The "new" me is all her fault - Mireille, of course! This is the way she looked on our wedding day.
We're not making very many personal appearances, but we're still on TV some. This is the way we looked on one of Tom Jones' shows.

    To look at Peter Noone these days you might think he was on some kind of rejuvenation course. He looks healthier, happier and almost unbelievably younger.
    "That's marriage for you," said Mr. Noone agreeably. "I'm keeping better hours, drinking less and not raving into the early hours down at the clubs."
    Is Peter on any kind of health food kick or taking excercise?
    "No," laughed Peter. "What I'm doing is eating instead of drinking and finding the time to relax and take things easy. Before I never had regular meals or got my proper sleep."
    Peter intends to see that this happy state of affairs continues by taking his young wife Mireille with him on their current world tour.
    "She particularly wants to see Hollywood," said Peter. "Her brother hopes to buy a restaurant out there. He has one already in Paris on the Isle de St. Louis which was voted number one in a recent gourmet's guide-book to the city."
    Peter regards "Sentimental Friend" as the first disc which has departed from that "just go on and be happy" type of record and has given him the chance to sing a little more and grin a little less. As usual he gives the credit for the record's success to the man who found it - record producer Mickie Most.
    "I think Lulu is making a big mistake leaving Mickie," said Peter. "She should have stuck with him just out of loyalty after her contract was up. I won't leave him because I believe in staying with the best. Mickie is the best record producer in the world and I challenge anyone to prove differently.
    "In a way the fact that Lulu is no longer with us will help me because when Mickie found good songs he would divide them up between us - now it means I'll get first choice of our kind of material. A few people seem to think that Mickie was

 

slipping when Terry Reid did not become huge in England but what they don't realize is that in America he has already got away and that is where it's at!"     Peter estimates that "Sentimental Friend" cost over $40,000 to make, inclusive of over 12 hours recording orchestral fees and other incidentals. He expects to recover this expense from the sales of the record in Britain, but only just!
    "Sales in this country are ridiculously low even for a number one record," said Peter. "The prestige of a chart hit is worth more to me than the actual sales - we will really make most of the money from it on the sales in the States. We could pay for the cost of the record with one concert in America - in England for a similar concert we would get $2000. In America we would never play to less than 12,000 people"
    Touring at the present is a thing of the past as far as Herman's Hermits are concerned - that is, pop package tours anyway. At present the group is involved in world-wide appearances in Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines and Mexico, but all in clubs.
    "The beauty of that arrangement is that you are in one place long enough to enjoy it," said Peter. "I've spent most of my life tearing through cities all over the world without seeing anything of them at all. You see the inside of a hotel room and the inside of a plane. Now by staying in one place for a week or more we will be able to go out during the day and pay for the holiday by working at night. I'm looking forward to really seeing places like Sydney in Australia.
    There were a lot of reports in the paper that Herman had quit a tour with the Love Affair earlier than expected. What was the truth of that episode?
    "The whole thing just became shambles," said Peter. "There was no trouble between us and the Love Affair - we got on fine. I thought they were nice guys - they reminded me of us five years ago!
    "The organization was pathetic though - we never saw a stage manager and people got on stage during the performance who had no business being there - there were arguments and swearing on stage in front of the audience. On one performance we got on stage, did three minutes and they closed the curtain on us because the show was running late!"
    To fill in time while touring the world, Mrs. Noone is teaching Mr. Noone some foreign languages and Peter is already coming along quite nicely with his French - "My accent is diabolical" and German - "achtung Spitfires" and Hebrew - "It's easier for an English person to get a good command of Hebrew!" Mr. Noone obliged with a few words - of which I understood nothing!


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