Back in July last year, I was forced to give a sharp rap over the knuckles to that section of the pop world who insist on pushing out untrue stories about the Monkees… the rumour-mongers! And it now seems that the sting of that rap has worn off—’cos the rumour-mob are at it again!
First let’s take something comparatively simple. Like whether Davy Jones was due to be in Britain over the Easter period. Somebody starts off the story that he’s definitely booked his flight. So fans start ringing the Airport, the Monkees Monthly offices—and daily newspapers. “Is it true?”, they ask. We tell fans that we really don’t know because Davy himself didn’t, at that time, know whether he could find the time to visit his relations here.
But other papers don’t want a half-and-half story. So it gets written up in a definite way… YES, he is coming; NO, he’s not. Everyone gets very confused specially the fans who are trying to plan their holidays and also want to meet him at the Airport if there is the slightest chance of him coming over.
Pure rumour-spreading started the whole scene off. But, alas, some of the blame for indecision, of plan-changing, rubs off on Davy!
Who, needless to say, hasn’t tried to mislead anyone and hasn’t said anything at all simply because he wasn’t sure WHERE he’d be at Easter.
Still, that’s all over and done with now. But what about the romantic involvements of the Monkees? Davy and Lulu; Micky and Samantha.
Wembley Permalink
Davy first. He met Lulu during the concerts at Wembley last year. The way they met is absolutely true because we printed it and the words came straight from Lulu’s lovely mouth. He went into her dressing-room and asked if she would mind signing some autographs. He put his arm round her, asked if she would do him a big favour and go out and meet his two sisters who’d come down for the show on that Sunday… and who were great Lulu fans.
Since then, they’ve got on extremely well. They make no secret of the fact that they like each other a lot. But it only embarrasses both of them when the rumour-mongers get to work and put round stories that they are (a) actually married; (b) will soon be married; or (c) have just had a raging great row and have decided never to speak to each other again!
Micky and Samantha? Again, we printed the full round-by-round story of how their romance started. We keep you in touch, from Micky himself, on their movements and activities. But the rumours still fly.
Like the “absolutely” true story that went round a couple of weeks ago. It started off simply that Micky and Sammy had got married. Then the details were added in. Some people even claimed to know what colour dress Sammy was wearing—and who went along to the ceremony with Micky. An alarming addition was that one of the other Monkees absolutely refused to go to the wedding because of a violent row with Micky.
Oh yeah? Well, of course it is always just possible that they had nipped off quietly and got married. But they’ve said nothing about it. And remember we were talking to Micky on the Transatlantic telephone within a few hours of when the “event” was “supposed” to have taken place. He didn’t mention anything about getting married! Which would seem a little odd if the story, the rumour, had been based on fact.
There are the other rumours about the future of the Monkees’ television shows. Pay no heed. Let the others fall into the trap of printing unconfirmed stories… but don’t take any notice of them. Keep tuned in to Monkees Monthly, for a start.
And do what you can to help stamp out the rumour-mongers—especially the ones who specialise in spreading only harmful stories about our fabulous Monkees.
