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Peter Noone, the Herman of Herman's Hermits and the teenybop rage of 1964, was termed
by Lillian Roxon in her "Encyclopedia of Rock" - "The Mr. Clean of Rock and the only pop
star that Ed Sullivan could cope with painlessly." Which is part of the trouble for Mr. Noone in 1971, particularly where America is concerned. As he said before visiting the U.S.: "I'm coming here as a new artist. I'm not going to mention Herman's Hermits because Herman's Hermit's over here is like Pat Boone." Actually the Hermits have split from Peter Noone. Peter recalled: "Herman's Hermits haven't been in America for two years and after the last tour it was the end of the Herman's Hermits in America as far as I was concerned. The Hermits have been looking for a singer to join them and give them a new lease of life. They need fresh ideas." Part of the injection of new blood Into the group almost happened four years ago, when Peter Noone decided to ask an organ player who joined them for a quick German tour to stay on as permanent member. Peter told me: "But he thought he didn't fit in and went his own way." Several months later the organ player re-emerged in a slightly larger group by which time he'd switched to bass guitar and was universally known as John Paul Jones. Peter commented: "It was just the idea that if we got him in there it would have given the group a boost, someone with fresh ideas. I couldn't convince him that Herman's Hermits was the group for him." At the time we talked Peter had just recorded a single, the first one without the Hermits, called "Oh You Pretty Thing." For him it was a change of style and was written for him by David Bowie who had an underground hit with "Space Oddity." Said Peter: "It's the best one I've made on my own'. It's the first one I've made on my own. My producer Mickie Most, who has been with me since the beginning, found the song for me, he played it to me and we recorded it in a week. I don't think it's complicated - just a bit different. |
David Bowie played piano on the record. I think he wrote it just for me -I think he's the best songwriter since Paul McCartney. "It's a completely different thing, Peter Noone from the Hermits. We couldn't make albums - only Best Ofs... - "Now Mickie wants to spend a few quid (English pounds) on an album with different ideas of promotion. I feel like a new artist now, which is great. "Actually Herman's Hermits and me still work together occasionally, just now and then. And the only reason for this is that we all work well together. After eight years you can't find four guys just to step in. I enjoy the 'live' bits with the group and they all know exactly what I'm going to do, what time I got up, everything - we lived and ate together for six of the eight years." All Peter's records have been quite simple things with no big social, political or whatever undercurrents. I asked him if he had ever considered doing anything with an undercurrent. "The most important thing for me is that the record is a hit," he replied frankly. "Some people say 'I hated all my records' but I like all mine. "I can see why a few million people bought 'Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter'. If I was a record punter (gambler) I would have bought it. The only one of mine that didn't make it was 'Museum' . It just appealed to me at that time. Mickie was also recording Donovan when he was into all that electric banana bit and he had 'Museum' and "Mellow Yellow.' "I waited around to record whichever Don left alone. "I always tried to add different instruments to the line up of Herman's Hermits but the group worked so infrequently and the musicians I liked didn't want to join because of the image. "Everyone thought we were like Billy Graham (the Reverend not the Fillmore boss) and his mob, that we only had to look at the label of a beer bottle and we would have freaked out. "I'd like Herman's Hermits to do a festival, following a really loud group and do the 1964 Herman's Hermits bit, just to see how it went. Just give it to them."
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