We lose our first Monkee RIP Davy Jones

TRIBUTES to The Monkees’ lead singer Davy Jones were today paid by his former Hampshire neighbours.

The 66-year-old was believed to have had a massive heart attack during his sleep at his home in Florida.

He had moved there after spending several years living in Hampshire.

Today friends who knew the ’60s heartthrob when he lived with his wife Anita and two daughters Jessica and Annabelle in the hamlet of Droxford remembered an “incredibly jovial” man with a passion for riding horses.

Friend Mark Hallion, of Mayhill Stud Farm, near Davy’s former home in the Meon Valley, looked after one of the musician’s horses and taught Davy’s daughters how to ride.

Mark also knew Davy, who trained as a jockey as a youngster, as a friend and recalls first meeting him in a shop in Wickham when the star pointed out a cheaper broom.

He said: “I recognised him and asked ‘Do I know you?’ and he said ‘Perhaps you know me from the post office’.

“I whistled The Monkees’ theme tune and he winked.”

Mark said Davy never played on his fame as a former Monkee.

In fact he recalled a party where Davy had to be forced to sing one of his hits that a DJ had put on. Mark said: “He never made a big thing of it. He was just an ordinary guy. I always looked forward to seeing him because he was so entertaining.


He was incredibly jovial and always seemed to be laughing and joking.”

While living in Hampshire two of his horses were slashed in an apparently motiveless attack in 1992. The family moved away about 12 years ago.

Davy first appeared aged 11 on ITV soap Coronation Street, as Ena Sharples’ grandson, and in the police series Z Cars before leaving showbusiness to train as a jockey.

But later on he was recruited to join The Monkees, who shot to fame through a successful TV series, popular in both the US and the UK, and had four number one albums in a 13-month period.

Three of the band’s original members – Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork – got back together last year to play a series of gigs. The band had nine top 40 hits including I’m A Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday.