 pop stars are nuttier than American ones."Maybe it's because we're all friends," Herman said, gesturing at the rest of the group, who were now in the last minute stages of tying shoe laces and such. "We really do have fun. "In America, pop singing is more of a cut-throat business. Like acting in England. That's why I quit and stuck to singing. I was too young. I didn't like the people. They'd do anything to get ahead, step on people, anything. "Now, acting in 'When The Boys Meet The Girls' here in LA was fabulous [Herman had to stop a moment to remember whether the title was "When" or "Where"] because we were all together. I play Herman in the picture. Me. It's not a very big part. Just a few lines and a couple of songs. We sang one by Gershwin, that's something new for us. Our next film is the first starring one, 'There's No Place Like Space.' "A lot of different things have helped toward making us popular. Good publicity, good choice of songs. Yes, our ages, since so many of the groups are older and the girls who buy records are mostly young." "Then, why," I wanted to know, "do you think Elvis is still topping the charts?" |
|
"NOT now! Not now! Lek hasn't any clothes on!" were the first words Herman said to me, laughing as he politely edged me back out of the dressing-room door. Herman himself was minus a shirt. Standing outside waiting to chat, I could hear a song wafting through from indoors. Not rehearsing, just Herman being happy. Though we'd never met before, I knew what to expect. The other night he'd sung on Hullabaloo, in Los Angeles, breaking up in the middle and absolutely collapsing with laughter onto a convenient couch. Well, he was performing with Freddie. But Peter Noone was equally guilty of contributing to the madness. "Come on in," he said, about the tenth time the door opened. Newsmen and TV cameras had left long before and now it was a stream of other performers in the Rose Bowl show. After the hi's and all that, we got down to the serious aspects of Herman's life. "No, no. I'm not going out with Twinkle," he protested. "It's not true. In fact, I don't go out with girls anymore." There simply isn't time. He's even got over his all-consuming love for Brenda Lee. Oh, yes. A passionate enough affair, sighing on and on till it ended finally, "not because she got married, but well I just grew out of it." He'd said he'd never really noticed that British |
"Oh, because he's good." Which sort of stopped me. I mean, it's so true, and it's the last answer I'd have thought of. Herman and I got along splendidly for the most part. I knew I'd adore him, but I was afraid we'd have trouble understanding each other. Luckily, everything went smoothly, speechwise and otherwise. Until I asked about the social order in England. Whether the beat revolution has loosened it up? Herman thought I meant he was a socialist and started to explain how he and The Beatles, whom I also mentioned, had never been connected in any way with politics and in fact are really not awfully thrilled by them. Then I straightened him out and he straightened me out. "I mean all these groups springing up and poor people getting rich." "It's always been like this," he said. "The guy who invented dustbins wasn't rich before he invented dustbins, and afterward he was." Oh yeah? However, I've never heard of dustbins and I couldn't find the word in the dictionary. So I've decided to invent them. (Dustbins are called garbage cans in the States - Ed's note) Oh, dear. It was That Time. A man, murmuring something about the boys having to go on in a minute, ushered me out. So I said thank you and squeezed out of the door before it closed on me. |