HERMAN comes out with some outspoken comments in this feature, in which he talks to RM readers. This new portrait of him was taken by RM's Dezo Hoffman.

Foreign Hits - They're Rubbish!

HERMAN TALKS TO
RM READERS

I'VE just been to court to get a permit to work in America, now I'm going to try and sort my thoughts out so that I can keep you up to date with what me and the Hermits have been doing lately.
    Last time we were in America I was supposed to check in with the British Consul at each town because of my age. They wanted me to say that I was in bed by ten o'clock and all that rubbish!
    Well, I didn't see them, except on arrival. Now we've got all this trouble with visas and things. We're supposed to start work on a new film this week in Los Angeles, so let's hope we get there all right.
    They're not going to start the film till we want 'cause it's all built round us. It's one of those mad pop films with colour and leaping about and everything.

FILM TRICKS
    When you go to a TV studio, all the sets look crappy and daft, but when you see it on TV it looks like a mansion. In America, it's worse than that. If you're in a train, you have to sit on a board while two fellows rock it. Then in the film it looks okay.
    What do you think is going to happen to our record? Its not exactly breaking box office 		  records. It broke big in Rhyl the other day! If a record doesn't get into the top three, it's not a hit.
    The charts start at number twelve. "Wonderful World" wasn't a hit, but "Silhouettes" was. Nobody went round after they heard "Wonderful World" saying: 'That's great. What a marvellous record.'"
    We're r-and-b really, it's the other groups that have gone pop. Ha!
    I nearly got killed in New York last time. We were running out of the theatre into the car when two girls flattened me. Our road manager just lifted me out from underneath. If he hadn't I'd have had it.
    We usually change at the hotel, go outside into a police car and drive straight to the stage door. I go in first so that by the time the people have got over the shock of seeing me, they get the rest of the blokes.

SQUASHED
    In Detroit, I was getting into the car when two girls leaned against the door and sqashed me against the door and the bodywork. I was all flopped out.
    Detroit's the best city in the world. I went to all the night clubs and visited the Tamla Motown recording studios. They record twenty-four hours a day. We just sat there listening to all the records, everyone was out of their minds. The Four Tops were there as well.
    We toured last time with Freddy Cannon. He has a hit every year. Everyone likes him because he never got big time, he's just a nice guy. He's quite old compared to people like the Beatles.

FED UP WITH GROUPS?
    He used to go on before us to warm the audience up. He'd say: "Let's have a good time. Sod the cops." Everyone would start clapping and dancing. Now he's got another hit there.
    I see there are two gods in the charts this week - Donovan and Barry McGuire. They're crap those songs. And what's all this foreign stuff? People must be getting fed up with the groups if they buy that rubbish.
    Oh well, time to get off and do some work. We're recording our next LP in Los Angeles, but I've got to put the finishing touches to a few songs I've written for it. See you when I do a tour here in November.

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