McCartney Times

When he was 15 years old, Peter Noone became the lead singer of Herman’s Hermits and within a year he was a pop star when the group topped the British charts with the song “I’m into Something Good.” Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone returned to the Fallsview Casino this week for a run of three shows that ends Thursday.

“We’ve played it at least 20 times and we always sell out there,” Noone noted during a recent phone interview.” The audiences up there are magical. The sound system is professional. It’s as good as the London Palladium and the dressing rooms are nice and the staff is very professional.”

Herman’s Hermits went on to sell over 50 million records, and were part of the British Invasion of the early 1960s.

“I am one of the last survivors of the period — it’s me Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and The Rolling Stones,” he said. “We were very fortunate to have some great songs.”

There are plenty of stories about child stars who ran into trouble later in life. Noone managed to avoid the pitfalls that come with superstardom at a young age.

“It’s about who you are when you started. I was a young kid from a working-class family and singing was a hobby that turned out to be a job. I was always in the shadow of the Beatles.”

Even in the shadow of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Noone and the Hermits generated a slew of hits in the 1960s, including “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” and “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am.” Noone also appeared on popular television shows, and even had a starring roll in a Hallmark Hall of Fame version of “Pinocchio.” He also rubbed elbows with some of the biggest names in music, and still managed to stay out of trouble.

“One day in New York City, Keith Richards and (Rolling Stones Manager) Andrew Oldham cornered me and told me if they found out I was doing drugs they would beat me up. And Keith Richards has some big knuckles,” Noone said jokingly.

“There were always people looking out for me, because I was just a kid. There were sometimes, like when John Lennon ordered two cokes for me and two Bacardi’s (rum) for him and gave me one of the Bacardi’s because I was underage. So there was some drinking, but I always was confident that I was just a kid with hit records. I never got into that teen idol mode.”

Noone also speculated on why so many young musicians careers, and in some cases their lives, were cut short.

“The ones that get in trouble are the ones that lose their roots. When we became popular, we didn’t move to London, we stayed with our friends and that keeps you grounded.”

“England was a small place, we all knew each other, so they would have known if I got drunk or had a bad performance. There was a scene in England, and it was a pretty small group of people but we all knew each other.”

“People talk about the Beatles music, but they don’t talk enough about them as people. They were some of the nicest people on the planet. They were so nice to musicians, they didn’t even have to like your music, they were part of the community. We were all nice guys too; we were kind of lame. We thought we were punks, but we were just nice kids.”

In addition to his talent as a musician, Noone is a master storyteller. His live shows feature snippets of his interactions with fellow musicians, and if you don’t catch him live you can hear him on SiriusXM’s 60s on 6 station hosting his show aptly titled “Something Good.” Something tells me you want to listen to it.

 

Thom Jennings covers the local music scene for Night and Day.

Source: JENNINGS: Peter Noone looks back on British Invasion | Night and Day | niagara-gazette.com