Without David Jones of The Monkees there would have been no David Bowie, not as a name anyway (Bowie had to change his own name, David Jones, due to the success of the "other David" - him from The Monkees!) or even Star Trek's Chekov as - according to Walter Koenig who played the role - a lookalike of Davy Jones was needed to attract younger female fans to the series. Clearly Spock could never have passed for a boyband member - although he would have gone down a storm in the Monkees' dementedly and determinedly anarchic movie "Head" at the end of their hey-hey-heyday.
As an actor, David (or Davy, the two names alternating over the years) Jones appeared in Z Cars and Coronation Street early on in his acting career, but most famously in the film that captured the end of the 60's as much as it killed off The Monkees as we knew them - 1968's cult favourite and essential head-trip; Head. The Monkees went out on screen with a bloody weird but brilliant bang. From that moment on, it was the music that mattered, and being on stage. Jones did appear in more cult TV shows: Sledge Hammer!; My Two Dads; Boy Meets World, as well as a cameo as a "singer" in an elusive cult movie also featuring (well, starring) former TV Batman, Adam West - the intriguingly titled Sexina: Popstar P.I (2007).
There's one final movie appearance to look forward to now: the Jackie Mason starrer, "Jackie Goldberg, Private Dick", currently in post-production. Davy Jones, again, appears as "himself"; it was a role he was cast for in The Monkees; basically it was always to be that he would be seen and worshipped by fans as "himself" - as Davy Jones from The Monkees, although that probably wasn't much like his true self; that Davy Jones died the moment The Monkees aired. He did, in a way, break free from the casting. This young man who had once played the role of a cool, cheeky, richly-voiced popstar became one for real at some point, and remains so to this day. That was then, but this is now, and Davy Jones finally left the Monkees, and us, on Wednesday the 29th February, 2012, aged 66.
words: mark gordon palmerAs an actor, David (or Davy, the two names alternating over the years) Jones appeared in Z Cars and Coronation Street early on in his acting career, but most famously in the film that captured the end of the 60's as much as it killed off The Monkees as we knew them - 1968's cult favourite and essential head-trip; Head. The Monkees went out on screen with a bloody weird but brilliant bang. From that moment on, it was the music that mattered, and being on stage. Jones did appear in more cult TV shows: Sledge Hammer!; My Two Dads; Boy Meets World, as well as a cameo as a "singer" in an elusive cult movie also featuring (well, starring) former TV Batman, Adam West - the intriguingly titled Sexina: Popstar P.I (2007).
There's one final movie appearance to look forward to now: the Jackie Mason starrer, "Jackie Goldberg, Private Dick", currently in post-production. Davy Jones, again, appears as "himself"; it was a role he was cast for in The Monkees; basically it was always to be that he would be seen and worshipped by fans as "himself" - as Davy Jones from The Monkees, although that probably wasn't much like his true self; that Davy Jones died the moment The Monkees aired. He did, in a way, break free from the casting. This young man who had once played the role of a cool, cheeky, richly-voiced popstar became one for real at some point, and remains so to this day. That was then, but this is now, and Davy Jones finally left the Monkees, and us, on Wednesday the 29th February, 2012, aged 66.
markgordonpalmer@aol.com
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