I'VE BEEN TUNED in to the wildest imagination since I can remember. My imaginings used to take me almost anywhere and get me into all sorts of insane situations - real and otherwise. But I never really learned to swing until I started singing - we'll get into that later. You see, I am a two-headed monster. I am, what they call an actor-singer. That's fine, but it wasn't always that way. I can remember 'way back when I was 13 (a good four long years ago!) and I was only an actor. And I was square. I didn't know how to swing. I kept all my wild imaginings to myself!
    When I was 13, I appeared on a weekly TV show called Coronation Street. It was rather a hit (we really call a hit a "bomb" over here in England, but to you Americans "to bomb" means to go down badly). So anyway it was a bomb - I mean, a hit - and I took the whole thing - and myself - somewhat seriously. Then one day it was over, and I was about hunting acting work again. That was all I wanted in the world. I hadn't been switched on to the beat.
    So one night I was in this club in Manchester. I was talking it up with the group of young musicians there and one of them suggested that I sing with them.
    "Sing? You're joking. I can't sing, I haven't a clue," was my brilliant reply.
    They told me to stand up and do anything to entertain them. Well, that's all you have to say to a ham like me and I'm off. It was fun. I suddenly realized that I could do anything I wanted to without a script. All at once, I decided to sing. I did, and it came quite easily, too.
    That was when I really found out what it was like to swing. You know, you can go for ages with something in you just dying to get out - and you don't know what it is or what to do. You just know it's there. You feel it. With me, it was singing. That was my strong secret yearning - and when I sang, I suddenly knew where I was and what I was - and I started swinging.
    Of course, my crazy head continued to work overtime, but I developed a devlish scheme. Instead of keeping my crazy fantasies inside, I'd let them out. No harm in sending the world up a bit, is there?
    Sir Laurence Olivier once told me, "You, lad (he always called me lad, did Olly), you are one of the greatest actor-singers we've got. Hang on. We need you, lad."

    Well, actually he didn't tell it to me. He told it to my dad. You know who my dad is, don't you? Mick Jagger.     Do you know that I got a thousand birthday cards on my birthday? If I had my way, I would date each girl who sent me a card. I reckon on looking about quite a bit before I settle down. You know, when I go out with a girl and have lots of fun, I take her home and we hate leaving each other. I think, this is it - the big thing in my life. And I go home with my head and heart full of her. Then a week later I meet someone else. I guess you could say I'm not the reliable type.
    One writer (a lady - they're my favorite kind) once told me that I was the type of boy a girl could fall head over heels in love with. Do you think so? I'm warm and sincere, I'll admit, but I tell awful fibs. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever be settling down. I want a wife and all that jazz. But when? Anyway, if I did meet the right girl, I'd make a rotten husband. I forget things and I turn up for a date at the wrong time - and on the wrong day! I can't even run my own life, much less a wife's. Do you think it gets easier as you get older?
    Well, right now life is one big laugh for me and the Hermits. Maybe when we get older we'll not laugh so often. That's growing up? Don't get serious, we haven't grown up yet!
    Oh dear - I must be off to an appointment with my manager. He hates it when I'm late. Do you know, once I arrived late at my manager's office when I was to meet some American promoters about an American tour. I walked in and said, "Sorry I'm late."
    My manager gave me one of those, "I'll get you later" snarls, and I continued on merrily, "I had a small misadventure on my way over here. I was chased by a giraffe around Hyde Park."
    The Americans shook their heads gravely, and one asked, "Do you have animals running about in your London parks?"
    "Oh, yes. We have quite a number of accidents due to the animals - and the beetles. And you'd better watch out for rolling stones, too."
    Maybe I'm daft, but people my age want to have fun. You ask any of them. You'll see they don't look a long way ahead. As long as tomorrow looks good, everything is O.K. I do have serious thoughts. It's just that I'd like to leave growing up till tomorrow.
    "Well, I must go see if my manager has been hit by any of those rolling stones. Cheerio!