Hey Hey, It’s Been 60 Years: The Monkees Hit TV in ’66, Rush Adds Tour Dates, and Americana Takes Over Nashville
Written by Jarvis Prime on September 12, 2026
Your Friday music brief from Pretoria Fields Radio: a big TV anniversary, four new Rush shows, a stack of fresh classic-rock reissues, and radio's week of remembrance.
Happy Friday, friends. Let's start with a birthday worth celebrating: sixty years ago today, on September 12, 1966, 'The Monkees' premiered on NBC and turned four actors — Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork — into a genuine chart-topping band. The show ran just two seasons but won two Emmys in 1967, including Outstanding Comedy Series, and gave us keepers like 'Last Train to Clarksville,' 'I'm a Believer,' and 'Daydream Believer.' Not bad for a band built for television.
In touring news, Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have added four more U.S. cities to their Fifty Something tour: Houston's Toyota Center on October 1, St. Louis on October 21, Cincinnati on October 23, and Pittsburgh on November 15. The band says they originally booked the run cautiously, unsure how they'd hold up on the road — but they report they're 'doing fine and having a blast,' so the map keeps growing.
The reissue shelf got heavier this week, too. Friday brought a remastered edition of Funkadelic's 'Maggot Brain,' a 50th-anniversary reissue of Manfred Mann's Earth Band's 'The Roaring Silence,' and expanded editions of the Pixies' 'Bossanova' and 'Trompe le Monde.' Looking ahead, The Who are giving 1975's 'The Who By Numbers' the super-deluxe box treatment on October 30, and next Friday, September 18, brings new albums from Neil Young ('Second Song') and The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs, whose 'The List' is all original material.
For the Americana faithful, Nashville is about to get busy. AmericanaFest runs September 15 through 19 across more than 50 venues, with over 200 artists on the schedule. The week opens with the Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman Auditorium — always one of the warmest nights on the music calendar, and a good reminder of how deep the roots-music bench runs these days.
And a note about our own business: this week, radio stations coast to coast marked 25 years since September 11, 2001, carrying live coverage of memorial ceremonies and tributes — New York's 1010 WINS aired the annual memorial ceremony from Ground Zero. It's a sobering anniversary, and a reminder of what local radio is for: being there, live, when a community needs a steady voice.
One to watch for Monday: Oasis are expected to reveal details of another major tour on September 14, and Europe — the 'Final Countdown' fellas — have a new single out called 'Scandinavian Eyes' from their upcoming album 'Come This Madness.' We'll keep our ears on both. Until then, keep it tuned right here — we'll keep the good stuff coming.
— The Pretoria Fields Radio news desk
