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FEATUREPETER NOONE: A TEEN IDOL GROWN UP by Tom Lounges
With his big toothy smile, small frame, warm demeanor and cuddly good looks, Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone was the epitome of a teen pop idol in the mid-1960s. While other post-Beatles British Invasion bands like the Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Zombies and The Kinks embraced a rawer, bluesier sound and groomed a “bad boy” image that appealed to the male audience, Noone wore schoolboy uniforms as the affable “Herman” of Herman’s Hermits. The obvious successor to American pop idols like Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell and Bobby Vee, whom the Brits had displaced and exiled from the pop charts, Noone had females worldwide swooning at his feet and hanging his poster above their beds. Oddly enough, that is exactly what Noone had set out to avoid. “I took the name ‘Herman,’ because it sounded so anti-teen idol,” he explained. “We (the band) talked about it and decided no one would ever shout ‘I love Herman!’ because it was such a nerdy name.” Those shouts he never expected to hear became deafening once the band hit American shores. All told, Herman’s Hermits sold over 50 million records in their heyday and racked up more than a dozen U.S. hit singles, making them one of the most successful of all the British Invasion groups of all time. While Noone was the voice behind every song, at most of recording sessions he worked with then studio musicians Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, in their pre-Led Zeppelin days. While he might have had a teddy bear image in the pages of “16 Magazine”, “Tiger Beat” and other teen publications, Noone said he was never the “boy next door” in real life. He told how after shows, when his band mates would go home to their mothers, he’d go hang out with The Who’s Keith Moon, the Beatles’ John Lennon and the guys in the Stones. “The Stones would see me there and be like -- ‘Oh no, this kid is here again trying to pick up on our 20-year-old fans,’” he laughed. While out with Lennon he told how buying two plain cokes while the elder Lennon would buy two glasses of rum straight up. The pals would then meet at a table and swap out the drinks. “It was a great time,” he laughed, “There was lot of comradeship between all the (British) bands. I’ve got a million wonderful memories.” While the string of hits –– “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter, “Silhouettes,” “There’s A Kind Of Hush,” “Can’t You Hear The Pounding of My Heartbeat,” and “Henry The VIII,” among others –– stopped coming on this side of the Atlantic in the late ‘60s, Herman’s Hermits’ continued to rack up top selling singles in the U.K, until Noone put the band to rest in 1972. “Some of our best records were done then and never released here,” he laments. When historians evaluate the British Invasion era, Herman’s Hermits are often listed far down the list just above the likes of Freddie & The Dreamers, but the facts be known, they sold more records than any of their contemporaries, save the Beatles, the Stones and the Dave Clark Five. Today, Noone keeps busy on the road with three different touring shows. “I have the Peter Noone solo show, the ‘Teen Idols’ show that I do packaged with guys like Bobby Rydell, Bobby Sherman, Mickey Dolenz and others, and I do the Herman’s Hermit shows,” he said, adding that the latter is his favorite. “I like ‘the band thing’ much more than just going out and doing the songs myself,” he said, noting his band no longer features any original Hermits of the 1960s. Whereas “Herman” was reflective of the real life Noone back in the day, today he looks at “Herman” as more of a persona he adopts when he hits the stage. “Today when I’m on stage as Herman, I’m 17 again,” he explains. “I’m the Herman I was then, the kid who made those records. That’s the only way it will work.” Noone is regarded as somewhat of an expert when it comes to the bygone days of rock ‘n’ roll, having hosted “My Generation,” which for four years was VH1’s top rated program.” As a child television star in England before becoming ‘Herman’, Noone has always been comfortable in front of cameras. “My Generation” ended he feels, because the new president of the network didn’t like him. “It was a case of shooting oneself in the foot,” he said, “because it was a very, very popular show.” Noone, feels British Invasion music has remained popular because the bands were making music for teenage girls. He likens the success to today’s boy bands who croon romantic numbers that send shiver up an adolescent girl’s spine. “In the ‘70s music was aimed at the boys,” he said. “At our concerts, there would be mostly girls. Later on, when you went to see AC/DC or whoever, you’d see thousands of guys in black shirts and only a couple hundred girls.” His theory is that “romance never goes out of style.” Even now, at age 56 with a teenage daughter of his own, Noone finds girls of all ages flocking to the 200-plus shows he performs a year to hear the old songs. “We are selling more Herman’s Hermits records now than at any time since the 1960s,” he boasts, citing the internet and his active role in marketing himself and his band in that new medium. Noone personally maintains both his own site –– www.peternoone.com –– and the official site for his famous band –– www.hermanshermits.com “We have over 5,000 ‘Noonatics’ (rhymes with lunatics) in our fan club.” The still boyishly good-looking singer usually logs on his site after leaving the stage each night to chat with fans about that evening’s show. “I could either go out to the bar and grab a drink after the show and have useless conversation with people I don’t know, or I could go online and chat with the fans,” he said. An energetic cyber nut, Noone said he is never without his laptop computer and modem. “I’ve always got something going on,” he concluded. “To find out what I’m up to, a person just has to log on the web site, because it’s always up to date on things!” |
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