HERMAN, alias Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone, speaks with a wonderfully fast Manchester accent, as if he has only a few minutes to pack in a life-time of his ideas about pop music. And he starts by saying: "I've made a study of hand-clapping ...
    "That's serious. I use a lot of hand-clapping in our act with the Hermits and it's a sort of instrumental sound that doesn't cost a penny but it really can add a lot to the group's atmosphere. Only if it's done well, of course. You hear some groups clapping away like mad and it sounds ridiculous. All ragged and well ... sort of hollow. I practise my hand-clapping like a guitarist practises his instrument. And if that sounds crazy, all I can say is that I'm dead serious about it ..."
    Herman, just for a moment, relaxed that grin which shows an attractively disarranged set of boyish teeth. "Why do people get such a kick out of writing off a new group before it's even started?" he queried. "I wish I had a sixpence for every time I heard someone say the Hermits are going to be a one-hit group. Sure we were lucky to get such a good song as 'I'm Into Something Good' for our first release.
    "But surely that doesn't mean that we're incapable of doing a follow-up run of good discs, does it? I know that writers have got to find something interesting to say, something a bit argumentative like ... but I don't see how any group can be judged on just one record.

  

MAD KEEN

THE Hermits' new one, of course, is "show Me Girl," specially written for them by Goffin and King. Said Herman, with characteristic honesty: "When I heard the demo of it, which had Carole King dual-tracking with herself, though I was mad keen to do the song, I couldn't help feeling that she would have a whacking great hit if she recorded it herself."     Herman's views on surfin' music have been much-quoted. He amplifies it thus: ""We dig this kind of West Coast music. But it's not really an instrumental sound that is different. Sure you get the odd hit from the Chantays and the Surfaris, but really it's all down to the vocal side. It's really a matter of including the high falsetto bits, the answering chorus - it's all gotta be clean-cut and crisp. You get it from the Beach Boys, the Rip Cords, Jan and Dean sometimes.
    "But for us it was only a passing idea to go for the surfing bit. We want to be completely adaptable."
    The Hermits came in around now to pick up Herman. Literally - he was lifted high in the air and carted out. Messrs. Dereck Leckenby, Karl Green, Barry Whitwam and Keith Hopwood reckoned that was the only way they could stop the wee lad from talking all night. "I'll fire the lot of you," yelled Herman. But he was still grinning ...

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