The last surviving member of The Monkees, Micky Dolenz, is heading back to Australia in 2027 for a tour celebrating 60 years of the legendary pop-rock group.
Dolenz will bring his new live show, ‘Micky Dolenz: 60 Years of The Monkees’, to Australia next May, taking fans through six decades of the band’s music and history. The tour kicks off at Brisbane’s QPAC on May 6th before visiting the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Thirroul, Canberra, Geelong, Melbourne and Adelaide, wrapping up at Perth’s Astor Theatre on May 26th.
The show will trace The Monkees’ career chronologically, with Dolenz performing songs including “Last Train to Clarksville”, “I’m a Believer”, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, “Randy Scouse Git”, “Sometime in the Morning” and “Daydream Believer”.
The music will be accompanied by a multimedia presentation drawing on key moments from The Monkees’ history, while Dolenz will share stories from his six decades connected to the group.
“I’ve spent nearly my entire life either in front of or behind the cameras or microphones,” Dolenz said. “Much of what I’ve been able to share with the world has come from this thing called ‘The Monkees’ — this wacky musical-comedy TV show about a band struggling for success.”
The popular television series premiered in the US on September 12th, 1966, introducing Dolenz alongside Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones as a fictional band trying to make it in the music industry.
The joke, of course, was that outside the show they became enormously successful for real.
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“Interestingly, on the show, The Monkees never actually made it,” Dolenz said. “Off screen, however, we sold out concerts all over the world.”
He also recalled Nesmith’s description of the moment the group began performing as an actual live band. “When we first played, all by ourselves, it was like Pinocchio becoming a real boy,” he said.
What began as a television concept quickly became one of the defining pop phenomena of the late ’60s. The Monkees — the TV show — won two Emmy Awards, while the band sold millions of records and landed their first four albums at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Their run produced songs that have endured well beyond the television series itself, with “I’m a Believer” and “Daydream Believer” among the tracks that helped turn The Monkees from manufactured TD band into genuine pop music history.
Dolenz is now the sole surviving member of the original lineup, following the deaths of Jones in 2012, Tork in 2019 and Nesmith in 2021, making the 60th anniversary show as much a tribute to his former bandmates as a celebration of the songs.
“I remain proud of what I’ve achieved in my time, particularly with my late great and still-beloved Monkee brothers Davy, Peter, and Michael,” he said. “What I want to do, as the 60th anniversary of that wonderful moment is upon me, is to look back and share with the fans the sheer joy of what we accomplished — and what it all still means to so many.”
The Australian shows will also feature material from Dolenz’s forthcoming six-track EP, Timeless, due September 4th.
Its first single, “Terri”, was written by The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg and gives Dolenz some new material to place alongside the catalogue that has followed him for most of his life.
Tickets for ‘Micky Dolenz: 60 Years of The Monkees’ go on sale Thursday, August 27th at 11am AEST via davidroywilliams.com.
‘Micky Dolenz: 60 Years of The Monkees’ Australian Tour 2027
Tickets on sale Thursday, August 27th at 11am AEST via David Roy Williams.
Thursday, May 6th
QPAC, Brisbane
Saturday, May 8th
HOTA, Gold Coast
Wednesday, May 12th
Civic Theatre, Newcastle
Friday, May 14th
State Theatre, Sydney
Sunday, May 16th
Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul
Tuesday, May 18th
Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra
Thursday, May 20th
Costa Hall, Geelong
Saturday, May 22nd
Palais Theatre, Melbourne
Monday, May 24th
AEC Theatre, Adelaide
Wednesday, May 26th
Astor Theatre, Perth
