Highlights of The Monkees’ Tour

Here’s the inside story of what really happened to Davy, Micky, Mike and Peter on their outasite summer splash!

About the author: David Price is Davy’s stand-in on the Monkee TV show and also in charge of the Monkee’s equipment on their tours. He always travels with them wherever they go and keeps Monkee Spectacular and TIGER BEAT readers right up to date on what’s happening.

Everybody keeps asking me… “What’s it like to really live with the Monkees?” Well, it’s quite an experience in more ways than one. So, in this article I’m going to tell you some things that happened on our tour and then you can judge for yourselves… what it’s like to live with the Monkees.

Paris Permalink

When we did the shooting of the Monkee show in Paris last July, I had a chance to get to know the boys better than ever. You see, in France, they’re unknown and this made it easy for them to walk around the streets without any fans bothering them.

Mike was more cool than ever and got a great charge out of just roaming the streets and not signing any autographs. Mike’s really interested in a lot of things and this three day spree gave him a chance to stroll around, look at different art objects, and study people. I remember he said how good it was to be able to look at everyone else for a change instead of having everyone staring at you.

Peter the Frenchman Permalink

Peter’s the only Monkee who can speak French so he probably had a better time than the other three. He talked to everyone, and he got around a lot better because he could ask for directions in the right language. Peter makes friends very easily. Some people have told me that they think Peter is very hard to get to know. This is only true if Peter doesn’t dig the person. Actually, Peter is very friendly and open to people he likes being with.

Micky and Samantha Permalink

Sam flew over to Paris to see Micky while we were there. She had been to Paris many times before and she showed Micky all the craziest clubs in town. If you remember, Sam was also Micky’s guide around London last year when he went there on his vacation. For those of you who want to know about her, I think Sam could be described as a quiet, considerate kind of girl. She’s very calm in disposition; quite different from Micky. She has this feminine quality about her. She rarely thinks about herself first; always the other person.

Anyway, one day in Paris, Micky showed up for the day’s shooting wearing a French policeman’s hat. Nobody knew where he got it and Micky wouldn’t tell. We knew he didn’t buy it, though. To this day, it’s still a secret, but it is one of his favorite hats.

Davy and clothes Permalink

We filmed a whole day in the Flea Market in Paris. This is sort of an open place where they sell almost everything you can think of. Davy bought a fabulous black stovepipe top hat for himself. When the director saw him in it, he asked Davy to wear it in the show. So when you see this segment next season on TV, you’ll know that Davy’s wearing his own hat.

He also bought a blue military jacket and he wore this in the show, too. Davy can’t resist buying clothes… for himself and any of his friends who might be along.

Girls in Paris Permalink

There were no actual dates for the Monkees in Paris. The boys did hang around with some of the French girls who worked on the TV segment we were filming. They tried to teach Micky, Davy and Mike French, but there just wasn’t enough time to learn anything.

Opinions on France Permalink

The Monkees really flipped over the beauty of Paris. But, none of them really dug the French food. Everyone kept wanting a good, old fashioned steak dinner and in Paris the French put sauce on everything. One night Mike found a really groovy Hungarian restaurant and he thought the goulash was outasite.

London lowdown Permalink

The big news about England was the fact that there were more people at the Monkees’ press conference than had attended Winston Churchill’s conference in World War II. Most of us don’t remember back that far, but it really had been the most important press conference in the history of England and now the Monkees’ had topped it.

It was really a groove being backstage with the Monkees before they went out before the 400 English newspapermen who were there to question them. In case you don’t know, the English newsmen aren’t known to be the world’s friendliest. In fact, they love knocking American performers and it would have pleased them if the Monkees had been really stupid in their answers. Fortunately, I can tell you that all four Monkees responded well to the questions and were quite witty in their replies.

I won’t bother repeating the questions they asked because you probably know all the right answers already. But I will tell you that the reporters tried to get the Monkees to say something controversial like John Lennon’s statement about Christ or Paul McCartney’s statement about drugs. The Monkees were all too smart for them. They just joked back at the questions and the reporters loved it.

Mike was asked more questions than any of the other Monkees because he seems to be the quietest and they were trying to get him to talk. Davy wound up doing most of the talking and you know Davy, he’s a very groovy conversationalist. I think Davy was more at ease than the others because England is his home.

Concert getaways Permalink

The concerts were all groovy in England. They gave five and almost all of them were sell-outs. A funny things happened at the Friday concert. One of our security men spotted a boy in the audience who resembled Davy. He had long hair and everything so the officer asked him to come back stage.

After the concert our security guards used this boy as a decoy. All the fans thought he was Davy so they mobbed him and let the other Monkees get away. This trick worked so well, we may use it at other concerts.

Big Beatle party Permalink

There was a big party held for the Monkees and the Beatles came, but we won’t talk about that here because in another section of the magazine there’s a whole story about the Beatles and the Monkees.

Shopping in London Permalink

East Indian clothes are very big in London right now. You know, the long Mandarin coats and things like that. Davy flipped over these and bought quite a few. Carnaby Street is really out now in England so Davy shopped at Dandy’s Fashions and places like this.

Phyllis flew in to see Mike in London and the two of them ran off to Biba’s to buy some new clothes for Phyllis. Mike also bought a new Mini (auto, this is) in London. Mike and Phyllis really dig buying things, but then, I guess we all do.

Speaking of buying things, Micky did the most outasite thing you’ve ever heard of in London. He arranged to buy one of these big two decker London buses. You know the ones I mean… those where the people can sit on the top floor outside and then there’s an enclosed bottom side. Well, his plan is this. He’s going to have the bus shipped over to New York and then drive it from New York to California after the inside is decorated in a real groovy style. Who knows, Micky may be driving through your own town soon.

Dates in London Permalink

Micky didn’t date anyone but Samantha in London. But Davy dated several different girls for various parties. Peter had little time for girls because Brian Jones of the Stones, who Peter met in Monterey, was busy showing Peter all the spots of interest around the city.

Davy did get a chance to have a quiet two day reunion with his father. Mr. Jones was feeling well when Davy visited him and this made Davy very happy because Davy has been worried about his father the past few months. When Davy got back from the visit, he was all smiles. The relationship between Davy and Mr. Jones is one of the finest I’ve ever seen between a father and son.

Back to the U.S.A. Permalink

The pace in the States was just as hectic as overseas, but I’ll tell you all about that in this month’s TiGER BEAT (October issue) on sale at your local newsstand on September 7th.