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PETER NOONE having his first solo hit with 'Oh, You Pretty Thing,' has seven years of showbusiness success behind him, but wants to be accepted as an adult entertainer. The teen idolatry he won as Herman of the Hermits no longer makes him happy. 'I'll admit we were lucky,' he says of the six years when he and the group sold about 40 million records with numbers such as 'There's A Kind of Hush,' 'Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter,' 'Silhouettes,' and 'A Must To Avoid.' But he resents criticism that the discs were 'factory made' or contrived ... 'We put a lot of very hard work into them,' he claims. Producer Mickie Most is credited with having a big hand in the success of the group's discs and he is still working with Peter ... 'I honestly cannot make records without him,' the singer says. 'It's as simple as that! He brings out the best in me.' The Liverpool-born star, who has Irish connections admits that some of his discs were poor ... 'I was either drunk when I made them or had been out all the night before,' he says. 'I didn't take things seriously.' Now he does and he has made big changed in his life. Smoking at 11 - he walked to school and bought cigarettes with the bus fares - he has now kicked the habit. 'I smoked 50 a day until I saw Andy Williams, who doesn't touch |
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cigarettes, turn up looking and sounding great at nine o'clock in the morning for a Royal Command Performance rehearsal. I decided there and then that I could not continue to smoke and sing. Weeks of cabaret and heavy smoking had made a mess of my throat. Andy sounded so good that I felt he had done the right thing. So I just stopped smoking. Now I feel just marvellous and my voice is almost as good as it can be. Not that it has ever been great,' he says. He claims that everything changes for him in three-year cycles. He married three years ago and now he is having his first solo hit. But he feels that in another three years he will probably get tired of what he is doing now. 'I am still basically a kid,' he says. 'My whole life is a game. I have to play the game of making records. It has to be like that that, otherwise I would go berserk. Anyway, if you are spoilt like me and have a few quid you do not have to grow up. He has made arrangements for the future by putting money away until he needs it ... 'My wife, Mireille, and I live from day to day. For example, if I want a colour television set I go out and do a cabaret spot and then buy one. That way I get more pleasure out of having it and I know exactly what it takes to get something." That's the new, adult Peter Noone. |