Herman Without The Hermits???

Peter Noone, Herman of the Hermits has a lot of plans for summer, and one of them, if he has his way, could mean a temporary split for the famous group!
    But don't worry - it doesn't mean the end's in sight yet. Over a well-iced coke in his New York hotel suite, Herman gave us the straight scoop.
    "Actually I have three ideas for the summer. I really don't want to talk about all of them yet, in case none happens, but one idea is to go back to school." Knowing he left school at the age of 15 - a common occurrence in England, it seemed a little surprising that four years later he would think of resuming his education.
    "It's not quite like that," he assured us. "I mean, I think I may go to acting school. After all, I did set out to be an actor, you know, when I was still a kid. And I'm still very interested in it."
    What would happen to the rest of the Hermits if Herman decided to follow his plans? If they were upset, they certainly didn't show it. Derek told us, "We won't break up or anything like that. We'll still tour and work, and it would be kind of nice to be able to relax a bit. We've been so busy lately, that we haven't had time to catch up on anything."

       "Anyway," Herman interrupted, "I wouldn't be at school for long. Even if I did go, I wouldn't attend classes that interfered with our dates. We'll still cut plenty of records and in England anyway, we'll play weekend concerts. But the pop scene over there isn't what is used to be. You can't work all the time anymore because there's no money and not enough places to work.
    "Of course, now we're going to work more in Europe, because we just had our first big smash there. It was called "No Milk Today" which was a "B" side in this country. But all over the Continent it became a big hit, so we can work in places like France, Germany and Italy. After Europe we'll come back to America, though I don't know definitely whether it will be this summer or not."
    Just a short while ago, Herman was offered the lead in a summer stock version of "Half A Sixpence," the show which brought American fans to another countryman, Tommy Steele, the first home-grown British rock performer. A lot of people say the part is ideal for Herman, but he doesn't think he's going to do it. He explained, "First of all, they wanted me alone, but I didn't want to do it without the group, and second, I don't know whether I'm right for it yet."
    What are their immediate plans? Well, Herman and the Hermits are to host their own series of six specials for British television, something which they're thrilled about because not many groups have had the same opportunity. "We were even allowed to choose who we wanted as our guests on the series," Herman said proudly. "It's sort of nice, you know."
    At some point during the year, the group will start work on their next movie, "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter," take vacations at home and come back to America. With all these plans for the future, looks like Herman and his Hermits will be much too busy to think about splitting up!


On his last trip to New York, Herman paid a visit to Greenwich Village to see folk singer Eric Andersen. Another young star who likes Eric's work is lovely Francoise Hardy, left, the top rave in France.

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