Eliot Stein Interviews Peter Noone best known from Herman’s Hermits
©Eliot Stein
Q: Peter, does it still excite you to think about the year 1964?
A: Oh yes...an incredible year. I left school that year. I had a hit record!
A: My father negotiated one year off for me to get out of school to travel for
A: the record..and I never went back!
A: By September of 1964 I was hanging out with The Beatles and the Stones!
Q: You were 15 at the time?
A: Yeah. I lived in Manchester.
Q: Was there really a band HERMAN'S HERMITS?
A: Yes...
A: There was a road band...and then in 1965 we would use other musicians
A: on our records--people like Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones
A: It wasn't that the Hermits were bad players...it’s just that they were very
A: talented...and because we toured so much...we needed others
A: to help on the recordings.
Q: Was the road band the Heartbeats?
A: The HEARTBEATS was in 1961 and 1962...
A: THE HEARTBEATS became Herman's Hermits...
A: It was Pete Novack and The HEARTBEATS and I was Pete!
Q: Why the name change?
A: We needed what we thought was a hipper name!...
A: We were watching the Bullwinkle show and we thought it was
A: “Herman and Mr. Peabody"...
A: Somebody suggested that we looked like "bloody Hermits" so we took the
A: Herman and the Hermits and put it together!
Q: Are you 5' 6"?
A: No ...I am 5 foot 11 inches.. You are thinking of Davy Jones!!!
Q: Peter, you were a bigger hit in the U.S. than England.
Why do you think that was so?
A: That's not true...
A: We had many more hits in England...
A: I think Rolling Stone wrote that and they got it ALL WRONG...
(NOTE FROM ELIOT: All comparisons of British and U.S. Top 40 Charts 1964-1967 show that the
group had many, many more U.S. Hits and much more successful U.S. albums)
Q: “Henry the 8th�... there is a story behind that...
Was it an accidental hit?
A: It was purely accidental...
A: We decided we needed an English Music Hall kind of song...
A: My grandfather used to sing it at parties when he got drunk...
A: I made up "second verse same as the first"...
A: there were actually NUMEROUS verses to this song!
Q: Were you surprised at how Americans reacted to it?
A: No...I knew they would like it!...
A: I was 16 at the time and I liked it!
©Eliot Stein
Q: Peter, does it still excite you to think about the year 1964?
A: Oh yes...an incredible year. I left school that year. I had a hit record!
A: My father negotiated one year off for me to get out of school to travel for
A: the record..and I never went back!
A: By September of 1964 I was hanging out with The Beatles and the Stones!
Q: You were 15 at the time?
A: Yeah. I lived in Manchester.
Q: Was there really a band HERMAN'S HERMITS?
A: Yes...
A: There was a road band...and then in 1965 we would use other musicians
A: on our records--people like Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones
A: It wasn't that the Hermits were bad players...it’s just that they were very
A: talented...and because we toured so much...we needed others
A: to help on the recordings.
Q: Was the road band the Heartbeats?
A: The HEARTBEATS was in 1961 and 1962...
A: THE HEARTBEATS became Herman's Hermits...
A: It was Pete Novack and The HEARTBEATS and I was Pete!
Q: Why the name change?
A: We needed what we thought was a hipper name!...
A: We were watching the Bullwinkle show and we thought it was
A: “Herman and Mr. Peabody"...
A: Somebody suggested that we looked like "bloody Hermits" so we took the
A: Herman and the Hermits and put it together!
Q: Are you 5' 6"?
A: No ...I am 5 foot 11 inches.. You are thinking of Davy Jones!!!
Q: Peter, you were a bigger hit in the U.S. than England.
Why do you think that was so?
A: That's not true...
A: We had many more hits in England...
A: I think Rolling Stone wrote that and they got it ALL WRONG...
(NOTE FROM ELIOT: All comparisons of British and U.S. Top 40 Charts 1964-1967 show that the
group had many, many more U.S. Hits and much more successful U.S. albums)
Q: “Henry the 8th�... there is a story behind that...
Was it an accidental hit?
A: It was purely accidental...
A: We decided we needed an English Music Hall kind of song...
A: My grandfather used to sing it at parties when he got drunk...
A: I made up "second verse same as the first"...
A: there were actually NUMEROUS verses to this song!
Q: Were you surprised at how Americans reacted to it?
A: No...I knew they would like it!...
A: I was 16 at the time and I liked it!
