Peter Noone

Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone (born 5 November 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He was the lead singer "Herman" in the 1960s pop group Herman's Hermits.

Early life

Noone was born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, England, the second of five children, the son of two accountants, and attended English Martyrs (Urmston), Wellacre Primary School (Flixton), Stretford Grammar School, and St Bede's College, Manchester. In an interview, Noone made this comment about his early years: "My parents had zero input in my career other than to teach me to be independent and to always be honest, steadfast and true and I was steadfast often. I was able to have a perfectly normal teen life ..."

Noone studied voice and drama at St. Bede's College and at the Manchester School of Music, where he won the Outstanding Young Musician Award.

Career

Herman's Hermits

Early in his career, he used the stage name Peter Novac. At 15, he became the lead singer, spokesman and frontman of Herman's Hermits, who were discovered by Harvey Lisberg. As "Herman", the photogenic Noone appeared on the cover of many international publications, including ''Time'' Magazine's 1965 collage showing new faces in popular music. The Hermits consisted of Noone, Derek “Lek” Leckenby and Keith Hopwood (guitars), Karl Green (bass) and Barry Whitwam (drums).

The band's hits included: " I'm into Something Good", " Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", " Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", "Silhouettes", " Wonderful World", " I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" (in the U.S.), " There's a Kind of Hush", " Just a Little Bit Better", " A Must to Avoid", " Listen People", " The End of the World", "Dandy", and " No Milk Today". Herman's Hermits sold more than 60 million records and had 14 gold singles and seven gold albums. The Hermits were twice named in the U.S. trade paper '' Cashbox'' as "Entertainer of the Year".

As Herman, Noone performed on hundreds of television programmes and appeared with the Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye television programs. He starred in ABC's musical version of ''The Canterville Ghost'', Hallmark Hall of Fame's presentation of the classic ''Pinocchio'' (in which he played the title role), and three feature films for MGM: ''Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter,'' ''Hold On!'' and ''When The Boys Meet The Girls''.

They were the opening act of the 1970 Royal Variety Performance from the London Palladium performing a medley of their hits to date followed by their rendition of If I Were a Rich Man, Where is Love? and Old Henry's Fish and Chips. They ended with their recent hit There's a Kind of Hush.

Solo work

After Herman's Hermits disbanded in 1971, Noone recorded four singles for UK RAK Records, one single for UK and US Philips, and several singles for the small UK record label, Bus Stop Records. His first RAK single, " Oh You Pretty Thing", peaked at No.12 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 100 in Australia. It was written by David Bowie, who also played piano on the track. In 1973, Noone made a guest appearance on ''The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour'' television show.

In 1974, Noone scored a No. 15 US AC and No. 33 Canadian AC() success with "Meet Me on the Corner Down at Joe's Cafe" on the Casablanca Records label. Earlier in the year, his "(I Think I'm Over) Getting Over You" had reached No. 63 in the Canadian AC charts. In 1989 he had a No. 19 US AC hit with his solo recording of Goffin and King's "I'm into Somethin' Good" from the film '' The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!''. In the 1980s, Noone released a solo album, ''One of the Glory Boys''.

In the 1990s, Noone hosted a television programme, "My Generation", on
VH1 (British and Irish TV channel), featuring retro music; the programme lasted four years.

As an actor, Noone played a number of roles on television, including that of Stanley Fairclough in the soap opera ''Coronation Street'', leaving that role in 1961. Noone also starred as ''Frederick'' in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' on Broadway in the 1980s, and later, at the Drury Lane Theatre in London’s West End. He reprised that role again during a US tour and international touring productions. He also appeared in '' Romance/Romance'' as Alfred Von Wilmers in the U.S. National Tour of the Broadway hit.

In 2019, Noone won the “Entertainer of the Year” award at the Casino Entertainment Awards in Las Vegas.

The Tremblers

Noone led a short-lived group called the Tremblers that toured in 1980 and released one album, ''Twice Nightly''. Along with Noone, the members of the band were Greg Inhofer (keyboards), Robert Williams (drums, formerly with the Pop), George Conner (lead guitar), and Mark Browne (bass). According to the liner notes of the album, several musicians provided "licks & tricks," including members of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, Elton John's backing band, Daryl Dragon, Phil Seymour and Dave Clark. ''Modern Recording'' magazine reviewed the album unfavorably, maintaining that the music bogged down in "power pop careening into bubblegum" songs that were not different enough from each other: adolescent lyrics delivered at the same fast tempo, recorded with an uninteresting, barely stereo sound field.

SiriusXM

As of January 2023, Noone hosted a weekly, three hour programme of 1960s music and reminiscences on SiriusXM's 60s Gold station titled "Something Good", titled after the hit song, " I'm into Something Good".

Herman's Hermits revived

Since the 1980s, Noone has performed under the name ''Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone''. In 2023, the group was scheduled to perform 108 concerts "mostly in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Some UK, some France."

Personal life

Noone married Mireille Strasser on 5 November 1968, his twenty-first birthday, and has one daughter, Natalie.

References

External links

Official website
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* Peter Noone singing his daughter's song

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noone, Peter
1947 births
Living people
English expatriate male actors in the United States
English male singers
English people of Irish descent
Male actors from Manchester
Singers from Manchester
People from Davyhulme
People educated at St Bede's College, Manchester
Herman's Hermits members
Rak Records artists
Beat musicians