THE MONKEES

Hollywood TV producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider placed the ad late in 1965 as the first step towards a weekly series recreating the winning chemistry of The Beatles' Hard Days Night movie. 

437 hopefuls attended the auditions and when a suitable four had been selected, they were taught how to act, how to improvise and, most importantly, how to mime to records.

After an initial attempt to let the quartet create its own music, it was realised that though they each possessed a modicum of musical talent, they were a long way from being a group. 

Fortunately, Don Kirshner, the entrepreneur who had invented the Brill Building system of assembly-line pop hit manufacture, had been put in overall control of the show's musical output.

In June 1966, Kirshner flew out from New York with a dozen demo recordings by reliable songwriters including Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Neil Sedaka and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. 

The song chosen as The Monkees' first single, Last Train To Clarksville, was said to have been written by Boyce and Hart during a 20 minute coffee break. In the studio during recording, Kirshner devised its distinctive "no-no-no-no" wails as a deliberate echo of The Beatles' famous "yeah, yeah, yeah".

Despite a $100,000 launch campaign preceding the 16 August release of the single, it didn't dent the US Top 10 until a week after the first screening of The Monkees TV show on 12 September. Eight weeks later it was at Number One.

The chosen four, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones, became instant stars, and shops were flooded with Monkees merchandising from woolly hats (like the one Mike wore in the show) to Monkees dolls, bracelets, lunch boxes, shirts, watches, chewing gum and pencil cases. But it wasn't all plain sailing.

Initial TV ratings were poor, largely because conservative middle America didn't immediately take to the idea that long-haired youths playing loud rock music deserved a regular weekly TV series. 

On top of which many TV critics panned the blatant plagiarism at the show's heart. A Newsweek critic observed; "Television is a medium which thrives on thievery . . . Beatlemania has been exchanged for Monkeeshines".

Nevertheless the show was soon attracting 10 million viewers across America every Monday evening, and the teenage audience responded to the anarchic script which came from much of the show being improvised. "We don't learn scripts," said Nesmith. "Hell, we don't even read 'em".

By February 1967, The Monkees had become bona fide pop stars. But their two albums of perfectly crafted pop had featured no actual Monkee involvement beyond singing and song writing, and the press cried foul.

No matter that the uber-cool Byrds were absent from their Mr Tambourine Man session, or that the Pet Sounds era Beach Boys barely plugged into an amp: - jealousy from lesser beat groups put The Monkees on the defensive. 

Couple this with the controlling tendencies of their producer, the golden-eared Don Kirshner, and a rebellion was fermenting - "Hey Hey we're the corporate puppets".

Mike Nesmith unburdened himself to the newspapers, saying;" The music had nothing to do with us. It was totally dishonest. Do you know how debilitating it is to have to duplicate other people's records? That's what we were doing".

By June 1968 The Monkees were fighting with the Screen Gems film company over ownership of the group name. By September it nearly didn't matter as confused audience reactions to advance screenings of the avant-garde Monkees feature film Head prompted Screen Gems to delay the opening and send the film back for re-editing.

As the decade drew to a close, Peter Tork quit The Monkees. He was to be followed shortly by Mike Nesmith. Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz continued recording, but when the aptly-titled Changes album flopped in June 1970, they too called it a day.

Having smuggled some of the first country-rock onto The Monkees' records, Mike Nesmith formed The First National Band and turned western-style country on its head - highlighted by Red Rhodes' pedal-steel and his lazy Texan drawl.

In 1986, three of the original Monkees - Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz - officially reunited. Mike Nesmith, a reluctant Monkee even at the height of their stardom, remained the only hold-out.

The reunited Monkees broke records for ticket and merchandise sales when they toured for the first time in 18 years. Originally booked to play eleven weeks of summer concerts at US theme parks and state fairs, the tour was extended and moved into larger, more prestigious venues. The Far East and Europe were added to the schedule.

At the same time the charts were saturated with reissued Monkees albums, an anthology package, and a newly recorded single, That Was Then, This Is Now. And the TV show was back in syndication too . . .