.. °' ! Is Jones joins the 'Bunch' By DARCY LOCKMAN From a hotel room somewhere in the Midwest, Davy Jones sang to me over the phone. "Girl, look what you've done to me, me and my whole world. Girl, you brought the sun to me, with your smile you did it girl." Twenty-six years after the cancel- lation of "The Monkees," and 22 years after his guest appearance on The Brady Bunch, the man that made Marcia Brady swear she'd "never wash this cheek again" hasn't lost his boyish charm. Maybe it's the Manchester accent; maybe it's his bouncing-off-the-walls manner of speaking. Maybe it's the fact that over the phone, even a 48- year-old man can exude youthful cha- risma. No matter. Once a teen heart-throb, always a teen heart-throb. * Jones will tell you that pre-teen heart-throb was more like it. "(When the Monkees first aired in 1966) The 15-year-olds were screaming for the Beatles. All of a sudden, we opened up into a different sort of dimension completely. We started entertaining the 12-year-olds." Best known for his 1966-68 role as Davy on television's "The Monkees," Jones began his career on BBC radio at the age of 11. At 14, he left home to become an apprentice jockey and might have remained on this path had a theatrical agent not persuaded him to accept the part of Peter Pan at The Royal Shakespeare Theater. Jones' theater career contin- ued from there, culminating in a Tony Award nomination for his role as the Artful Dodger in "Oliver!" on Broad- *way in the early '60s. Various Artists The 2 Tone Collection - A Checkered Past Chrysalis Every great rock 'n' roll singles label, from Sun and Stax to Stiff and Sub Pop, not only released some of 'the best music of their generation, but defined their entire era with their im- age and style. Although the labels represent their time, nearly every single they released still sounds ter- rific and not dated in the slightest. Like any other great independent singles label, 2 Tone had a specific style, image and sound as a record label, while all of their acts retained their individuality. And as the new two-disc set, "The 2 Tone Collection A Checkered Past," proves, 2 Tone was definitely one of the great record labels in history. Over two CDs, almost every A- side (only two are missing) the label ever released is presented in chrono- logical order and the overall effect is staggering. More than any other record label, 2 Tone was responsible for the ska revival of the late '70s and early '80s. Scores of young British bands discovered themselves in Jamaican records from the late '50s and early '60s, while they were going to see punks like the Clash hammering "through reggae songs on stage. From these two sources, British *ska was born. Over an intoxicating four years, it was one of the defining forces of new wave, simultaneously being more political and more fun than much of the music being made at that time. 2 Tone was lucky enough to have signed all of the major players in * MARCI FORMAUTN Largest Lbrary of Information in U.S. "19,278 TOPICS - ALL SUBJIECTS Order Catalog Today with Visa / MC or COD 800 -351-0222 Or, rush $2.00 to: Research Information 11322 Idaho Ave. #206-A, Los Angeles, CA 90025 His theater work got Jones recog- nized by Columbia Pictures / Screen Gems Television and The Monkees had their first member. Playing off the success of the Beatles, the show about four aspiring rock musicians garnered international fame for Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith. But he never felt like a Beatles clone: "The Beatles were musicians. We were actors playing musicians. Our thing was more Marx Brothers than the Beatles." Of course, the Marx Brothers never sold 100 million records - a musical career launched by Monkees' televi- sion success. Promoting a new song ("Girl") was the reason Jones did an episode of "The Brady Bunch" in 1971. "The Real Live Brady Bunch" (Jill and Faith Soloway's theater re- enactment of actual Brady episodes) brings Jones to the Michigan Theater tonight, reliving his cameo role and escorting Marcia Brady to the prom once again. "(The show) is really a traveling vaudeville/variety show, so it's right up my alley," said Jones. "I don't remember a lot about my time on the actual 'Brady Bunch' set. I didn't have much contact with the kids be- cause I just went in and did the epi- sode and went out. I was trying to sell a song and it was a great way of doing it. The '60s were a high point in my life and that was just another high." While the '60s were his heyday, the '70s saw new lows for the can- celled Monkee. No longer on the charts and no longer on TV, he be- came depressed , got divorced and turned into "a walking wild man." According to Jones, his life did not stabilize until he remarried. Today, he remains with his second wife, Anita, with whom he has two girls - Jessica, 12, and Annabel, 5. He is also the father of two grown daughters from his first marriage. "My two oldest daughters are in the business. They work in Los Ange- les. My 22-year-old just did an epi- sode of 'Blossom.' My two youngest go to school in England. The 12-year- old will play Fagan in her school's production of 'Oliver!' this year. Like father like daughter," he said. Currently, Jones' career keeps him from spending much time in any of his three homes (in England, Santa Barbara and Beavertown, Pennsylva- nia) or with his family. On the road most of the year with various touring companies or his band The Armitage Shanks, Jones sees his brood on holi- days and birthdays, managing to catch up with his wife "whenever we're not traveling and sort of like following our dreams." Jones' latest dream:reuniting with Tork, Nesmith and Dolenz. He said, "We're planning a European tour this year. We're going to England, and we hope to go to Germany, Sweden and Switzerland as well. Then we hope to come back in mid to late summer to do some touring in America. "1996 is The Monkees' 30th anni- versary so we're leading up to that -_ hopefully a movie, maybe a TV spe- cial, a new album." Still in reruns on various cable stations, fans have not forgotten The Monkees. As recently as 1986, the group had 10 albums on the Billboard Charts. People still accost Jones on the streets ("Oh yeah, they think I'm Davy Jones appears in "The Real Live Brady Bunch" which will be playing at the Michigan Theater tonight. Dudley Moore."), and ask him to do the Monkee walk, or sing "Hey, hey we're the Monkees." "It's always a pleasure to be able to discuss those days," said Jones. And always a pleasure to recreate his Brady Bunch episode ("Getting Davy Jones") for live theater. "The show itself gets so much reaction," he said, "Fans think it's the funniest thing they ever saw, so that's great fun." But does he sing the song live? "I certainly do," he said, floating melo- diously into the first lines. He stops singing. "You must come see the show, and you'll have fun, okay?" Anything you say Davy. Sigh. He's, so dreamy. THE REAL LIVE BRADY BUNCH, guest starring Davy Jones as himself will appear tonight at 7 and 10 at the Michigan Theater. Tickets are $18.50. Call 668-8397 or more infrain --- f' Fryin' up good local music is Skillet's intention the scene, which is why "A Check- ered Past" is such a blast. Starting with "Gangsters" by The Special A.K.A., the collection drives through every great moment of the ska re- vival, featuring brilliant singles by the Specials, the (English) Beat, Mad- ness, the Selecter, the Bodysnatchers and the Swinging Cats; it's a virtual who's-who of the scene. Many of these singles never got the proper exposure in America, through no fault of the music itself; nearly every song on these two discs should have been huge hits - they are catchy, melodic, frenetic and re- lentlessly danceable. In short, they are classic singles. "A Checkered Past" is an essen- tial piece of popular music history thatdeserves to be heard. And if you're already a devotee, keep your eyes open for an import copy of the four- disc version of this set. For the hardcore collector, it's priceless. - Tom Erlewine The Clash Super Black Market Clash Epic / Legacy It's only appropriate that this reis- sue should surface when rumors of a Clash reunion are running rampant. Not a greatest hits collection, nor a straight-up reissue, "Super Black Market Clash" gathers together a mess of EPs, singles, 12" dub mixes, B- sides and flexi-discs, providing a sloppy, glorious overview of their fast, furious career. See RECORDS, Page 9 By ANDY DOLAN Anyone who's walked around Ann Arbor in the last few months is sure to have noticed flyers bearing the Skil- let Records logo. Founded in July 1993 by musicians and University students Chris Peters, Drew Peters and Mark Dundon, the label has en- joyed a modest amount of success in becoming a widely recognized figure in the Ann Arbor music scene. Skillet's roster currently consists of the power rock quartet whirlingRoad, which features Chris and Drew Peters, and melody / noise connoisseurs The Melba, which fea- tures Mark Dundon and Drew Peters. However, Skillet's goals lie in ex- panding to become an integral part in the development of the Ann Arbor music scene. As Chris explained, "It's not as self-serving as it might seem. We like to get our own stuff out, but we're definitely looking to start turn- ing to other things as soon as we possibly can." Mark and Chris named Kid Rock, Kiss Me Screaming and Deadbeat Society as bands that might have releases on Skillet Records in the near future. Currently, Chris, Mark and Drew have put their own band's recording efforts on hiatus while they search for any interested up-and-coming local bands. "I don't think either of us are going to be putting anything else out for a while ... we want to put other stuff out first," Mark stated. "We're always looking for stuff, and we're looking pretty hard," Chris added. "We're not limited by any kind of genre of music ... its seems like a lot of labels now are coming out with this one certain sound that they're trying to pin down, and I'm not too much into that idea." However, Skillet's search for bands has, so far, not been as fruitful as Chris had hoped. As he frankly stated, "There's very little around that "There's not much of a scene [in Ann Arbor], though we've tried to nurture it, that's what we're trying to do with Skillet," Chris Peters Co-founder of Skillet Records I actually like. I guess I'm very hard to please, [but] I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there aren't a lot of good clubs to play at in Ann Arbor. It's really tough to get a gig at the Blind Pig these days, and then what else is there? Though Cava Java's giving a good opportunity for a lot of bands to play. It'd be kind of cool to see the coffee house thing pick up." "There's not much of a scene [in Ann Arbor], though we've tried to nurture it, that's what we're trying to do with Skillet," he continued. "There's just a lot of competition be- tween bands. There's all sorts of fac- tions, and it's really hard to get some- thing going." On the other hand, Skillet's founders remain optimistic about the future of Ann Arbor's scene. "All it would take is for a band to break out of here, because it'll inspire people to start bands and inspire people to look at Ann Arbor," Chris predicted. Above all, Skillet's immediate goal is to let area bands know that it exists as a label that firmly believes in" creating a full-blown Ann Arbor mu- sic scene. As Mark enthusiastically put it,. "We have to show people that we're_ serious and open to any bands that are, interested, so we can try to get 'em all under the 'Skillet Flag!"' One can only hope that their vision becomes a reality. Any Bands interested in Skillet Records can contact the label at P.O. Box 8291, Ann Arbor, MI, 48107. 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