Monkees' fans will come "listen to the band" when Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork return to Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 22, at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
The trio will also make an appearance at Media Play, 5846 S. Redwood Road, the day of the show from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.The band will sing a little and sign autographs.
Since last year, Rhino Records has been painstakingly remastering and rereleasing the Monkees library - albums and videos. So a tour this year was bound to happen.
The Monkees started as an entertainment gimmick in 1966. Dolenz, Jones, Tork and Michael Nesmith hit syndication with the Monkees TV series - which was actually a vehicle to sell albums. At any rate, the Monkees were also the launching pad for other artists such as Neil Diamond, who wrote "I'm a Believer," a No. 1 single.
The first five Monkees albums - "The Monkees," "More of the Monkees," "Headquarters," "Pices, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd." and "The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees" went gold, and all but the latter hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 album charts. In fact, "The Monkees" remained at the top for 13 weeks, and "More of the Monkees" topped that with 18 weeks.
After disbanding in 1969, the Monkees regrouped, minus Nesmith, in 1986.