0:08

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to

0:11

the Bob left Sets podcast. My

0:14

guest tonight is the one

0:16

and only Peter Nude,

0:18

a k A. Hermit of Hermit's

0:21

Hermits. Peter, so great to have you. It's

0:23

great. It's great to be hit Bobby. I listened

0:25

to your podcasts, and as you know, I've

0:27

been reading your left Sets letter

0:30

for as long as it's been out like

0:32

a fan. Okay, thanks so much

0:34

for being a fan, and I'm certainly a fan of you

0:36

and your work. But we're here

0:39

in Hollywood at the studio. You

0:41

dropped your wife off at L a X.

0:43

You live in Santa Barbara. Yeah, I live in Santa Barbara

0:46

and I my wife and daughter are going.

0:48

My wife's family have a house in the south

0:51

of France and they like to go via Dublin, so

0:53

they've dropped him off at L a X. They flying to Dublin

0:56

and and to Nice and I'll

0:58

join them in about two weeks now. One of

1:00

the reasons I asked this is you

1:03

got married when you were twenty what twenty

1:06

one birthday, and you have been married

1:08

to the same woman for fifty years

1:10

exactly. We had our fiftieth wedding

1:12

anniversary, and the only person who

1:15

showed up actually Mickey

1:17

Moost's wife and

1:19

and Mickey mostly was my producer. His

1:21

wife and Tom Jones were the

1:23

only people that we knew that

1:26

is still around from our wedding. Okay,

1:29

so we all know what being a rock

1:31

stars like you were as famous as anybody

1:34

in the world. How did you find

1:36

this particular woman to marry?

1:39

Um? It was very it was. It

1:41

was a strange one. I went to the Bag of Nails to see

1:43

Jimi Hendrix, who was like newly

1:46

in town. I think Eric Burdon had mentioned

1:48

him. And I went to the Bag of Nails and

1:50

there was a girl there and she was

1:52

with another with her sister, and

1:55

they were speaking Hebrew and

1:58

obviously I can't we can wrote of Hebrew,

2:01

and they were speaking Hebrew, so that

2:04

I because I could speak French,

2:06

and they were French, having

2:08

spent some time in Israel. And

2:13

the guy who was with them said, would you dance

2:15

with my sister? And were

2:18

they were aware of who you were? No,

2:20

absolutely no idea and the kid would

2:22

snicks you know then nothing about

2:24

me, And of course

2:26

they knew who Johnny Halliday was, but there were

2:28

no other people in their lives musically,

2:31

and we we

2:34

met and we spoke a little. I had schoolboy

2:36

French, you know, like a pretty good

2:38

schoolboy French. And you

2:42

know, we actually gave me her

2:44

phone number and it was Ambassador

2:47

double two six and

2:51

I kept it on a card and I

2:53

went away. And five months later

2:55

I was in Hyde Park, which is a big park. It's like

2:57

walking in Central Park. And I

3:00

saw my future wife's sister

3:03

and I walked over at said, who where's

3:06

your sister? And she said, she's

3:08

back in England. She's staying my mother's

3:11

place on Cleveland Square. That's the Ambassador

3:13

double two sixties. I said, great, So I

3:15

called her and she had no

3:18

intent, no intention I have ever seen

3:20

me again. Um. You know, she

3:22

had a dentist appointment the next day and

3:24

a headdressed as performance. So eventually

3:27

we went out to dinner with other friends.

3:30

Um, and you know, she

3:33

found out I was the real real

3:35

thing. Then another time, then

3:37

we separate again. I went on an American

3:39

tour and we

3:42

she saw me singing

3:45

on the television on Top of the Pops and her sister

3:47

said, look that's the guy that we that

3:49

you danced with that night. It keeps calling,

3:52

and you went out to dinner with Francois,

3:54

and all those people actually goes, oh my goodness,

3:56

I had no idea. And she makes a joke.

3:58

He said he used to draw pictures of beds

4:01

and wardrobes and things, and I

4:03

thought he was a furniture senter, you

4:06

know. So you know, I never learned Hebrew,

4:08

but my French got much much better. I only

4:11

learned French because I had a good

4:13

you know, you're always good at the things you have a good teacher. I had

4:15

a great teacher, father Murray. And

4:19

and I I went to I

4:21

was I went to the evenings. I went to the Manchester

4:23

School of Music because my dad thought

4:25

I was. I needed to be a musician, knowledgeable

4:29

musician. And

4:31

there was a library nearby, the Manchester Library,

4:34

and on the second floors where I would go to

4:36

do my homework because it was very quiet, and

4:39

there was there was the art department. And

4:42

there was a picture in one of the books of Bridgie

4:44

bard Do. And I thought, I'm going to learn

4:46

French so bad that I

4:49

can walk up to Bridgitte bard Do one

4:51

day and and and pick her

4:53

up. You know, that kind of school boy, and

4:56

of course it wasn't Bridgie, but it was someone even better,

4:58

which is my wife Mary, much much better.

5:01

Okay, so you meet her the second

5:03

time, then she goes back to France. How

5:05

does it ultimately okay, well,

5:07

how how it gets going is I

5:10

come back to England and

5:13

I say no, no, no, no

5:15

no, excuse me. She moves to Spain.

5:19

Her mother has a house in

5:21

the Ibis in

5:24

the Baliaric Islands, and I

5:27

decide to rent

5:29

the place next door, which

5:32

was pretty cool. And I moved into

5:34

the place next door, and her mother really likes

5:36

me, and I end up spending a lot of

5:38

time talking to the mother, who's very

5:40

interesting, not the lots of Second World

5:42

War intrigue and dead

5:45

husband's from the Holocaust

5:48

and the great, great interesting stuff for me. So

5:51

uh, we make this friendship.

5:54

And one day we're sitting on the balcony

5:57

of this little apartment of mine and

6:00

we hear this voice Peter Noon,

6:04

Peter Noon, because

6:06

there are no phones or there are no communication

6:09

this that, and and I got, yeah,

6:12

I'm Peter Noon, what what is

6:14

it? And he goes, I'm from the British

6:16

Consulate and you

6:18

need to come back to England immediately,

6:21

and I got what. I think, something's

6:23

happened to mynd So

6:26

I come come downstairs. I go, what's

6:28

going on? He goes, your record is

6:30

in the charts. It's

6:33

sunshine girl. I didn't even

6:35

know it was out and

6:38

I needed to be Everyone was looking for me to

6:40

go on top of the pops on the Thursday. So, you

6:42

know, it was easy in those days. You've got to the airport, you

6:44

buy a ticket and you there's no tar, say

6:46

there was nothing. You just went, oh, okay, I'll

6:48

be back in two days. I went to England, did to the posts,

6:50

went back to there, and then I said, I got to go to New

6:53

York. My my manager, Charlie Silverman, is

6:55

getting married in New York and

6:58

my future wife's and I

7:00

don't do planes, so

7:02

I go, you don't do planes. Uh, So

7:05

we had to take a ship. We took

7:08

the America. I think we've called the United

7:10

States the fastest

7:12

ship on the ocean, and

7:15

it was the worst crossing. Even the captain

7:18

was sick, you know, And that was she

7:20

took planes ever since then. So we went to

7:22

New York, married, we went to

7:24

the wedding, and then

7:26

we set off and went to Mexico.

7:29

And Porto Rico, and we did that show business

7:31

stuff and I said, you know, let's get how

7:33

about we get married? And she goes on, I'm

7:35

not sure. I said, you know, you should see me on

7:37

stage, but you

7:39

see who I who who who

7:42

I'm being some of

7:44

the time. You may may not like that character.

7:46

So we go to vis Baden and

7:49

we're playing an American airport base

7:51

in vis Baden, and

7:55

she saw the show and she still wanted to get She

7:57

said, okay, yeah, that could be fun to

7:59

be married. You you'd be fun. You're a

8:01

gentleman. And we

8:03

got married. So how long did you know her before

8:05

you got married? Well, I

8:08

think September to

8:10

November. I mean we I've I've

8:13

finally got to spend

8:16

a night with her in September sixty

8:18

eight and we got married in November sixty eight. So

8:21

when did you that I first met her in April

8:23

six I think. Okay, so April

8:25

to November. Yeah, it was just that fast.

8:27

It was. It was really love at first. My

8:30

pot everybody gets divorced.

8:32

What's the secret to staying together? My

8:34

wife has a very good sense of humor. You

8:38

know, it's you know, it's

8:40

really She still

8:42

likes me quite a lot. You know, I am

8:44

I'm amusing and I make fun of

8:47

him self deprecating, which is good. You know, I say,

8:49

watch out, I'm going to be naked and second stretch

8:51

the lights often. You know, she likes all that kind of stuff.

8:54

She's got a very good sense of humor. And she's from

8:57

you know, she's from a dysfunctional type

8:59

of Emily and I am as well. So we know that the family

9:02

is the most important thing. So we

9:04

know that keeping the family together

9:06

is the most important part of the world,

9:08

of the whole thing that we've got. Now,

9:11

one would assume, being a young

9:13

man on the road top of the charts,

9:16

that you would partake as some of the things

9:18

that were going on on the road. Would that be accurate

9:21

before I got married? Oh yeah, so

9:23

twenty one is young. But you

9:25

just saw her and you said this is the one. Yeah,

9:28

you know, I think I probably,

9:32

um, I probably was looking for

9:34

you know once somebody, I think Saul McCartney

9:37

said, you know, you can you can have a full

9:39

on life in show business.

9:41

You can make show business your life, but

9:43

you may want to take some time and have a

9:45

life at the same time as being in show businesses, and

9:48

I was really I thought,

9:50

because of the nature of

9:52

my childhood kind of, I thought

9:54

it would be really important to concentrate

9:56

on life. My parents, um, we're

9:59

very busy when I was young, so we which

10:01

made me into me, you know,

10:03

because they were always gone. So

10:06

I became very independent, and I thought I

10:08

would like to have some settling thing.

10:11

Some part of me needed to be

10:14

settled. That's why I live in Santa Barbara. I live on a

10:16

golf course. I've never played golf in

10:18

my life, and I live on a

10:20

golf course because it's

10:22

a settled place, you know, it's my Okay.

10:25

So you're growing up in Manchester, right in

10:27

Manchester, yes, suburbs of Ventures

10:29

Destruction, and I've been there

10:31

a few times with some

10:33

people. So in any event, your

10:36

father does work for a living. My father

10:39

was a trombone player who became

10:41

an accountant and he

10:43

was in the Royal Air Force. And

10:46

part of my story is my father

10:49

was in the Second World

10:51

War and my mother was sent away

10:53

to some village during the Second

10:55

World War and they got married. I think my mother

10:58

got married on her sixteenth birthday and

11:00

my sister was born five months

11:02

later, and then

11:05

in the fifties, all those

11:08

people who had been messed

11:10

up with the war, I messed up,

11:13

I can't think of it would but transported

11:16

away from their lives. They

11:18

both went back to university. My mother went to

11:20

Cambridge and my father went to Edinburgh.

11:23

And this was after they were married.

11:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this was after I know I

11:28

was six or seven.

11:29

Okay, those

11:31

those places are physically apart.

11:33

But you went to the university of that, remember, you earned

11:36

it, didn't You couldn't buy your way into a university.

11:39

They chose which one you were good enough? Okay, so,

11:41

but but they were ultimately separated absolutely.

11:44

Who was taking care of the kids grandmothers.

11:47

We lived my sister and I lived with my grandmother

11:50

and that was for how long three

11:53

three or four years. My

11:55

mother got out a year earlier. But so,

11:58

but the marriage sustained even though they were

12:00

the mary sustain Yeah, they were married until they died.

12:02

Yeah, they were married till death to his part. It's

12:05

a family kind of tradition, I think maybe

12:08

in my family. But but m

12:11

because they were separated and they

12:13

lived apart, that made

12:16

me want to be sort of more settled

12:19

somehow, you know, And I know this is like a psychiatry.

12:22

Think here we got going up. But then

12:26

I I needed to be settled, and um,

12:30

I found a woman who liked

12:33

that kind of thing, you know, from the kibbutz to beats

12:36

to a country and country

12:38

place in England to Santa

12:40

Barbara. Means we've always been very connected,

12:43

okay, and then you didn't have a child to like,

12:46

after fifteen years you have been married,

12:48

correct, maybe more than that. My daughter's thirty

12:51

one, so maybe twenty nine years

12:53

after we met. After we've got married. Now I don't

12:55

know. I can't do the maths. And so why did you wait

12:57

so long? We didn't. We

12:59

were very happy not to have children, and

13:01

then I think my wife decided that it would be really

13:03

now we were pretty well organized

13:05

once once we moved. We lived in France

13:07

for a bit and it was a bit dysfunctional, and

13:10

then then we moved

13:12

to America and we found Santa Barbara and we go,

13:14

this is probably this is probably a good

13:17

time for us. We could have children and it would we

13:19

could make it work as an airport. I could go

13:21

to work and we could do you know.

13:23

And I was going through a lot of changes in

13:26

myself so it was really good for me

13:29

what you were going through. I became

13:31

ambitious. I had not been ambitious for a

13:33

long time. But you know what

13:35

caused you to be ambitious. I'd

13:38

forgotten how much I enjoyed

13:41

show business, you know, and hanging out with musicians.

13:44

I spent too much time with actors

13:46

and things like that. Who are okay? So after

13:48

your hey day, were you

13:51

left with anybody? Not

13:53

really? But but I never did it for money,

13:55

so it never really counted.

13:57

You know. I had enough money to buy a house, you

13:59

know, And think part

14:02

of part of the thing that happened to me was

14:04

my my parents were very successful

14:06

in a business, and they

14:09

didn't desert us, but they gave me a massive

14:12

amount of freedom. And then

14:15

they their business failed and I ended up

14:17

taking care of them, and

14:19

a lot of the money that I made I spent

14:21

on them. I bought them a house, and I bought them

14:24

a hotel, and I bought you know, if

14:26

you've got a couple of alcoholic parents, it's

14:28

probably not a good idea to buy them a pub.

14:30

But I did that, and so

14:34

so that I didn't really have a lot of money, although

14:36

I had probably earned a lot of mon money.

14:38

But the question did you become ambitious

14:40

because your fine answers were low? No? No,

14:43

I was ambitious because I I

14:45

thought I went to France

14:48

and I had kind of retired. I think I was maybe twenty

14:50

five, and i'd kind of retired, and

14:52

I was making enough money that I could. I

14:54

didn't really need to make a lot of money

14:56

to live a nice style. And

15:00

a friend of mine he was he was making he was

15:02

the director of the midnight special and he

15:04

came to stay in our house in France. Stan

15:07

Harris's name was and I

15:11

had a hit records in France and in a big hit

15:13

record, And he goes, what are you? What are you doing

15:15

here? How well it is it?

15:17

Look it's easy. I can make a record and I can

15:19

put it out and I can make it. You know, it's a it's

15:22

you've got to come back to America, come back to America.

15:25

I said, I can't afford to come back to America, can't

15:27

keep this. And he says, well, you can stay in my house.

15:29

I have a house in Beverly Hills. You can live in my house

15:31

until you So we couldn't resist

15:34

the opportunity to come and stay in his house. In Beverly

15:36

Hills and Hanger, and within three

15:38

days of staying there, we found a little apartment

15:40

on Oak Coast, you know, in Beverly Hills. We

15:43

moved into a farm. We had no furniture.

15:45

We went Robert Rentals or something

15:47

and rented all this stuff and we

15:49

we seally should come here six weeks

15:51

at a time. I could

15:53

only come six weeks at a time my visa,

15:56

and and every time I got a job, I would have

15:58

to get a visa again. So we're going backwards and

16:00

forwards and packtorism forwards. And then one day we I

16:04

started a band. I started a

16:06

little band called the Tremble. As I got more and more,

16:09

you know, I got i'd listened to the radio and saying, you

16:11

know I could, I bet I could make a record. I could

16:13

like it would be like Herman's Hermits Part

16:16

two, you know where where if

16:18

Herman's Hermits had stayed together, where what

16:20

kind of music would we be doing now? And

16:23

I became ambitious. And

16:25

during that period of trying

16:27

to put a band together, I got a job

16:31

in Pirates of Penzance, just

16:33

the touring company, and I think

16:35

I was really good in it. And so then

16:37

I did the tour and then I did a year on

16:40

Broadway. Then they asked me to do the London

16:42

West End one for a year, so I did that one. Then

16:44

I went to New Zealand and I found out like four

16:46

years of full on work. You

16:48

know, I had insurance, I had Social Security

16:51

payments, and I thought, this is like a real

16:53

gig my foot, you know, because it's

16:55

from from the big from Herman's hermits

16:58

when I was the sort of money per person

17:00

which was ridiculous, you know, the youngest person

17:02

in the band, because we've got four pounds

17:04

ten, we've got to pay the petrol

17:07

and there's only enough for us to get

17:09

chips without fish.

17:11

You know. I was not the greatest manager of money

17:14

to being somebody taking care of

17:16

it. I said, this is great. It's having a gig

17:19

and a regular gig. And I became more

17:21

and more ambitious, and people

17:24

started to say the reason

17:26

I got back into being Herman

17:28

again was there was a club

17:31

in Kitchen,

17:33

Ontario called Lulu's

17:37

and they would call me and they say, we want

17:39

you to come and play LULUs And I said,

17:41

first of all, I don't know who you

17:43

think I am, but I'm

17:46

not playing in a club called Lulu's,

17:50

it sounded like. And he goes, well,

17:53

you'd be very surprised if you come up here. We'll pay

17:55

you just to come up and have a look at it. And I go, no, I'm

17:57

not interested. Just I can't see the words

17:59

p noon and luluse in the same sentence.

18:02

How about performing Arts center? You

18:05

know that sort of nonsense. And eventually

18:07

they said they call me and they said, look, we put

18:10

a band together. They've learned all your songs. All you

18:12

have to do is come up and show up sing

18:14

your songs and we'll pay

18:16

you X dollars. And I will,

18:18

Oh, that's more money than I've made in

18:21

the last forty years or a long

18:23

time since I've made this kind of money. So I go

18:25

up there and I do a rehearsal with the

18:27

band, and they're really nice guys. They're called

18:29

on the air, and

18:33

this kind of all

18:35

strange luck things happened to me. I'm

18:38

in the guitar soul of I'm into something

18:40

good. I speak, we begin I always opened,

18:43

I'm into something good. It's just like a traditional

18:45

thing with me. And in the guitar solo,

18:47

I'm into something good. I get this thing

18:50

like you are not Frederick,

18:53

You're not even Peter Noon, You're

18:56

this guy who sings

18:59

I'm into something good. And

19:01

it was such it was it overwhelmed

19:03

me. It was like a I

19:06

found out who I am in Lulu's

19:09

and kitchen. Okay, two questions,

19:11

what a what year was this? No idea? And

19:13

second, what was Lulu's like it

19:15

was? It was a five thousand standing

19:18

room only X

19:21

came on that had become a nightclub

19:24

and it was massive. And of

19:26

course I went back three weeks

19:28

later and five weeks later inten it

19:30

became a tradition. I was one of the guys

19:32

who played it, you know. It was Del Shannon

19:35

and and it was all the big

19:37

oldies but goodies actually played up

19:39

there. And I was home

19:41

and I got this. I love this. I

19:44

just loved and I

19:46

really loved all my songs. I have

19:49

a bit of a story and that I'm in

19:51

my car in Santa Barbara at

19:54

this time while I'm playing, while I'm practicing

19:56

for Lulu's, and i have the window of

19:58

my car open and

20:00

I'm singing along to Herman's herm,

20:02

It's Mrs Brown, You've got a lovely daughter. People

20:06

are walking past, and

20:08

I got, oh, my god, you're doing

20:11

an impersonation of yourself and

20:14

people can't see you and hear it, because

20:16

you know, you didn't think of it. You know, you know your

20:20

own song on the radio. So

20:22

I don't know the year, but probably eighty

20:25

four somewhere in there. Okay, let's go back

20:28

to me and Chester. So what was the business your parents

20:30

ultimately started. My mother was

20:32

the CFO of a

20:34

company called it's called Austin Walter's and

20:37

it was they made neon signs and it was

20:39

hugely successful. And my

20:41

father had some history in Germany. He used to fly

20:43

over there a lot at night, never spend the evening

20:45

there, and so

20:48

he could speak a bit of German. He'd been on a base

20:50

there. And they decided to go in into another

20:52

business, which was making sinks. They

20:55

were in the neon business, fluorescent

20:58

lighting business, and they decided that are

21:00

going to use the same factory

21:02

to make plastic sinks. And

21:05

that failed, and that was a big, big failure

21:07

and they lost. I remember they had a beautiful

21:09

house in Manchester opposite a golf

21:11

course and they

21:14

couldn't pay the electricity bill. I mean, it went down

21:16

big time. They financially.

21:18

So now you're growing up and now,

21:20

of course in England they call private

21:23

schools public schools. What

21:25

kind of school did you go to? I started

21:27

off in a local primary school. Then

21:29

I went to English Martyrs, which was

21:32

a Catholic, full on Catholic

21:35

school, because my grandparents thought

21:37

that I'd do better if I went to a Catholic

21:39

school. And from there there's

21:42

there's a thing called the eleven plus and

21:45

if you pass that, you get to choose which

21:47

grammar school you go to. And I thought

21:49

I wanted to go to Manchester Grammar School because

21:51

that was a good school. But I failed

21:53

the test to get there, I think the actual

21:56

personality test I failed, not

21:59

the written test, and I ended up

22:01

at my father's old school, which is St Bede's

22:03

College, which was a full on you

22:06

know, priests teaching young boys

22:08

how to become men. And

22:11

I did pretty good. Then I was pretty I was one of

22:13

the smartest kids there. Then

22:16

I got into some fights and stuff

22:18

like that, and my father sent

22:20

me to Stratford Grammar School. And

22:23

I arrived at Stratford Grammar School and

22:27

all the work that I've

22:29

been doing at the St Bede's hadn't

22:32

been done yet. I was at least two

22:34

years ahead of everybody in the class. So

22:37

I spent all my time dreaming

22:40

about music, mostly music.

22:43

Didn't have any dreams about being an actor

22:45

or anything except music. I

22:47

I wanted to meet Del Shannon, and

22:50

I wanted to you know, I never had any

22:53

idea of becoming a singer

22:55

or I just how do I meet

22:58

these people that's so interesting? And

23:03

I'm one night I go to I'm very

23:06

interested in music, and my mom my mother

23:09

gets me a job as a disc jockey, and

23:11

a disc jockey with a turntable. Let's say,

23:14

all they've got at the club that I work at is a

23:16

turntable, and you have to bring the records

23:19

and you become the disc jockey based

23:21

on the kind of music you play. So I'm

23:23

playing only American

23:26

music, and I'm but there's a lot

23:28

of space between the songs and everything.

23:30

But they're pay them in money, and I'm going, you know,

23:32

I'm playing Dion and I'm

23:35

playing all American records and

23:37

somebody holing the crickets and one

23:39

one that was always requested was at the hop

23:42

by Daniel and the Juniors. And

23:44

I'm a disc jockey, and I

23:47

have lots and lots have a massive music

23:49

collection because my parents are rich and

23:52

and I'm able to buy lots of records,

23:55

and I have nine jobs as

23:57

well as my parents be enriched enriched.

24:00

I sell programs at Old Trafford, which

24:02

is Manchester United football grams. I sell

24:04

the newspapers afterwards, and and

24:07

I one night i'm walking, I

24:09

go to a club too, because I had

24:12

a lot of girls go to this club. Some girls

24:14

that I know say they go to this club and

24:16

I go there and this

24:18

man walks up to me and he goes, you're

24:21

Peter done. Yeah, And

24:23

he said, look, our singer

24:27

Malcolm Lightfoot hasn't

24:29

shown up tonight and we

24:32

need a singer. You probably know

24:34

someone about the songs that we do. So I said, well what

24:36

do you do? And he goes, well, we do the heartbeat by

24:38

Body Holy them and then a lot of body

24:40

Holly material because they called the heartbeats

24:43

so they're they're like a body Holly. And then and

24:46

they say we do this and they said they say,

24:48

I know that I'll never dance again. Bobby Ryddell,

24:50

I know that one. I know that one that said so

24:53

I know all the songs and I get up

24:55

on stage and what were you known

24:57

as a singer? Okay, not

25:00

not at all. I'm just known as

25:02

a person who knows a lot about music from

25:05

girls, you know, uh,

25:08

he knows everything about music. That's what

25:10

That's what that was the word that was about. And

25:13

and I did. I knew a lot more than anybody else

25:16

about music. And they say

25:20

after that, I do a really good job. By the way,

25:22

I'm actually pretty good at that. I don't

25:24

do any movements or anything like that. Malcolm

25:27

Lightfoot maybe did some twisting or side and

25:29

none of that. And this at the end of the show, they

25:31

said, you know you would you like to join the band? And I go,

25:33

yeah, okay, well what does

25:35

that mean? And said, well, we've got a gig

25:37

next week at the Ermston Football Club

25:39

and we're getting paid four pounds and we split

25:41

it five ways. And I go,

25:43

well, that's great. That's just about what I'm making

25:45

selling programs on the same night, so

25:48

I can have two or three gigs that that. It's all

25:50

about money at that point, and

25:52

of course I get in the band and immediately

25:55

my instinct is to take it over. Let's

25:58

start for one second, you said earlier

26:01

that your mother or father, your father was

26:03

a trombone player, and he wanted you to have

26:05

a music education, so you did study

26:07

music when you were a kid. Yeah. I went to

26:09

Manchester School of Music and most

26:13

of it was just theory, you know, and I just

26:16

waffled through it. That was

26:18

what would happen? Would I be? I'd be in a

26:20

in a in a in a classroom

26:22

with people

26:25

doing respigee and

26:28

Old Delmo, Dolcedor

26:31

and that kind of stuff. That was kind of singing lessons.

26:33

And I could see in the other room there

26:36

were some other boys who had a guitar and

26:39

then and I went into there one day and I

26:41

said, White, what is what is it? Which class

26:43

is this? He said, well, we've we've we've

26:45

got a skiffle group. I go, oh

26:48

what and they say, look, it's dead easy.

26:50

I remember the guy saying, look, it's dead easy. If you

26:52

could play a

26:54

crank and

26:57

you can, then you can play d and you could play

26:59

every song that you know. It's

27:02

like, wow, how great is

27:04

that? That's more the music that I'd like to

27:06

be in, the simple beautiful, you

27:08

know. And they were doing Chuck Berry kind of songs.

27:10

They were doing nice, simple, beautiful songs,

27:13

and I go, that's it. So I became more and

27:16

more fantasy of being I

27:19

became fond of that kind of music

27:21

as opposed to the music that my father wanted

27:23

me to do, which would be theory and

27:25

classical. And you know, he wanted me to

27:27

play. He was a trombone player who wanted

27:30

me to play the French horn or the corin

27:32

play. That was his idea, and

27:36

he never I never hate. Okay, let

27:38

me ask you this, Okay, if your parents

27:41

were well to do, why were you so entrepreneurial,

27:44

I think you had to be. I think a lot of

27:46

people in my period there were

27:48

entrepreneurial called hustling

27:51

in America. You know, I like the word entrepreneur

27:53

better, but I think my my father would have said,

27:55

you just a hustler. You know, I would

27:57

find, you know, the

28:00

the job selling programs that old Trafford

28:02

was. We would go and we'd sell programs before

28:05

the game and at the end of

28:07

the game when people came

28:09

out, there was a newspaper which had

28:11

the halftime results, and we would we had a van.

28:14

We bought a van so that we could do this. And we

28:16

were only fifteen. We couldn't drive it, so

28:19

we needed to employ people to get us around so we could.

28:21

So it was just everybody was in

28:23

on it. All my friends at school were doing

28:26

things. And when once I was in a band,

28:29

everybody in that first band, the Heartbeats, had

28:31

daytime jobs. It was I was the only

28:33

one who was at school and there's no income

28:35

from school, and everybody had to

28:38

be you know, one was a bricklayer and

28:40

one was I went on jobs

28:42

with Alan Wrigley, the guy who got me in the band.

28:45

He was We were window cleaners. All

28:47

you needed to be a window cleaner was a ladder in a bucket

28:49

and a chamois and

28:52

that was it. We were making money and my parents

28:55

would have paid me not to do the job. But

28:57

it's just they were gone all the time. They were

29:00

busy.

29:06

And then how does it end with you in

29:09

school? M

29:11

h. I stopped

29:14

going when I was fifted. As soon as I got into the music

29:16

business, which I call the music business. My full

29:18

time job became Pete

29:21

Novak and the Heartbeats. Nothing

29:23

else in the world meant anything

29:26

to me. Nothing else that was that we're

29:28

going to get on the radio. And

29:31

we drove around in a van and we did

29:34

hundreds. I mean I've sometimes

29:36

look at the dates that we used to go and people

29:38

kept records of it. We worked four

29:40

nights a week. Every week. We do the

29:43

lunchtime at the cavern and we do the evening

29:45

in Blackburn. And we were

29:48

really hustling for work. We would work anywhere

29:50

that there would have us. And it

29:54

turned it every day. It got better being

29:58

in the music. Okay, it was their cartress decision

30:00

to leave school or just stopped going. And

30:03

you know, I was very busy

30:05

at making making this band happen,

30:08

and school I tried to leave school

30:11

naturally. I went to the headmaster and

30:13

I said, I've got a job. I remember,

30:16

I've got a job at Carrington's, which was

30:18

a as an article clerk.

30:21

That was the job that I could get. I knew I could get the job,

30:23

so I went and got the job. And I went to the school and said

30:25

I've got a job. I want to leave school. And

30:27

said, you can't leave school. The law says you can't leave

30:29

school till you're sixteen. So

30:32

I went, oh, and I

30:34

just stopped going. I'd sometimes show up,

30:37

but every day I'd go out with Alan Wrigley

30:39

cleaning windows and selling newspapers.

30:42

And Alan Chadwick had this job as a bricklayer,

30:45

you know, carrying bricks around, and

30:47

I just stopped going to school. You know, I knew

30:49

everything that they were doing. Anyway, I was, you

30:52

know, once there was there

30:54

was a blackboard that turned around, and there

30:57

was a there was a teacher call Goldwater,

30:59

Mr Goldwater her and he

31:02

was a really nice guy. And I feel

31:04

bad when I tell the story, but I had written

31:06

on the back of the the blackboard

31:09

that he turned around, a U

31:12

H two is a wanker. And

31:16

we waited for the whole of the lesson. He kept

31:19

kept rubbing it out because everybody

31:21

knew that it was going to happen. And

31:23

eventually, like in a movie,

31:25

he turned it around and he turned around

31:28

to the classroom. He said, noon, come

31:30

and see me after the after the class, and

31:34

everyone was like, he

31:36

must recognize the handwriting or something,

31:38

right, How

31:41

did you know it was me? Why do you think

31:43

it was me? I think so? Why do you think it was

31:45

me? He said, You're the only one who has done

31:47

chemistry. You

31:51

didn't do it at this school. You

31:53

know, they hadn't got up. I had

31:55

no idea that nobody else in the class had done chemistry,

31:58

so it was obvious. So I was a little bit smarter

32:00

than everybody else. But I was also lazy,

32:03

you know, because I would

32:06

just make it work. I'd do my homework on the boss.

32:09

So what did your parents say about this? They

32:11

were really busy. My parents said it was it

32:14

was kind of significant that many working

32:16

class people on the up and up in England

32:19

were really busy. But lots of my

32:21

friends lived with their grandparents and ate

32:23

with that. You know. I would go home from school and eat

32:26

my grandmother's not and

32:28

it was great living at my grandmother's because they

32:30

were old and they were deaf. I mean

32:32

they were probably in their fifties, but

32:35

they were old and they were deaf, and

32:37

they went to sleep at nine o'clock, so you could make

32:39

as much noise as you want. You could have girls sleep

32:41

downstairs and they would never know. I

32:44

mean, it was just the perfect So your older

32:46

sister and it was just the two of your Then

32:49

what path did she follow? She

32:52

got married when she was very young to a really nice

32:54

guy and moved to Liverpool. They lived in Liverpool,

32:56

and eventually my parents moved to the near

32:58

them in Liverpool's part of my

33:01

mystery thing is people in Liverpool

33:03

think I'm from Liverpool because my parents lived there,

33:05

but people in Manchester, no, I'm from Manchester, but

33:08

say I'm from Liverpool. So it's just

33:10

my accent is somewhere in between

33:12

the two places. Maybe St Helen's

33:14

okay, So you're out

33:16

on the road. Is Pete Novak with

33:20

with the band? At what point do the

33:22

Beatles? Of course the Beatles were successful in

33:24

UK law before they were successful

33:27

in America. Well, well there were, they

33:29

were underground successful for a long time.

33:31

There were this band that I

33:33

remember being with. My friends would say, you

33:35

know, Shane Fenton and the Fentons, just

33:37

like a happening band. But

33:40

you know there's that Beatles thing going on.

33:43

That's that's different. And

33:47

what happened was that without

33:49

me and Alan Wrigley, this bass player from the Heartbeats,

33:53

we we here, we're

33:55

rehearsing and we hear

33:57

another band. You know, every kid in

34:00

Reefed House had a guitar, you

34:02

know that, every kid, And if they didn't have a guitar, they

34:04

were playing music as loud as they possibly

34:06

could on whatever piece of equipment they had.

34:08

But we could hear this live guitar somewhere

34:11

and it was August, and

34:15

we actually walk across the field. It's

34:18

called Abbotsford Park now, but it was then

34:20

it was a field and we climb overheage

34:23

and in another field and on stage

34:25

the Beatles going one two

34:29

one two tests,

34:32

you know, so we stick around,

34:34

we go that's the Beatles. Look, oh

34:36

look, the drama's got a riser like he thinks

34:39

he's someone really posh, you know. We

34:41

you know, our bands do put in the and

34:44

and the opening act is Brian

34:46

Poole and the Tremelows, who were sensational.

34:49

They're absolutely sensational. You

34:52

did. Nobody can follow them. The

34:54

Beatles come on and Alan

34:57

Wrigley after during

34:59

the first songs as to me, we're

35:01

fucked. That's

35:04

it. That was the end of it. That's it.

35:07

He realized that he was net Any

35:09

aspiration he ever had to be in the music

35:11

business was just you know, he'd

35:13

seen what the future

35:16

was right there and it wasn't a little van driving

35:18

around playing shadows and Buddy

35:21

Holly songs. I

35:23

was inspired. It was totally

35:25

inspiration to be. I said that I don't want

35:27

to challenge them I think I

35:30

could have a version. You know, they're

35:32

going to want to peep. Know, nobody's

35:34

going to want to be like the Beatles, but we could be

35:36

like something completely different than them, you

35:38

know, as you know, every band had

35:40

to be different in those days just to get a job.

35:43

If you just showed up and did Beatles the same

35:45

songs as the Beatles, they'd say, well, we'll have the Beatles

35:47

instead of you. So we

35:50

we grew from there. We we we started

35:52

to do less of the It

35:54

made us. It inspired us to get other

35:56

songs from outside, so we do my Boy

35:59

Lollipop, Mrs Brown, You've got a

36:01

lovely daughter. We started to add different

36:03

kind of material to the show so that people would

36:05

think it was more more

36:08

entertaining because one one thing

36:10

that I remember vividly about

36:13

the Beatles on stage at that show is

36:15

August the six nine was

36:18

they loved each other. You could see

36:20

they just loved being

36:22

in this thing, and they

36:24

kept looking at each other and smiling, and they were

36:27

inside jokes and it was so inspirational

36:29

to me. Sat can you imagine these

36:31

guys have got everything going from this

36:33

before they were really writers. I think they weren't

36:36

really songwriters. They were just this group

36:38

of guys who really loved each other's energy

36:41

and played off each other, and I got and

36:43

that's probably what my dad had had in

36:45

his Big Bend, you know that there was this sort of

36:48

union and camaraderie

36:51

amongst all the players, so that

36:54

that was inspirational to me. And and luckily

36:57

a couple of the people who ended up in Herman's Hermit

37:00

much later had also seen

37:02

that show and almost been

37:04

inspired to like work a little bit harder

37:07

on being not better but different.

37:09

You know. Okay, so you're

37:11

the business guy in the band and

37:14

you're doing all these shows four nights a week.

37:16

What's the next step? What

37:19

it really was miraculous.

37:22

We do we do all

37:24

of my stories. I'm the luckiest guy in the world, you

37:26

know when when people ask you and I'm the luckiest

37:28

guy in the world. We play this gig

37:32

like I think it was a bombs on

37:34

Ferry Cross the Mersey. They would take the ship

37:36

out whatever was the ferry at nighttime.

37:38

They would take it three miles out to see

37:40

where. Wait, so you're saying the

37:43

song Ferry Across the Mersey is about an actual

37:45

ferry, and the whole thing No,

37:48

he's saying to the ferry, ferry

37:50

across the Mersey, not very across the

37:52

Mersey, ferry across the Mersey to the land.

37:54

But I always but

37:56

I thought it was hypothetical. I remember when with

37:59

you, but there was some specific parties

38:02

that he was singing about. No, he

38:04

was singing, ferry across the Mersey

38:07

to the place that I love. Because

38:09

he's from Birkenhead, Oh,

38:12

which is in Cheshire. It's not even in Livapool.

38:14

Ferry cross the Mersey to the plant. So anyway, that's

38:16

so, there is a ferry

38:18

and you can rent it. I think

38:21

you still probably can. But they've

38:23

had a tunnel for fifty years. You don't need

38:25

a ferry anymore. So so

38:27

so we're on this ferry

38:29

and

38:31

my friends, people

38:34

who I don't even know. My manager, Harvey

38:36

Lisberg, is at dinner with his parents and

38:38

this woman who's and he

38:41

says, he's asked the question,

38:43

Harvey Lisberg, He's asked the question,

38:46

what do you want to do when you get your degree?

38:48

Business degree? He said, you

38:50

know, I think I'd like to be like Brian Epstein.

38:53

I'd like to find a group and manage

38:55

them and travel all around

38:57

the world and make hundreds of millions of pounds.

39:00

And she said and he and

39:03

she says, you know, I saw this kid on

39:06

the ferry the other night at you

39:08

know, alf Albert Goldberg's

39:11

bar Mitzvah, and the

39:14

kid is really good. You should

39:17

check him out. So we were I think

39:19

we were called Herman and the Hermits. By now Herman

39:21

and the Hermits, he's called herman

39:24

Um. So he

39:26

finds out that we're playing this nightclub

39:29

and really, you know under people

39:32

down the bottom of the it was called

39:35

the Seller, the Cave, the Seller

39:37

in Bolton. And he comes and sees

39:40

us there and he says, I'd like to be a manager. So

39:43

I said, well, let's have a meeting. Come back to my mom's

39:46

house. My my mom lived in

39:48

this fabulous house. And

39:51

this manager, Harvey Ellisburg,

39:53

who is going to be our managers it comes

39:55

to the house and he goes, oh, that's a lovely piano,

39:58

and I go, you want ago you know when my

40:01

my mother had this unbelievable expensive

40:04

grand piano and uh, he

40:07

sits down and he plays what did I say by Jerry

40:09

Lewis? I said, we don't

40:11

want you to be on match. We want

40:13

you to be in the band, and

40:15

he goes, no, no, I don't want to be in the band. You know,

40:18

I'm too ugly something like that. So

40:20

but I'd like to manage it. Some of my parents meet

40:22

him and they go, yeah, okay, you can manage it, but well,

40:24

you know, so he immediately becomes our

40:27

manager. Then I'm not

40:29

the manager anymore, which is really refreshing because

40:31

he has much more connecting, much more

40:33

connected than I am. And he suddenly

40:36

we're getting we have a hundred dates on the

40:38

book, and now we're looking to replace people

40:41

in the bend with better people

40:44

because now we can offer them more money. Everybody

40:46

was in it for money. I asked Keith Hopwood, how Keith

40:48

hop would who was the guitar player? Who who created

40:50

that? Mrs Browne got a lovely looked daughter sound.

40:53

I say, would you be in the band and he goes well.

40:56

I said why did why did you join the band

40:58

and when did you join them? And he said, well, I joined

41:01

the band when I saw how many dates had

41:03

booked, And so

41:05

we we we instantly start to get

41:08

very much more busier in Herman and

41:10

the hermitson and we start to play the

41:12

Cavern regularly. You know, we become

41:14

regulars at the Junior Cavern in the evening. We

41:17

moved into the upper upper echelons, which

41:19

is like nighttime at the Cavern, which was a big,

41:21

big, big deal. So we're moving

41:24

along and I think ultimately we were

41:26

the only band left in Manchester who

41:29

isn't signed to a label. I think it's really as simple

41:32

as that. Who came from me and Chester in that

41:34

era, The Hollies, Freddie

41:36

and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the mind Benders,

41:39

the Dakotas, Billy Ja c you know, everybody,

41:41

everybody else from Manchester who was in

41:44

our league, the twenty pounds and up league

41:47

has gone. So we're the top

41:49

of the leftovers. And

41:55

we have this idea. We've seen Mickey Most

41:57

this is again the luckiest guy in the world. We go to

41:59

see the Everly Brothers and

42:02

the bill was the Everly Brothers, Bo

42:06

Diddley, the

42:08

Rolling Stones and Mickey

42:10

Most and and Susan Morem

42:12

or some some unknown girl singer who

42:15

had and it's my party version. And

42:20

during the show, h

42:23

Nicky Most comes out on stage and

42:25

he kneels. He's like a fifties

42:27

guy because the Everly Brothers

42:29

are fifty and it's all teddy boys in

42:31

the audience, and he wins

42:34

the teddy Boys because he's got a

42:36

guitar with no strings. It's got a guitar with no

42:38

strings. But we you can't tell from the

42:40

audience. But even though he's

42:42

got no strings on the guitar, he has

42:44

the balls to kneel down

42:46

during the guitar solo, you

42:49

know, I mean when we're completely

42:53

and of course all the teddy boys love

42:56

him. And the Stones come out and

42:58

they are dying the death of all

43:00

deaths. You go, oh my god, they're like mods,

43:02

they're not at all, and they do come

43:05

on by the chuck Berry come on and the

43:07

audience t'lly go, oh well, they're all right, and they're forgiven.

43:09

And at the end of the show, at the end of the

43:11

show of the Stones and the Everly Brothers and Bold

43:13

Didly come out and they get on a bus. But

43:16

Mickey most comes out and he opens

43:18

the hood of his car, puts his guitar

43:20

in it, opens the door

43:23

for his girlfriend, puts her in the car, waves

43:26

us as if he's the star of the show, and

43:29

gets in there. It's a Porsche that's why I put the guitar

43:31

on the front. We've never seen anybody with no

43:33

engine in the car before. We've never seen

43:36

a Porsche before. God, that is the

43:38

coolest guy who is here is some South

43:40

African guy. And but his name

43:42

comes up in ideas for producers because

43:44

he's got this record out called I'm Crying by

43:46

the Animals like I don't don't knock,

43:50

And it's like this great singer that we know

43:52

him from the animals. We know what they can do, but

43:54

we didn't know anybody who could record him. So now we

43:56

go, how do you get to Mickey Most We've got my sister

43:59

call Insane Herman and the Hermits,

44:01

you know, and hanging up, and Harvellist

44:03

book says, I'll send him a plane

44:06

ticket to Manchester, which

44:08

in those days is like unheard of, you know. I mean

44:10

it's two hundred miles, took seven hours to drive

44:12

it. We'll send him a plane ticket,

44:15

and we booked him a night in the Midland

44:17

Hotel, which is the Posh Hotel right by

44:19

the station, and

44:22

and we'll drive. We'll get a driver, we'll

44:24

get a nice car roven up. We'll

44:26

borrow your dad's Rover ninety and

44:28

we'll pick him up at the hotel and we'll take him to see

44:30

you at the club in Bolton

44:33

down the stairs. And what we'll

44:35

do is we get all the girls to scream.

44:37

We'll play the audience to a plan. So

44:40

when when you do a song, of course that happened.

44:42

All of that happened. But the girls all screamed

44:45

in the wrong place, you know. They never scream where

44:47

you think they they're just going so

44:51

but he liked the band, No, he didn't like the

44:53

band. He liked Peter Noon. Let's

44:56

talk in the third person, and

44:58

he wanted to get rid of the band and

45:00

make records without the band. And now

45:03

we're a band. This is a band. These are my

45:05

friends. We we've built

45:07

this monster together, you

45:10

know. And he goes, okay, well, come

45:12

to the studio and let's let's try and do something.

45:14

So we've got a couple of songs. Awful.

45:17

Now I listen to them. I'm embarrassed that that we

45:19

had no we had no idea what we were doing. And

45:22

we make a session and at

45:24

the end of the session he says, look, the only way

45:26

I can work with you guys, is if you get rid of him.

45:29

And him and we play and we

45:31

said we can't get rid of him. He says, okay,

45:34

so he will not be the lead guitar

45:36

player. He will become the

45:39

rhythm guitar player, and that drama

45:41

you get get a drummer who can play in time. So

45:44

it's like it's the most horrible moment

45:47

for me because we're now we're going to have to

45:49

get rid of these boys that have been my mates,

45:52

my bandmates, you know, the union

45:54

of a band, and we're all loving each other,

45:57

but the music thing is that happening. So

45:59

luckily Harvey Lisberg once again and

46:01

we get lucky. There's another band

46:03

in Manchester that's on the up and up called the

46:05

Whalers and Big

46:08

Wally and the Whalers, and

46:10

we want just the Whalers. We don't want Big Wally because

46:13

he's too big. And we

46:15

signed to the two guys from the

46:17

from the Whalers joined Herman and

46:20

Herman's Herman and the Hermits, and we change

46:22

our name April the first, we change our name from

46:24

Herman and the Hermits to Herman's Hermits

46:27

and manager.

46:29

We don't have my mom's phone number anymore. We've got

46:31

you know, I used to say, you know, Herman's

46:34

Herman and the Hermits bookings,

46:38

Ermste because my mom

46:40

had a phone. It was in the hall down the stairs,

46:43

you know. And it's suddenly we became

46:45

like this big time thing. And Mickey most sent within

46:48

days of us putting together this

46:50

new band, he sends us a demo,

46:52

a Carol King demo of I'm into

46:55

something good. And he said, come and come

46:57

and record that and do that other song

46:59

that you played, that other rubbish song. Learned

47:01

that again with the new guys, and

47:04

come in the studio and we'll make a

47:06

record. And we listened

47:08

to it, and you know, it's we

47:11

actually thought we were making a surf recording.

47:15

We didn't even know a surf record well, but you know,

47:17

we we thought that we needed the surf sound. And

47:19

Mickey knew this piano player, a

47:22

session piano player who was a Roger Webb

47:24

his name was, and he had a band called Roger Webb Trio,

47:27

which were pretty he was pretty famous. And

47:29

he sat in that studio and we were kids,

47:31

you know, I think I was fifty sixteen maybe,

47:34

and all the Hermits was sixteen seventeen

47:36

in there. You know, we were really teenagers. A real

47:38

boy band, and he sat

47:40

with us and we rehearsed it with him like a hundred

47:43

times, and

47:46

we finally we

47:48

we took a run at it, and the

47:50

vocal that I did at the run became

47:53

the lead vocal. That was the one that that we kept,

47:56

you know, and then we just over everything was over.

47:58

The mickey would mix down to one track

48:00

and then put stuff. You know, we

48:02

had two track machine and it makes it all down to

48:04

all the drums and all the instruments on one

48:06

track. Then we throw more stuff on it and the

48:08

background vocals and then put some hand clapses all

48:11

over the place. But it just captured

48:13

who we were. You know. When I listened to the record,

48:15

now I go, well, that is just that's

48:18

exactly somebody made

48:20

a recording with exactly what was going

48:22

on. Okay, let's slow down for a couple

48:24

of seconds. Lizberg, is your manager?

48:26

Does he make you sign a contract? You

48:30

know, I don't know. We couldn't sign contract.

48:32

We were all under age and you had to be twenty

48:34

one. And what was his percentage?

48:36

Ten percent? I think maybe because

48:38

he had a partner. We didn't We didn't

48:40

care about that. We just wanted to know what being

48:43

important down the line. Yeah, tell the

48:45

story of how it ultimately became Herman and

48:47

the hermits Um.

48:50

Well, we were playing. We used

48:53

to rehearse in a pub in

48:55

outskirts of Manchester, near Derek

48:57

Lecambye, where he was a guitar player.

49:00

There was a pub there and they let us rehearse

49:02

there, and

49:05

the publican let us use

49:07

He had a microphone. And we're Americans,

49:10

tell us what a public it is. The

49:12

owner of the pub, the landlord of the pub is

49:15

there and he lets us use his stage and

49:17

his microphone. It has a microphone and

49:19

a speaker, and so it was easy,

49:22

and you could rehearse until five thirty.

49:24

So none of us went to school anymore, and we'd

49:26

go there and rehearse when the pub closed at three o'clock

49:29

till five thirty when they opened again. None

49:31

of us were eighteen, so we're there and we

49:33

were doing Boddy Holly songs and I would

49:36

wear when it's so ridiculous

49:38

that I am the luckiest man in the world. So I put these

49:40

horn room glasses on. I had horn room

49:43

glasses already and I put them

49:45

on, and we do a body Holly song

49:47

so people would know anybody

49:49

who knew Buddy Holly would go, oh yeah, we're

49:52

a little things you see and

49:54

do, And I could mimic him like

49:57

I thought I was doing a brilliant job. But we

50:00

nish that would be the day, And

50:02

and the guy who owns the pub, the publican,

50:05

comes and he says, who

50:07

the bloody ell was that? And

50:10

I look at him, You're stupid,

50:12

can't it's Buddy Holly. You

50:14

were Boddy Holly

50:17

because you don't look anything like

50:20

Buddy Holly. You look like Herman from

50:22

the Bullwinkle Show. And

50:25

everybody, like all the future

50:28

the heartbeats all thought that was the funniest thing that ever

50:30

heard because it was Sherman and Professor Peabody.

50:33

But he thought he thought it was Herman

50:35

and Professor Peabody. So that was kind of part

50:37

of the joke that he was so stupid

50:39

he didn't recognize the body Holly song. And

50:41

he also got the name Sherman and Professor

50:43

Peabody wrong. You know, you look like Herman from

50:46

that Herman from the Ankle Show. And

50:48

everybody laughs, similar to your laft

50:50

there, And he says, what are you look laughing

50:52

at? You can call yourself the Bloody Hermits.

50:55

So that man, who we don't know who he isn't

50:58

forgotten. It's I've been dead for fifty years.

51:01

He named the band Herman and the Bloody

51:03

Hermits, and we immediately

51:06

we said, that's the that's a great name for

51:08

this operation because it's completely different

51:10

from anybody else. You know, it's all

51:12

Beatles and searchers and movie

51:15

titles, and you know, everybody's

51:17

going a little bit more sophisticated than

51:19

Herman and the Hermits, and

51:22

that we The drummer was the drummer

51:25

then was called Steve Titterington, and his

51:27

We could rehearse his place as well after the public

51:30

could go to his place because his sister was

51:32

a cop a constable, and

51:37

you could make as much noise as you wanted until

51:39

any time you wanted. And it was

51:41

important to the band to be able to rehearse

51:44

a lot because we were useless. We needed

51:46

to rehearse every song many many times. And

51:50

we went home there and we told his mother that we've we've

51:53

we've going to change the name to Herman and the Hermits.

51:56

And she made suits for the Hermits

51:58

out of sacks, potatoes, sacks,

52:01

and I said,

52:03

I'm I'm Herman, I'm

52:05

going to wear this blue suit and

52:09

okay, and they when we did we did a

52:11

gig. There was a there was a guy called Jimmy Saville

52:13

who was a manager of

52:14

the Plaza in Manchester

52:17

who liked Herman and the Hermits. He thought ultimately

52:19

he was a big presenter and got in trouble after

52:21

his death. Yeah, he was probably

52:23

a horrible man. But we we was the manager of probably

52:26

many many people in the wrestling business

52:29

in those days who became managers of

52:31

ballrooms were probably not nice

52:33

people. But we we didn't care whether we

52:35

didn't. We didn't have like a

52:37

stress test to see if we could work with people.

52:40

They had a job and we would take it, you know. It was that

52:42

part of the career. And then he

52:45

we did a lunchtime show and the Hermits,

52:48

the new Hermits, showed up in these sack things

52:51

with their little white English legs hanging

52:53

out of the bottom. It's just a potato sack, fifty

52:55

six pound bag of potato sack with the

52:58

neck cut out and the hands, but

53:01

the guitars and and the Steve

53:03

tit Twington's ass was worn out

53:05

from sitting on the drum school in the

53:07

the things. So that lasted for one day, but we

53:09

kept the name Herman and the Hermits, and we once

53:12

we played that gig in the plaza, people

53:15

liked the name, you know, the girls who came

53:17

to see us. I remember, like at

53:19

the cavern, we we'd always wherever

53:21

we played, there would always be somebody that we

53:23

knew sitting at the front and the cavern there was always

53:26

a girl called Margaret and

53:28

she was there right from every time Hermit's

53:30

Hermits played at the cavern, Margaret

53:33

would be right at the front. We never spoke to her, which

53:35

she we didn't know how to deal with fans.

53:37

She we didn't know about groupie's or

53:39

we knew was our sisters.

53:42

And in my case, my sister had like a

53:44

plastic you know, Sister

53:46

Agnes statue implanted

53:48

in her forehead and went to Catholic schools

53:50

and confession and you

53:53

know, no sex before marriage. So that we

53:55

thought all girls were like our sisters. We didn't

53:57

know any ravers or group

54:00

year or that we treated fans like they were

54:02

are on par with

54:04

our sister, you know, because we thought all girls would

54:06

like to be protected and behave

54:09

well with girls. And

54:12

we grew this band into It was

54:14

always Margaret and bit I did. We'd

54:16

go back to the cabin and there'll be seven girls at the

54:18

front, and then the ten never

54:22

boys, never like Herman Hermits. Then at

54:25

the beginning they didn't like us because we didn't

54:27

play rock and roll. We played kind of pop.

54:30

So that was a bit romantic, you

54:32

know, the different talking about

54:34

So we were romantic. Can't

54:37

into something good? And when you have playback,

54:40

do you say this is a hit or

54:42

you say, well, this is a record we made? Well

54:45

that one we did? We didn't, haven't we we It

54:48

was just flying. We had no idea what we

54:50

were doing. We just this is how you make a record.

54:52

We had no idea, We had no knowledge of how

54:54

he made a record. We would completely

54:57

naive. And he

55:00

didn't like the record. He took it home and

55:03

he decided on the way home that he was not going to

55:05

release it even and it was thinking of ways

55:08

to tell us that. He was sorry, lads,

55:10

it just didn't work. But he played it to Chris

55:12

Most, his wife, Chris

55:14

Most, and she said it's a number one,

55:17

and he was, you're joking, I got a remix it.

55:19

She just don't remix it, leave it exactly like

55:21

it is. It's a number one. I'm telling you, Mickey,

55:23

it's a number one. It's like you

55:25

know, when you play the House of the Rising Son, you said

55:27

it's too long. I told you that was a number one. Just

55:29

this is a number one. Put it out

55:32

and against

55:35

his you know, because Mickey liked Mickey

55:37

loved to claim that he was the

55:40

song picker of the century, and

55:42

he probably was, but but

55:44

he didn't. He didn't think I'm Into Something Good was a

55:47

hit. And when it was a hit, um,

55:50

he claimed it like, you know, I knew

55:52

it was a hit, and my dad could have sung it and

55:54

it would have been a hit. But I think it was. It

55:56

was a really good recording of a really good

55:58

song, and it capture and all that sort

56:00

of energy of those sixteen year old

56:02

boys. Okay, so how long

56:04

after you cut it was it released?

56:07

It came out August, the seven before

56:09

we probably made it July, so

56:12

two weeks after we made it, two weeks after

56:14

was that the only song you recorded that?

56:16

And the B side, the b side was what

56:19

Your Hand in Mind, which was the song that we'd

56:21

failed the audition with the first time. Now, worked

56:24

it. The record comes out the UK instant

56:26

here instant, I mean quite

56:29

instant. Interestingly, we're

56:31

we're playing in the club where the manager

56:33

discovered us, discovered us in Bolton,

56:36

and it's opposite a sewing machine factory, out

56:38

of business machine factory, and

56:41

we're changing in the kitchen and

56:43

Jimmy Saville has a radio

56:46

show It got five thirty

56:51

that with this Jimmy

56:53

saddle clown voice and

56:55

this is Erman's Ermits and he plays

56:57

I mean something. You know, it was the greatest. Still

57:00

I can still be in that kitchen to

57:03

hear myself on the radio, and I remember thinking, I'm

57:06

with Del Shannon. Now those

57:08

people who were on the radio. I'm one

57:10

of those people. Now I'm not just a

57:13

kid in a band anymore that's got a bit

57:15

of success. And we're up to thirty pounds

57:17

at night. This is like I'm

57:19

with those the Beatles and

57:22

the delve Shafts always Del

57:24

Shannon. Why but you

57:26

know, I'm within this new league. And

57:28

we didn't even know that it was going to be a hit, you

57:30

know, just the fact that we didn't know that

57:32

you couldn't you couldn't have a hit if

57:35

it never got played on the radio that

57:37

we knew being on the radio was

57:39

a hit. Okay, at

57:41

what point did you realize and how long did it

57:43

take for it really to be a hit? It

57:46

jumped out of the box. By the next Thursday,

57:48

we were on Top of the Pops and we went to Top of which

57:51

was in Manchester. You know, if you got in the charts.

57:53

I think he came in at number thirty or something the

57:56

first week. You know, I think it started selling

57:58

instantly because it got played a very

58:00

quickly. And I remember the songs

58:03

that it was the Kinks You

58:05

Really Got Me and that one a rag

58:07

Doll and pretty Woman. There was some pretty

58:10

Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. We're all

58:12

in this heavy rotation and we were

58:14

now in the same league

58:17

as like the Four Season and

58:19

Royal Orbison. Okay, the

58:24

it was always in Manchester at the beginning. Really

58:26

yeah, So we go on, we go on Top of

58:28

the Pups and and it was like Roy

58:31

Orbison and the Beatles and

58:33

the Four Seasons and Supremes.

58:36

And when when you go on Top of the Pups,

58:38

you go on the first time and if the record goes up the

58:40

next week, you go back again. So for

58:42

the next five or six weeks every

58:44

Thursday, we're at Dickinson Road in Manchester doing

58:47

Top of the Pups with our heroes

58:49

and not knowing how to deal with our heroes.

58:51

Like this Royal orbicer.

58:54

That's Royal orbicon. We even

58:57

look this George Kennedy, the guy who

58:59

played are you

59:02

know, We're like in heaven. This is the greatest thing

59:04

that could ever happen to a fan of music. We're

59:06

now in the room with the big guys, and

59:10

did you think, okay, this is the beginning and we're gonna

59:12

sail through or this is one and done. My

59:15

I think we thought that we

59:19

just let raise the level of

59:21

interest. It's interesting

59:24

that we were pretty well matt

59:27

balanced. We thought we've

59:29

just raised our level of interest.

59:32

Now we'll be able to get three hundred pounds a night.

59:34

So now that are to something good? As it hit? How

59:37

much roadwork are you doing? We did? It's

59:39

interesting. I saw an article. Um uh,

59:43

every night we've worked every night. Our

59:45

managers and agents sent

59:48

us to work. There's a there's an

59:50

interview with Elvis Presley. I didn't. I interviewed

59:52

Elvis Presley and I met him

59:54

in Hawaii, and the newspaper in Hawaii, said,

59:57

which I recently found because of the Internet, says,

1:00:00

Peter Noon meets his all

1:00:02

time idol Elvis Presley, who

1:00:04

is on a film shoot Hawaiian

1:00:07

Love Hawaiian Style in

1:00:10

the and Peter

1:00:12

is one of Herman's

1:00:14

Hermits and they're

1:00:17

on a three hundred and sixty day world tour.

1:00:20

You know, we were on a three hundred sixty

1:00:23

but in we did three hundred and

1:00:25

sixty concerts and made records.

1:00:27

Okay, So when you did a show, how long was the show

1:00:31

different? We'd like to do longer, but you only

1:00:33

a lot of shows. You only got twenty minutes. Like we

1:00:35

did a tour in England with with Dusty Springfield

1:00:37

instantly like we had a number one record. We're

1:00:39

on tour with Dusty Springfield and I think

1:00:42

we did we closed the first half or

1:00:44

something and did four songs. Okay,

1:00:52

how long after half do something good? Are you back in

1:00:54

the studio? Probably

1:00:57

before Christmas? You know, we need, we

1:00:59

need another thing go So we go in and we've

1:01:01

got another Carol Kink song that Mickey

1:01:03

also doesn't like, but we think he's always wrong,

1:01:06

and it's called show Me Girl, and

1:01:08

it turned it isn't a number

1:01:11

one record, and we go on that. We go on top

1:01:13

of the Pops for the first time as he gets in the charts,

1:01:15

and the guy who's

1:01:18

announcing us say, do you think Herman's

1:01:20

Hermits are a one hit wonder? And

1:01:22

of course, me being having all the Irish

1:01:25

energy, I wanted to kill him. I still

1:01:27

have a resentment I

1:01:30

wanted to go and I've got I'm going to prove him

1:01:32

wrong. So we go back to the studio and Mickey goes, let's

1:01:35

do let's do silhouettes.

1:01:37

It's a shore fire here. And

1:01:40

next time you go on top of the Pops, you play the piano.

1:01:43

Don't be like Herman standing in front

1:01:45

of Bend. You'd be like one

1:01:47

of the band and it will be everyone will be impressed,

1:01:49

like Alan Price, right,

1:01:54

it's good. You know all these but

1:01:57

you know it looks cool. You'll be cool. It's a

1:01:59

cool song. I'm gonna go, well, we we do

1:02:01

it, you know we don't do don't

1:02:07

do it? And he no, no, no, let's get it. Let's

1:02:09

get fi Flick Thick got

1:02:11

any ideas going to do silhouss and Flick

1:02:14

is a studio guitarist. Yeah, Vick

1:02:16

Flick is a famous guitar. He played the

1:02:18

James Bond theme and he played that boy

1:02:20

Da Da Da in Hard Days Night,

1:02:23

so he's famous. Two people

1:02:25

in the music business in England. So it's Flick Flick

1:02:27

and he goes, yeah, how about

1:02:29

this and he goes and

1:02:33

we're like, we're obvious a number. It's a bloody

1:02:36

number one. It doesn't need any fairy

1:02:38

dust, you know, let's go. And so we put that

1:02:40

one out next and it is. It's like a top two

1:02:42

win England and hit in America.

1:02:45

And we've also done I Can't You Hear My

1:02:47

Heartbeat thing, which is also sitting around

1:02:50

and we've somehow in early

1:02:52

nine, on one of those days

1:02:54

off, we've been in the studio and made our

1:02:56

first album the record company.

1:02:59

But how long did it take to make the album? Three

1:03:01

hours? Everybody had three hours in the three

1:03:03

hours to make the whole album. Yeah, but

1:03:06

remember I had I'm Into something good already made

1:03:08

and so two of the twelve tracks

1:03:10

were done. So the other ten tracks are all

1:03:12

whatever we had in our show that

1:03:15

hadn't been recorded. Remember, you had to

1:03:17

go and look for songs. That's why it's

1:03:19

all good fun because

1:03:21

we had to do songs that people other people

1:03:23

didn't do. You know, you couldn't do Rollover Beethoven

1:03:26

or any Chuck Berry song because they

1:03:28

somebody had already done them as well as they could possibly

1:03:31

be done. So we would we did. We cut

1:03:33

I'll Never Dance Again, which was from early Pete

1:03:35

Novak, and the Heart because we cut Heartbeat, which

1:03:37

was early Pete Novak, songs that we

1:03:39

knew that we loved. We wouldn't record anything

1:03:42

that we didn't love. So

1:03:44

strange in the studio, how much did

1:03:46

the b N play? Where did studio musicians

1:03:49

play? At the beginning, the

1:03:51

band played on everything, but bit

1:03:53

by bit as we got busier and busier, it

1:03:55

was really a time to learn to

1:03:58

learn a new Mickey find as on and

1:04:00

say learn this, and they was nobody

1:04:03

would be as quick as like Jimmy Page would

1:04:05

be there. You have any idea why the albums

1:04:07

came out in MGM in America.

1:04:11

I think what happened was we we had to deal

1:04:13

with the m I for the World and

1:04:15

E M I didn't pick up the

1:04:17

option, and neither did and they didn't for the Day

1:04:19

Club five. Strangely enough, we were also in the

1:04:21

m I band who were dropped. So

1:04:24

we took advantage of that and we made a separate

1:04:26

deal. I think I think

1:04:28

MGM signed the Animals first, and

1:04:31

then we were part of that deal. And I'm

1:04:33

not really sure about that because it's it doesn't

1:04:35

really interest me to know how

1:04:37

it happened. I only want my point

1:04:40

of view, you know, because everybody starts talking about

1:04:42

the money and stuff like that. I don't care about that,

1:04:44

Okay. Now. On the first album was

1:04:46

also Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter?

1:04:49

Yeah, how did that come together? Well?

1:04:51

Well, that was one of the songs that we used to do at the Cavin

1:04:54

to be different from nobody will do

1:04:56

My Boy Lollipop, So we'll do my Boy Lollipop,

1:04:58

nobody will do Mrs Brown. I used to dress up in

1:05:01

my school uniform with the short trousers and

1:05:03

walk out and do Mrs Brown you gotta leave a daughter,

1:05:05

as if I was that person in the song, which

1:05:08

I still do, by the way, but not the short trousers.

1:05:10

But it made sense

1:05:12

to us too, and of course we recorded

1:05:15

it because I think when

1:05:17

when Mickey heard it,

1:05:19

it's okay, okay,

1:05:22

when it wasn't his idea when it when it later

1:05:24

when it became his great idea.

1:05:27

But at the time he said, we put it on side

1:05:29

two, track three. No one will ever get that far.

1:05:32

I mean he actually said, those are the exact words.

1:05:34

One. I've listened all the way through anyway,

1:05:37

and it was hidden there, and of course it became

1:05:39

a smash. Well. I just remember being in America.

1:05:42

I bought the album with a red cover and it said

1:05:44

featuring arm into something Good. And then

1:05:46

Mrs Brown became a hit. They put all sticker all the

1:05:48

ones that featuring Mrs Brown, which

1:05:50

in America was even bigger hit into

1:05:53

something So okay,

1:05:55

the train leaves the station of

1:05:58

the Hermit's Hermit saw the

1:06:00

singles, Which ones

1:06:02

are your favorites? I

1:06:05

love, I Love, I'm into something good, I like silhouettes,

1:06:08

and I like there's a kind of hush all over the world. It just

1:06:10

seems to buy by the time, by the time

1:06:12

we did, there's a kind of hush and all over the world,

1:06:14

which is there's the end of

1:06:16

the run of Hermit's Hermits. None

1:06:19

of the Hermits are playing instruments on those

1:06:21

records. It's now John Paul

1:06:23

Jones is playing bass and is conducting

1:06:25

the orchestra, and it's all

1:06:27

the greatest musicians in England who show

1:06:30

up and play as well as

1:06:32

they can, as well as John Paul Jones can make them.

1:06:34

But Mickey mose is still the producer

1:06:37

and always Yeah, he made every Hermit

1:06:39

term. It's okay. So in

1:06:42

this time you have this runoff hits. How

1:06:44

many You're on the road all the time? All

1:06:47

the time, we were NonStop. We even did

1:06:49

a pantomime in the December, you

1:06:51

know, because you could do a Christmas show in England

1:06:54

and the Hermits played sailors and I was

1:06:56

a Laddin or Dick Whittington or something some

1:06:59

crazy play Christmas pantomime.

1:07:01

I mean we even found time to do stuff like that

1:07:04

for no money. Let's you go

1:07:06

back. Isn't

1:07:08

it true that when you were younger before the

1:07:10

Herman's Hermit Sarah, you

1:07:13

should we did some television, Yeah,

1:07:15

all of which was you know, just when

1:07:17

I was at the School of Music, a

1:07:20

television independent television station

1:07:22

opened around the corner from the School

1:07:24

of Music in the downtown Manchester. It's called Grenada

1:07:26

Television and they were creating

1:07:29

new It was the other channel.

1:07:31

There was a BBC and there was this new channel,

1:07:33

Independent television, and they were

1:07:36

One day some guy comes

1:07:39

over to the to the School

1:07:41

of Music and he said, we're looking for a kid who can play

1:07:43

the piano in the

1:07:45

background in a Christmas Christmas

1:07:47

E think, so I can play

1:07:49

the Holly and the Ivy, you know, the Holley and d

1:07:52

I v I could play. I play there

1:07:54

better than anybody. And so

1:07:57

I got the job as kid

1:08:00

playing a thing. And because I got that job,

1:08:02

then I was the kid to go to we

1:08:04

know a kid who was at the School of music who can't

1:08:07

do this? And eventually I found myself on Coronation

1:08:09

Street, which is the number one biggest,

1:08:11

biggest TV show in England and

1:08:14

still running even though I'm not in it. It's still

1:08:16

running. Were you in it?

1:08:19

Very little? But I got paid good money and

1:08:22

I used all that money to finance the

1:08:24

band. You know, but you had no dream of being an actor.

1:08:26

Now I wasn't very good at it, to tell you the truth.

1:08:28

I never fancied myself as an actor.

1:08:30

I think it takes a lot more memory

1:08:33

skills and I have it spent me

1:08:35

all. I'd spend all day learning my one line.

1:08:38

Okay, so you're on the road with the band. Yeah,

1:08:40

you knew each other in uh from

1:08:42

me and Chester. Did everybody

1:08:45

still get along if you're working that much? We

1:08:47

didn't know anybody. We didn't know each other, but

1:08:50

the guys in the band didn't know each other before we were

1:08:52

But you know that's right history

1:08:56

when you're okay, but you

1:08:58

knew each other before you were biggest I met,

1:09:00

Yeah, you have that relationship now you're

1:09:02

big, you're on the road. Is

1:09:05

everybody still getting them all? Well?

1:09:07

I think I think probably my

1:09:10

biggest failing was not realizing

1:09:12

that I could very easily be hurting somebody's

1:09:15

feelings without having the knowledge that

1:09:17

was even doing it. Like, for example, would

1:09:20

do the Royal Command performance and the

1:09:22

Queen would only meet one person,

1:09:25

but she met all the Beatles. So if

1:09:28

you were Carl Green's mom watching the Royal

1:09:30

Command performance and you've seen the Beatles

1:09:32

all ship, Hello, Ringo a lot, Paul, Hello

1:09:34

Georgia, you you say

1:09:36

to your son, how come you didn't meet the queen?

1:09:39

How come he gets to meet all the queens? And

1:09:41

how come he gets to be in the dressing

1:09:43

room with Andy Williams? Do you know what

1:09:45

I mean? And I didn't know any of that was going on.

1:09:47

I thought we were all mates and that it was

1:09:49

the natural thing, you know, you and I'm

1:09:51

the youngest member, and I'm now the spokesman

1:09:54

because you know what the lead singer. What I didn't

1:09:56

know to tell them was, you know, the lead singer is

1:09:58

usually the person that the cameras on all the time

1:10:00

because he's singing, and during the guitar solo,

1:10:03

they'll show the guitar, not the player. And

1:10:06

I didn't know to tell them that. I thought that

1:10:08

they would just magically understand

1:10:10

everything that goes on in the world like

1:10:14

I didn't, and it

1:10:16

was very naive of me, and I really

1:10:18

regret it, and I'm still friends with a couple

1:10:21

of them, but I can understand why they probably

1:10:23

very quickly grew to hate me. Hey

1:10:26

it's a bad word, you know, not be

1:10:28

very fond of my activities. And

1:10:30

what happened was we were all from Manchester. I

1:10:32

was living with my grandmother, and we became

1:10:35

famous and I immediately moved to London.

1:10:37

I got a little muse flat,

1:10:39

you know, for fifteen pounds a week, which

1:10:42

was easy. I could afford that. I didn't need anybody

1:10:44

to sign the credit agreement or

1:10:46

anything. And I bought a posh car

1:10:48

and I got a driver and I was off and

1:10:51

they were in. They were still living with their moms and dads.

1:10:54

Who does he think he is? And

1:10:56

I didn't know any of that was going on. I didn't

1:10:58

know. I just was so full

1:11:01

of myself that I didn't ever think of other people's

1:11:03

feelings. So i've that's

1:11:05

probably a lot of the tension in the

1:11:07

band was because I didn't know that there was any tension.

1:11:10

But you moved to London. They

1:11:12

theoretically could have moved to London themselves.

1:11:14

They had the same amount of money that you were making, right,

1:11:17

Yeah, we were all we sharing everything equally. Yeah,

1:11:20

everything, every cent was shared equally,

1:11:23

and that theoretically,

1:11:25

you know, if you want of the boys, you can't step

1:11:27

out. It's like when Paul McCartney

1:11:29

starts dating the doctor's daughter, the posh

1:11:31

doctor's daughter, he's kind of out of the

1:11:33

thing. You know, it's not in the

1:11:36

van anymore with the lads. They're all getting

1:11:38

in the van going back to to Manchester

1:11:41

to their moms and dads or whatever was going on.

1:11:43

I don't really know. And I'm

1:11:46

catching the lift off the Stones Where are you guys

1:11:48

going tonight? Are we're going back to London? Can I come

1:11:50

with you? Because I'm so naive

1:11:54

that I don't know that that isn't appropriate. Constantly

1:11:57

I do it and I'm looking back and I go, how embarrassed.

1:12:00

And So the Beatles are doing a TV show in Manchester.

1:12:03

I'm not on the TV show, but I'm

1:12:05

there because it's in the studio where the people

1:12:07

at the gate know me from being in

1:12:09

Coronation Street. So the Beatles are

1:12:12

there. I drive in with my

1:12:14

driver waved to the guy at the gate,

1:12:16

Arry whatever his name is. He waves me in. The

1:12:18

Beatles are in the in the dressing rooms. I

1:12:21

sit in the cafeteria and

1:12:24

they come and sit down at the table. I

1:12:26

start talking to them as if I know them.

1:12:29

Ah, because

1:12:31

I'm sixteen and they think

1:12:33

I'm some kid from Coronation Street. But

1:12:37

they're the Beatles. And now I'm

1:12:39

so stupid, stupidity

1:12:41

really, but it's kind of comedy

1:12:44

stupid that I see

1:12:47

Paul McCartney sitting talking to George Martin

1:12:50

in the dressing room with the door slightly

1:12:52

open, and I walk in and join

1:12:54

in the conversation. Hello,

1:12:57

what's what's up, you know what you do, and

1:12:59

and and Paul, who is the kindest,

1:13:02

you know, because I'm just this kid herman

1:13:05

and I I say,

1:13:07

I say, and he goes, well, are we're talking about compression?

1:13:10

Do you know anything about compression? I know

1:13:13

what what's compression? And Paul starts

1:13:15

up, well, you know, and this is exactly how it

1:13:17

went. You havent heard of, you know, Fats

1:13:19

Domino. How when he sings the track go,

1:13:22

it gets it loses some of that, and then

1:13:24

we start singing again. You lose the track and then the track comes

1:13:26

louder in between the first Oh yeah,

1:13:28

I know exactly what he talks about. Well that's compression.

1:13:31

And we're discussing how to defeat the compression.

1:13:34

Ah yeah, and I'm going to and they're

1:13:36

they're doing people

1:13:39

who have recorded the Beatles songs. And

1:13:42

George Martin says, looks at

1:13:44

me like like I'm a an

1:13:46

adult and says, which

1:13:49

Beatles song have you recorded? Which

1:13:51

means get out and

1:13:56

record any Beatles song I haven't. Just just you

1:13:58

know, okay, thank you? Like

1:14:02

but you didn't realize you were big? No

1:14:04

I didn't. I didn't. He was so Paul

1:14:07

McCartney was so kind and well

1:14:09

mannered and included

1:14:12

me in the conversation as it cares

1:14:14

what I think about compression.

1:14:16

But he's just a gentleman, you know. And so was George.

1:14:19

You could have said please get

1:14:21

out, but he didn't. He said, well, which

1:14:23

which beatles songs have you recorded? Non? Okay?

1:14:27

Leave kind of just okay.

1:14:29

So and lots of that happened

1:14:32

to me all my all my time

1:14:34

in herme and Sermis, I would always get myself

1:14:36

into situations that I didn't

1:14:39

really realize made

1:14:41

me look stupid until years

1:14:43

later I look back and I go you

1:14:46

asked the Stones what

1:14:48

they're doing after the show and

1:14:50

they to get rid of you. They said, oh,

1:14:53

we're going back to London, and you said

1:14:55

the words can I come with you? They

1:14:59

said all right, And

1:15:02

and they had this big American car

1:15:05

and there was there wasn't a seat for me. And even though it's

1:15:07

a big car, so they're the driver called REDGI

1:15:09

King who had a hammer. There was a left

1:15:11

hand drive and they sat me in

1:15:13

the middle next to this crazy redg

1:15:16

King in the middle with Brian

1:15:18

who was also a little guy. He was a little guy like Brian

1:15:20

Jodge was a little guy. Like me. So we could

1:15:22

sit in the front seat of that big American car

1:15:25

with the seat the middle thing up,

1:15:27

and this Ridge king as

1:15:29

we drove past cars on the free on the motorway,

1:15:32

he would lean out of the window and bash

1:15:35

their rear view mirror off

1:15:40

right, And this is like this kid from Mentis

1:15:42

to his life, been a Catholic school and everything

1:15:44

I got. This is the greatest thing I've never

1:15:47

been. This is incredible, this is

1:15:49

these are the greatest people I've ever met in my

1:15:51

life. This is this is. I wish Herman's

1:15:53

Hermits were more like this, you know, not

1:15:55

so nice and staying with their

1:15:58

mom's. I wish they would get a hammer bash

1:16:00

old people's rear view mirrors off as

1:16:02

they drove past. And that

1:16:04

was my new liago. I

1:16:07

live in London. Now I'm going to live in London and be

1:16:09

like them. So when did

1:16:11

you find out that there was resembling

1:16:13

from the guys in the band? You

1:16:15

know in

1:16:20

the seventies, you know, in the early set when we when we all

1:16:22

decided to what happened was we did a Royal

1:16:24

command performance and

1:16:27

we decided that we were going to be a cabaret

1:16:29

band. The American record thing.

1:16:32

It was a disaster, you know, because we would run

1:16:34

into a situation where are

1:16:37

being teenagers, we didn't know how to deal with

1:16:39

it because we've never had to deal with so

1:16:41

somebody said, you didn't get the check,

1:16:44

so we'd say, well, if they're not going to give

1:16:46

us the money, we're not going to give them the record, which

1:16:48

is what they want. But we

1:16:51

didn't know that we wanted we

1:16:53

we want. We didn't know that they didn't

1:16:55

want our records enough to give us the money.

1:16:58

Say so is the money thing came and and

1:17:00

then what happened was that that I

1:17:03

was kind of nonchalant about

1:17:05

the financial part of it, but the grudge

1:17:07

part I wasn't going to let let go of and

1:17:10

we're not going to give them any more music until

1:17:12

until we get all the money and

1:17:15

we want it nothing. So

1:17:17

meanwhile, what happened

1:17:20

was we started to make really good records for

1:17:22

the rest of the world, like we

1:17:24

had My Sentimental Friend and Sunshine

1:17:26

Girl and Something's Happening. They were all big, big

1:17:28

records all around the world, not in America

1:17:30

because they were not released, and we thought that that would

1:17:33

tease them into putting it out. Look at that

1:17:35

number one in Australia. They put it out in a minute.

1:17:37

That's they'll give us the money just to get their hands

1:17:39

on that. They didn't care. They just

1:17:41

wore onto the next we you know,

1:17:43

the monkeys had come along or something and we

1:17:45

were just like over there and all these were good exact

1:17:48

so, and I realized at the time

1:17:50

that we that we'd stepped into this cabaret

1:17:53

world, which was really good for me because I'm

1:17:55

kind of a cabaret person, do you know

1:17:57

what I mean? I can tap did did

1:17:59

he? Did he? And I can you

1:18:01

know, and I can play with the audience. And

1:18:05

I talked them into we've got a choreographer,

1:18:08

and we ended up doing a royal command

1:18:10

performance for the Queen and doing song

1:18:12

Broadway hits, you

1:18:14

know, like name, you Don't Do, Don't Do

1:18:16

Do Do do It do Name, and

1:18:19

the hermits had to not have guitars

1:18:21

and had to become male dancers. Think

1:18:24

about it, Oh, I am thinking about but

1:18:29

I saw it as I finally saw it about

1:18:31

a year ago, so resentments.

1:18:33

So at the end of that, we all decided that we've

1:18:36

done the best that we could possibly do with that idea.

1:18:39

Let's let's all, let's

1:18:42

take some time away from each other and see

1:18:44

what happens, see what happens with the label and everything,

1:18:48

and you know, everyone who was

1:18:50

recently married and stuff like that. And

1:18:52

at the end of this run, they

1:18:54

took the suits off. We always wore suits,

1:18:57

and they ripped them up and tore them up and jumped

1:18:59

through ound on the stage. I'm never going to wear a suit

1:19:02

again, you know what I mean. And then that's when I realized, Oh,

1:19:04

they didn't. They didn't enjoy.

1:19:06

It's not about how much money they

1:19:08

make. It's about how

1:19:10

much fun they're having playing as a band, you

1:19:12

know, Like we used to have this fun

1:19:15

and laugh at each other and and someone

1:19:17

they made a mistake, we would all laugh at each

1:19:19

other and yeah, and all

1:19:22

that was gone and we were being we were like

1:19:24

the Bachelor's or the Shadows. We were like

1:19:26

those bands that we didn't want to be, like, going

1:19:29

through the motions, you know, dance steps

1:19:31

and everything. And that's when I

1:19:33

realized. And that was also about the time that I didn't

1:19:35

realize that me sharing the dresser room with Tom

1:19:37

Jones and Andy Williams and then being on

1:19:39

the third floor with the Czechoslovakian

1:19:43

choir was not appropriate.

1:19:45

It was bad management

1:19:47

of their feelings by me. So

1:19:50

whenever we decided to call break, did

1:19:53

you think there was a

1:19:55

future for you and show business? You

1:19:58

know, I had a TV series, so part of the

1:20:00

I had a British TV shot series that was

1:20:02

running at the same time as we broke up.

1:20:05

And I thought that as soon as I

1:20:07

was finished with the TV series, because I'm thoughtless

1:20:10

bastard, heartless

1:20:13

bastard, that they would

1:20:16

come back into the fold. You know, we can

1:20:18

start up again. We'll go do an Australian tour and

1:20:20

we'll do a little American oldies but goodies

1:20:22

to own. That's exactly what we did. We came over and I

1:20:24

think Naida had one of those

1:20:26

things and he put together a British

1:20:28

and I thought, I

1:20:32

saw that in your blog. Yeah, and we thought

1:20:34

that was it, and we thought, well, we can do this now and then.

1:20:37

But they wanted to work. See

1:20:39

the idea that they wanted

1:20:42

to work and they would be prepared to pretend

1:20:44

to be something other than who

1:20:47

they were. And it never occurred to me that they

1:20:49

wanted to work, that they enjoyed working

1:20:51

and singing Herman's Hermits songs and that

1:20:54

we're prepared to do it without me, and I

1:20:56

thought that they wouldn't be able to. I thought they won't

1:20:58

be able to do it, you know, like Peter Gabriel thought that

1:21:00

Gis would go on and everybody

1:21:03

from everybody? What was the TV series you have?

1:21:06

It was cool? It was it was Mike Yarwood. It was

1:21:08

on every week. It was a weekly show,

1:21:10

and I was doing comedy and singing a song every

1:21:12

week. I was three people in the show,

1:21:16

Mike Yarwood, Averan Post and me,

1:21:18

and we did scenes together and

1:21:20

it was kind of a fun show to do. And you

1:21:22

would rehearsal week and you shoot it like it

1:21:25

would go out live on Thursdays with an

1:21:27

orchestra and girls

1:21:29

singers and all those things. And I choose

1:21:31

the song that I would do every week, and it was

1:21:34

very I mean, it went for three years. It was supposed to be thirteen

1:21:36

weeks, but it went for three years because it

1:21:38

was successful. Like everything that

1:21:41

you think you can just have a

1:21:43

little flip with, they turned into

1:21:45

being big deals. And that turned into being a big deal.

1:21:47

I'm sure you must have done certain things had failed.

1:21:51

Lots of things fail. I like fails. I

1:21:53

sometimes like failing in a during the song

1:21:55

because then I can recover. You

1:21:58

know, I enjoy failure because as

1:22:00

you learned something. It's like I say, too,

1:22:02

I went to see a band and they go, do why

1:22:05

do you want to say that? I'd like to see what

1:22:07

I shouldn't do.

1:22:09

You know, some ballences you they do things. Once I

1:22:11

saw this band and the the singer

1:22:14

some girl offered him a bouquet of flowers and he threw

1:22:16

it behind him over his head, and every money in

1:22:18

the audience went, oh,

1:22:21

so you know you learn I go. I go

1:22:23

to see loads of bands. I'm still a fan of

1:22:26

music, which is what bizarre. People think, Wow,

1:22:28

what are you doing here? I'd like to see what is

1:22:31

going on? Okay, So

1:22:33

how do you decide to go on this oldies

1:22:35

tour British Invasion tour? I

1:22:38

think Richard Nader offered loads of money. He

1:22:40

made one deal with the Hermits and he made one deal

1:22:42

with me, and that was

1:22:44

it. We we got together, we rehearsed. I

1:22:46

remember we did simple Men. We did a Graham Nash

1:22:49

song, which is so bizarre, and

1:22:51

I got back on the piano like Alan Price

1:22:54

I played that show, and remember I played the piano in

1:22:56

that show. Okay, well

1:22:58

I did, But so we

1:23:00

were looking for that sort of mystery.

1:23:03

Oh, they're much more that

1:23:05

are musicians, you know, because we decided,

1:23:07

like when we were after we've seen the Beatles,

1:23:10

we said, we have to be careful that we never

1:23:12

want to try to be those those kind

1:23:14

of musicians who want to impress other

1:23:16

musicians because they never make it.

1:23:19

Okay, so when you go back out on the road,

1:23:21

how many original Hermits go back out with you?

1:23:24

Everybody went? I think on that one every

1:23:26

everybody. I think there might have been a guy called

1:23:29

I think Keith Hopwood didn't come back, so

1:23:31

there was maybe one replacement. But Derek let

1:23:33

can be the original guitarist, Barry when

1:23:36

the drummer and Carl Green the base pay. We

1:23:38

all went out, but they got

1:23:40

paid less than apparently. Yeah,

1:23:42

that was that was also cause of some concern.

1:23:45

So how long did that did

1:23:47

working with that band last?

1:23:50

Just that one tour? We thought

1:23:52

to do other stuff, but it just all

1:23:55

fell apart during that tour, I think, you

1:23:57

know, because we just we just didn't. We

1:24:00

were never an arena act, you know. Herman

1:24:02

Summons never could have played arenas,

1:24:04

and that tour put us in bed. You

1:24:06

know, we were at Madison Square Garden. We could never

1:24:08

play that. I still couldn't play it. I don't

1:24:10

think the music doesn't transcend

1:24:14

the cabaret kind of atmosphere theater.

1:24:17

I think so. So when

1:24:20

you go that's that would be called a fail. I

1:24:22

think that would tour that that come back to the British

1:24:24

invasion much too soon. Okay,

1:24:28

but how did you feel about being an oldies act?

1:24:31

Nothing? I thought everybody that

1:24:33

I admired was an oldies act. When

1:24:35

you said oldies but goodies, I remembered the word

1:24:37

goodie, right, you know Del

1:24:39

Shannon. The first time I saw that, think

1:24:41

about it. The Beatles opened for Chris

1:24:43

Montez and Tommy Row. That

1:24:46

was an oldiest talk. They were in the charts, but

1:24:48

they were already it was an oldies show, and the

1:24:50

Beatles were opening for Del Shannon and those

1:24:52

those great artists and Royal Orbison

1:24:55

they were they weren't newcomers.

1:24:58

So after that, to or

1:25:00

what do you do? I

1:25:03

think that's probably when I did a load of solo

1:25:05

stuff in England because I'd had that TV series.

1:25:07

So now Peter Noon was more and more financially

1:25:10

viable than herme and firm. It's anyway. I

1:25:12

was now able to go and do cabaret,

1:25:14

which was a big thing in England at

1:25:17

the time. That was where all the money was to go

1:25:19

into cabaret and people dinner theater, I think

1:25:21

is what it's called. And there was lots of

1:25:23

that and I ate that up. And then

1:25:25

sometime I

1:25:26

uh, I started to really

1:25:28

not like being in England.

1:25:31

It changed, the vibe

1:25:34

in England have changed, and I didn't want to be there anymore.

1:25:36

And we had a big, big my wife

1:25:38

and I had a big country house with loads

1:25:40

of people working for us, and I

1:25:43

decided it was time to downsize. And some

1:25:45

guy came over and saw the house and he said, how much you

1:25:47

want for it? And I said, I want lots

1:25:49

of money. He said, put a number, tell me a number. I

1:25:51

thought of the biggest number I could think of. My wife still

1:25:54

says it was only ten percent of what I should

1:25:56

have asked for, you know, because wives always

1:25:58

do. But and he gave me the money and he said,

1:26:00

I want to move in on Thursday. So we rented

1:26:02

of a truck and

1:26:05

a truck and Evolvo

1:26:08

and we drove to We rented a house in the south

1:26:10

of France and moved to the

1:26:12

south of France. Everything with the dogs. We had six

1:26:15

dogs, and we had to remove a

1:26:17

big truck, you know, like people do in America, and they

1:26:19

move. And I

1:26:22

stayed there and we stayed. I loved it

1:26:24

in France. I love to get up in the morning

1:26:26

and they go to a little cafe and people

1:26:28

would drink white wine and breakfast and

1:26:31

play the tears, you know, betting on horses.

1:26:34

Nothing. I knew nothing about it, but I would play

1:26:36

with them, you know, and I could speak French, so

1:26:38

I was kind of I felt very comfortable in France

1:26:41

when the Stones lived just down the street. So

1:26:43

it's like I followed the Stones to their right.

1:26:46

But you weren't on the heroin, so

1:26:50

you're how did you feel from going

1:26:52

from Top of the Pops to playing dinner theater.

1:26:55

I just enjoyed the work. You know, they're

1:26:58

all pretty challenging things to I'm always

1:27:00

worried about how how the promoters

1:27:02

doing. That's my only fear that you

1:27:04

know, everyone's making money, That's

1:27:07

just my nature. So everyone

1:27:09

was being paid. I had a musical director

1:27:12

and he was happy to have the work, and we'd use local

1:27:14

bands and stuff like that was very very

1:27:16

hard on my throat because

1:27:18

you'd have to rehearsal a lot. And

1:27:21

Okay, so you say you had some records

1:27:23

in France, so you continued

1:27:25

to work. You never really stopped working. No, I

1:27:27

con'stant work. And then you put the Tremblers

1:27:29

together. When is that probably about? And

1:27:33

what was that experience? Like? It

1:27:36

was a fantastic experience

1:27:38

because you know what happened. I became

1:27:40

friends, you know, in l A. There's

1:27:42

so the heart Breakers were here and I

1:27:44

became friends with stan Lynch. She was the drama and

1:27:47

I said, I'm gonna have this. And I was also friends with

1:27:49

D from d Murray from the Out and John

1:27:51

Bann. There was this little click of people and

1:27:54

I said, I think I'm good. I want to because I was

1:27:56

jealous that they were in a band and

1:27:59

they were in this joyous experience

1:28:01

of a band. They

1:28:05

were enjoying being in this band. You know, D

1:28:07

was loving playing gigs with Elton

1:28:09

and they were they were it was growing every

1:28:12

day, and the Heartbreakers were you

1:28:14

know, they were all still living in the valley. But you

1:28:16

know, they were just ready to make it, you know, just ready

1:28:18

to break it. And I have to sit there with Stan. I

1:28:21

said, you know what, I think I'm going to start

1:28:23

a band and decent. He said, what

1:28:25

would you call it? Herman? I said, no, no, I

1:28:27

think I'd call it Watkins

1:28:29

and the Dominators because it was an amplifier,

1:28:33

a triangular amplifier in the sixties

1:28:35

thing and called the Watkins Dominator. And

1:28:38

he said, I don't call it that because the

1:28:40

people last which once Watkins, which

1:28:45

is memorable stuff with a nice guy d So

1:28:48

we started about putting

1:28:51

this band together. Hell and Stand new this

1:28:53

drama, really great drama,

1:28:55

a big guy. I wanted a big guy like Stan,

1:28:58

you know, but it could get over the kit like ring. And

1:29:01

we started putting this band together and Standard I wrote

1:29:03

a couple of songs and we well it was all you

1:29:06

know, like starting. It was like really fresh

1:29:08

and starting. And and and

1:29:10

Bruce Johnston from the Beach Boys,

1:29:13

um, he had a label and

1:29:16

I played him a couple of the things at me and

1:29:18

Standard they said, beyond

1:29:20

my label, it's an epic epic

1:29:22

portrait associated and I'm associated.

1:29:25

So I got, yeah, let's go. They'll give you money,

1:29:27

they'll give us money to make the record. Yeah, we'll

1:29:29

get the money, will split the money. Then, so

1:29:31

we just suddenly we're in Conway studios

1:29:33

and we're making a record with one known

1:29:36

you know. I got Phil Phil Solom

1:29:38

who's in a band, and he's playing

1:29:41

the guitar, and I got Stal on the drums,

1:29:43

and he brings in some of the heartbreakers down there to

1:29:45

play things, and we just we're having a blast.

1:29:47

That's like Abbey Road again, you know. It's that where

1:29:49

everybody's in a room having fun and

1:29:51

everything's joyous and and it was

1:29:53

just a great experience. And then we put the record

1:29:56

out and then of course it all then you

1:29:58

find out that the only people who really really love

1:30:00

the music the people in the band.

1:30:05

Okay, and at what point do you decide

1:30:07

to go back on tour as Herman's

1:30:09

Hermits.

1:30:12

That phone call from from

1:30:15

Lulu LULUs, they started me out as Peter

1:30:17

Noon. I went Peter Noon formerly Home

1:30:19

and of Herman's Hermits, and then go

1:30:22

down. That's okay, it's very complicated.

1:30:24

You've never been a player casino with all that. They're

1:30:26

not just not too many words. So

1:30:29

then I signed with Paradise

1:30:31

in in O Hi

1:30:34

and yeah, excuse

1:30:37

yeah, Paradise Agency and they

1:30:39

say, you know, we've got a problem

1:30:41

because there's another band called Herman's Hermits

1:30:43

going out and we're

1:30:46

going to have trouble selling you us with this Herman

1:30:48

Sermits, which is Barry whit when the druma

1:30:50

with his new version of Herman Sermits and

1:30:54

we've got to stop them. I

1:30:56

don't think, you know, British Laurie is unusual.

1:30:59

I don't think we can stuff. I tried to stop and doing it

1:31:01

once before, I want in New York, but I failed

1:31:03

in Britain. I mean I won the first case

1:31:05

to stopping them using the name. And we

1:31:10

decide to let him make him call

1:31:12

his band Herman's Hermits starring Barry

1:31:15

whitwam a new

1:31:17

Herman's Hermits starring Peter Nooner let

1:31:19

the audience choose which one they want to pay the

1:31:21

money to see, and that

1:31:24

was an agreement and I guess

1:31:26

night sometime in the nineties

1:31:28

maybe, Okay, So where's everybody

1:31:30

in the original ban today? Keith Hotwood

1:31:32

is in Manchester. He's doing really well. I just had lunch

1:31:35

with him last week. He's a nice

1:31:37

boy. And his son is a fan

1:31:39

of Herman's Hermits. And so what does he do

1:31:41

for a living. He's a He is a producer.

1:31:43

He does a lot of television and

1:31:46

movie commercial work, like

1:31:48

sound tracks. Carl Green,

1:31:52

what it left the bass player?

1:31:54

He left Herman's

1:31:57

Hermit starring Barry when about five years ago?

1:31:59

And I think he he does equipment,

1:32:02

rents equipment or runs a soundboard

1:32:05

and Barry wait, we I'm still out

1:32:07

with playing Herman's Hermit songs.

1:32:10

And Derek let him be passed away?

1:32:12

When did he pass in the night? A long

1:32:14

time ago? He was a young man, He was very

1:32:16

young man, but he had Hudgkin slim

1:32:18

foma. Yeah, that's

1:32:21

not good. Okay. So I

1:32:23

saw you about a month ago and

1:32:25

it was astounding. I mean, I've seen a lot of

1:32:27

acts. What the reason the way I described today is

1:32:29

I didn't want to look at my phone. I was afraid

1:32:31

I would miss something. And

1:32:34

there were First of all, the songs are so great.

1:32:37

You have not lost your voice like

1:32:39

so many other people at this stage

1:32:41

of the game. And you're so funny.

1:32:44

Okay. If

1:32:47

I went to see you the next night

1:32:49

at the Canyan Club, would you

1:32:52

have been doing the same jokes. No,

1:32:55

no, it's it's it's all run

1:32:57

it's it's all runs off the audience.

1:33:00

The whole show has to run off the audience. That's what

1:33:02

cabaret is. You know, you can't what

1:33:04

I have. It is a show. You

1:33:06

know, Oklahoma is a show. When

1:33:08

you go and see Oklahoma, you know they're going to start there's

1:33:11

are bright, golden you know that that's

1:33:13

what it's going to be. I start with him into something

1:33:15

good, and the rest of it is all sort

1:33:17

of expected. It's expected

1:33:19

that I would do a Mick Jagger dick.

1:33:23

It was very funny thing. I'm not sure that I expected,

1:33:25

and it was certainly funny. But if

1:33:28

you've seen the show, you go back and

1:33:30

you expect all the bits to be there, but they'll all

1:33:32

be different. We won't do the same Johnny

1:33:34

Cash song every night. I have a three hundred

1:33:37

songs to choose from. We always

1:33:39

do the hits. We always start with him into something

1:33:41

good, and we always end with there's a kind of hush. The rest

1:33:43

is all to me. And those

1:33:45

guys behind me that look that looks

1:33:47

like a enthusiasm

1:33:50

is actually consternation, Like what is

1:33:52

he gonna do. Does he even know what he's

1:33:54

going to do? And I sometimes I don't.

1:33:56

Sometimes I wander around and I do a Richard

1:33:59

Harris story. I sometimes tell a story

1:34:01

that's got nothing to do with the show. And

1:34:04

so do you enjoy it? Absolutely?

1:34:06

I lived for him and I always did, you know, I've

1:34:09

always liked that bit of that fear

1:34:11

factor of jumping up

1:34:13

there. Now you describe yourself as the luckiest

1:34:15

man in the world. Any regrets. I

1:34:19

regret that I wasn't kinder to the people

1:34:21

on the way up, and I regret that I wasn't.

1:34:24

I never realized

1:34:26

how proud my parents were of me. I

1:34:29

didn't. I didn't think of that. You

1:34:31

know, until you get your own children, you don't know how

1:34:33

proud you are of the smallest things.

1:34:36

I didn't realize that they would be proud. And

1:34:38

the only compliment my father ever gave

1:34:41

to me was he came to see me in

1:34:43

Pirates of Penzance on the West End

1:34:45

and at the end of the show he said, that

1:34:48

was pretty good. Do

1:34:50

you know what I mean? It's this

1:34:53

is kind of weird. I mean, British tend to be reserved,

1:34:56

but my parents have not been supportive

1:34:58

of any endeavors I have. Remember once

1:35:00

I got an email from Quincy Jones and I

1:35:02

know Quincy at this but first email, I get it and

1:35:04

I forward it to my mother. This

1:35:07

is like twenty years ago, and I'll

1:35:09

get a response and I'm on the

1:35:11

phone and I go, hey, mom, uh

1:35:13

and I sent you an email from Quincy Jones. She said,

1:35:16

yeah, yeah, I read it. Your mom. You

1:35:18

know it's Quincy Jones. Yeah.

1:35:21

I got a question, oh, v Quincy

1:35:23

Jones, how would you know him?

1:35:26

And it's like, whoa that was looking

1:35:28

for my don't

1:35:31

look for it from my family? So what have you

1:35:33

do? But no, But I'm not like that.

1:35:36

I mean I wish that when when

1:35:38

I've been on top of the pops and the record

1:35:41

was number one, that I'd gone

1:35:43

home and say, hey, you know, well

1:35:45

they think your parents were proud. Whatever. I haven't

1:35:47

had the success you've had, But my parents are

1:35:50

not proud. I think I think you aldience understands, which

1:35:52

acknowledged them. Yeah, so what have you

1:35:54

learned in this career? You

1:35:57

know, all the good guys to finish first.

1:35:59

I've found that a lot of people

1:36:01

that I respect and have had long

1:36:03

careers, like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger

1:36:05

and people like that. They're very nice

1:36:07

people there, you know, there's the night. I

1:36:11

can't find a better word than nice. They're they're

1:36:13

they're really cautious with their kindness,

1:36:17

you know, they're they're kind people. Do you believe

1:36:19

they were kind on the way up? And

1:36:22

one never knows how people were there were always kind

1:36:24

to me and and you know,

1:36:27

I would say that somebody like Mick Jagger has

1:36:29

this fascinating arrogance, which

1:36:32

is which I feed off, because

1:36:35

he's a man who is one

1:36:38

of the top five biggest star in stars

1:36:40

in the world, but he's completely under the radar.

1:36:42

You don't know where he is. Like me, he's

1:36:45

never set foot on a red carpet because we

1:36:47

don't want any of that. We don't want

1:36:49

that. That's not what we're looking for. Red carpets

1:36:51

and people flashing bulbs

1:36:54

in you know, we've got a song because it now it's

1:36:56

all about the songs, isn't it. And

1:36:58

he's got that thing. And Paul mc cartney as

1:37:00

well, he lives under he's under the radar. When

1:37:02

he was married to Linda and making all those

1:37:04

great records like ram,

1:37:07

they lived in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere.

1:37:09

They lived a personal, fabulous

1:37:11

little life in love. Now

1:37:15

all the people, all those British invasion acts,

1:37:17

do you personally know all those people? Probably?

1:37:19

I think I know all the British and uh

1:37:23

and you keep up with any of these people you see about

1:37:25

other road, Yes, see, almost everybody.

1:37:28

Like I mean, I was just on a

1:37:30

tour in England with Brian Pool from Brian Pool

1:37:32

on the Tramler's Probably he's at the end of his

1:37:34

career, but I saw him the first time with

1:37:36

the Beatles opening for the Beatles in Ermston and the

1:37:38

middle of a field and I've I've

1:37:40

known him for that long. So of six sixty

1:37:42

three to now is this

1:37:45

is a classic question. But you mentioned so many

1:37:47

gigs. What's the best gig that you've

1:37:49

ever been into that you

1:37:51

you were not the performer? Oh,

1:37:55

probably Gino Washington

1:37:58

and the Ram Jam band that the you

1:38:00

know what I mean, just one inspirational

1:38:03

gig, where as a guy who's just sweating

1:38:06

and and and also Roy Head.

1:38:09

I saw Roy Head in Houston once. Did you

1:38:11

even know Ray Head had this record? Like

1:38:16

and he was like he did Jackie Wilson, I like Jackie

1:38:18

Wilson as well, but he could do Jackie Wilson better

1:38:20

than Jackie Wilson. And he sound great, had a phenomenal

1:38:22

band, and I saw I saw

1:38:24

the Supremes once and they were pretty good too. So there's

1:38:26

there's about five or six really

1:38:29

fascinating giggs. And every time I saw

1:38:31

Roy Orbison he always killed

1:38:33

me. And and of course every

1:38:35

time every time I saw the Beatles and

1:38:38

Jerry and the Pacemakers, they

1:38:40

were brilliant. Jerry and the Pacemakers

1:38:42

were on that tour with you, Yeah, but then

1:38:44

it wasn't the original Jerry. I'm talking Jerry and the Pacemakers

1:38:46

at the Cavern and at the Liverpool Locarno.

1:38:49

And you know, Jerry was very kind

1:38:51

to my first Pete Novak on the Harbis. He took

1:38:53

us on a tour with him and he was the headliner

1:38:55

and it was Billy Ja Kramer under the coatas with a

1:38:58

second act, and we were the opening act. And

1:39:00

Jerry very kindly showed us to our dressing

1:39:02

who which had gentlemen written on it. It's

1:39:07

a joke. Thanks

1:39:09

for calling on at all. Let me show you to your addressing room.

1:39:12

So when you're doing a gig. Now do

1:39:14

you know whether it's a good gig or a bad gig.

1:39:18

You never do a bad one because you're so experienced. But

1:39:20

there are certain gigs that are better than other. Do you suddenly

1:39:22

feel it when you're doing it? But I

1:39:24

never quit on it, you know the guy

1:39:27

the guys in my bend says, wow, we thought

1:39:29

we'd lost one air. But you never quit, you

1:39:32

know, because I've I know, I've always

1:39:34

got Henry the eighth. You know, you back up,

1:39:36

okay, so that Henry the eighth is your trick. That's

1:39:39

how that you know you rely on that or you'll play

1:39:41

that sooner to wake everybody up. Yeah,

1:39:43

but there's a few that can do that. You know. It's sometimes

1:39:46

it's listen people, you know, it can change my

1:39:49

my, my my. I can

1:39:51

read an audience pretty well because I've

1:39:53

been doing it for a long time and I've never done

1:39:55

anything else, you know, I've never

1:39:57

had a success of anything else, ex

1:40:00

from being on a stage and reading an audience.

1:40:03

And now, with the time you have left, which you could

1:40:05

be a day or thirty years, what

1:40:07

would you like to do with accomplisher? You having accomplished

1:40:09

yet I think I want to do this for I've got ten

1:40:11

more years. I keep saying every every day, I say,

1:40:14

ten more years of this would be great, you know, and then

1:40:16

I'd probably I've got to keep

1:40:18

my chops. You know. It's a lot of musicians

1:40:21

like Mick Jagger and Paul mcco are actually

1:40:23

athletes who can sing and dance and

1:40:26

and create music. So you have

1:40:28

to think that, you know, when you lose the ability

1:40:30

to do it, you have to be able to stop. You

1:40:33

know, if you can't hit home runs anymore,

1:40:35

you've gotta quit. You don't want to go into

1:40:37

the mind leagues. And while

1:40:40

he is still hitting home runs, when

1:40:42

you see Peter Noone's name in the paper, you go

1:40:44

to his website. You should definitely go.

1:40:46

If you know his records, you will have a

1:40:48

fantastic time and you'll smile and

1:40:51

glow for the next Peter

1:40:54

so great to have you here, that you could go on

1:40:56

for so much or so many other questions like I have, but

1:40:59

I will do it again, and at

1:41:02

all period of all those specific songs.

1:41:04

I have memories. I remember,

1:41:07

as I say, you know, being in a bus being

1:41:09

tired from skiing, and listen people coming out

1:41:11

of the radio and the bus and it being dark.

1:41:14

You have all these memories of these songs,

1:41:16

but as long as they're good memories, I I have make

1:41:19

it. Most used to say, it's only about the songs. Remember,

1:41:21

it's about the songs. And it always and

1:41:23

my show still is only about the songs. It doesn't

1:41:26

matter how they presented. You know, people can

1:41:28

go out and sing those songs in a karaoke bar and

1:41:30

people get the buzz because it's only about the

1:41:32

songs. Okay um,

1:41:34

I present them really well, I do say so. Yes,

1:41:37

let's go back to what part of the renaissance

1:41:40

was I'm into something good was in The Naked

1:41:42

Gun in eight I think

1:41:44

it was, But that wasn't the original

1:41:47

version. That was a recut by you. Yeah. We

1:41:49

had to recut it because they were

1:41:51

and we re cut it so well that they said, we have to change

1:41:53

the solo because Alan Klein that a

1:41:56

code. People will think it's the original

1:41:58

and they'll want the licensing feast. We just went

1:42:00

and we've rechanged the guitar

1:42:02

solom and put like some little little

1:42:05

do. I think the

1:42:07

theater that I saw that and that's one of the that's the best

1:42:09

part of the movie. I thought it was the original

1:42:11

track. We tried, We tried very hard to

1:42:13

sing. You know I can still do that

1:42:15

herm and guy really well. You know I take

1:42:18

a lot of pay a lot of attention to

1:42:20

to try to be that guy that

1:42:23

sang those records. Do you mean

1:42:25

with your voice or your appearance, every

1:42:27

every part of it. It's standis Levski

1:42:30

kets it's um. You know, if you if you

1:42:32

can become the person and you can believe it, then

1:42:35

all the music makes sense. If you can believe it,

1:42:37

just for a few minutes that you're in the studio in in

1:42:40

in London making the record with sixteen

1:42:42

year old boys. If you can get into that suit,

1:42:44

then it will work. Can you get

1:42:46

into that suit every night, five

1:42:49

nights a week. I can do it. I needed, I do need a day

1:42:51

off now and then. But I truly you know, when I did

1:42:53

Pirates of Penzance, I did a thousand consecutive

1:42:56

shows, and that I was. I was in New

1:42:58

Zealand and I think was the Prime Minister long He

1:43:01

said to me, how do you do a

1:43:03

thousand shows? Us? I'm still trying to get it right

1:43:06

for Wow And when you live, I

1:43:08

mean, I know you, but you when

1:43:10

you go through we airports or you're on the street,

1:43:12

to people recognize you. So yeah,

1:43:15

that's the people. Do you know certain