Surviving members of the Monkees to tour

The Monkees were dealt a blow earlier this year when the band’s lead singer, Davy Jones, died of a heart attack in February.

Now its surviving members are moving forward and will reunite for a U.S. tour. The band -- Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and historically reclusive member Mike Nesmith -- have announced that they will hit the road for an Evening with the Monkees, a 12-date trek this fall. It will be the first shows the three have performed together in 15 years.

The tour kicks off Nov. 8 in Escondido, Calif. and wraps Dec. 2 in New York. They will play the Greek Theatre on Nov. 10.

The Monkees soared to fame as America’s original boy band after successfully launching their own NBC television show in 1966. The made-for-TV band looked to capitalize on the infectious wave of Beatlemania following the Fab Four’s “A Hard Day’s Night” film, and it worked. Despite the Monkees’ origins, Monkeemania soon swept listerners, and at the group’s height, they were able to outsell the Beatles.

These performances will mark their first concerts together since 1997 and the first U.S. Monkees tour to feature Nesmith since 1969.

Pegged as the “Missing Monkee” (a sly nod to a 1967 episode of their series), Nesmith has largely been absent from the group since a ’69 tour. The other members have toured without him, though Nesmith has reunited with the group for one-off appearances over the years; his last stateside concert with the band was a private show in support of 1996’s “Justus,” the band’s 11th and final album.

Nesmith announced the news in a statement that’s so hilarious and quirky that it truly deserves a full read:

“So the big news from here is that I made the most amazing gazpacho tonight — miracle gazpacho. A miracle because I have no idea how I did it and could never do it again.

But the really big news — astounding — is that I suddenly understand that it is the red Bell pepper that makes the gazpacho red — not the tomato — which is what I always thought. Amazing.

Another jaw dropper was that the only cracker I had left — a very nice garlic and chive flat bread cracker — fell out of the bag it was in because I was inadvertently holding it upside down and it fell on the floor and broke into dozens of pieces.

So just as I was about to eat the miracle gazpacho the only cracker I had was useless in pieces on the floor. Talk about drama — man its just so hard sometimes. But that’s all the news from here. Nothing else much to report. I see they put a car on Mars — that was kind of amusing of course.

And Micky and Peter and I are going to do twelve concerts in November here in the States. That’s really all I’ve got. Going to bed now.

I’ll post pictures of the cracker and the gazpacho tomorrow, maybe. Maybe not.”

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and fans wanting to take advantage of pre-sales should check the band’s official site for their respective pre-sale codes.

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Davy Jones, actor and member of the Monkees, has died

Monkees won’t attend Davy Jones’ funeral, Micky Dolenz says

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