Perhaps the most obvious side effect of singing for a living is the traveling. The HERMITS and myself had flown one and a half times round the world in the first six months of '66, and the rest of the year was just as frantic!
     We love seeing new places, meeting new people.
     Apart from the States, which we regard as our second home, we have grown particularly fond of the far East. Life there is so different from that which we are used to in Manchester. When you're in a street market in Hong Kong, the mystery of the Orient stops being just a phrase you read in books.
     Yet there are snags to all this traveling. The biggest problem in our lives before we go on a long trip is knowing what to pack. There is obviously a limit to how much baggage each person can take, and you have to work it all out very carefully, otherwise you can find yourself boiling in a fur coat in Hawaii, or shivering in a cotton shirt and sandals in Iceland!
     Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration, because we flew to Iceland for two concerts only a few months ago, and found that it wasn't nearly as cold as we'd expected. We'd all taken along fur jackets and gloves and boots, but when we arrived in Reykjovic, it was warmer than home!
     There is a legend in the group that our group history has been reflected in the successsion of vehicles that our drummer BARRY WHITWAM has owned.
     He started off with a 'stink wheel' - a bicycle with a little motor on the back wheel, so that you don't have to pedal quite so hard. When we turned professional, he bought himself a motor scooter and we took turns in riding on the back to and from the dates, but it's no fun riding 200 miles in the freezing cold on the back of a scooter, but no one liked to disappoint Barry by telling him. His first car was a battered, veteran Morris. Since then there's been no stopping him. In quick succession he's had a 'Mini', a daimler-Jaguar, an MG sports car and now his new pride and joy, an Aston-Martin.
     While we're on the subject of cars, KEITH HOPWOOD, besides playing lead and rhythm guitar with the Hermits, is currently driving a Volvo 1800 sports, KARL GREEN of the bass guitar has an S-type Jaguar, while guitarist LEK LECKENBY has a shiny red MGB sports car.
     Me? I feel a bit out of all this, because although I've got a marvellous S-type Jaguar, I'm officially "a learner," which means that I still have to have a qualified driver with me until I pass my driving test.
     Apart from our new cars, we have been buying houses lately. The Hermits, around Manchester.

     Karl is living in the same street in Davyhulme, a suburb of Manchester, where I grew up and lived until about four years ago, while Keith has bought himself a big, old character laden house in Hale, which is also near Manchester. It has about 15 rooms, and Karl's parents live downstairs while he has a big flat of his own upstairs. He bought the place, and because he insists on decorating it himself, his flat is still in a bit of a mess.
     Keith is the art collector of the group. Everywhere we go, he buys carved figures of stone, wood or metal, and has them shipped back to his home. The last time I dropped by to see him, he was halfway up a ladder, in the middle of a huge room, with a paint pot and a brush in his hands, while about 30 huge statues stood around the room!
     I still enjoy the time I spend in Manchester or with my parents in Liverpool, which is only about 30 miles away. But since everything started to happen for us, I've been spending more and more time in London. It might sound strange to Americans, to whom distances are so vast, but although London and Manchester are only some 200 miles apart, they are different worlds. When I first started to visit London, mostly on business, I thought it a great big drag. All I wanted to do was get work done, and get back up North. However, over the past couple of years I've grown to know London much better - although I can still get lost - and as TIME magazine said, it really is "a swinging city."
     Although the Hermits have all bought houses in or around Manchester, I want to get a flat in London. I want it to be right in the middle of town, and it will have to have great soundproofing and thick walls. I don't want to annoy the neighbors everytime I play records late into the night!
     Even though we spend so much of our time traveling together, the Hermits spend quite a bit of free time together. Both Karl and Keith have boats. Keith has a 17-foot yacht, which he keeps on Lake Widermere. This is the focal point of Britain's beautiful Lake District - where DONALD CAMPBELL tries the water speed runs. Karl has a 2-berth mini-cruiser, which he tows to the lake on a trailer. We load up the two boats with food and drink, and in the middle of the lake try catching fish. But although we all have a great time, none of us is the Compleat Angler or has yet caught even a minnow!
     Someone told me that fish are sensitive to noise. If this is true, I should think that the pop music that we have blasting out of the radios and record players would frighten off any denizen of the deep - including the Loch Ness Monster!