 HERMAN danced close to his girlfriend, smiling into her eyes, hugging her now and then, laughing low and privately. The club they were in was filled with dark blue lights, loud music, and people huddled below both. Herman looked very tall next to tiny Twinkle, very smart in his grey blazer, stiff white collar and striped shirt."Isn't it smashing here?" he said, when they joined me at the low coffee table we shared by the band. With his new record "Wonderful World" out now, his romance is of special interest so I asked him about it. "Are you two in love?" I said. They looked at each other for a second. "Can't stand her," Herman teased. "Since Patti got George, I've given up caring," Twinkle followed equally lightheartedly. But they held hands, and laughed. HAPPY . . ."When you're young like us," Herman said, "you need to have a good time together, be happy. If you can get the sort of romance that allows these things, it's great. We don't know if we'll stick together, but even if we don't, we'll remember each other because we've had good times."A little time ago I thought having a girl was dead soft. I used to look at fellows with girls and pity them. Girls seemed a real drag. I thought I'd miss having a laugh with the lads once I got a girl. But I have more laughs now than I ever did with the boys." He looked quite serious, and his eyes misted with concentration. SPECIAL GIRL . . ."In the pop business having a special girl is rather hard. There are always reporters around asking if you're getting engaged. After all, no one knows the answer to that sort of question till they've asked the girl. When people have already mentioned it, it rather spoils it."He tossed back his drink. "I want one please," Twinkle said. "You can have a 'Coke,' but nothing stronger," Herman said, ordering from the waiter. He sounded older, stronger and more manly than the cute young boy I'd seen on television. "Is he as strong and reliable as he seems?" I asked Twinkle. ADULT . . ."Yes, everyone thinks of him as young, but he is very adult, really. If anything goes wrong with my day I say to myself, 'Never mind, tell Pete when he rings tonight,' and he always does ring." (She calls Herman by his real name, Pete Noone)."I'm not usually that reliable with people," said Herman. "Till recently I longed to get away from everyone. I liked to disappear where no one knew where I was. I am very difficult to hold down for long. Something inside me longs to be free. My friends think I'm mean not wanting to see them, but I can't help it. "People get so far with me and then no further," Herman went on. "I don't exactly mistrust them, but I can't relax completely. I've always been like that with a girl till recently." He paused, straightening the identity bracelet on his arm, "I don't really like being admired by girls. Not ones I go out with. I feel silly when they flatter me." He giggled suddenly. "Needless to say I've never felt silly with Twink. She meets me, 'Hello,' I say, 'how are you then?' 'I'm fine, how are you, you great nit?' she replies. 'Where shall we go?' I say. 'Anywhere where I can't see your face; you look like a baboon,' she says. So I tell her she looks like a shaggy dog with the mange coming on and the evening is off to a terrific start." They both laughed uproariously for about twenty-five minutes. Then Herman decided to dance. The dance, if you could call it that, took the form of a native ritual, and included much stamping of feet, much bowing to the ground, and ended with him on all fours. The other dancers glanced surprised at the goings on, and Herman returned to the table with a gleeful smile. LOVE . . . "Ha, that embarrassed you!" he said to Twinkle. "One up to me. We have this game where we try to embarrass each other, but we're both so daring that it sometimes takes rather a lot before a point is won.""Herman, can love, be as gay, as happy, as much fun as you are having at the moment?" He shrugged. "I think so, maybe. I know there is the other sort of love which is dramatic. But that sort of love comes once and doesn't usually end in marriage. It's a dead intense love. You both quarrel a lot because you are both so possessive, easily hurt, and don't often find time to laugh at each other. A love like that tears you apart. I think that sort of love is written about in songs but doesn't end in marriage." He paused and sighed shortly. "If you are going to live with someone for the rest of your life you must have fun with them. I must, anyway." "Do you think there is any age that is good to be married at?" "No. I'll get married when I'm ready. I think it is up to the individual. People warn you not to marry too young, but my parents married at seventeen and had my sister by the time they were eighteen. Now they are only thirty-seven. My sister married recently, and she and her Gordon are only nineteen. It depends how you feel, doesn't it? "Herman, if you had to sum up what you think wonderful love is how would you do it? After all, you sing about it in your current hit disc!" WONDERFUL WORLD"For me it is having someone you can laugh with, talk to about things you don't talk to other people about. Someone to rely on. It is having someone who cares about you and lets you see they do. Someone you miss when you are away from them. Hey, I sound dead soft, I think it's time I left."He did with his arm round his girl. But as they reached the street he suddenly pulled away. "I'm a baboon," he teased, endeavouring to look like one. "Say you're embarrassed, go on admit it!" "Never," she said, dancing away down the street, and as he followed, laughter filled the night air. I don't know if it is love, but it's a wonderful world. |