When The Monkees
announced in August they were touring again with Mike
Nesmith (the first tour with him since 1969), I
immediately contacted Talya's dad who has a great in for
tickets, and realized that I was in the unique position
to put together an amazing bootleg video. Assuming
I was in the pit again for the concert? I could
edit together both shows to look like all 4 Monkees were
on-stage at the same time even though Davy Jones passed
away earlier this year.
Well, I can report
that I did indeed get pit tickets last Saturday night and
the video turned out about as perfect as I could've
hoped. It's an hour long concert that never happened.
Every member getting the spotlight equally as well as
cutting them together during their "hits" where everyone
is involved. If you're a Monkees fan... this is
priceless:
What a challenge that
was. The full video has 22 songs in it and everything on
Saturday had to be videotaped while HIDING my camera
because for some reason, this show, they forbid video.
Which, honestly, I don't really get because
everyone's camera can do both now - how do you
know which they're doing? Of course, I was at a
supreme disadvantage since I needed to use the exact
same camera from last year for the edit which is
clearly a video camera. So the stuff with Mike
Nesmith is a bit more "hidden"... and the other
problem?
The two concerts were
night and day in terms of energy. People were standing
during nearly the entire concert in 2011. As you can tell
from the shots from 2011 it looks as if I'm eye level
with them, 'cause, I actually was. We were all
standing, and I was able to hold the camera up.
Saturday night however? Almost always sitting. Which
meant because of the no video rule? I couldn't get
the angles I wanted. I did the best job
I could, but it was just a different concert. Which
was to be expected with Nesmith returning. He was "over"
the Monkees in the 60s. He reminds me a lot of George
Harrison in that respect. Ever see the outtake from The
Beatles Anthology where George, Paul and Ringo play
together at George's house? About 3 songs in you could
just see George wanted to shoot someone and Paul wrapped
up the song quickly. He was over The Beatles.
Of course Mike agreed
to tour so he's not to the same level as George was but
the goofy "fun" of The Monkees that was self-evident
in 2011? Just wasn't happenin' Saturday night. However,
the cool thing about the video is that I'm certain had
they all shared the stage again? It would've looked like
my fantasy film. Mike off to the side, playing a little,
singing a little, and letting the other 3 be goofy and
jump around and dance. I'm glad I got the "Moog" part on
film because I had to be very careful what
I risked shooting and something told me to keep
filming and it was the funniest thing he did all night.
And he really was having a good time, and it was great to
get some of his songs in the video... but it didn't feel
like a Monkees concert at all. And I don't want to
start some fan-war about the in-figting between them, but
it was shocking to the point of uncomfortable that they
never mentioned Davy's name during the show. They would
end a song, hurry off stage as it went to black, and a
music video of Davy from the 60s would play. At the end,
they would come back on and go into another song like
nothing had happened.
?!?!?!
I mean, I
understand not wanting to get sad and sappy during a
concert but it really, really, shocked me. I mean, I've
seen McCartney twice in concert and he always spoke of
George and John. Sung some songs written FOR them and
written BY them and it was all very moving. But I've
been checking out the Monkee fan pages on Facebook and no
one seems to agree with me, so what do I know? I
guess they just felt the best way to deal with it was
not to. And I have over 1250 entries behind
me that show that's decidedly not how I deal
with things. :-)
Anyway, I really
hope fans enjoy the video and don't feel it's
disrespectful. People get really weird when you mess with
dead people. But I think the majority will find this
a treasure. Loved the challenge of putting it together
and hope the remaining Monkees appreciate it as well.
They're quite active on Facebook and even mentioned it
onstage so I'm sure they'll either be amused or horrified
by it. Time will tell...
