About

Below you'll find info about the band

David Jones

One of the vocalists of The Monkees in the 60's - Born in 1945 in Manchester, the only member of the band to come from the UK. Davy spent from '66 to '71 with the group and the other members loved his stage dynamic!

Micky Dolenz

Dolenz's career started early in 1956 when he played Corky for a TV show called Circus Boy. Micky was also a drummer for the band but didn't know how to play before the TV show started, this lead to him having to mime whilst on screen!

Michael Nesmith

Nesmith was and still is performing in the band, he has been playing the guitar for the band since the kick off of the show in the 60's, in more recent history he has been an executive producer in the film industry for the cult film Repo Man.

Peter Tork

Peter was only hired in the band and for the show due to a friend of his suggesting (after he had failed the audition) that he should go and do it. He is attributed with writing a lot of the music and playing the bass for the band.

Inception

The Monkees are an American rock and pop band originally active between 1966 and 1971, with reunion albums and tours in the decades that followed. They were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider specifically for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968. The musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork; and the English actor and singer Davy Jones. The band's music was initially supervised by producer Don Kirshner, backed by the songwriting duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

Breaking Up

The four actor-musicians were initially allowed only limited roles in the recording studio for the first few months of their five-year career as "the Monkees". This was due in part to the amount of time required to film the television series. Nonetheless, Nesmith did compose and produce some songs from the beginning, and Tork contributed limited guitar work on the sessions produced by Nesmith. All four contributed lead vocals to various tracks. They eventually fought for the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the band's name, acting as musicians, singers, songwriters and producers. Following the television show's cancellation in 1968, the Monkees continued to record music until 1971, after which the group broke up.

Revival

A revival of interest in the television show came in 1986, which led to a series of reunion tours and new records. The group has reunited and toured several times since then with different line-ups and varying degrees of success. Jones died in February 2012 and Tork died in February 2019. Dolenz and Nesmith remain active members of the group. Dolenz described The Monkees as initially being "a TV show about an imaginary band... that wanted to be the Beatles that was never successful". Ironically, the success of the show led to the actor-musicians becoming one of the most successful bands of the 1960s. The Monkees have sold more than 75 million records worldwide making them one of the biggest selling groups of all time with international hits, including "Last Train to Clarksville", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Daydream Believer", and "I'm a Believer". Newspapers and magazines reported that the Monkees outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in 1967, but Nesmith claims in his autobiography Infinite Tuesday that it was a lie that he told a reporter.