THE other evening I was drinking with a millionaire. Not in the Hilton or a swish nightclub, but in a sleazy pub in the heart of London's dockland at Wapping. But then an evening with Herman can end anywhere at any time.     There was the time when I met him in Manchester and six hours later we were in Dublin, or the occasion when we were both wandering around a deserted TV studio in Birmingham at six o'clock in the morning.     There was the night we covered the Paris nightclub scene and another time we listened to the Salvation Army in a Liverpool wine shop.     Peter Noone, singer, actor, company director and businessman, is at home anywhere. He is as much at ease dining at the Ritz as he is playing darts with a group of dockers.     Onstage he is Herman, the happy-go-lucky, little boy pop singer.     Away from the footlights, he is Peter None, worrying about the business of signing contracts, appearing in films and making records.     The first thing he turns to when he picks up a newspaper is the City page.     Although his recording sessions are relaxed, they are treated seriously. I visited the studios when "This Door Swings Both Ways" was being cut.     Peter was on the studio floor when I arrived and Hermits Keith and Karl stood at a mike about six feet from him. Producer Mickie Most sat with his engineer at a massive control panel, watching the group through the glass partitions.     A red light flashed and the opening bars of the song filtered through on two enormous speakers. Co-manager of the group Harvey Lisberg listened critically.     The first take was good - but not quite right; and so it began again. After about six or seven runs, Mickie seemed satisfied. Worrier     "For the next two or three weeks I'll worry," Herman told me after the session. "I won't be happy until it's in the chart and even then I'll still worry about whether it goes up or down."     A long time ago Peter told me how much he worried about the British market. What he really wanted was another No. 1 hit here.     He still feels exactly the same way. But realises that while other groups get to the top of the chart, his discs appeal to a wider range of record-buyers.     In fact most people who come up to him and ask for an autograph are not teenagers but 30-year-olds and upwards.     Peter Noone also worries about the future. He would hate ever to be a failure, but feels that if he did ever lose his money he would still be able to make a good living at something or other.

When he was seven he was running his own window-cleaning business. "I would find the houses that wanted their windows cleaned and then get some of my mates to clean them.     "The customers paid me and I paid the workers - naturally I took a percentage." Folded     The window-cleaning business folded when his men went on strike for more money. He then turned his hand to running a football sweep but that career came to an end when Mr. Noone Senior found out about it.     Peter talks a lot about his school days at St. Bede's in Manchester where he was nicknamed Noddy. "The teachers always used to think I was responsible for any trouble in the class and when they asked me if I was guilty I just nodded.     "i was nodding my head so much that I was christened Noddy."     While still at school he was playing with a variety of groups in the Manchester and Liverpool areas. Many of the dances he played at were rough affairs but Mr. Noone's motto has always been "Better To Run Than Fight."     On one occasion when he was on stage a fight broke out in the hall just in front of the group. "There was a crowd standing round just in front of me and I spotted the bloke who started it all.     "I was so mad at him I took a leap from the stage into the crowd. But unfortunately just as my feet left the stage, the crowd parted and I landed flat on my face on the floor."     "I was so upset I went round the corner and had a cry."     In those days the group had to carry all their gear simply because they could not afford a van or a taxi.     Now, just three years later, Herman's Hermits all have cars. Although Peter does not drive - he travels by train usually - he has two cars at home in Liverpool.     At the moment the group is touring America for which, it is reported they will earn one million dollars, and just before they left they signed a film contract which also guarantees another million.

WHILE Herman's Hermits' latest single, "This Door Swings Both Ways" went up the NME Chart this week, the Manchester quintet raced around Western U.S.A. at the beginning of their eight-week American tour.     Between playing concerts in Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles and Honolulu, the lads spent a few days sunning in Hollywood. "I've been riding a motorbike all around town," grinned a well-tanned Herman, looking relaxed and happy.     Sunday, the Hermits were joined by the Animals for a concert in the Los Angeles Sports Arena, largest indoor arena of the kind here. With every seat $5, the enormous arena (seats about 16,000 for sports events) was almost two-thirds full.

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