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POP singer Herman - he of the Hermits - is thin with a thicket of shiny fair hair which gives him the appearance of a belisha beacon. He and his group have sold over 15,000,000 records and, in the United States last year, they beat The Beatles to head the popularity poll. Elvis Presley gives parties for the Hermits, and in the United States they earn Ł8,000 a night.
They have now signed a film and record contract with MGM in Hollywood guaranteeing them a minimum of a million dollars and a potential, when the percentages are computed, of perhaps Ł1˝ million in the next five years.
Herman (he signs his cheques Peter Noone) will be 19 in November.
Yesterday they stuck a cigar in his mouth, champagne in his hand and took his picture for the papers.

Clothes

HE said he'd really have a fag, because he wasn't a very extravagant person. He spent Ł100 a week on clothes, but that was because he was a public performer and voted one of Britain's "ten" best-dressed men, and it was expected of him.
He is now a millionaire, but doesn't have many material possessions. "Not even a house," he said. "I've bought all the furniture, though, and am now looking for a house to fit it."
The furniture, meanwhile, is stacked in the garage of his parents' home. In the Prime Minister's Liverpool constituency.
His only apparent lavishness is a Jaguar and a Cadillac, and he feels a bit sheepish about those, because he only has a provisional license.
"I am not aware of being rich," he said. "I suppose you only become aware of it when you do flashy things, like putting Ł200 on a roulette number. I still only put on half-crowns because I have a fantastic respect for money."

Skill

HIS manager says he invests with the skill of a stockbroker. He reads The Financial Times every morning. "Property's the thing," said Herman. "Fantastic. I want to buy a block of flats."
He has made one film in Hollywood, to be released in Britain in August. Now the group is to star in another two with options for three more.
It's the tribal joke that because of their Manchester accents they'll show them with sub-titles in America.
Herman is looking for suitably-youthful leading ladies. "In my first film I had to kiss the girl," he said. "Only once, but I was terribly embarrassed because she was married."
He does not fully understand why he is vastly more successful in America than here at home ... "something to do with timing I think. And over there they see me as a nice little English boy."
In many ways he is. He wore his old grammar school blazer - with the motto "Never Was He Lazy" in Latin on the badge.

Fond

"I'M very fond of my old school," said Herman. "And my home in Liverpool, and my family. I've got three sisters and I've been promised a baby brother next year."
He likes his life - "Being a successful pop singer is a lot better than being an unsuccessful boxer." He began as an actor (once Len Fairclough's son in "Coronation Street") and thinks he'll end up as an actor.
"I do not," he says with some finality, "want to be a 40-year-old pop singer."
The celebration broke up. Some of the group - there are five of them - took off for Carnaby Street.
Herman went to the Commercial Cafe opposite their recording studio in Kensington.
"Chops, chips and peas 3s. 6d. he said.
"I'm not mean. I do not go there cos it's cheap, I go there cos it's good."