Singer Peter Noone achieved enormous success with Herman’s Hermits during the 1960s, conquering the world with “Hermania.” Herman’s Hermits landed 11 songs in the top ten in the U.S. alone with classics like “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” “I’m Into Something Good,” “Silhouettes,” “Listen People” and “There’s a Kind of Hush,” among others, even outselling The Beatles in America in 1965 and appearing in three MGM movies in addition to touring the world. Both Noone and the music have had a lasting effect, coming up in pop culture over the years in addition to the songs floating on radio airwaves from then to now.
The British Invasion was a landmark in American cultural history, helping bring a touch of joy after the sobering assassination of President John F. Kennedy just months before, in addition to a rejuvenation for rock and roll. Noone describes the scene in England around that time with bands running into each other on the road at all-night cafes and the camaraderie.
“It’s a very small place, England, you know,” Noone tells CityBeat. “It’s smaller than some states in America. It’s smaller than Iowa and we all kind of knew each other. We had a few newspapers that dealt just with bands and music, and everybody knew where everybody was — everybody saw The Beatles were going to America, everybody saw The Dave Clark Five were number one in America. We all knew each other and we all ran into each other because everybody was a live band then.”
Herman’s Hermits, though a Manchester band, even regularly played the now-famed Cavern Club in Liverpool. “It was our home for a while,” Noone says.
The band broke in America soon after scene-leaders The Beatles with the effervescent “I’m Into Something Good” in 1964 and a first of three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show on June 6, 1965. Noone describes sharing their success with a still up-and-coming The Who and taking them on their first American tour. “If they come on tour with us, they’ll play to 500,000 people in 50 days and that’s what it was.”
He also talks about the importance of having a good time, recalling stories from the tour. “They were great fun. I mean Pete (Townshend) was working on Tommy during the tour and Roger (Daltrey) was getting fit and he’s still very fit, which is good, good for him. Keith Moon and John (Entwistle) would hang around with me and Karl Green (Herman’s Hermits bass player) and go do murder and mayhem,” which Noone describes as, “just run around all day drinkin’ and jumping off buildings.”
“You know, you’re supposed to have fun when you’re young, I always insist,” Noone adds. “And then if you don’t have fun when you’re young, you probably won’t when you’re old either.”
Though Noone laments the addition of alcohol at clubs like The Cavern, marking it as a turning point when “booze” began “running the business” instead of kids who could come to shows and buy records in the spirit of having a good time.
It was partially a sense of fun that drew Noone to music to begin with. He tells CityBeat about choosing music over acting at Manchester School of Music and Drama.
“They had a music class there and I enjoyed the people in the music class a lot more than I enjoyed the people in the drama class. The musicians were having fun and laughing, and the other people were being dramatic (imitates dramatic acting).”
Noone went solo in 1971 with the David Bowie-penned “Oh! You Pretty Things,” featuring the assistance of longtime producer Mickie Most and Bowie on piano. He released a series of cult-favorite singles throughout the decade before recording a power pop, nearly punk-influenced record as The Tremblers that features famous friends in 1980.
“A lot of my friends were saying I should make a record,” Noone says. “Me and Stan Lynch from The Heartbreakers wrote a song. I knew the guys from Elton John’s band, so we collaborated on a song and, you know, I just got all these different people who were in the music business who would be passing through L.A. and we’d go in the studio and we really had fun making them because they’re not that complex.”
He would begin revisiting his Herman’s Hermits hits in the ‘80s, when a lot of ‘50s and ‘60s acts started taking a look back with touring that has continued over the years.
Noone’s positive image has stayed with him throughout his career, with his playful, upbeat demeanor always intact. “I had an experience when I was a kid with my sister,” Noone says. “We went to see a show and it was the Everly Brothers, Rolling Stones, Bo Diddley and Mickie Most, and by accident, we walked around by the stage door. We didn’t know anything about stage doors or autographs or anything, we were really kids, and The Everly Brothers came out of the stage door, and they saw my sister and I, and they were extraordinarily nice to us. We had just seen them live onstage — they were superstars in our head. We knew the words to all their songs, we used to sing their songs together — ‘No, you sing this part, I’ll sing this part’ — and they were nice to us. I said to myself, ‘If I ever become a star of any kind, I’m going to be nice like they were,’ because that is really a good part of being a star. And then, for the next 10 years every time I met a star, they were nice to me. Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Frankie Valli, Roy Orbison — every time I met a person who was a star, in the beginning years, they were extremely nice people.”
His sense of humor and fun-loving showmanship lend themselves perfectly to his most recent bio addition as the host of Something Good with Peter Noone on Sirius XM’s 60s Gold where he jokes between songs, speaks in funny voices, reminisces and tells stories while introducing songs from the decade Noone describes as a “musical renaissance.”
“I think I enjoy it because I know all the music and, quite often, I know the people on the records. I can put myself in it, I can be the camera in the stories.”
He also uses the platform to save songs from being lost to time. “You know, I had a couple, and I insisted that I play them because I was told by the producer that nobody plays that song anymore and it was ‘Just a Little Bit Better’ (a song by Herman’s Hermits) and I said I’m gonna try it on my audience and while I was doing it onstage, I could see people singing along to it,” Noone says. “So, I said ‘You’re wrong, it hasn’t gone away, it’s just that no one plays it.’”
Our conversation also moves to an interesting point on the plurality of culture and the lessening of a shared culture in recent years. He describes seeing people drive past in a car and everyone listening to something different in headphones or using Spotify as opposed to more communal radio and media of the past. “A billion people did not buy ‘I’m Henry the VIII I Am’ by Herman’s Hermits, but a billion people heard it and whether they liked it or not, they know it.”
Though, he does compare the huge number of Sirius subscribers and 60s Gold listeners to the viewership of past cultural tastemaker The Ed Sullivan Show. “Probably only 13 of them listen to my show,” Noone jokes.
He also reflects on the opportunities that the internet brings. “I get emails from everywhere,” Noone says. “Now, people in countries that didn’t have a stamp when I made this record can access the music. It’s unbelievable for me.”
Noone’s latest project, An Olde English Christmas tour, has become a tradition of its own. Noone tells CityBeat of the freedom that the shows bring, allowing him and the band to do old favorites and a little more than the hits along with Christmas classics.
Noone remembers Cincinnati and Ohio fondly, an essential region where Herman’s Hermits would help establish success in America. “It was different, there were many, many different nations in the 50 states, so Cincinnati was always a big one for us,” Noone says. “Ohio was our state, we thought that we owned it, almost like politicians. We believed that was it, you know, ‘We’ve got New Jersey, we’ve got Ohio and now we need to work on California.’”
An Olde English Christmas with Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone appears at Ludlow Garage at 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Dec. 21. More info: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s Dec. 11 print edition.
This article appears in Dec 11-24, 2024.