Wembley Arena, March 19. 1997

The Monkees U.K.-tour was a great event in all of Europe. Because it was the first time for many fans to get a chance to see all four Monkees live, people had flown in to the concerts from all over Europe. Not only the British were there, but so were also people from Holland, Italy, France, Germany etc. I had come from Denmark to see the band live for the very first time in my life.
While waiting for the gates at Wembley Arena in London to open we could hear the Monkees rehears and talk inside the building after which Davy appeared to wave to his fans when crossing the parking lot to the tour bus.
The gates opened at 6.30 p.m. and at 7.40 Nancy Boy went on stage to do a half-hour show. The music was great but unfortunately the big screens weren’t on, so people sitting in the middle and the back of the arena had no chance of seeing the musicians close up.
There followed a 20 minutes intermission after which the Monkees went on stage in a splash of white lights and the audience went crazy. ”You’re very kind,” Peter thanked before continuing, ”Well, actually you’re just kind enough!” The Monkees opened the concert by playing Last Train to Clarksville and then they went on playing for 1 hour and 45 minutes straight, without any intermissions. The show was, however, divided into two sets with the solo-spots in the middle.
The Monkees played a few tunes from their new Justus-album, but mostly they played songs from their first three albums, The Monkees, More of the Monkees and Headquarters. This included Michael and Micky surprisingly doing Zilch and Davy and Peter doing Shades of Gray to a wonderful light/laser-show. The lighting during the entire concert was just superb. What really got people going, though, were tunes like I’m A Believer and Randy Scouse Git where everybody got up from their seats to dance and sing along. The audience consisted mostly of ”original” Monkees-fans in their 40es and 50es, but also quite a few newer fans in their mid-twenties had found their way to Wembley Arena. For the first part of the show the Monkees wore identical blue velvet suits, Davy and Peter with white shirts, Micky with a white T-shirt and Michael with a white turtleneck and a red cap.
During the solo-spots Peter and Michael totally stole the scene, upstaging the others. Peter opened the solos by playing Bach’s Toccata in D and earning the biggest applause given during the entire concert! Then Michael came on stage and started explaining that the Monkees were so different because they came from different places. ”Peter is from the East Coast and Micky is from California,” he said, ”David is from Manchester…” and here the crowds cheered so he had to pause before continuing, ”and I’m from Texas so I have no idea how I got into Brazilian music.” Then he played Rio which had the audience up dancing and singing. After this Peter went on stage again to do a great version of Little Richard’s Lucille. It was pure rock and Peter’s voice was incredibly good. He had us all going. Micky’s solo was Since I Fell For You and Davy’s Daddy’s Song.
In the second set the Monkees were backed up by their five-piece backing-band where especially Aviva on sax made a great impact on the audience. For this set the Monkees were dressed in matching white suits and Michael wore a white shirt, red tie and blue cap, Davy a black shirt and Micky and Peter red shirts, Peter with a black tie. They opened by playing For Pete’s Sake and continued through old tunes and one new, Regional Girl, from Justus. During the Justus-songs clips from the new ABC-special were shown on the screens and it was the first glimpse we Europeans had of it. It looked great. The Monkees did a wonderful version of Listen to the Band with Porpoise Song woven in. During Your Auntie Grizelda Peter got out to the stage corner and started stripping and before getting into Goin’ Down Micky fooled around, teasing Davy with his hight, pretending not to see him although he stood in front of him. The second set closed with Daydream Believer with a beautifully starlit backdrop and everybody swaying and singing along.
For the encores the Monkees walked on stage doing the Monkee-walk, but Michael must have been a little out of practise, so he got kicked over the shin by Micky, abruptly ending the Monkee-walk by saying, ”We have to practise this a little more”. The encores were Steppin’ Stone and Pleasant Valley Sunday with the audience dancing and singing along.
The Monkees really gave value for money playing 27 songs during the concert. It had been worth waiting all these years to see the four guys back together and as I talked to some British, Dutch and Italian fans after the concert, we all agreed: if the Monkees play Europe again – no matter where – we’ll be there!