was headed towards his luggage, he said he was “being silly”, and he was “going to do it over”. Cindy and I spoke simultane-ously, “No! Leave it! We like ’silly’!” He looked at us like, “You crazy lot...you would!” He said it was nice to see us (vice versa), and he thanked us for coming. And then, Elvis left the building. Cindy: David almost did join us I think. He stood at our table and chatted about winterizing the house in PA and everyday things. There’s just never enough time to have a proper conversation. Shane: Of course, Kimmi slept through the whole thing. Say it with me folks, "Ya snooze, ya loose!" Kimmi: I’ll survive. Bonnie: Wasn’t that what Glo-ria Gaynor said, too? Imagine that; wrong group! The Gang departed in shifts with (surprise surprise) the Borgh family

checking out at 11:00 am. Shane: Well, technically, my bus didn't leave Chicago until noon, but I was out of Orland Park by that time. Chalk it up to my experience from last year. I gave myself plenty of time to get a cab and get to the down-town bus terminal. Bonnie: The breakfast area was closed by the time we left and uninhabited. It was like looking at one Charles Peter-son’s memory pictures. The images of our Close Encounter of the Jones Kind filled my thoughts and Hannah said, “Mom, what’s wrong?” I said, “Nothing honey.” Cindy: A half hour out of town the guy on the radio said we should please excuse him for being a little hoarse this morn-ing. He had been to a Davy Jones concert the night before; There’s your sign! Bonnie: It was truly a wonder-ful weekend. Janet and Tom worked very hard to coordinate the booksigning and concert, and I am thrilled that once again, “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow would keep us from a Monkees’ show.” This time, my umbrella stayed in the trunk! Shane: Nope. Not bitter. Never bitter. I wouldn't dare. Janet: Thank you. Tom and I did work very hard to coordi-

38

Monkee Shines

nate everything from the booksigning to David’s media appearances on Friday, and oh yes, THE concert. I was heart-ened to see as many fans come to Harrison’s to show David their love and support. Bonnie: Thanks to you, too, David for appreciating our “crazy lot”. Remember...it’s the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf! Shane: My thanks to Janet, Tom, David and da band, as well. Also thanks to my fellow road warriors who make these trips the incredibly insane ad-ventures that they always turn out to be. Love ya all. David

also remember that Waterfest and Oshkosh wants you back, too! Janet: While I so appreciate all of your thanks, the thanks really should go to David and The Davy Jones Band. Memories were made that weekend…not only with all of us, but for the hundreds of people that attend-ed the events and saw and heard David on the TV and ra-dio. Had it not been for our love and admiration for David, none of us would probably have ever met. Thank you to my fellow “road warriors” for supporting our church’s fundraiser and for all the fun, all the time. Thank

Kimmi and David

The Barnes Clan and David David, Oliver the Monkey, and Kevin

Photos by Shane Worden

39

Monkee Shines

you to the members of The Da-vy Jones Band...but most-ly...THANK YOU DAVID!!! Hope to see your back in Illi-noiS real soon! Kimmi: Thanks everyone!! Cindy: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again...I love you guys!!! Thanks Janet, Tom, Da-vid, the band, Kimmi Maloney, Shanie the Whiner, Bonnie my sister in crime, Craig and Han-nah, and Kevin. Let’s do it

again real soon. Bonnie: Amen! Good night, John Boy!

The Crazy Lot Photo By Tom Litterio

Tom and Janet with David Photo courtesy of Janet Litterio

40

Monkee Shines

Show

Time

Photos By

Shane Worden

41

Monkee Shines

boys-- so I could go “somewhere.”

No details were given. I marked

the calendar so as not to forget.

After a few weeks, curiosity was

getting the better of me. I tried every angle to find out where I was

going…even resorting to bribes. I

am very good at keeping confi-

dences….must be genetic, because

no one would talk. Ok, I figured

I’d know sooner or later.

So, here we are now opening

gifts at Christmas. I’m opening a

small box…people start nudging

each other…everyone was watch-

ing me with anticipation written all over their faces. I even listened to

the box just in case I heard ticking,

With the holidays rapidly

approaching, many of us are turn-

ing our thoughts to sharing with

others and holiday shopping. I’d

like to share a story with you about a Christmas gift I received

nearly four years ago, and since

then, I always try to put a little

extra thought into gift purchases

I’ve made…here’s why.

Four years ago, right about

this time…just before Thanksgiv-

ing, my Mom tells me not to

make plans on Jan. 27, 2001…

she’s already asked my hubby

Tom about this, and he had agreed to stay home and have some male

bonding with our two sons-both

One Small Gift, One Little Ticket By Janet Litterio

David and Janet Litterio

42

Monkee Shines

I’d be the first to hit the dirt!! Up-

on opening the box, I see it’s a

ticket…hmm…January 27,

2001..ok part of the mystery is

solved…where am I going…oh….Moraine Valley Col-

lege…..hmmm I graduated from

there…why am I going there??

DAVY JONES???? I looked at

the ticket again….nope, nothing

changed. After 35 years, I was

going to see Davy Jones... practi-

cally in my back yard!!! I

asked….Mom, when I was young,

I BEGGED. PLEADED,

CRIED….to get to see Davy Jones

when they were in Chicago back in the 60’s…what made you buy this

ticket now? I guess she figured that

since I am in the mid 40’s, it was

safe to let me go to a concert fea-

turing THE Davy Jones. One

small gift, one little ticket, just a

piece of paper.

Well, the next month could

not pass quickly enough. You see,

I have been a fan of David’s all my life, since I was 10 in 1966. How-

ever, this was the first time I would

actually get to see him in con-

cert…and what a concert it

was….thanks to one small gift, one

little ticket, just a piece of paper.

Leaving the school that night, I got

an idea…to invite David to do a

show as a benefit for our church. I

didn’t share my idea with anyone

for a while…and when I did, eve-

ryone thought that I had listened to “Daydream Believer” just one too

many times.

I will fast forward several

years so you’re not bored to tears.

I am very proud to be able to say

that on October 23, 2004…Mr.

Jones and his Band performed a

fundraiser…the second in as many

years…for our church. To say the show was spectacular was quite

the understatement. EVERYONE

was treated, not only to David’s

music, but to his great wit in story-

telling as well as much of his life

story.

Earlier in the day, hundreds

of people came to Harrison’s Res-

taurant….an establishment that

when I frequent again, will never

be quite the same….to meet David at his booksigning. I have never

seen SO many smiling faces in one

day…..you see, all this was the

result of a small gift, one little tick-

et, just a piece of paper.

The day before the show,

Friday, David appeared on the

WGN Morning News in Chicago.

He and Dave Robicheau sang a

few tunes, David did The Monkee Walk with the morning news

crew…all seemed to have a won-

derful time. After that, they went

to the Oldies Station in Chicago,

WJMK, for an hour long studio

interview. While I did not hear the

radio interview as it was on the air,

I was working taking ticket sales,

the program director sent me a cd

of the interview, and I did listen to

it after the fact. David and Dave

sang on the radio as well…I be-lieve the song was “The Greatest

Story Ever Told,” which should

have been the title of the entire

weekend.

43

Monkee Shines

Hundreds of people saw

David Jones in our community on

Sat., Oct. 23. There’s no telling

how many thousands saw and

heard him on Friday thanks to the TV and radio. I am certain of one

thing, no matter if people met Da-

vid at Harrison’s, or saw his talent

upon attending the concert, they

took away memories that will last

a lifetime. I most certainly did!! So

many people I’ve met as a result of

all this, many of whom I am proud

to call friends. Many others that

helped in any and every way they

could…it truly is about helping

other people. No telling how peo-ple were touched by David’s inter-

views, booksigning and concert.

From time to time on both

Friday and Saturday, my mind kept

going back to one thing…a small

gift I received a few years be-

fore…one little ticket, just a piece of paper, and how many lives that

one small gift touched. Four years

ago when I walked into Moraine

Valley College, as I had so many

times when I was a student there, I

don’t think anyone could have

EVER imagined in their wildest

dreams what lay ahead, least of all,

me. It is truly remarkable what

giving from the heart can do…be it

your time, your talent, or one small

gift, one little ticket, just a piece of paper.

A Monkee Halloween In Canada From Denise Gautier

Denise and her mother

share an October 31st birthday so

Halloween is an especially fun

time. Each year they celebrate by

building spooky window scenes. This year their theme was a life-

size monster band with Franken-

stein on guitar, a gorilla on drums,

a skeleton on the organ and a

scarecrow with a tambourine and,

of course, Monkees music played

all night.

Everyone loved the dis-

play and Denise and her mother delighted in telling everyone about

the Monkees and that they still

performed today. Those who were-

n’t familiar with the Monkees

loved the music.

44

Monkee Shines

Jenny Hersey

31 Prescott Street Apt. 23

Concord, NH 03301

Beverly Ann Clark

2710 Crestmont Drive

Garland, TX 75040

Nina Totaro

137 Long Point Road

Stevensville, Maryland

21666-3639

Diane Klosak

2101 Nicholas Ct

Bettendorf, IA 52722

Rick Schwinden

3275 Valley Ridge Drive

Egan, MN 55121

Ronda Russell

2031 Glen Avenue

Beloit, WI 53411

Susan Bragga

4222 West Robin Meadows

Lane

Eau Claire. WI 54701

Maria Tereza Pinho Gomes

Da Silva

Caixa Postal 01 1501

Copacabana

Rio De Janeiro

RJ Cep22020-970

Brazil

Diane Scharp

14850 Phelps Drive

Bridgeton, MO 63044

Write to your favorite Monkee at: Davy Jones PO Box 400 Beavertown, PA 17180 Peter Tork 524 San Anselmo Suite 102 San Anselmo, CA 94960 This is a new address for Micky: Micky Dolenz CBS-FM 1515 Broadway 40th Floor New York, NY 10036 Mike Nesmith Video Ranch 8 Harris Court Suite C1 Monterey, CA 93940

45

Monkee Shines

Colleen Johnson

9104 Lemona Drive

St. Louis, MO 63123

Susan Jensen

210 Washington Street

Audubon, IA 50025-1133

Shane Worden

306-A Waugoo Avenue

Oshkosh WI 54901

Debbie Kolbaba

PO Box 89

Holstein, IA 51025

James Elswick

5017 W 2nd Street

South Bloomfield, OH

43103

Kathy Brewer

1198 Turkey Blind Road

Crossville, TN 38572

E-mail Pals

Maria Tereza Pinho Gomes Da Silva:

terezaharrison@uol.com.br

Shane Worden:

idolthreat@prodigy.net

Janet Litterio: janet6356@juno.com

Barbara Woerner:

Wbwoerner@aol.com

Nina Totaro:

woolhat@atlanticbb.net

If you would like your email address listed in Email Pals please let me

know.

46

Monkee Shines

Red Rhodes

Bo Diddley

Beverly Ann Clark

January

2 Bobbi Boyce

3 Stephen Stills

4 Michael Stipe 5 Henry Corden

7 Kenny Loggins

8 Ami Dolenz

David Bowie

9 Jerry Yester

Bill Cowsill

11 Pat Smith

13 Lester Sill

Rip Taylor

17 Robin Millan

19 Phil Everly Janet Carbert

24 Neil Diamond

Lynda Moore

25 Hallie Torkelson

26 Vito Scotti

December

2 Janelle Scott

3 Len Lesser

9 Donny Osmond

11 Teri Garr

Richard Devon 14 George Furth

15 Rodney Bingenheimer

Dave Clark

17 Anita Jones

18 Keith Richards

20 Charlie Callas

21 Frank Zappa

Carl Wilson

James Elswick

22 Ivan Iannoli-Torkelson

Robin & Maurice Gibb

23 Cyndi Torres 25 Little Richard

Phil Spector

27 Karen Sue Schwait

29 Ray Nitschke

30 DAVID JONES

MICHAEL NESMITH

47

Monkee Shines

20 Diane Scharp

23 Bruce Kessler

Shane Worden

25 Elton John

26 Diana Ross 30 Eric Clapton

April

3 Jan Berry

Jeff Barry

Jan Chilton

5 Coco Heinzelmann

6 Phil Leeds

Michelle Phillips

9 Carl Perkins

12 David Cassidy

Tiny Tim

13 Diane (Hildebrand) Ro-land-Skye

14 Shorty Rogers

17 Don Kirshner

18 Alex Singer

19 Mark Volman

Julie Harris

20 Monte Landis

22 Jack Nicholson

Glen Campbell

26 Donna Lee Bacalla

Bobby Rydell 29 Tommy James

30 Bobby Vee

31 Christian Nesmith

February

1 Don Everly

2 Graham Nash

4 Jonathan Nesmith 6 John London

Fabian Forte

9 Deborah Stidham

Carole King

Barry Mann

Jack Winter

10 Beryl Leigh

11 Gerry Goffin

13 PETER TORK

Joe Perry

14 Rick Klein

16 Sonny Bono Linda Jones

Ronda Russell

17 Gene Pitney

18 Bobby Hart

19 Lou Christie

21 Bob Rafelson

25 George Harrison

26 Johnny Cash

Cyrus Faryar

March

1 Roger Daltry 2 John Cowsill

7 Donna Loren

8 MICKY DOLENZ

Ceil Cabot

9 Mark Lindsay

10 Dean Torrence

13 Neil Sedaka

Carolyn Travis

14 Arch Johnson

15 Mike Love

17 John Sebastian 19 Irene Davidson

48

Monkee Shines

Okay,

so you've read

about the disap-

pointing non-

encounter with David here in

June. Let me

fast forward

things seven

weeks. It is

now the middle

of summer, it is

Peter's turn up

at bat for Wa-

terfest, and

there hasn't

been a single rainout since David's week. (Not

that I'm bitter, mind you.) So,

naturally, when it came time for

Monkee Number Two, ol' Mother

Nature had to put a chance of

showers and thunderstorms in the

forecast. How wonderful for me.

But yet, I had very limited time to

even think about that, as I was

getting a houseguest that week.

(And no, it wasn't the return of the squirrel.)

My friend, and fellow

PFG member, Joyce Lopez had

been making plans for several

weeks to join me here in Oshkosh

for Peter's show. Traveling on the

Greyhound bus (My favorite

mode of transport! Not.) all the

way from St. Paul, MN. I've

known Joyce ever since I got

caught up with

the PFG in

1994. In fact, I

believe that we

both joined the Gang at the

same time. For

quite a while

during the Mon-

kees resurgence

in 1996 and 97,

we wrote pen

pal letters to

each other often,

and then kind of

lost touch over

the years as the guys went on with their lives, and

so did we. Then in March of last

year, Joyce surprised the heck out

of me with a happy birthday email

on my special day, and we've been

keeping in touch via cyberspace

since then.

Unlike the Davy Jones

show, (or non-show), back in June,

Joyce didn't have the luxury of

being put up at the resort where I work. The week of Peter's show

happened to coincide with the

week of the EAA, (short for Ex-

perimental Aircraft Association),

which is an unbelievably huge

aviation convention which attracts

close to 750,000 people to this area

every year. Needless to say that

every hotel in the general area is

booked solid that week. So, it was

Waterfest gets Saved By The Blues

Shoe Suede Blues in Oshkosh, WI, 7-29-04 Story & Photos by Shane Worden

49

Monkee Shines

philosophy is this: My memorabil-

ia does me no good sitting in boxes

somewhere, collecting dust. I pre-

fer to have my stuff out where I

can see it all the time. Hence, all of my autographed albums have

been professionally framed and put

on my walls, as have some promo-

tional JUSTUS posters and record

flats that I got through my local

music store. Even the handmade

poster that I had made and put on

my hotel room door that David had

signed behind our backs during

one of his weekends at the old La-

dy Luck in Bettendorf has found a

place in my abode. Lots of stuff like that. I think the enormity of it

all overwhelmed Joyce a bit upon

entering my apartment. But, by

the end of the evening, I had ALL

of my albums out, and had even

delved into the un-catalogued

wasteland that is my photo cache

in the cabinet beneath my TV.

Thank goodness Joyce came to

visit! I found things that night I

my pleasure to put her up in my

place. But that also meant a de-

gree of cleaning. You know the

drill--washing the dishes, vacuum-

ing the floor, squirrel-proofing the living room.... The plan was for

Joyce to come in at 5:30 PM

Wednesday night, which would

give us a whole evening to chat

and get caught up before concert

day on Thursday.

After getting out of work

(late) on Wednesday afternoon, I

had just enough time to get my

Mom's loaned inflatable mattress

together before it was time to go

and pick her up at the bus terminal. Surprisingly enough, the Grey-

hound was right on time.

Well...okay...if you want to be

picky it was 4 minutes late. But

man, given the experiences I've

had in the past, that's pretty darn

good. Even more so considering

the extra traffic and congestion

that the EAA brings into this area.

For a rookie Greyhound rider, I'd

say that Joyce had a pretty good experience. After a quick tour

through the area, including a drive

by my place of employment so

Joyce could at least get a glimpse

of the outside of the building, it

was off to my place for an evening

of Domino's pizza and Monkee

memories.

When Bonnie and Kimmi

stopped over at my apartment in

June during the Davy disaster,

Bonnie noted how my place looks like a Monkees museum. And I

suppose that's a pretty apt way of

putting it. Some people have pic-

tures of their family on the walls. I

have pictures of the Monkees. My

50

Monkee Shines

had even forgotten that I had! But

what a nice trip down memory

lane.

Needless to say, it was

quite late before we hit the hay that evening. Normally, that would be

a problem for me, especially dur-

ing the week of EAA, when things

are so busy at work at help is hard

to come by early on in the morn-

ing. But by hook or by crook, I

finagled my way into getting

Thursday off.

My ONLY day

off in what

became quite a

bit of a stretch actually, so I

allowed myself

the luxury of

sleeping in the

next morning.

Once we were

up and ready to

go that day, I

gave Joyce the

25 cent tour of

downtown Oshkosh: the

gift shop, CD

store, thrift

market, not to

mention the library and bookstore.

It was while going through the

latter two locations that Joyce real-

ly impressed me with her love for

the written word. It seemed as

though every other book we

looked at she had read at some

point or another. Totally unreal! After a stop at the local

Blimpe's for some takeout subs, we

made our way back to my place.

Our local oldies radio station had

been promoting a *supposed* in-

studio interview with Peter at 1:30,

so we wanted to be back home in

plenty of time for that. I also

wanted to check out the weather

report on the noon news to see if the forecast had improved at all.

Unfortunately, it had not, but still

things were not looking any worse

outside than they had previously

that day, so I remained hopeful.

We turned on the radio at

around 1:00, at which time Peter's

forthcoming

interview was

still being pro-

moted, but

when 1:30 came and went

without any-

thing further to

report, I knew

that something

must have hap-

pened. An on-

air caller even

asked the after-

noon deejay if

the interview was still going

to happen, to

which he an-

swered that he

hoped it would, but Peter seemed

to be operating on "rock star time".

To further add to the confusion, it

was announced on-air that Peter

was driving north from Milwau-

kee, because he wasn't able to pro-

cure any rooms here in Oshkosh

due to the EAA, and if anyone should happen to see the Monkee-

mobile driving north on Hwy. 41

to let the station know... All of

this is in direct negation to what

my friend Jacki, who interned at

51

Monkee Shines

Waterfest this summer, told me

about the Park Plaza hotel, (across

the street from the concert park),

reserving rooms for all the acts at

Waterfest *all summer long*. As it turns out from what I found out

after the fact, Jacki was right and

the radio station was wrong. Peter

was here, or at least in the general

area, all the time. I am not exactly

sure why the radio thing didn't

happen, then. Obviously some

lines of communication were

crossed.

And...as if to add insult to

injury...it was around this time that

it started to rain outside. (Hard!) I was beginning to get that old sink-

ing feeling, again. Not only for

myself, but for Joyce, too, who had

come all this way on the insuffera-

ble Greyhound for this. And I

couldn't even offer her the option

of phoning into the radio station to

at least speak with Peter that way.

All I could do was look out the

window and sigh.

By 2:30-3:00, however, the rain started to let up and even-

tually stopped! Encouraged by

this news, I hopped online to check

out the latest weather radar, and

sure enough it did appear as

though the line of storms that had

been threatening us was moving

off to the east, and there didn't

seem to be anything behind it to

keep the evening's show from tak-

ing place. Perhaps Waterfest had

been saved after all! After a call to Cindy to say "hello" a bit later,

Joyce and I headed down to the

concert park by quarter to five,

where already a small group of

fans were waiting outside the park

gate for the show. It was a good

thing that we got there when we

did too, as it was only a very short time later that people started lining

up by the droves. In fact, I think

the attendance for this particular

show will most likely turn out to

be the highest of the season. (Not

surprising, considering the air

show and the strength of the acts.)

One of the nice things

about Monkees concerts, (or at

least the ones that I have been to),

is that a person tends to see the

same fans in the same general area whenever one of the guys performs

within driving distance. This

proved to be no exception. Among

the familiar faces in the crowd was

Karen Barnes, a good friend of

Janet Litterio's. Not only is Karen

a big Monkees fan, but she and her

daughters are also big followers of

the Grass Roots, who happened to

be the headliners for this evening's

show, so they were really in their element. (As a little side note, both

the Grass Roots' keyboardist and

guitar player were on the Monkees'

1986 tour. I bet that it was really

something backstage, with every-

body knowing just about every-

body else.) It is always nice to see

some familiar faces in the crowd

and catch up on what everybody

has been doing.

By 6:00 the gates to the

park opened up, and Joyce and I took our position in front of the

stage pronto. It's always a good

thing to claim those spots as soon

52

Monkee Shines

as possible, as people aren't al-

lowed to set up lawn chairs or

blankets and then just leave them

in front of the stage. Stand you

must, and stand we did. There were to be three acts this evening,

with Peter and SSB being the se-

cond. The first was a local 80's

and 90's cover band called Sonic

Circus. They were pretty good;

Joyce seemed to like them, any-

way. I wasn't exactly "getting" the

guy in the tight leather pants

chucking cheapo stuffed carnival-

type animals into the audience, but

hey, everybody must have a gim-

mick I guess. The kids seemed to like it.

Shortly after Sonic Circus

ended their set, Joyce nudged me

and said that she had just spotted

Peter standing behind the stage.

And yup, there he was. I must

admit that this was a bit of an ex-

citing moment for me, too. After

dealing with Jones getting rained

out and not even seeing him once

while he was here, it was great to know that at least nothing was

going to stop this particular ex-

Monkee from taking the stage.

Peter and the rest of SSB were

very busy getting things set up for

their set while the first band was

packing up, but that didn't stop

Peter from clowning around a bit,

either. When he took the stage for

the first time to set up, and people

started to applaud, he looked

around with a goofy grin on his face that kind of said "Who are

you guys cheering for ?" I could

tell right away that Peter was in a

really good mood, and I was very

happy for that.

Once everything was set

up, one of the deejays from our

oldies station took the stage to

introduce the band, and off they

went for close to a 90 minute set. Almost the entire Saved By The

Blues album was played, with Pe-

ter handling most of the lead vo-

cals that Tadj Galleran had provid-

ed on the CD, as well as some

more obscure jtems like "Get What

You Pay For" from Peter's

Stranger Things Have Happened

album, "Mojo" and "Cross Cut

Saw" from the first (Live) SSB

album, "Lucille", and even a hand-

ful of Monkees hits, i.e. "A Little Bit Me...", "Daydream Believer",

"I'm A Believer", "Steppin' Stone",

"Auntie Grizelda" (complete with

the talking parrot imitation during

the song's bridge), and a complete-

ly (blues influenced) reworking of

"Clarksville" that I thought was

actually pretty neat. Joyce wasn't

too big on it, but I kind of like

hearing different arrangements of

familiar material every now and again.

Peter seemed to be having

a really good time on stage, even

when a minor snafu occurred. In

the middle of performing a song,

Peter managed to break a guitar

string, and had to do a quick repair

in between tunes. When Peter

mentioned what he was doing on

stage, a small group of fans ap-

plauded, to which Peter playfully

quipped that they were cheering because he broke the string. I

shouted out, (although I don't think

anybody heard me), "tell them you

tune because you care"! ;-) (I

should mention that Peter was not

53

Monkee Shines

the only person to have a guitar

string break onstage. The same

thing happened to Dusty Hanvey

of the Grass Roots just a short

while later. Must have been some-thin' in the air.) At another point

in the show, an older gentleman

who was to the left of me in front

of the stage shouted at Peter be-

tween songs that he had seen him

before on TV. (I think the guy was

a little tanked.) Peter took it all in

stride and joked that it was a good

thing that he had,

because it would

be alarming if he

had seen him on his washing ma-

chine.

While

Richard Mikuls

and Michael Sun-

day stuck to guitar

and bass duties

respectively, Peter

and John Palmer

doubled up on

instruments when-ever possible.

Peter played both

keyboards and

guitar during the

show, and John blew me away by

handling a blues harp (harmonica)

solo AND drum duties at the same

time! Pretty amazing, if you ask

me, since John was playing the

drums with one hand and playing

the harp with the other. While

Tork and Mikuls shared lead vocal duties, I noticed that even Michael

Sunday, who has had such a repu-

tation for not wanting to sing, was

even doing background vocals

whenever it was necessary. Need-

less to say, I was impressed at how

this band has matured and grown

over the course of their history.

They put out an amazing amount

of sound for a four piece act. At the end of the show,

Peter announced that he and the

band would be selling CDs and

signing autographs as the merchan-

dise table to the left of the stage

immediately following the show,

so as soon as the band was fin-

ished, Joyce and I surrendered our

front of the stage

vantage point to go

talk to the guys.

Now, I have seen Peter solo a num-

ber of times, and

while I can say

that I've never

seen him signing

for people while in

a foul mood, I've

never exactly seen

him in the kind of

giddy mood he

seemed to be in this night. In fact,

he was downright

chatty! Cracking

jokes with people,

graciously posing for photos, talk-

ing with everybody who said hel-

lo...that was Peter that night.

In addition to my older

copy of Saved By the Blues, which

sports an earlier group shot of the

band, and which all of the band

members noted as being an "original", I had Peter sign my

copy of the Headquarters Sessions

CD set. Since this title is now out

of print from Rhino, I figured that

this item will have some value

54

Monkee Shines

about to start their set.

Of course, by the time we

got back to the stage, the crowd

standing in front certainly had not

diminished in size, and we knew that it would be impossible to even

try to get back where we were

again. So, we spent about twenty

minutes or so watching from the

back of the crowd standing in front

of the stage, which to be honest

didn't provide the best view. In

addition, we were right in front of

the right speaker pointing into the

crowd, and the sound coming out

of that was absolutely deafening.

After a short while of putting up with that, Joyce motioned to me

that she would rather go back to

my place and unwind, which was

fine by me. I had an early 6 AM

start time at work the next day, and

we had gotten what we came for

anyway. On the way out, I again

down the road, and the autograph

can only help. Peter signed the

back of the box, and told me to

look at his signature because "it's a

joke". And he asked me if I got it. Sure enough, I did. The back of

the box shows a picture of the

Monkees which is slightly distort-

ed to give them the appearance of

being stretched out. Peter signed

his autograph in exactly the same

way....elongated and "stretched

out". He mentioned that this was

the first time he had signed the set

in that particular way, so I guess I

have something of a collector's

item after all! Thanks, Peter! :-) There was quite a crowd

waiting for autographs, which I

was really happy to see. That's a

really good sign that we can look

to have Shoe Suede Blues back

again in future years. Peter and the

guys patiently took their turn with

everybody. I even saw them giv-

ing a little special attetion to a big

music fan that I know a little bit

who happens to be around my age, but is paralyzed from the waist

down and uses a wheelchair. I was

happy to see him get his autograph

and photo. I know that made him

really happy. After the crowd

wore down a little bit, Joyce asked

if I would be willing to go back up

to the merchandise table with her

so she could get a photo with Pe-

ter. (She didn't want to bother him

with that while he was so busy

signing, which I totally under-stood.) So, after a quick photo

with Peter, (which I have yet to

see...what's up with that, Joyce?!),

we made our way back to the stage

for the Grass Roots, who were just

55

Monkee Shines

made a note of the size of the

crowd. I was glad to know that

Peter played for such a good audi-

ence that evening.

Back at my place, we tried to unwind a bit, but the going

was hard. At least it was for me. I

really cannot communicate to you

how surreal it has been for me this

summer to have the Monkees here

in my hometown, after all the

years of travel to see their shows.

To walk two blocks and see one of

the Monkees live, for a fan like

me, is a fairly mind-blowing expe-

rience, and to be honest, I am still

kind of pinching myself that I've seen Peter, (and Micky, which

you'll read about soon), here. It

was a pretty tired day at work for

me the next morning, but also a

contented one. A few of my

coworkers in the hotel dining room

told me that they were glad that the

show hadn't rained out, because

they were going to call in sick the

next morning if it had. (Okay, I

guess I was a little bitter for a

while in June after all.)

Joyce spent an extra day

here in Oshkosh, so while I was at

work, she and my Mom went out

shopping! (Hope you had a good time, Joyce! My Mom says hel-

lo...) After I got off of work, we

went over to my mom and step

dad's house for a nice little evening

cookout, where Joyce got to meet

our family dog, Snickers, (who

also says...or woofs...hello), as

well. Saturday morning saw

Joyce's return on the Greyhound,

which I understand except for a

pretty tight layover stop along the

way went pretty smoothly. I was so glad that things went as well as

they had. SSB's inaugural Wiscon-

sin appearance was a total success,

and I can only hope that they'll be

back again for a return visit soon....

Thanks to the Waterfest folks for

booking the show, SSB who got

here and made it happen, and to

Joyce, my partner in crime for the

show. Waterfest has indeed been

saved by the blues...

56

Monkee Shines

It appears as though Peter has been taking it easy over the

past couple of months, as there is a substantial lack of news

to report on the Tork front just lately. He did put in a solo

appearance in Frederick, MD this past November 20th to

help raise funds for the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation,

but hasn't had any scheduled dates either with James Lee

Stanley or Shoe Suede Blues since then. Fear not, Torka-

holics, summer will come (eventually) and we are very sure

there will be new dates added as it draws closer.

The live Two Man Band album featuring Peter and James

we mentioned last time is still in production, but should be

out sometime this year. Keep checking www.petertork.com

and www.jamesleestanley.com for updates on that project.

And don't forget that Peter's previous work with 2MB is

available through these sites as well!

Peter’s News

Visit www.petertork.com for the latest news on Peter & Shoe Suede

57

Monkee Shines

David’s News

Visit www.davyjones.net for the latest Davy news!

Jones fans in the UK were in for a treat on November 30th when

ITV1 aired a special that looked back at a number of "The Kids From Cor-

onation Street". The press release for the show mentioned that David

kicked off his television career on the program. Check out the PFG website at http://purpleflowergang.tripod.com for a link to a gallery of photographs

from this special, which include recent as well as vintage pictures of David.

U.S. fans also enjoyed a new television special that featured David

on November 25th when the cable station VH-1 Classic aired "A Very

Classic Thanksgiving". The special found Dee "Twisted Sister" Snider,

MC Hammer, Davy "The Monkees" Jones, Lisa Lisa of "Lisa Lisa and Cult

Jam," Eddie Money and Terri "Berlin" Nunn at the "grown ups' table" shar-

ing a traditional holiday feast at the Hard Rock Café in New York and a

high-energy conversation on many topics.

David also presented at the World Travel Awards that were held

in Barbados on December 11th. The official Jones website at

www.davyjones.net reports that this is "an event dedicated to the tremen-dous contributions and achievements of the travel industry and has been

deemed the most spectacular so far by industry leaders." There are some

photos of David from this event on his website.

David's latest installment to his "Keeping Up With The Joneses"

journal on his website details, in part, his thoughts on the recent Lockport,

IL show, and includes some additional photos from this wonderful week-

end that went way too fast. Keep checking back for more entries to this

great addition to the website as Jones continues to write them.

The winter's looking pretty slow in solo concert activity, but there

are dates for the new year that are starting to come in, including an interest-

ing show in March with the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra. The latest dates are:

Thu 03/10/05 Saint Charles, MO--Ameristar Casino

Tue 03/15/05 Williamsport, PA--Williamsport Symphony

Sat 04/02/05 Staten Island, NY--College Of Staten Island

Fri 04/15/05 through Mon 04/18/05 Lake Buena Vista, FL--Epcot Center

58

Monkee Shines

Micky’s News

Visit www.mickydolenz.com for all the latest news on Micky!

There's so much going on with both Micky and Coco that it's hard

to know where to start! The really big news is that by the time you read

this, Micky will have started his new position as the weekday morning (6-

10 AM) on-air personality at New York City's WCBS-FM (101.1). Micky

was quoted in a recent article that "the people who really know me well, when I told them I was taking this radio job, all said, 'What took you so

long?' This is not a disc jockey position. This is a personality position. In

my own mind, I'm thinking of it as an arts and culture and current affairs

and lifestyle program. The only thing old about the show is the music."

Subscribers to broadband AOL can listen to the station live on the their

website at www.wcbsfm.com

Initially it was reported that Micky was to soon direct an Australi-

an independent film entitled "G'Day LA". The movie centers on two broth-

ers living in the outback who dream of going to California and meeting

their pin-up gal. The recent acquisition of Micky's new radio position has

reduced his input into the project, although it has been reported that he still

plans to contribute a cameo appearance to the film. In even more exciting news, Coco Dolenz was kind enough to

send us a wonderful email over the Christmas holiday which, in part, de-

tailed information on a BRAND NEW live album that she is about to make

available. The album is a recording of a Coco solo show entitled "Songs

>From My Music Stand" that was recorded at the Espresso Garden Cafe in

San Jose, CA on November 19th. Coco reports that "the CD from the show

is in production and yes you can obtain a copy. It should be ready in a few

weeks. Just send $20 (covers handling etc....) to me c/o CSA 400 Reed St

Suite D Santa Clara, CA 95050."

Coco also shared with us that she and Micky were spending the

holidays in the Caribbean, "doing some shows and taking it easy!!!" And there will still be more Micky and Coco shows coming up in the new year.

This is the current schedule as of press time:

Fri 02/25/05 Uncasville, CT--Mohegan Sun Casino

Thu 03/24/05 Chester, WV--Mountaineer Race Track & Resort

Fri 06/24/05 Homestead, IL--Marie Irwin Center

Sat 07/16/05 Woodstock, GA--City Park

59

Monkee Shines

Mike’s News

Visit www.videoranch.com for the latest on Mike!

On November 20th, Nez put in a rare public appearance via the

radio waves on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!" The comedic bit that

Mike appeared in, entitled "You're The Nation's Pre-eminent Conservative

Columnist" had Mike answering three questions about the life and times of

William Safire as he retires from The New York Times. You can find a link to listen to an archive of this show on our webpage at http://

purpleflowergang.tripod.com

New to the store at Videoranch is The Best of Michael Nesmith

songbook. Videoranch reports that "this is the first ever sheet music collec-

tion of songs written by Nez and was well worth the wait. It also contains a

CD of the 20 songs from the book, perfect for playing along or just listen-

ing to." The price is $24.95. Check out Mike's website for all the ordering

information.

Videoranch has been adding more downloadable Nesmith albums

to their site. Both the "Newer Stuff" and "Older Stuff" albums are availa-ble for download at $9.99 each. Keep checking back for additions as they

become available!

60

Monkee Shines

I had a great road trip

going to Las Vegas to see Davy.

My friend, Kathleen, flew

from Washington to San Francis-

co, California to hook up with me. On our way to Los Angeles, we

made a couple of stops before

heading south on the “5” freeway.

I asked Kathleen what

tape she wanted to start our trip

with. She picked Peter Tork’s

Stranger Things Have Happened.

Just as it started, we crossed the

street “Clarksville. The next street

was “Nesmith”. This was on our

way to see Davy!

I figured all 4 Monkees

were covered right there!

We met up with Liesl at

Henry Diltz’ house. We left for

Vegas from there. Davy’s show was excel-

lent! The best of his I’d ever seen.

He was “ON” the whole evening.

He did everything from “Oliver”

to Monkees and more.

All I can say is

“Excellent!”

Viva Las Vegas By Pat Smith

Clarksville Road and Nesmith Court in

Folsom, California

61

Monkee Shines

Photos by Pat Smith

62

Monkee Shines

Alright, boys and girls, you've

come this far. Might as well come

all the way now. It's Micky and

Coco's turn up to bat now at Wa-

terfest and the weather looked pretty good. As Cindy mentioned

in the last newsletter, this past

summer has been particularly

weird in the weather department.

It rained to death in the early part

of the summer, and then got down-

right chilly in the later weeks.

Felix Cavaliere got the worst of

our cold August temps on the 12th,

and the Dolenz kids got it almost

as bad on the 19th. But the good

news is that we can deal with the chilly temps...and I don't really

think that it affected attendance all

that badly.

After a couple of failed at-

tempts at meeting up at Waterfest

this past summer, (the last being

for Paul Revere & The Raiders a

few weeks prior, and to be fair she

did have a good excuse), PFG

member and longtime friend Ron-

da Russell and I finally got a chance to visit at this show. As an

added bonus, Ronda brought her

friend Kris with her. The two of

them had actually been around for

the Jones show in June, but high-

tailed it out of town when the

weather started becoming uncoop-

erative. And I really can't say that

I blamed them much there. This

day, Kris needed to drop her kids

off with relatives in Appleton, (a

short distance north of Oshkosh), and then the two of them were

going to drive back, check in at my

humble place of employment and

meet me at the concert grounds.

As for myself, I decided to head

down to the concert grounds early,

not just because I wanted to try

and save some spots for Ronda and

Kris if I could, but also because I

knew some other acquaintances of

mine would be showing up sooner as opposed to later, and thought it

would be nice to hang out with

them for a while, as well.

So, around 3:00, I made the

short two block journey down to

the park. As I was crossing the last

street to actually get to the grounds

I was about ten paces behind a guy

in a floral shirt and a panama hat.

It was right around this time that

the same little feeling I got when I

recognized Aviva checking in at the hotel in Lockport last year

Micky and Coco at Waterfest--Oshkosh, WI 8/19/04 Story and Photos By Shane Worden

63

Monkee Shines

crept back into me. The feeling

that said that this can't possibly be

who I think it is, but yet...it was!

Sure enough, I was walking direct-

ly behind Micky, who diverted his course toward the direction of the

stage. My timing couldn't have

been better if I had tried. Sound

check was about to start!

The friends that I had been ex-

pecting early at the park had just

arrived themselves, and duly no-

ticed the main attraction as well.

After a couple minutes of setting

up, both Micky AND Coco came

out for the sound check. As Bon-

nie and Cindy can also attest, the old chestnut about the star never

coming out to do sound check does

not always hold true. We didn't

exactly have a bird,s eye view of

the proceedings, (we had to watch

from the entrance gate to the park

about 20 feet or so away from the

front of the stage), but we still had

a pretty good side view of what

was going on. It kind of felt like

the ten to fifteen of us who had gathered by the end of sound check

were getting our own little private

concert.

Micky, Coco and the band went

through the entire show, some-

times doing parts of songs twice to

make sure they got it right. When-

ever they would finish a song, our

little group would applaud and

cheer for them. It took a little

while for her to catch on to exactly

where we were, but when Coco spotted our group, she really

played it up for us; waving and

gesturing us to cheer enthusiasti-

cally every time they ended some-

thing. It was really kind of funny,

as well as a lot of fun.

The greatest part about that

whole experience, though, was that

both Micky and Coco made their

way over to the entrance gate after they were through and stuck

around for pictures and autographs

for a few minutes. That, I thought,

was a very nice gesture on both

their parts. Since Micky was right

there in front of me, I had him sign

my Headquarters Sessions set,

(now sporting three of the four

Monkees' autographs, thank you

very much!), and figured that

would be one less item to deal with

in the madhouse that always con-stitutes autograph lines following

most concerts. One particular

teenage fan was caught completely

off guard by Micky and Coco's

surprise greeting, and scrambled

for a slip of paper for Micky to

sign. Later we learned that it was

her back to school list. (But not

anymore!)

Micky pretty much signed and

64

Monkee Shines

ran, but Coco stayed around for a

while and spent a good fifteen

minutes or so talking with anybody

who happened to say hello. I had a

brief, but very nice conversation with her about everything in gen-

eral and nothing in particular. Co-

co said that everybody had got into

town rather late the evening be-

fore, so they really didn't have

much of a chance to take a large

look around town, but was particu-

larly interested in hearing about

Oshkosh, and the Waterfest con-

cert series that she and Micky were

a part of that evening. After a few

minutes of chatting, she made her way back to the hotel as well in

order to get ready for the show

By the time the gates opened up

at 6 PM, there was the usual long

line of locals and concert regulars,

including Karen Barnes and her

clan who I've talked about a little

in the previous Peter review, wait-

ing to get in. Still no Ronda and

Kris yet, though. So as soon as

security started letting us in, I hightailed it over to the bandstand

and did my best to keep some

spots open for the two of them

when they showed up. In the inter-

im, a few of the younger fans who

found had procured some front row spots proceeded to do a little

undercover cosmetic surgery to the

banner hanging off the front of the

stage proclaiming that "Mickey

Dolenz" would be performing that

evening. While I don't necessarily

agree on tampering with property

that isn't yours, I do admire the

effort to try and correct this

spelling error that's been plaguing

both Micky and Davy since time

out of mind. Nobody's going to know it's wrong if nobody does

anything about it, right?

Shortly before the first band of

the evening, a local group called

Spicy Tie, was about to take the

stage, Ronda and Kris showed up

and we were able to talk for just a

few minutes before things got

started. It had been quite a while--

a few years in fact--since I had last

seen Ronda, (at a different Micky and Coco show as chance would

have it), and this was my first

meeting with Kris. Just like with

Joyce at the SSB show, this was

the first Monkees-related show that

either of them had been at in some

time. (How can one survive with-

out their annual requirement of

Monkees?)

After some initial "howdys",

the show was underway. Spicy

Tie was pretty good, but the se-cond act, another local group

called The Friends kind of put me

off. These guys have something of

a cult following in the area. They

had, in fact, recorded a couple of

65

Monkee Shines

singles in the late 60's/early 70's.

But it seemed to me that their fol-

lowing consisted of little more

than their rowdy bar buddies who

would periodically worm their way to our own rightfully earned places

in front of the stage to hand them

free beer and yell their drunken

approval at them. Charming. I

will say that the lead guitarist's use

of an old beer bottle to play slide

guitar was somewhat entertaining.

That's about all I have to say there.

Then at long last, having al-

ready spent a number of hours on

our feet, it was time for the main

event. I noticed a lot of familiar faces--Wayne Avers and Jerry

Renino among them--setting up the

stage just before they got started.

Since I was front and center by the

stage, I had a pretty good look at

the set list that was taped down by

the front monitors. I considered

taking a photo, but determined that

it probably wouldn't turn out very

well....

Once was all was ready to go, Micky was introduced to a large

cheer, and off he and Coco went

with a ninety minute set that didn't

slow down one bit. The set list

included: Last Train, Steppin'

Stone, That Was Then This Is

Now, The Girl I knew Somewhere,

Randy Scouse Git, For Pete's Sake,

A Little Bit Me, Too Much Mon-

key Business, Since I Fell For

You, Circle Sky, Goin' Down,

Daydream Believer, Pleasant Val-ley Sunday and I'm A Believer.

Micky interwove stories about

his family, his start in show busi-

ness and the Monkees in between

most of his songs. He covered

everything from the Monkees' au-

dition process, (mentioning that he

played Johnny B Goode on guitar

for the producers--this was his

introduction to Too Much Monkey Business), to meeting the Beatles,

and talking about the kind of music

that he grew up on, which was a

nice segue into some of Coco's

material and Micky's Since I Fell

For You.

Coco did have opportunities for

some solo songs as well which

included: Different Drum, (which

Micky introduced as a song that

Mike Nesmith didn't write for the

Monkees--that jerk, added with a well-meaning laugh), the down

and dirty blues interpretation of

Del Shannon's Runaway, Route 66,

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and a

"unplanned" duet between she and

Micky called "Blackbird". This

song was done acapella, (or Aca-

pulco as Micky puts it). I've seen

this song done live a number of

times now, and it still remains my

favorite in their shows. It's got some complex rhythms and harmo-

nies that really showcase what

great voices Micky and Coco have.

It's really something to hear, and

I'm so glad that Coco has included

a live recording on her CD reissue

of "In The Silence".

Just like Peter and David,

Micky has also got his usual funny

bits that he puts into his solo

shows, and this one wasn't any

exception. He introduced Since I Fell with his PMS, (pre-Monkee

singing) comment, and did the

ceremonial lowering of his micro-

phone in honor of David before he

sang his own version of Daydream

66

Monkee Shines

Believer. There was even an actu-

al alarm clock used as a prop for

this song. I caught Coco out of the

corner of my eye winding it up to

set it off just as Micky was starting the song. (I like acts that bring

their own props!) During the

show, one audience member stand-

ing near us held up an old teen

magazine that had a picture of both

Micky and Coco as youngsters in

it. Coco spotted it right away,

nudged Micky as he was about to

introduce a song, and pointed it

out. The two of them had a fun

time talking about those days for a

moment, with Coco mentioning that she was the *natural* blonde.

(Micky had his hair dyed for his

role on Circus Boy.)

As always, I couldn't believe

how quickly the time just flew by.

Traditionally, an encore is in order

as a concert is ending, but this one

got so close to ending at 10:30,

(the cut-off time for live outdoor

performances by way of city ordi-

nance), that Micky and Coco were-n't able to do that. That's the bad

news. The good news is that while

everybody else waited in front of

the stage for an encore that didn't

happen, (and Jerry Renino did

come out to say why), Ronda, Kris

and I had already managed to

sneak our way over to the mer-

chandise table to the right of the

stage in order to get in and out of

the autograph line as soon as possi-

ble. I noticed that much of Micky's

usual merchandise from his web-

site was for sale at the table, but

was a little dismayed that he didn't

have any copies of his newly up-

dated autobiography for offer. I

did, however, pick up a new T-

shirt that they were selling, as well

as Coco's CD. Got my autograph

on the CD, as well as the poster that I had David sign (finally) at

the Lockport show last year with

Cindy and got the heck out of

there. Once Ronda and Kris had

their opportunity to get through the

line, we headed over to the Park

Plaza across the street for a little

post-concert relaxation. By this

time, we had all been on our feet

for over 4 hours, and we needed to

sit!

As per my previous experiences with the Waterfest acts this past

summer, I knew that most of

Micky and Coco's band, and may-

be the two of them as well, would

turn up at the lounge, and I wasn't

disappointed. Surprisingly

enough, however, nobody really

bothered the Dolenz siblings at all.

They kind of stayed in their own

little corner of the room, not both-

ering anybody, and nobody bother-ing them. In fact, most of the peo-

ple who were in the lounge but not

at the show didn't even have any

idea of who they were until one of

us told them. Besides, Ronda and

Kris were having WAY too much

fun without them. (Who can for-

get JoJo, right gals?) At one point

in the lounge, somebody asked for

a few Monkees songs from the guy

who was running the music that

night, (the same one, in fact, who was there when the Jones contin-

gent had their Wasted Day and

Wasted Night here in Oshkosh),

and while he got Last Train off

without a problem, the lounge

67

Monkee Shines

manager put a quick kibosh on

anything else, saying that he didn't

want to make Micky uncomforta-

ble. Oh, well.....

After a while, the Dolenz sib-lings left for the night, and so did

we. It was getting to be WAAAY

late for me, but I understand that

Ronda and Kris hightailed it back

to the Pioneer and played in the

pool all night! I hope you enjoyed

that. The pool's off limits now!

Until renovations are done next

season, anyway. I met the two of

them for breakfast in the morning

in the restaurant which I call my

base of operations most of the time at work, and saw them on their

way.

With the exception of Joyce and

the SSB show, it seems that every-

body who has come to visit with

me during Waterfest this year has

had a devil of a time trying to get

back out! The Litterios', Kimmi

and Bonnie had flood problems

back in June, and Ronda and Kris

had to deal with an accident on Hwy. 41 out of town that detoured

traffic significantly. What's up

with that? I think they all just

should have stayed in Oshkosh and

took up permanent residence. And

to make matters worse, once Ron-

da and Kris got back on the right

track on their way home, they got

into their OWN accident on the road! Thankfully, nobody was

hurt, and it wasn't THEIR fault, but

man! What a price to pay!

I am thankful, though, that the

two of them were able to come in

for the Dolenz show. As I said

above, it had been way too long

since I had seen Ronda, and it was

a real pleasure to meet Kris, too. I

am especially thankful to Micky

and Coco, and their band, for put-

ting on a great show, and for being so accommodating to all the fans

who came to see them. (Your gra-

ciousness after sound check by the

entrance gate will never be forgot-

ten. Thank you!) Also, I want to

acknowledge one last time the

good folks who put the Waterfest

concert series together here in

Oshkosh. They do a marvelous

job every year, and it just keeps

getting better. Hopefully the addi-tion of the now "under-

construction" community band-

shell will be a draw to get David,

Peter and Micky to come back in

future years. Keep

watching the concert

schedules, and look

for us down at the

park the next time

they "may be comin'

to my town"!

68

Monkee Shines

Christmas Greetings from Hazel, Ken & Robert