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Take a look at the picture on the left. A close look. Familiar, isn't he? More familiar than you'd expect for an artist who has only had one hit. |
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because I fancied life as an actor," he grinned. "I'd even bunk in for nothing if I got the chance! "Anyway, I was dead set on going on the stage, and there was nothing you could say to put me off. That is, until the day I first tried singing with a group - and that's when my double life started. "It was just like meeting a girl, thinking to yourself 'She's the one for me', then finding someone you like better the very next day!" Herman - real name Peter Noone - stretched himself out on the easy chair and ran his fingers through his hair. "I tried leading a double life as an actor and a singer for some time - but I had to give it up." Highlight of his short career as an actor came when he played Stanley Fairclough, Len's son in "Coronation Street". They were a grand crowd of people on that programme," he recalled. "And I remember how Jenny Moss, who plays Lucille Hewitt, used to talk about her hopes for a singing career." But at the time, Herman couldn't have known what lay in store for him. Within a few months he was to change his mind completely about the future. "I was still at school then and a bunch of my pals used to spend a lot of time rehearsing with their guitars. One day, just for a giggle I tried singing with them," he said. "That was the start of my double life." Herman had singing lessons at the Manchester School of Music and although his musical training was a strictly classical one, he went for the group scene in a big way. "I used to go to Manchester's Oasis club regularly, with my pals," he said, "and we used to watch a lot of big names performing long before they became known nationally." Herman's train of thought was interrupted by the reappearance of the Hermits. "We met Sir Laurence Olivier in the street," joked lead guitarist Derek Leckenby. "He asked after you and said he was sorry you've given up acting." The other Hermits - Karl Green (17), bass guitar, Barry Whitwam (18), their drummer, and rhythm guitarist Keith Hopwood (17) - fell over laughing. The whole outfit have a lot of fun sending each other up all the time! What made him decide to try his hand at singing? "I got a wonderful feeling standing out there in front of a group and it suddenly came to me one evening when we were just messing about. I thought to myself: "Oh I don't know - this is more than a lark, or it could be?" He got his name from a TV cartoon called "The Bullwinkle Show". His group reckoned he looked like a character in the series called Sherman - so they privately tagged him Herman. "The name became more than a joke - it stuck. "So we called ourselves Herman's Hermits," he said. Although the line-up changed shortly before they hit the charts they decided to keep their name. In the north, where they zoomed to popularity well before they began recording, fan club members emblazoned his name across the front of their tee-shirts. This brought the phrase "Hermania" into use. Around Manchester it became as common as the words Beatlemania or Liverpoplian! "I'm Into Something Good" took only a short time to establish Herman's Hermits in spite of competition with the same song from Earl Jean and Lady Lee. "We thought it was a song better suited to a girl, so I knew we were taking a big chance," said Herman, combing his hair neatly into place as he prepared to leave for a ballroom date. "Funny the way things turn out, but we used to go and watch the big groups playing at the Oasis. At the time a top-of-the-bill date there seemed as unlikely as having a hit record. We've been back there a few times now - playing as Herman's Hermits! |