Saturday 8th April, 1989 is a date I'll never forget. It was the date of my very first Monkees concert. I was a bit too young, only being 13 years old, to make it to the Wembley concert in 1967. The closest I got to that concert was reading the review in the NME the following weekend. I remember the NME seemed to be full of Monkee related stories that week. Those were the days! When Davy's face adorned every pop magazine that you bought. The concert was at The Apollo Theatre, Manchester. A very popular music venue in the district of Ardwick, which is just a few minutes drive away from the city centre. I'd had my ticket since January, a birthday present from my brother. "Thanks Billy, it's a birthday present I'll never forget." My sister and a friend accompanied me.

The concert was due to start at 8 pm, but I got there just after 7 pm. There were quite a lot of people already there. You felt the excitement in the air. It was the first Monkee concert for a lot of people that night. I bought two tour programmes before the concert. One was the official one for this tour, and the other was for the 87-summer tour in America. Both were brilliant, full of tour photos. Another two items to treasure among my ever growing Monkee memorabilia. We entered the audiotorium at about 7.40 pm. The seat I had wasn't too bad, M39. It was thirteen rows back from the stage on the left-hand side. The concert must have been a sell out, because by the time the concert was due to start I couldn't see any empty seats. I got a bit of a bonus sat where I was because before the concert started while looking at the stage area, I happened to notice just behind the right-hand curtain of the stage David, Micky and Peter looking out at the crowd. It was the first time that I'd ever seen Micky or Peter in person. I'd already seen David, a few years before. It really did fill me with excitement. At that moment I felt like a teenager all over again.

The lights dimmed and the concert began. The Monkees had two support acts with them at Manchester. First on stage was Mike Sweeney and the Thunderbirds. Now Mike Sweeney was and still is a very popular DJ with one of the Manchester radio stations. A true Mancunian through and through. No airs and graces with Mike, he's just a straight down to earth kind of guy. He's a great lover of 60's music. So that was what we were treated to. My favourite kind of music also. The next support act was a young group called Seven. The group just wasn't my cup of tea, I'm afraid. Although they did go down well with the younger end of the audience. We then had an interval before The Monkees came on.

The lights dimmed yet again, and The Monkees theme tune started to play. Well you can imagine the applause that went up after hearing that tune. Then there they were on the stage before our eyes. What a fantastic concert they treated us all to. All the usual Monkee hits were sung, to our delight. It was a rather fast paced concert with quite a few costume changes in between. There was plenty of comedy involved. Who could forget the sight of David in that tiger print suit and that wig he had on? Sideways on, it didn't leave to much to the imagination. Then there was Micky, in the red flamenco dress with the rose between his teeth. At one point they all came on dressed as gansters in raincoats with trilby hats on their heads. David wore the candy striped jacket with a straw hat to sing "Cuddly Toy". Some of the solo spots I enjoyed were Micky singing 'Going Down". Peter playing the banjo as he did "Cripple Creek". Then there was David singing "Manchester Boy", being a mainly Manchester audience you can imagine how well received the song was. David really seems to enjoy himself when he's performing in his home city. Mind you a good part of the audience is full of his relatives, friends and old neighbours. I guess it feels like being at home for a family celebration to him. It's just a pity his parents couldn't have been there to see him, but they had passed on some years before. I'm sure though that they were there in spirit clapping away with the rest of the audience. Although Michael wasn't with them on the tour he wasn't forgotten, as the guys sang a few of Michael's songs. I was rather glad about that. Two decades had passed since that concert at Wembley, that I didn't get to, but they were just as good as they were then. In fact I think Monkee concerts get better as the years go by. I've seen a few of their concerts since this one and I've never been disappointed. My only disappointment is that a concert goes by too quickly. I could listen to them all evening. It was my very first Monkee concert, and I left The Apollo that night in a very happy mood. Thanks guys, for making a dream of mine come true.