FOR ALL the fine work of the three secretaries from Surbiton who triggered off the idea, and all the gatecrashers who've got into the same nationalistic mood as well, Mr. Roy Jenkins and his many minions who hold the purse-strings of Britain will owe their deepest debt this Spring to our greatest ambassador to America ... Mr. Peter Noone.
    Mr. Noone, better known to you all as Herman, has big heartedly let it be known that rather than burst his bulging bank account he is to devote all royalties on his latest record, "I Can Take or Leave Your Loving" to the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign.

Leaps and Bounds
    The situation should delight our Chancellor of the Exchequer for the disc is taking leaps and bounds towards the Top Ten. But it might seem surprising that Peter should be perturbed about the state of financial affairs in our chronic country.
    After all, after the early days, we deserted Herman's Hermits and let them fend for themselves in America, where they did rather well. So fantastically, in fact, that a rival record company felt obliged to bring about opponents in the minuscule shape of the Monkees.
    Admittedly, the earlier records released by Herman's Hermits were rather trite and "Children's Choice-ish." But finally last year Britain began to warm to them: "There's A Kind of Hush" and "No Milk Today" helped to put Herman on a new level of some musical respect.
    Even a pop perfectionist like Jonathan King was moved to accompany Herman to Cannes for the Midem Music Festival because "he's an intelligent, talented person."
    Now comes another hit, and Peter decided to say this week: "Up to now, I've been uncertain whether we really had enough following in Britain and that's why we haven't previously considered touring here for the last 		  two years.
    ""But now I've changed my mind and we are all keen to go out on a theatre tour as soon as possible." The soonest it can be is not before March as Peter flew off at the weekend to film the title role in a TV fantasia titled "Pinocchio," which American audiences will see next Christmas Eve.
    "We've managed to stay popular in the States although the Monkees - of whom I'm a great admirer - were brought out as a direct opposition of ourselves.
    "I like America, sure - but there's nothing quite like touching down in England. I wouldn't really ever want to lose connection with this country and it came as a great boost last year when people started to speak up and say our records had improved.
    "I'm no great singer. I'm the first to recognise that. But making it in Britain again is most important. As for this 'Backing Britain' thing - I think it's a great idea. We've had dozens of suggestions about what to do with the royalties of this record. I think what we'd really like to do is combine with a few other pop people and build some big concert hall where we would do shows for charity along with other groups."

'Not rates tops'
    Uppermost in Mr. Noone's mind at the moment, however, is the need to improve as a group. "Up to now, we haven't really done anything as Herman's Hermits apart from making hit records and a lot of money. We're not rated as a top-class group and it's up to us to try and develop a good stage act and keep improving the quality of our records. That's what we are working on right now ... particularly as we plan to tour here in March or April."
    For someone of Peter's stature this sort of self-criticism is quite unnecessary. But then that's Mr. Noone ... totally unaffected, friendly and intelligent beyond his years. It's great to see him riding high in the chart again.

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