I think it is not unfair to say that British rock audiences are much less hung up on authenticity than their American equivalents. We're also less bothered by issues of authorial clarity which explains why rock culture has absorbed far more from dance music here than American artists have. If it sounds rockin in the moment then all is good. It means we have a lot of very short term enthusiasms for one-trick acts but the cultural barriers between genres are long since kicked down. Especially between "pop" and "rock". We can largely thank the Buzzcocks for that I think.

Even Take That have enjoyed a reassessment here in recent years and they are not even close to being anyone's idea of vintage. Robbie Wiliams at his peak was certainly considered to be no less "real" by mass audiences than say Oasis or Blur. It's all popular entertainment and it either cranks your handle or it doesn't.

Perhaps the most spectacular examples of new light being shed on a band are Led Zep in the late 80s and Queen in the last decade or so. LZ were considered to be representative of the worst excesses of pre-Punk rock n roll and then suddenly they weren't. Queen were largely despsied by hispters from the release of Bohemian Rhapsody onwards (if not before) but they too are now considered perfectly ok. As with Page and Co all it took was a few contemporary artists to start name-checking them and hey presto they're hip again. Even Prog has made a small comeback from the shadows (praise be) off the back of Radiohead, Elbow, Labradford and many others.

As time goes on and mainstream contemporary rock gets shittier and shittier we are all looking in dusty cupboards for things that are not of the avant garde and might still turn us on or have been over-looked in some way. Whether it is the Zombies, Badfinger, Creation or PFM we're all after new sounds that crank old handles and I can see how The Monkees records, whoever made them, could fit into that.