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HERMAN is the youngest group leader to get into the Top Ten for ages, and as such you'd think he had some visions of grandeur. Not a big of it. He talks about the pop business rather like a cynic, doesn't reckon London all that highly and admits all sorts of things that he really shouldn't. For instance, when I met him at his publicist's office, we went on to the roof and I asked him if he felt good about being a big hit. "No," he replied. "Anyone can be a hit these days in this business, can't they? You don't have to be great or a big talent to do it." He saw a workman many feet below and dared me: "i bet you can't hit him with something from here before he moves." Herman, who obviously hasn't realised his success yet, got into pop singing by a rather roundabout way. "I went to Manchester School of Music because my parents thought I needed piano lessons. They're piano fanatics," he said, the hot sun beating down on his head. "Then the people there decided I needed drama studies. "Then they thought I needed singing lessons, so I did that. A singing actor was needed for the 'Knight Errant' TV programme, and I got the part, then I played Len Fairclough's son's part in 'Coronation Street.' when it had just started. "One night, a group I knew needed a singer to stand in for their regular who was ill, so I did it and they kept me on. Then our managers invited Mickie Most to come and listend to us and he recorded us." Herman's cute Mancurian accent added something to his seemingly endless narrative. While a photographer made him fit himself into a number of improbable poses very near the roof edge, we spoke further. "I've been to London before, to look at things," Herman told me. "I went round a lot of the clubs, but I don't like them. There's one in Soho where a lot of stars were made. Have you been there?" When he was only 13 or 14, Herman used to tell lies about his age so that he could become a Patrol leader in the Boy Scouts. He remembers that organisation as a great time. He's an adventurer and sometimes wishes he could do some of the Scout things again. |
 "once, me and a friend went round the Continent to France, Belgium and other places," he said eagerly. "Trouble was, we had too much money. Anytime we wanted to ride anywhere or buy anything, we could. If we'd have been broke, it would have been better." After achieving his big hit with "I'm Into Something Good," loads of offers have been pouring in for Herman and the Hermits. I wondered what it had been like for him a few years ago when he first appeared on TV. "I felt like I wanted to go and sit in a small room on my own," he said. "Wouldn't you?" Herman is very slim and displays a confidence that may be a front. There is this big idea about new singers being full of their own importance that doesn't seem to apply to him. Pop groups spend a lot of their hectic lives rushing around in vans and living in hotels. They often wake up in the morning feeling like nothing on earth. Strangely, this sort of thing appeals to Herman. "It's great," he enthused. "No two days are the same in this business, you never know what's going to happen. It's all a big laugh!" Uncertainty seems to be a keyword in Herman's life. He's used to other people making the decisions for him - though he refuses to admit that he makes none himself - and he doesn't expect to be a singer for ever. "People in this business always seem to end up making films. I've acted before, so I'm half way there. I think I could be an actor if I wasn't a singer," he ended. |