On the Monkees tours, they played many mid-sized to large venues. In 1967, they were the biggest selling band in America, and they really could have played anywhere. In fact, they were offered the chance to play at Shea Stadium, as the Beatles were two years earlier, but the Monkees declined because they wanted to play places where the fans could actually see and hear them, and be somewhat close to them (aww, aren't they sweet?) In the 1960s, The Monkees did two tours of America; one tiny 12 city tour in the Winter of 1966, and one huge tour during the summer of 1967. They toured the U.K once in June of 1967 and sold out Wembley Stadium for five nights. In 1968, they did one concert in Salt Lake City to be used in HEAD, and they also did a tour of Australia and Japan. While they were on tour, they stayed in only the best hotels. At this time, I don't have names or pictures of many (and if anyone does, please send them over), because i'm solely relying on teenybopper magazines and books here....but here are some pictures:
In London, for example, they stayed at the posh Kensington Gardens, where Princess Margaret lives. She actually sent them a telegram asking if they could quiet their fans down (in England, it's notorious that the fans there would stand below the hotel and SING all day and all night). The Monkees also stayed at the Warwick Hotel in New York City....


The Warwick Hotel in New York City....some fan tries to climb the light pole to get to Peter.

When The Monkees stayed in hotels, they occupied TWO WHOLE FLOORS. One floor was for the record company people and the stage crew, and the top floor was for the four Monkees (beat that, N Sync). The Monkees didn't pull many Keith Moon-like hijinks, however. They played two games; hall crawling and wall creeping.


Two examples of those activities. It looks like they also used to run up and down the hallways. Hmm. Fun. They also held extensive jam sessions on their second US tour, which included the likes of the Buffalo Springfield, Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Peter's odd assortment of friends. Yay.

In England, when they were staying at the Royal Garden Hotel, Micky had a little experience in Hyde Park. After an all-night party with the Beatles, Micky was still feeling the effects of various psychedelics. He wandered around Hyde Park in the morning, and eventually 900 kids showed up (hey, thats what Monkee Monthly magazine says). Cool beans.


Here's a picture of Micky and a couple fans sitting on the bandstand in Hyde Park.

As you can see, The Monkees' hotels were always swarming with hundreds of girls. Sometimes they were banned from hotels because of all the racket they caused. In Australia, there were thousands and thousands of fans, almost as much as 10,000. In England, it was no different, except that English fans are known for SINGING all day and all night, as opposed to screaming.


The crowds beneath their hotel in England. And that's not even ALL of the girls that were there.

When they went to England in 1967, the whole country went bananas, so to speak. Here's what they looked like when they arrived in the UK:



Their press conference in England was one of the only ones they EVER did. It was attended by hundreds of people. In fact, more people attended the Monkees' Press Conference than the Press Conference for Winston Churchill after WW2! It was the biggest Press Conference of all time in England!



Not wanting to mess with depart times and airports, The Monkees had their own airplane for the 1967 Summer Tour. It was either a DC-6 or DC-9 (someone tell me which one it is!), and it was complete with the Monkees logo. Obviously, it wasn't as high-tech as the Backstreet Boys plane (hell, their plane is like a palace), but for its day, it was pretty nice. The back was regular airplane seats (coach), but the seats in front were ripped out and they had a nice little seating area. I also heard somewhere they there was a bedroom on the plane (?), and one of my pictures shows a little seating area....not a bad way to travel, in my opinion...






A picture of the inside of their plane.


So you see, the bands of today weren't the first to experience the fancy rock and roll megatours.....

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