Herman and the Boys are pretty pleased with themselves - and why not?
"Hermania" is at its peak and the Hermits love it!!!
|
What is that hanging around the neck of the teenaged girl watusi-ing away for all she's worth? A locket? Lavalier? Or maybe her boyfriend's class ring? NO! It is, obviously, a replica of Herman's famous "toof." Is that clear? Herman, leader of the wildly popular group, Herman's Hermits, has a wide, kooky smile made even more groovy by a fang-like "toof" lurking off in the right hand corner of his mouth. Any truly loyal Herman fan who wants to demonstrate his or her loyalty can now do so by sporting a Herman toof ... ideal with poor-boy sweaters! "Herman is BOSS!" declares a toof-wearer engertically, and millions of fans agree whole-heartedly. Herman, eighteen years old, with his thick reddish bangs, zany grin and impish freckled face, shyly admits he's glad his fans love him so much. "It's nice, luv," he says in his soft voice with the slurry-smooth Manchester accent coming through. "I mean - it's nice to please people ..." Adorable Herman came into this world on a most appropriate day - Guy Fawkes. In England Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated with bonfires and firecrackers. Kids dance through the streets and the general atmosphere is Fourth of Julyish. Into all his hullabaloo on November 5, 1947, while the doctors and nurses were out exploding rockets on the Hospital grounds, came our boy Herman. Of course, he wasn't named Herman then; that came later on. He was Christened Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone. from that day on there was no holding him back. His dad remembers that Peter was very determined, even at 11 months. "Peter would watch his sister, Denise, who is two years older, walking around and his eyes would get bigger and bigger and you could just see him thinking: 'If she walks I'm going to walk too.' He would grab hold of her tricycle and walk round and round, hour after hour, day after day. But it worked. He taught himself to walk." Herman himself says he was a goody-goody in school 'till he was about thirteen, but it's hard to believe. "I was always top of the form. (translate, class) and that sort of thing, but then I started to get fed up and was dead cheeky to all the masters." Herman grins as he recalls the pranks he pulled at school. "I had one of those cheeky faces that attracted trouble," he admits cheerfully. "Reckon I held the school record for the number of times I got belted ... there was rarely a day when one of the masters didn't whack me with a gym shoe." There was the time he nailed everyone's hats to the floor. That was the week after he had stuck all the desk lids down with glue. One time he fixed it so a bowl of water would fall off a door-top on a teacher's head, but "I was very unlucky, really. The water missed him completely!" It was only natural that Herman gravitated toward acting. At the age of 14 he began to study singing for a part he had won in a TV series called Knight Errant, and when audiences saw him warbling away with his wide eyes and infectious grin they wanted more. Within a year, Herman had acted in two children's plays and assorted T.V. programs, but his first love was still singing pop music. "There was this group in Manchester called "The Heartbeats," recalls a friend of Herman's. "We used to go listen to them pretty regularly and one night they were short a singer. Peter nudged right in and - well - you might say he never left!" The only member of the original Heartbeats |
left is bass guitarist Karl Green. He and the other Hermits (Barry Whitwam, Derek Leckenby, and Keith Hopwood) love to tell about how the group got Christened. "There was this TV cartoon show called the "Bullwinkle Show," says Lek, grinning. "On it was this kid called Sherman -" "And Sherman looked just like Peter!" interrupts Keith gleefully. Only trouble is - we thought the name was Herman," explains Barry, rolling his eyes heavenward to show what a lucky mistake it was ... ... "So," says Karl, turning his palms up as if the whole thing was perfectly clear, "We nicknamed Peter Herman." "Got it straight, mates?" says Herman. "Can you see a group called Sherman and the Hermits? Too many words. Now we're just plain Herman's Hermits." Just PLAIN Herman's Hermits? Not likely! Nothing plain about a group that's risen so fast and come so far in a little over a year. Nothing ordinary about five boys who have infected all of England and the United States with "Hermania," the Hermits equivilent of Beatlemania. What has the group got that makes it so special? For starters - a completely unique singing style - soft and underplayed with a wonderful beat you'd never mistake for anyone else's. Then they've got a great knack for picking material, with the help of fabulous Mickie Most, the group's recording manager. Mickie only goofed once. "Will I ever forget that?" moans Mickie with his head in his hands. "Herman came to me raving about this new disc, MRS. BROWN YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER. Said his manager didn't like it but was sure it was a perfect song for the group. I heard it and said Ab-so-lute-ly NO! I would not release the song as a single record. Herman, determined as ever, persuaded Mickie that the song had to be included in his stage routine, and of course audiences flipped when they heard it. In fact, everyone but the people who controlled the recording end of things loved it. "When MRS. BROWN was released on Herman's first MGM LP in the States the disc jocks went wild!" says Mickie. "I finally gave in and released MRS. BROWN as a single. Guess what? MGM received 70,000 requests for it three days after it was aired!" "Awww, you know," teases Herman, "ANYONE can make a mistake." Actually, Herm and all the boys are grateful to Mickie, who saw them, recorded them, and released their first record, "I'm Into Something Good," all in the space of three weeks. Then Mrs. Brown climbed straight to the top of the American popularity charts, it was obvious that Herman's Hermits were going to make it big. In light of all this, you would think Herman would consider himself lucky. "Me? Lucky?" he says, eyes wide with shock. "Why whatever would make you think THAT?" Herman is convinced that he is very accident prone, and there must be something to it because Lek agrees. "Oh, sure. If there was a man hole cover open somewhere - anywhere in London - Herman would manage to walk straight to that street and fall down into the man hole." Whether or not Herman is really accident-prone or just too wrapped up in more interesting things to bother with boring old man holes, we don't know. Furthermore - who cares? Herman is adorable, Herman is wonderful, Herman's Hermits are the most, and Herman is, well - boss! |
Herman grins "toofily." Maybe he's remembering the time they said
"Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" wouldn't sell.