Episode 80

Louise Palanker (00:00:05):

I am Louise Palanker.

Fritz Coleman (00:00:07):

I'm Fritz Coleman.

Louise Palanker (00:00:08):

We are a media path, and I am thrilled to disclose that my personal media path began with today's guest. When we were kids, we had those treasured family records that belonged to the household bur lives. Peter Paul and Mary Broadway, cast albums, the Mills Brothers, and then for me, one birthday, my own little record player and Hermann sermons. Yes, Peter Nuna is about to join us. But first Fritz and I are gonna share a bit about what we have been enjoying this week. Fritz, what do you got?

Fritz Coleman (00:00:36):

Okay. I got a good movie. I like, uh, it's, uh, streaming on Amazon Prime. It's the tender bar. Yeah. Based on a true story. In 2005, JR. Mo Bringer published a memoir entitled The Tender Bar. A memoir. Mo Bringer is a novelist and a journalist, and this is the story of his life. It's set in 1972, a nine year old JR. Is being raised by a single mother and they move into the rundown house of his grandfather on Long Island. The young boy is searching for a father figure and comes under the spell of his charismatic Uncle Charlie, who is a bartender at a local bar called Dickens. Now the bar is called Dickens because Uncle Charlie is a self-educated man who got that way by being a voracious reader. Uncle Charlie teaches Jr about the great writers and Charlie and other hangers on in the bar are the Greek chorus that kind of raised this kid.

(00:01:29):

They dispense practical everyday wisdom to the boy. They teach him, quote, the mechanics of manhood, both the good and the bad. They take him to baseball games, they teach him anything that's possible. This environment is where JR decides he wants to become a writer. His mother literally wills him into Yale University. Ben Affleck, his uncle Charlie. Ty Sheridan is the young Jr. Lil Ra is his mother. It's directed and produced by George Clooney. Affleck got a Golden Globe and a screen actor Guild nomination for his acting. I think it's a warm and touching story. I really liked it and I really connected with Ben's character, uncle Charlie. The topic of alcoholism is broached in the movie, but not dwelled on like it apparently is in the book where it becomes a core issue revealing The JR had to quit drinking at 25 years old. He had a real problem. You know, being brought up in a bar might have had something to do with that. JR Mo Bringer won a Pulitzer Prize for one of his magazine pieces. I I I, I was very moved by this

Louise Palanker (00:02:29):

Movie. I loved it. And apparently growing up at a bar can turn a young boy with straight black hair into a young man with curly blonde hair. See how that works? So it's, there's something in the chemistry

Fritz Coleman (00:02:39):

There. No. All messes up the genetic

Louise Palanker (00:02:40):

No, it's the, the actors are fantastic. It's great. It's, it's warm. And, and I, I love a piece that that shows human warmth because there's just enough cruelty depicted on tv. Oh yeah. And so this is a special piece.

Fritz Coleman (00:02:53):

He was a great uncle. God. I wanted him as an uncle so

Louise Palanker (00:02:55):

Bad. Yeah, Ben Affleck is awesome. So I, I've been watching Maid on Netflix.

Fritz Coleman (00:03:01):

I Haven't seen it

Louise Palanker (00:03:01):

Yeah. So it's a series I have been very much enjoying, uh, the show. A young mother named Alex Outstandingly, played by Margaret Quali, leaves an abusive relationship with zero money and one toddler. She turns to housekeeping to scratch and claw her way beyond homelessness and despair and to provide safe life for herself and her child Maid is a limited series created for Netflix by Molly Smith Metzler. It's inspired by Stephanie LAN's. Memoir Made hard work, low pay, and a mother's will to survive. Alex's highwire heroic resilience is especially precarious and impressive. In light of the absence of any parental safety net, her family is impossibly turbulent with a violent father who is busy raising dysfunctional family. Number two, and a nutty hippie, untreated bipolar mother delightfully played by Margaret Crowley's real life mom, Andy McDowell, made accurately depicts how agonizingly difficult it is to extricate yourself from an abusive relationship.

(00:03:57):

Abusers either know exactly which emotional buttons to press, or they will often versatile hit every note on the piano. Outrage, shame, guilt, hysteria, threats, please affection, anguish, fear, help, passion. Define the one that will get you to turn that car around when you have a little kid together, those tactics are exponentially more powerful. The writing is crisp and smart and funny and full of timeless wisdom such as Alex's mother Paula proclaiming I am in nature in our ancestry, in the ferocious lineage of warrior women that have banged on the drum of life as a collective

Fritz Coleman (00:04:32):

<laugh>. How old is the kid that says

Louise Palanker (00:04:34):

That? No, that's the mom. Oh, okay. The kid. That would be really cool if a two year old said that. I'd be like, wait, hold up. Stop the train. So yeah, that's the kind of writing you'll find. It's just really delicious. Lots of quotable stuff and good wisdom. Sounds wonderful. And it just shows you how difficult it is once you, you know, it's like sort of like, show this to any girl who's having sex maybe too young. You know, cuz sex makes babies, and then once you have a child, it's just that much more difficult to fulfill your own own dreams. I think, you know, we should have learned how to sustain our own adult lives before we start to raise one. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, maybe that's the good point. Are you ready to welcome our guys? Why can't wait. Yeah, I'm excited. Peter Blair, Dennis Bernard Noon has a lot of names and talents.

(00:05:20):

He is an entertainer who has been delighting audiences nearly all of his life. Peter Noom was a child actor on British tv, who at the age of 15 rose to international fame as Hermann in the pop band Herman's Hermann scoring hit after hit with I'm into something Good. Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter. Silhouettes. I'm En vii, I am Wonderful World. That's a kind of hush. And the list goes on and on to the point of selling more than 60 million records in achieving seven gold records. Peter Noon has starred on Broadway in the Pirates of Penzance. He's enjoyed a recurring role as Pennington on the CBS daytime drama as the world turns and his loyal fans known collectively as Nun Tics will attest. That is the most handsome and charming man to ever guest star on this podcast. Please welcome Peter Noone.

Peter Noone (00:06:02):

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Louise Palanker (00:06:04):

It's wonderful. So is it an honor for you, for you to learn that you've are well, I'm sure in is a case with so many people for you to learn that you are their first record in their record collection.

Peter Noone (00:06:17):

That's, you know, I remember the first record I got in my record collection, so that's kind of a big deal, I think to be the first record in somebody's collection mine was on for mine was Danny and the Juniors at the Hop. There you

Louise Palanker (00:06:28):

Go. Oh yeah.

Peter Noone (00:06:29):

Uh, which is, I can't imagine what, what was the attraction? My sister had all those Elvis Presley records and Body Holy Records. Uh,

Fritz Coleman (00:06:37):

Pete, you were brought up in Manchester,

Peter Noone (00:06:38):

You know, my first record? Yeah. Manchester. I, my parents lived in Liverpool, but my sister and I, my parents went to university and my sister and I had to live with my grandparents, which was great because you could, you could, you know, grandparents got fall asleep at nine o'clock <laugh> and did it. And they're always dead. And, uh, we, you could have any kind of, you could set the drum kit up in their living room and they would never know.

Fritz Coleman (00:07:05):

So talk about that environment and, and where you got your first nibbles of, uh, music passion.

Peter Noone (00:07:11):

You know, my first nibbles for its was, it was, it was it every, it was all encompassing. Everybody in my family played a musical instrument or sang, you know, grandparents, uncles example. If somebody, if for a christening, a funeral, a baptism, a wedding, everything, everybody would congregate in a room called The Parlor. And my dad played the trombone. My Uncle Lawrence played the trumpet. My Auntie Mary played the piano. My grandfather was the church organ player organist, I think you called it. And my, my grandmother was the choir mistress at Santa Saint Monica's church in Manchester. And this little village we lived in. And it was all music in those days was everywhere. You know, you went in the kitchen and there was one, there was one radio station in England, remember only one, the B BBC and whatever they played. Everybody in the world, everybody in our music world heard the same songs.

(00:08:11):

Mm-hmm. So we grew up with, you know, I heard Ink Spots and Mills Brothers and stuff. I heard you mention that the Mills brothers. I I know I, when I was about 16, I, I was, I was friends with the editor of The Daily Mirror and I'd go to his house and he was like in shock that I knew all this music because my family played music. You know, my grandfather bought the sheep music. If we liked a song like Fats Waller, he would gone by the Sheep Sheet music. We didn't have a way to buy record. They didn't have a record player. So we learned at the beginning what was on the radio. If we liked something, we would go and buy the sheet music and we'd learn to play it. And so, so there must

Fritz Coleman (00:08:51):

Have been something about the B BBC or Radio One, or whatever they call it in those days, because it was the seed that allowed all the great British rock guys like the Stones and Led Zeppelin to introduce American children to their own art form, which was blues <laugh>. And you must have been hearing it somewhere in England.

Peter Noone (00:09:09):

All, all music in England was created. All popular music at the time was American. All the Broadway show. Think about it, it, once upon a time, everything came from America in the entertainment business. All the movies came. We had those cute little English ones in black and white that we loved. And the, and the, in America you had the Alex North kind of soundtrack mo movies. And, but most of it, like all the sound of musical, everything came from America, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, everything before the Nat King, Cole, Ella Fitzgerald. Everything from everything that English people grew up with was a, was Americana.

Louise Palanker (00:09:47):

But then you took the recipe and added your own ingredients and sent it back over to us. Mm-hmm.

Peter Noone (00:09:51):

<affirmative>. Well, the only added ingredient was I think enthusiasm. What happened is really, I think what happened is very quite like the fifties now in America that people are kind of not, they're kind of not that energetic. They're not coming up and saying, Hey, I got a new record. Does none of that go, Hey man, we got a record <laugh>. So we were very enthusiastic and you know, that was why we were caught. That's where the wood enthusiast comes from. Mm-hmm. And all those people, like the, the reason the Stones had all those blues records, cuz they found a niche to become enthusiasts. Some people went train spotting and collected car numbers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and, but, and some people collected stamps, some people collected girlfriends. We collected Bonnie Holly and the Crickets and the Eley Brothers and Roy Oron and no English people in there. No English people in Mari

Louise Palanker (00:10:46):

Collect. Yeah. I mean, and that's even, like you said, you named your band after something that you thought was American cuz you lo you loved everything American. But what I'm wondering is like, you're saying that there was music, everyone in your household, everyone on your block had an instrument every, but did people recognize something remarkable in your talent at, at a young age?

Peter Noone (00:11:06):

Yeah. Well, you know, I was a persistent little shit

Fritz Coleman (00:11:09):

<laugh>

Peter Noone (00:11:11):

And, you know, the pushy little guy, every, all your friends at school hate the pushy guy. You know what I mean? Like, like, I once heard somebody say, you know, I, I was 16 before I realized I'd been able to play the piano accordion and tap dance at the same time. Wasn't gonna get me a lot of girlfriends

Louise Palanker (00:11:26):

<laugh>.

Peter Noone (00:11:27):

But, but, you know, I was really into it. You know, I took a record player to school and at lunchtime we would play records in the schoolyard. And at nighttime we found Manchester is a pretty dismal place. We found un an underground, uh, passageway that you could go in and you could play a little record player with a battery with that you take the lid off and Yeah. And, and play music. And we created a kind of scene and, and <laugh>, I should, I shouldn't really say this, but the world seemed and was incredibly safe for young people. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, our parents could let us be independent and do whatever we want because nothing bad ever happened in our neighborhood. You know, remember

Louise Palanker (00:12:13):

What, no, I think everything bad had happened. They, they had saved,

Peter Noone (00:12:17):

I mean no,

Louise Palanker (00:12:17):

I mean, they had saved the world and they had won the war and they felt like, let's have some kids and live <laugh>.

Peter Noone (00:12:24):

Yeah. You know, but independent, they gave us independence. Like, for example, my sister and I, in summer, we'd, we'd cycle 60 miles. Our parents would say goodbye to us in June and we would cycle <laugh> to my grandmothers and we would go home in September to go back to school. Wow. And they'd get a postcard, you know, a fun postcard, rain, terrible weather, wish you were here, kind of thing. That was the only contact. We, my grandmother didn't have a phone. She lived in Wales. She had no phone, no running water, no. In electricity, no gas, no services. Wow. And, you know, my sister and I would go to the world, we didn't think anything of it, but we were safe. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we could wander around on the beach and there were no weirdos. And, and any weirdos that came anywhere near us, my grandmother would beat them up. They would be beaten up. And they, well, once, once some big kid hit me and she went round to his house and she held the father and made me kick him in the ghoulies. She was

Louise Palanker (00:13:21):

<laugh>. Oh my goodness. Wow. That's a problem solver. You know,

Peter Noone (00:13:25):

We were totally safe. And, and the idea, that idea and, and joy, the music scene, you could go to the cavern, like when you were 13, your sister could get you into the cabin in Liverpool there was no alcohol. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there was a sense that there may be drugs, but there was a big guy at the door who wore a tuxedo, who was an ex wrestler, <laugh> who saw trouble before it got into the club. It's before the police got involved in managing clubs and everything. So these people knew who the trouble was. So they never got all the fighting took place outside the club. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and all the kids inside. There was no alcohol. Everybody danced. The girls were on side, the boys were on side, and, and everybody was safe. And then it all grew into this fantastic scene for young people that the idea that we could go out at night and be home by nine o'clock and have, and have been, see the Karn had a thing called Fritz.

(00:14:22):

The Karn had a thing called the Junior Karn. So they had, there's three different gigs you could get there. Like I said, I was very persistent <laugh>. So you could do the lunchtime session, which was a lot of girls, teenage girls would go to the cabin for lunch and, and Jive, they would do this. So sort of jive thing on their own with other girls, you know, jive like now probably country and western, kick boot dancing, whatever it's called. But they would do this jive thing and then have a sandwich and a cup of tea and then go back to, to work. And then there was the junior cabin, because the government had decided that they would support music not as an art form, as a way of keeping kids between everybody's mom and dad worked. Mm. So kids from four o'clock, when they finished school until six 30 ish, we're in this danger zone.

(00:15:11):

So there were all these youth clubs, activit and Kevin was one of them. So, so Hermann's Hermits or whatever we were called at the time, I think we were called Pete Nok in the Heartbeats. Uh, the guy who booked the Kevin called Bob Wooer. And he liked us. He, he didn't like our music at all, but he liked us. And, uh, so we'd do the lunchtime, Kevin, and he'd say, stick around, stick around for the gin cabin. If you want <laugh>, if you want <laugh>. We said, oh, we'd love to a bit by bit. We weezled our way just by being there all the time into playing there three times a day. Which is kind of like the Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg. You know what I mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we've got to play a lot. And we realize, really, I look at the date sheets because, you know, it's interesting to look at your, the beginning.

(00:15:58):

And, uh, we, we, we worked every, every day almost. If, if we didn't have a gig, we'd play somewhere for free. Like my Sister's Hairdresser's birthday party or something. You know, the, we were just a really busy, busy, hardworking guy band. And, and because of that, our, our turn came quicker than it, than it should have, probably. Because what happened was every band in Liverpool and Manchester had been signed to a label mm-hmm. <affirmative> except for Herman and the Hermits, because you were still, and so it was our turn. It was like Seattle with Nirvana and all those bands that came out. So, so now it was our turn and there just wasn't anybody between us and the record deal, because it was our turn. But we were only 15. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:16:45):

So they were the first professional band that you were a part of. Usually the story is that, you know, like all the Beatles were members of two or three bands before The Beatles formed. But this was your first professional experience with these guys?

Peter Noone (00:16:58):

Not really, no. I, it might have sounded like that when I tried to take credit. But <laugh>, um,

(00:17:05):

It was a band, first of all, we had a band and my grandmother was in it, which was not good because she had a wash and she had a pretty good groove. She was pretty musically inclined. So she was the percussionist. And we'd do American songs that were made famous in England by a guy called Lonnie Donga, K from a <laugh>. And I pretty, I could do a pretty good kind of country in Western accent. So I was the lead singer in that band. And then there was a band called The Cyclones and, and we played instrumental music. And one day we were learning this song. It was called, it was called a song, the B Darren. And one of the guys in the said, you know what, Peter, you're not, you're never gonna get this, are you? And I say, well, I'm, I'm gonna keep trying. And he goes, maybe you should be the lead singer.

Fritz Coleman (00:18:01):

Oh, that's

Louise Palanker (00:18:02):

Funny. See, that's around when everyone's voice changing,

Peter Noone (00:18:04):

Still playing the guitar and be a singer. But

Louise Palanker (00:18:06):

Right there, everyone's voice is changing and you don't know where everyone's gonna land. And probably

Peter Noone (00:18:10):

Seizures. Well, I was, I was landed on my boy Lollipop all the time. <laugh> Lollipop.

Louise Palanker (00:18:16):

Now where, where would you go to work out the harmonies? Cuz that's one thing I noticed about your records is you guys had pretty tight harmonies.

Peter Noone (00:18:22):

Well, you know, everybody in those days lived in one room or a van. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Mo most of us lived in a van like I know the Beatles for a long time lived in a, a thing called a van. And we did. And in the van we would practice other people's songs. Remember we didn't have our own songs and neither did The Beatles at the beginning. So we would learn the Everly Brothers songs and you'd copy each other's part. Now I'm gonna sing the Phil part and you sing the Don part <laugh>. And we'd slowly switch each other's part. You know, your voice is better on the dawn part here. And the, and so we, we, we loved to, that was part of the deal. I mean, if you think of those bands at the time, they weren't like, the Hollies were originally an ev Eley Brothers cover band. They just did Eley Brothers songs. We tried to do Eley Brothers songs, but we were more drawn to romantic Body, Holly and The Crickets. And, uh, and my boy Lollipop <laugh>. And uh,

(00:19:17):

And um, um, while we, while we were growing up and, and practicing and living and I, a day in the life of Herman's Hermits or Herman and the Hermits before we changed our name would be that we would get up in the morning and we'd go to a rehearsal place and it was Steve Tittering ten's house. Mm. And uh, and, and his sister was a police officer. So we could make as much noise as we want <laugh> and we never got. And it's really, really, it was an amazing situation because we could practice for 10 hours and people must have been complaining, but they couldn't do much about it cuz we had a cop in the family kind of thing. <laugh>. So we rehearsed a lot and we would rehearse one song all day. And that night we would find somewhere to go and play it like Collingwood Youth Club or you know, little youth clubs all around. Remember there's a 800 bands in my street by now. Right. But we were forward pushing into little situations and we would play the song and if it didn't go down well we'd drop it and the next day we'd find another song. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I remember we did Eptide and it didn't work out. <laugh>.

Fritz Coleman (00:20:25):

And, and who were the contemporary bands at your time? Cuz The Beatles were a little ahead of you, um, going to Germany and doing the Liverpool thing and then going to Germany. But who were, who were the guys who were playing, say the person that would play, or, or the band that would play with you at night at at, at your gigs?

Peter Noone (00:20:41):

What we wanted was, we'd see, we'd see Wayne Font in the Mind Benders cuz he was a young guy and was very good. He was entertaining and he was a good singer. So he would always have a, we we'd see him at the ISIS in Manchester and Liverpool. I liked the Undertakers and the Escorts and the Big three. And The Searchers. And The Searchers were kind of a bit lightweight compared to the other ones because they had five singers in the band and they could do, you know, folk music and rock and roll and that American Coasters thing, you know, love Potion number nine, sweets for My Sweet Sweets. Firmer Sweet <laugh> shoot for my, so they were very entertaining cuz the five people in the band singing, they had a big repertoire. And we and Jerry and the Pacemakers were like, he, he was my idol because he was funny.

(00:21:31):

He was a funny standup comedian. And I, and I don't know if you know, the Beatles before they made it were really funny, funny people on stage. They all had this great mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It's just, it's a magic. You know, I I, I've got a ticket from the show. I went to see them August, 1963 and they'd just come back from Germany and they had a new drummer and the one, one of the guys with me during their show quit Show business. They were so good that he decided that he could not be a competitor. It, I, I can't can't Oh wow. With food. We're not, I'm, I'm done. And he left the band. But the thing that was good about Item was they, they had this great interaction between each other as if it was like, it was kind of non theatrical. You could see that they were enjoying being with each other.

(00:22:25):

And it was just this great kind of football team, the Merry English football team mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you like the idea, you know, and that attracted me. And I, and I decided that my band would have that going on. Yeah. And we would all inspire each other j drawing the show. I mean, if you look at those old Ed Sullivan show, you see us looking at each other like, isn't this great? Yeah. You can see that look on our face. Can you believe this world though? Bloody and Solomon show hd and why you joking? So there was that kind of thing that we'd learned from The Beatles and Jerry and the Pacemakers, cuz he had a brother in the band as well. Jerry, I love them. Fairy Cross was great and, and great song. And he was a real standup performer. You know, I thought, Ooh, I'd like to be some of that.

(00:23:16):

And when I first saw The Beatles, the, the lead singer was John Lennon, and the other guys were his band. You know, I mean, the early Beatles was John Lennon and some others. And bit by bit they all became more and more demonstrative mm-hmm. <affirmative> on stage. And uh, and I decided I wanted to be in this band where I could be creative. You know, we'd do my boy Lollipop and we do Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter. And we do, I'm leaning on the Lampo because we had aspirations to be like Jerry and the Pacemakers mm-hmm. <affirmative>, who could do all that stuff. And he was a great guitar player. And, and I remember once I was, I was a really young kid and I'd got in the, one of the Litherland town hall, something in Liverpool, and I, and I saw George Harrison, who was gonna be in the b it was probably already in the Beatles watching Jerry Marsden's guitar thing, fingering, you know. Oh, wow. You know, like in awe. Yeah. So it must have been that I was so far away from being a guitar player, but I noticed that other guitar players were watching Jerry Marsden. Therefore he must be good. Yeah. Because he could play, he could go like it

Louise Palanker (00:24:26):

<laugh>. But what's interesting is, you brilliant, when you saw the bar, you saw the bar really high after 10,000 hours or whatever they put in in Germany, you saw a high bar and you read towards it. Your buddy was like, I'm outta here. So that says a lot about your personality.

Peter Noone (00:24:40):

He actually used a, a full letter word we're uped and, uh,

Louise Palanker (00:24:45):

<laugh>,

Peter Noone (00:24:46):

He was, he was done. He did not wanna be in. He, he, he, it was kind of dis depressed him that he could never arrive at, no matter how hard he worked, he would never be able to be that good as former. He was a bass player. So, you know, there's a thing about, you see, he couldn't decide to be a bass player and people don't know until they've got a good one. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative> how important he is to the whole feel of the band. I mean, the difference between, the difference from the Beatles when they had Peter and the drums, and the difference when they had Ringo is really chalk and cheese, as my grandmother would say, there was complete, it was suddenly the Beatles were completely free to, to take a break Yeah. Instead of

Louise Palanker (00:25:31):

Yeah.

Peter Noone (00:25:31):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> sticking with the drummer all the time, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it was like, and I, and I learned from The Beatles and other people at the same time, is if you do not have to think about what anybody else in the play, anybody else on the stage is doing, feeling confident that they know their lines and they know what to do, it opens you up to do all kinds of stuff. You know, I started off at the Kevin hiding behind a microphone stand. Right. You know, I was about a hundred pounds and I could stand behind a microphone stand and hope nobody could see me. <laugh>. After a, after 200,000 hours, I finally got free. I freed up my hands. Oh, I can do things with my hands. Yeah. Because some, some famous musician entertainer told me, you know, well, you know, if you just do something with your hands, people will think you're an entertainer. <laugh>

Fritz Coleman (00:26:18):

<laugh>. Well, what I love about your Sirius XM show, which is on two to five o'clock, called something Good. And I just love it because of your anti coaching. You're, you talk exactly the way you do now, telling these little stories about when you got started, you're always very complimentary of these bands you started with. And you, you come at them as if you're a fan. And I love that. And I wonder if when you're in the environment and you're all struggling for the same gigs, were you as supportive of one another? Or was it much more competitive than that?

Peter Noone (00:26:49):

What a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. The thing, England was a very small scene. Very, everybody knew each other. And if you didn't know them, you knew what they were doing because somebody else would tell you. People forget. You know, it's like, o over time, Fritz, you, you realize that you knew people like I, I'd I'd be in New York. And Jack Bruce had a new record now, and Jack Bruce was in a load of bands mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And he reminded me that in like in 1963, he'd seen Hermann's hermits get in a fight. Wow. Wow. And I remember the fight, and I, and I remember the, there was a bunch of bands in the fight because we would stop at these truck stops. They were called Transport Cafes in England. And for some reason, one of the worst things that you, that somebody could shout at you was, are you a boy or a girl? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that offended us. So what happened, my mother had this coffee table and it, and it was a low coffee table and it had these screw in legs and we had them, each one of us had a screw in leg up our sleep <laugh> like that. And, and if this trouble was start, we get, and Jack Bruce told me that he was there when I said to somebody, you have to hit him first because if you don't hit them first, they will get your Dobber <laugh>. And they'll hit me with it.

Fritz Coleman (00:28:15):

<laugh>.

Peter Noone (00:28:16):

Like, we couldn't fight to save our lives. No member of Home and Homes could have fought their way out of a wet paperback. So we had these things and he reminded us that the, if a fight started, all the group, all the members of groups would all join in. And we learn everything from other groups. We knew nothing. We still don't know a lot, but we learned this was a bad promoter. This guy will try to, you know, there was this <laugh> like this Fritz. So we would play this place. And the guy who would, I was, for some reason I was the youngest kid in the band by about three years. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But I was the businessman, <laugh>, you know, I had a suit. That's all I had over there. I got a suit. So I'll do the business and we go to get paid. And, and it'd go, how much, how much was it again? Uh, six pounds. He said, I'm gonna give you four pounds. What do you mean you're going to give us four pounds? Well, people were dancing <laugh>. Well yeah. People were dancing. Well, if people are dancing, what do I need a group for? I can just have a DJ play records for nothing.

Fritz Coleman (00:29:23):

Oh my God.

Peter Noone (00:29:25):

And so we would learn about this and then you would hear that story from 10 different, how are you going up to s Scunthorpe? Watch out for that guy there who tries to tell people dancing <laugh>, make sure you get paid before you go and sleep. So there was this whole scene going on. I still live with those rules for, I would say, you know, I, I met Chuck Berry along the road, you know, and he was being mean to somebody about money. And I said, you know what, Chuck, it doesn't look cool you with that big wa of money in your pocket on stage. <laugh>. Cause we

Fritz Coleman (00:29:52):

Money, he insisted on being paid in cash before the gig. Right?

Peter Noone (00:29:55):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he said, Peter, I play a lot better when the money's in my pocket.

Louise Palanker (00:30:02):

<laugh>. Wow.

Fritz Coleman (00:30:04):

When he'd been screwed over. I said, many.

Peter Noone (00:30:07):

Oh yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:30:07):

All the African American performers got screwed early. I totally understand why he was doing that.

Peter Noone (00:30:12):

But

Louise Palanker (00:30:12):

You guys, when you guys broke in America, it was, it was kind of like, maybe you were too young to break in the UK the way you were gonna break in America, because we think everything British is adorable. And then you were super young and you go on Ed Sullivan and he kind of embraced you the way all the moms who bought all the records for their kids. And you're literally singing lyrics that are respectful to somebody's mom. So, but Ed Sullivan didn't even bother to learn how to pronounce your names. He just, he just liked

Peter Noone (00:30:44):

You. Yeah. My friend Peter Herman. Moon

Louise Palanker (00:30:47):

<laugh>. Is that what he said? <laugh>?

Peter Noone (00:30:49):

That's what he said,

Louise Palanker (00:30:50):

Moon.

Peter Noone (00:30:51):

Yeah, he was, he was a lovely guy. I can't think of anything bad to say about Ed Sullivan. So he was just, you know. But what happened was, he said one day we were playing in the Cavern, and then we had a, a fan and her name was Margaret. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's all we know about her. And she would sit on the side of the stage, she would sit on the Cavern stage

Louise Palanker (00:31:10):

Right on the stage

Peter Noone (00:31:12):

Looking, looking at us like this. And we'd, we'd say, hello, hello Margaret. And we'd get on with it. <laugh>, nobody ever dated her. Nobody ever asked her. She would eat a sandwich and drink a drink. And she watched the band. Right. And then a week or two later, she came with a friend. So now there were two of them. And then five weeks after that, there were 10 of them. And then suddenly there was like 30 girls.

Louise Palanker (00:31:33):

Margaret was a social media influencer. <laugh>.

Peter Noone (00:31:37):

Then, then, then we had a hit record. And all those 30 people knew each other and they all came at the same time. And, and we, we showed up. We were doing a date in Liverpool with Dusty Springfield. And we showed up and she let us go on her bus. You know, we were not welcome on anybody's bus. Certainly not a diva bus, you know, and it was just a bus. Wasn't a posh bus, it didn't have a bedroom or anything. She said, you can use a bus, just don't use a room in the back. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and no smoking, which was unheard of in the sixties on everybody smoked. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. The only person in England who didn't smoke was Dusty Springfield. Got it.

Fritz Coleman (00:32:14):

<laugh>. Yeah.

Peter Noone (00:32:17):

So we get on this bus and we pull into the back door of the Liverpool Empire and there are thousands of girls. Seriously? Thousands of girls. This is England, this isn't America. Okay. This is way before we came to America. Yeah. They're all shouting my name, Herman. Herman. Herman, her <laugh>, all that. And you know, it, I was embarrassed. I go, oh my God, how must this feel for Dusty? She's a headliner and all the people are screaming for me. And I was embarrassed I didn't go. Yeah. This is, I'm making it now. <laugh>. I felt bad for her, you know, because she'd let us on her tour and we'd broken during the tour and we came to America <laugh> and all that was just multiple. Yeah. So the first gig we did, I remember it was, its p this fantastic disc jockey called Jean K. And it was Allentown, Pennsylvania, New Jersey that border there. And we were playing in a high school, and it was our first ever gig in America. And, and Jean K goes on stage. There they are from England,

Fritz Coleman (00:33:19):

<laugh>, <laugh>,

Peter Noone (00:33:21):

You know, this big thing. Yeah. And you could sense that this is a big deal. And the band used to play this sort of Yeah. And I would walk on Hermann's helmet, its, but I wouldn't walk on, there'd be a little bit of a show Disney Break, and then Hermann would come and I walked out on the stage during this intro in everybody, everybody in the audience came on stage. What we had no secure, we didn't know about security in England. You had one policeman and no one passed him, you know, but stop, sorry. They all got calm. Right. But they just joined us on the stage and we were very, we were about, I think I was 16.

Fritz Coleman (00:34:02):

Oh my God.

Peter Noone (00:34:03):

And I didn't know how to manage 400 girls at the same time, <laugh>. So we basically ran away and they took all our gear. Oh. And we all dis we ran away. You know, we had ties ripped out off and Oh, oh wow. It was great. It was actually, you know, but we didn't know what to do. So, so the show was stopped. We never, I never sang a note. We lost a load of gear and then we went on to another date, and the next time we, we said we need a couple of cops at the front, you know, and then 10 cop, it just grew it. It's kind of like that. And, you know, it is once, once I was doing this gig with a, with an old African American lady and it wasn't very busy <laugh>. And she said, the end looks a lot like the beginning, doesn't it? <laugh>.

Fritz Coleman (00:34:51):

Oh wow. So when you did your first tour,

Peter Noone (00:34:54):

It wasn't the end virtually, it wasn't the end. No.

Fritz Coleman (00:34:57):

Uh, uh, when you did your first tour over here, did you tour alone as Herman's Hermits or were with other bands? That,

Peter Noone (00:35:04):

That first one we did, then we got really lucky. So Dick Clark had a thing called the Caravan of Star, right?

Fritz Coleman (00:35:10):

Yeah.

Peter Noone (00:35:11):

And we had an agent. And we got this agent because we said uvu got, that's all we knew how to say to an agent. You want an agent? Yeah. There's an agent UVU got mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And this agent said to me, got, I've got Freddy Cannon and Gary u s Bonds mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, you know, I almost fainted because those were the two most important acts in my world, you know, that was 10 Beatles was Freddy Cannon. Yeah. And a hundred Rolling Stones was Gary US Bonds. Yeah. And we signed with him. And the first thing he got us was 84 dates on the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Direct from Britain, you know, British invade whatever they say at the bottom. And we started as the opening act on this show. And it was Little Antonin Imperials. Oh my, our heroes, uh, Bobby v Freddy Cannon, uh, the Aina, Tony Ettes, the detergents, the Shangrila, all on the same bus.

(00:36:09):

Whoa. And we got on the bus, and we, during the, during this bus ride, see what, what Dick Clark had seen was he saw that Miss, I meant if something good was in the charts, he could get us for 500 bucks a night. And, and no, no expenses paid just 500 bucks a night. And then, you know, no hotels, no food. Oh Lord. So, so we thought that was a good deal compared to English money. And there's 84 of them. So, you know me, I go, oh, 16, $17,000 lads. Woo, let's start not realizing 84 days is a long time. And by the time you paid the agent and everybody, so we started off in these little, like, high schools and high school stadiums, you know, that room where they played basketball. And bit by bit it moved into stadiums because we had three records in the top 20 during this tour, because they would get me up for it, and Louise every morning they'd get me up at 4:00 AM and take me in a station wagon to a, a field with a huge antenna in it where I'd go and eat, meet big the bop of Jean, whatever his name was, the morning, Hey Brother King, here's from England, hermit, hermit, <laugh>, all that stuff.

(00:37:27):

And I would do promotion. And what I was doing was promoting Dick Clark show that night in Roanoke, Virginia, for example. Mm-hmm. But I was also promoting Herman's Hermit. I was kind of cute ing you know, an old and bit by bit the band exploded. And one thing we had going for is that none of the other people had was that I'd made some weird decision, like when I was 16, that I would sing songs with my own accent. I wouldn't do Yeah. Hammer on. I wasn't gonna do that because that would make me sound like Body Holly. And there's already a Body, Holly, so I'll do Body Holly songs with an English accent. Why do you miss when my baby kisses me? And it'll be even more charming. And then it'll be me. And, and we have a PR guy, uh, two acts, the Rolling Stones and Hermann's Home.

(00:38:17):

It's a genius guy called Andrew Oldham. And he, he decided that the Stones were gonna be the bad boys of Rock. And he said, and you guys, you can be the good boys of Rock. I said, well, it's gonna be tough. I'll make that be having to pretend to be a bad guy all the time. You know, it's full-time job there, <laugh>. He said, well, how about you being a good guy? I said, oh, we don't have to work hard on that was already a good guy. <laugh>. We don't have to pretend to be nice people. We just, I'm sorry. It's so boring, isn't it? I'm, I know that's boring for a PR person, but we never did anything. You know, we've never been, see

Louise Palanker (00:38:51):

That's what got the parents buying the records for the kids. That's what's got you in the door. And I know for me personally, and I'm sure everyone can attest to this, when I go around the house singing your songs, I do sing them in a British accent.

Peter Noone (00:39:04):

That's how good, good, good. I like that. That's

Louise Palanker (00:39:06):

Good. That's how you learn them. That's how you sing them.

Peter Noone (00:39:08):

That's right. And oh, why <laugh>?

Louise Palanker (00:39:11):

Exactly. You

Fritz Coleman (00:39:12):

Know, uh, that, that, that to me, when I, when I read your back, well, first of all, you, one of the great business decisions you made is your first two managers were also songwriters. That seems like you're saving a lot of money doing that.

Peter Noone (00:39:25):

<laugh> <laugh>, they made a lot of money. They weren't good songwriters.

Fritz Coleman (00:39:27):

<laugh>. Oh, there we go. But the other thing I I I enjoyed learning was that you have an uncanny ability to pick the right songs. For instance, Carol King wrote something good, right? And te tell us how that song presented itself to you.

Peter Noone (00:39:44):

You know, I, I, once again, I will can't take credit for something that wasn't me. We had a, a producer called Mickey Mo. And he and I, for some reason, it's like Jimmy Hendrix and that guy who, who produced the Jimmy Hendrix records, although we're not

Fritz Coleman (00:39:59):

Chaz Chandler.

Peter Noone (00:40:01):

Pardon?

Fritz Coleman (00:40:01):

Chaz Chandler. You mean the guy from the Animals?

Peter Noone (00:40:03):

No, the guy, the guy who produced it. Can't remember his name now. South African guy. And, and, um, Mickey and I hit it off, I'd say to Mickey, you know that reverb on Walk Right Back by the Everly Brothers? And he got, oh, you mean this? Oh yeah, that's it. <laugh> he knew, he knew how to make records with the animals as well. He, he made all those great records with the animals where he found exactly the right song from Eric Bird. And he found I'm into something good. He said, I got this song. It's, it's by Earl Jean. Learn it and come and record it. And we came in and we listened to it. And I hate to, I admit it now. We thought it was a surf song. We thought, oh, it's like surf music.

(00:40:46):

And we couldn't, we couldn't play it. And Mickey had a friend called Roger Webb who had the Roger Webb Trio, who was a piano player. And he's got this Roger, you know, anything about surf music. And he goes, well, let's hear the song. And he goes, did it. And he made it into a surf, what we thought was a surf record. And it was just a great song, remember? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and then, and then soon after that we did, we, we, we had a song in our show called Silhouettes, and we really did it a bit, a bit fifties. It was,

(00:41:24):

Yeah. Right. What, what, what do, do <laugh> flick somebody who see the small scene, people love to be on each other's records. They didn't say, oh, I need 15% of the Peace started. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there was none of that. So this guy called Vic Flick, who was in the James the John Barry seven, and he's the guy who played the James Bonham, down, down, down, down, down, down. So that's, it's Vic Flick and Vic says, so we we're trying to, we doing it. I'm sitting on the channel going lick, I got a lick. And his name is Vic Flick. Yes. <laugh>. Oh my God. I've got a Lick. Vic Flicks got a lick. So, so once again, somebody from Nothing to do, I think he got nine pounds for the session. Wow. He's the person who made that song into a hit because the song was already around. Anybody could ever a go at that. But he came up with it.

(00:42:29):

They made it into a sixties song. It's so catchy. Then bad News, the next record, Sam Cook gets murdered, shot dead five times by accident in a, in a parking lot in New York. Damn. And in, in Los Angeles. And Mickey calls me and he says, Sam Cook's been murdered. We're doing a tribute. Eric Burden's over here. And then we do bring it on home to me. Oh, and I, and I can hear Chaz. Yeah. I said, well, that's nothing like Law Lou Raw <laugh> sa Eric's doing. I'm on the phone, get reviewing a record. Right? Yes. <laugh>. And he said, get, get yourself over it. So I get there, I said, I wanna do Cupid, you know, why did you wanna do Cupid? I said, cuz listen, I can make that sound. You know, the Arrow <laugh>.

(00:43:22):

He said, that is the worst thing I've ever, that's the worst idea I've ever heard it. How about, listen, Peter don't know much about history. Yeah, yeah. Don't know much about trigonometry. Yeah. Who does that sound like? <laugh>. Oh man. A kid who is still in high school, gay in there and do it. It's called Don't, it's called Wonderful World. Don't know much about here. Siri. Don't know much Biology. And I walk in the room and there's Jimmy Page on guitar, and he goes, he goes, hello, Wilman <laugh> that, hello Wilman. What we as is Stewart, what's your key there? I said, I don't know. I've never sung the song before. <laugh> <laugh>. I don't know what key it's in. I only just know a bit of it, you know? Cause I bought the record like eight years ago. And he goes, well, it's so he got, it's okay. So we've got run through it. Like, and he goes, it's boring. Jimmy says it's boring. Let's cut the intro in half.

(00:44:28):

Don't know much about. Right. Okay, well, we all get the message. We're all in on it. Except the drummer, <laugh>, who is the most famous drummer in England, he's messing with his symbol or something, got his headset off and misses that thing. So the whole of the record, the drummer is a whole section behind everybody until we get to the bridge and Mickey goes, that's it. Next we can wait a second. The drummer's not playing the same song as us. Oh my. Then he goes, you never, you never be to sing it as good as that. I like, gimme more, more gold. No, next Jimmy double track that Jimmy has to double track his guitar solo, which is only played once in his life, ever. So now he's expected. And we, time is money. Time is money.

Fritz Coleman (00:45:14):

Wow.

Peter Noone (00:45:15):

So our next single was made like in a utterly, you know, we'll get over there at nine o'clock in the morning. At nine 15, the record's done with the drummer playing a different field to everybody else. Oh,

Fritz Coleman (00:45:24):

Wow. Wow. So whose decision was it to do Henry vii, which was written in 1910 as a dance all hit in England. You know,

Peter Noone (00:45:32):

It,

Fritz Coleman (00:45:34):

It's got the catchiest hook of any song ever.

Peter Noone (00:45:38):

I think that's it. You know, uh, we, everybody knew the song you see in England, there's these songs that everybody knows. It's like, uh, if you go to Liverpool, they'll sing. When you walk through a storm, hold their head up and they know all the words. Wow. And there's a, there's lots of songs from before that like that we must have learned from our grandparents. And I, I tell, so my grandfather used to sing Henry vii, but it's not the version I do. But he was dead by the time it gets, by the time I got to this recording studio. Oh. And, and he would, at Christmas, he would would've a Roman Peppermint <laugh>.

(00:46:15):

It's an odd drink. I'll have a Roman Peppermint. Yeah. He was from Ireland. I'd have a Roman Peppermint piece, and then he would get on the piano. I didn't play the piano. He would get up on the piano <laugh> and he would sing. That was his bit, you know, at the end of an even gun that gets on top of the piano. Okay. It was an upright piano, so it was a bit of a clown. That was a clown <laugh>. So, so he would get on the piano and he'd sing any Old Iron and any old iron. And he said, the English people's songs, okay, Keith songs are for English people and there's some English people here, <laugh>, because other people don't necessarily, they're not necessarily fans of English people. So he would sing all these, any Old Iron, which is a song from the war when they collected iron from every Steal Your Gate because they needed it to make weapons.

(00:47:00):

Right. Stuff. Right. So they'd take your gate and anything that was iron, the railings and everything. So he'd sing this song, any Old Iron, and we'd not know what it was about, but we'd all join in and sing all the Woods <laugh> sometime there. And then he would sing this song called Henry vii. But he sang it like, I vii I am Henry vii. I am I am, I got married all the way down X different Shary. So we get in there and Mickey goes, we, we say, well, we've got this hit Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter. We need to, we need to follow up for it. So I said, what do you, what do you, it's a song that we all know and we gotta lean on a lamppost. I'm leaning on it. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty good. Then what else? Well, we all know Henry vii and, and l says Le our guitar player says, and I'll do like a, a a a Chuck Berry intro on it will make it kind of modern. And I've got modern Isn't Chuck Berry, wouldn't it be more modern if you had like a Paul McCartney based on it? No, no. Chuck Berry. And, and there's a kind of that sinister thing where a group grow into something special by each taking a bit of energy from the other person. So, and then back and he says, and Ba and Barry can play with Chi.

(00:48:15):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and so, uh, so we start singing it. And of course as everything, all our songs are kind of in the moment. They, they have that moment. And if you lose that moment and move on to another thing, it doesn't ever recover. You know, it's like, anyway, so, so we can't recover the moment. So we start playing the thing. And Mickey's always recording everything. He always recorded everything. And he probably didn't know it was recording. He just, if the machine was going around, you know, didn't know what any of the buttons did,

Louise Palanker (00:48:47):

Your granddad had sat on it.

Peter Noone (00:48:49):

So he records it. And, and when we get past, what's, what's the first, you know, letter A, letter B, we ain't in that world yet. We go on first bit, second bit, chorus, bridge, chorus out, you know, that's the way we work. So at the end of what's the first verse musically, which is really the chorus, I say second verse, same as the first. He could have been do Whackadoo, whackadoo, whackadoo, <laugh>. It could have been anything that big band people said to each other. Like, my dad was in a band with his brother, and they would pass messages to, uh, to each other. Do Whackadoo Whackadoo was one of the messages. And so that, and that Mickey left at any thought, that was very amusing. So the genius of Mickey most keeping that thing, it's like in that Mamas and Pop, I saw her, I saw her to, if you leave, sometimes you leave the mistake and it makes everything freshen everything up. And then, you know how we ended that song? I'll never know, because there was some sort of mystery that in, in the chemistry of the group, that we kind of knew what each other was gonna do. You know, you could trust the other person to do the right thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So he go, dad, which is a big band ending from hell. You know what I mean? All those big bands, they always, it's called Broadway, Broadway Belly Who? And da.

(00:50:19):

We all did it. And we all stopped at the same time, and we looked at each other and go, shit, that was

Louise Palanker (00:50:24):

Great. That's a record. But I mean, I watched on, you can see this on YouTube, is when you performed for the Queen Mom. And ooh, you guys had like a cabaret act.

Peter Noone (00:50:35):

Can you believe it? I st you know, th we thought it was live television. You see <laugh> see that they would do this thing, that they would say, this is a live television. And sometimes 30 years later, you found out that it wasn't really live. Somebody at the record, at the BBC or whoever had a tape of it. So 40 years after we did it, maybe more than four, maybe 50 years after we did it, somebody shows me a copy of that and I'd never seen it. Oh, and I, I was totally in shock. And I called the living members of Herman's Homes and I said, did, did you ever see that Royal Command performance? And they go, no. I said, well, let me ask you, before, before, before you see it, <laugh>, did anybody like a manager or a road manager, or your mom or, or somebody you met, tell you you were absolutely brilliant. <laugh> no, not even your mom, <laugh>. Oh, nobody said anything. I said, that's why we quit. We quit because we thought we were doing all this great what work? And it wasn't good. It

Louise Palanker (00:51:42):

Was great. It was great. It was

Peter Noone (00:51:44):

Amazing. Wasn't great. I mean, the had never wanted to be dancers. They danced under pressure. You know, not a dance man have to pay extra. You have to pay extra for that dance <laugh>. Um, they were talking,

Louise Palanker (00:51:58):

Well, it's, it's got it all. It's got it all. If you, if you're wa if you're listening to this at home, go to YouTube and put Royal Performance Hermann sermons and then call me. Okay, go ahead, Fritz

Fritz Coleman (00:52:08):

<laugh>. Uh, I, but, but I'll tell you what I'm astonished by. And, and you know, it's not like you're starting your career. Your touring schedule is insane. Uh, I'm gonna give people your dates upcoming here.

Peter Noone (00:52:21):

Thank you.

Fritz Coleman (00:52:22):

The 28th of January, you're at the, uh, Ameris Star Casino in Kansas City. And then on February 3rd, you're in Stars of the sixties at Claremont, Florida. Then sixth, you're with the Hermits at Tomball, Texas. And this goes on and on. Like, you're not off for longer than three days at a time, all the way through August 22nd, where you're gonna make your first appearance at the Wisconsin Dolls. This is an insane schedule. You're not a young man, Peter.

Louise Palanker (00:52:50):

He's pretty young.

Peter Noone (00:52:52):

We like 118. The magic number is 118 <laugh> Man. And we've got 72 of them so far.

Fritz Coleman (00:52:59):

But here's what I wanted to say

Peter Noone (00:53:00):

About it. We like to, I say to my age in 10 more years, I, he just called me before we just got another day in, uh, hot Springs, Arkansas on June 25th. And, uh, when before I hang up, I say, thanks Howie 10 more years. And we've been saying that now for about 11 years. I

Louise Palanker (00:53:18):

Like that. I like

Fritz Coleman (00:53:19):

That. But, but I, I, I would bet with the darkness of the world today, fans that come to your shows and they hear your sweet lyrics. I mean, Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter, has to be one of the sweetest lyrics ever written in popular music. It makes, it gives me goosebumps.

Louise Palanker (00:53:40):

It's a sad and polite song.

Fritz Coleman (00:53:41):

It is. And it's positive. And it seems like shows now in our current environment would be very therapeutic. I bet people just come outta your shows feeling a hundred percent better.

Peter Noone (00:53:52):

Well, you hopes, you hope so. Because I think when we made the records, we, it was Mickey Mo's idea. I'm not gonna take credit for it. He said we have to make records that come on right after the news. Mm-hmm.

Fritz Coleman (00:54:06):

Well that's really interesting.

Louise Palanker (00:54:07):

Wow. That guy was really thinking 360.

Peter Noone (00:54:09):

Cause remember we only made records for the B bbc. There was only one outlet for music in England. Mm-hmm. We never made a record for America. Mm-hmm. We didn't know anything about America. We came to America. We went in the recording studio. We didn't know what to do.

Louise Palanker (00:54:20):

We have news here too though,

Peter Noone (00:54:22):

So, so we made records. So, so there will always be, I'm into something good, wonderful world. There's a kind of hush all over the world. Sunshine girl, something is happening. All the titles were things, you know, bomb news at nine, of course rain, more rain coming and <laugh>, that's your pop bridge. And then, then that's the downer on your, your dumb way. And then they go the got pounded an all time new low against a dollar <laugh> not affect valuation, will not affect the pound in your pocket. <laugh>, we got this morning. Peel

Louise Palanker (00:54:57):

<laugh> you. So

Fritz Coleman (00:54:59):

What was the contract? Boy, that's great. Let's counter programming. I love that.

Louise Palanker (00:55:02):

Well, we posted on Facebook, uh, to let folks know that we were gonna be speaking to you and see if they have any questions. So I'm just gonna mention some names and then I'm gonna pick up, uh, one question here for Bonnie Kent Ro she has your albums. Kim, under Utter Domoic, uh, wants to know how, how Mrs. Brown's daughter is holding up. This guy wants to know how old you are. The, you know, Siri can tell you that Terry back nap wants to thank you for what you did for Mike Smith from Dave Clock five.

Peter Noone (00:55:30):

Ah, yeah. Poor Dave. Poor Mike. Yeah. And

Louise Palanker (00:55:32):

Then Susan Mcg giver wrote, do you ha ever look back and think that you should have done things differently? And what would you have changed if you could, if you go back and change it?

Peter Noone (00:55:41):

When, when I look back only, but look back about a couple of years, I started this thing called Facebook Live, where I go on Facebook and I show, and I bring people into my house and I sell. What happened was we had 118 concerts booked, and they all got rescheduled. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And what was happening was all the, the souvenirs that we'd had shipped to all these different events. Cause I used to go out after every show and sign autographs. Cause I, I think it's nice for me to meet the people Oh yeah. Who came to the show and they, it's me. They memor them, remember it and everything. But now I was stuck and my house and my garage, <laugh> was filling up with t-shirts and CDs all mine. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:56:24):

<laugh>.

Peter Noone (00:56:24):

Yeah. No, I couldn't play them more than once each <laugh>. So I start, I started this Facebook page and I would sign autographs and sell, see these live, sort of live. And it was a huge success. And I, and it, and it inspired me to get, you know, I, I was like, Ooh. I was doing it all day and all night and then work came back. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And now I'm like, now I'm under pressure to deliver t-shirts and stuff, you know, and, and take Oh. And, and what I did was I, I made it like a kind of fun thing so that the whole of the thing would be fun. It'd be be fun when I signed it and I'd play this song in the background and sing along with it and everything. Yeah. And then I would take it myself to the post office and take a picture of me mailing it to you. Oh, that's with a whole kinda, that's vicious run on thing. Oldtimey

Fritz Coleman (00:57:14):

Showbiz.

Peter Noone (00:57:15):

Virtual, virtual autograph signing stuff. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:57:18):

Well, you, you, if, if there are three people in America that haven't heard your show on Sirius XM on weekends, something good. You, you are honestly one of the most entertaining people. And the fact that it's all sound and no visuals makes it even, I love the theater of the mind aspect about it. Cuz you do great voices. You're like a standup comedian, and you have the best anecdotes. I remember one day you were talking about the crazy world of Arthur Brown who had that song fire. And I think, I think it was the longest monologue ever about Arthur Brown <laugh>. I said, Arthur hears this and, and what a great performer he was. And you talked about him and you talked about Georgie fame. And I think one time, uh, I think he had done the, he had done the soundtrack to Bonnie and Clyde or something. And you were talking about, I, I mean, I love the, uh, musicology part of your show. I mean, I love the songs too, but you've got the best anecdotes.

Peter Noone (00:58:15):

But Fritz it, the thing, the thing that makes it very easy is I knew I know, or I knew all the people that I talk about. Well,

Fritz Coleman (00:58:25):

That's what makes it good. Yeah. It gives

Peter Noone (00:58:26):

You credibility. They may not have liked me <laugh>, but you know, I <laugh> seriously, you know, you don't know. It's like, I ha I, I think if you listen to it, I have this one, I have many idiosyncrasies. But one thing that I've always did, and I call it selective onset Tourette syndrome. <laugh>, if I meet Elvis Presley, I have to stop myself from going, Wilson <inaudible> love me. <laugh>. You just do them to them. It is, yeah. Like, if I saw Arthur Brown now I'd go fire

Fritz Coleman (00:58:54):

<laugh> <laugh>.

Peter Noone (00:58:56):

It's a weird thing. So I talk about it because, you know, it was like, I was walking along the street in New York and I saw Jack Bruce and I go in my wife room, <laugh>, are you working on your fritz

Fritz Coleman (00:59:09):

Impression that No, please.

Peter Noone (00:59:11):

That

Fritz Coleman (00:59:11):

Was it. Don't, don't, uh, don't stop doing that. I love it. Cool. And, and if you'll permit me one, oh, I, I, I, I think we need to talk about Natalie. You're your, she's so good. So good. Beautiful, talented daughter. She's so good. Who is also a, like a Rolodex of interesting music information, uh, the the same way you are. What, what did you take her on the road? What was her exposure and where did this interest of hers come from?

Peter Noone (00:59:36):

Y you know, the interest was that Sirius wanted somebody younger talking about the music from then Oh. Other than me. Which I think is a good idea because, you know, a lot of people listen to the show who aren't my age, who are at least two generations younger than that, you know, some twenties and that. So it's good to look at it from the aspect of looking up to it, rather than I'm in it. Right. Most of the disc jockeys on the radio are in it. You know, it's like, when I think of coming to America and meeting, you know, those famous disc jockeys at the time, they were really in the music. They were in it. And, and I'm in it and all my stories once David Jones, the guy from the Monkeys, he, he said the most ridiculous things to me. You know, like I said, listen, Davy, all you ever talk about is yourself. And he said, Peter, all my stories have me in them.

Fritz Coleman (01:00:30):

<laugh>

Peter Noone (01:00:32):

That brilliant.

Fritz Coleman (01:00:33):

It is.

Louise Palanker (01:00:33):

That

Peter Noone (01:00:34):

Is, well now, now what I find is all my stories have me in them, but I'm sometimes the camera. Oh, I'm sometimes part of the story. But a lot of the time I'm in the room with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Fritz Coleman (01:00:46):

Well, because you and I are peers. I I I, I appreciate your point of view, but I see what you're saying about Natalie. She's more objective. She's the observer from a couple generations down. And, but she's a musician as well. Right.

Peter Noone (01:00:59):

She's a very good musician. She's, uh, she's 9.9 months pregnant this morning. Oh my goodness.

Louise Palanker (01:01:05):

Wow.

Peter Noone (01:01:06):

Yeah. She's having a little baby probably today or today. Oh my God. God. More than so good for her. She's get some more noons on the planet.

Louise Palanker (01:01:13):

Congratulations.

Fritz Coleman (01:01:13):

What, what, what are her the hours of her show, Peter? I, I, I can't remember

Peter Noone (01:01:17):

How she's on Sunday. Five to eight. That's right.

Louise Palanker (01:01:20):

Yeah. I think what's interesting is everything is so discoverable right now. Like when we were kids, you had to go through your parents' record collection or hope that your granddad would sing something and remind you of the lyrics or teach it to you. But now, if you're interested in something that happened before you came to the planet, you can, you can find it. And it's so much fun.

Peter Noone (01:01:37):

And she knows how to research. Yeah. You know, she went to Bell in, in Tennessee and did, and learn how to, you know, if you wanna find something, if you wanna find out something and you bother to, like if, for example, if you wanna know about Ferrari, you can go to to Google Ferrari, and you'll find out how he met Maserati and, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the whole thing. It becomes overwhelming. You know, me, I, I don't do that much searching because he, I more information equals more confusion to me. <laugh> what I know. Um, you know, like I only talk, I, I said it once. My, my mother once said to me, if you don't have something nice to say about something, somebody don't see anything at all. And then I play their record

Louise Palanker (01:02:23):

<laugh>.

Fritz Coleman (01:02:23):

Oh my God. I love

Peter Noone (01:02:25):

That aor. I don't see anything about

Louise Palanker (01:02:27):

Them. That's adorable. I got it. Okay. So you're editing yourself.

Peter Noone (01:02:30):

She, she and she, she admires everybody.

Louise Palanker (01:02:33):

Yeah. You can tell she's,

Peter Noone (01:02:34):

She never had a hit record. The person who has a hit record has something to be admired for it. Just one. See, they don't know. A young person doesn't know if you've got this massive amount of work. Like Simon and Garfunkel started out as acoustic duo and grew into this thing. You just know Simon and Garfunkel go and look at them and you find, you know, go right to the big juicy stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But she has to research and find out, you know, she doesn't have the knowledge of being in it. I was in it. Right.

Fritz Coleman (01:03:01):

But she has the ability to tell the tale and stick a little, uh, tidbit in there, which makes it fascinating to me.

Louise Palanker (01:03:07):

She's doing a research.

Peter Noone (01:03:08):

You, you know, Fritz, it's one of the things, it's like the Grammys. I went to the Grammys and I think me and Tom Jones were sitting next to each other. <laugh>. Wow. And and it's Henry Mancini in those days. It wasn't a drummer and a stripper girlfriend. It was <laugh>. It was big, big stars. Yeah. Big, big musical. I mean, you could say Genius legends. Henry Mancini. Yeah. All the people who are at the Grammys. And it's in the theater in New York. And we are sitting there and I'm with Tom Johnson, he's record of the year. And I think Herman Sums have got two songs of the year. Right. And I get to sit behind Art Garfunkel.

Louise Palanker (01:03:47):

Wow. <laugh>

Peter Noone (01:03:48):

Who has hair. He

Louise Palanker (01:03:50):

Has big hair.

Peter Noone (01:03:51):

<laugh> Sure. More. He has more, he has a bigger hair Yeah. Than than the hat that you don't wear when you meet the Queen, because she makes her feel like a Midge <laugh>.

Louise Palanker (01:03:57):

Sure.

Peter Noone (01:03:58):

So he's got this massive hair. And, and Tom looks at me because I got, he's got Paul Simon. Oh, you

Louise Palanker (01:04:06):

Can, you know, he, he had a better, the

Peter Noone (01:04:07):

Top, a foot lower than, than Art's Head. Sure. And Art's got the hair on top of that. And we sit in there and they say, record of the year, and the guy, he is got the Alet. He goes, and we think he's gonna say Salmon and Garf uncle. And so do they

Louise Palanker (01:04:25):

<laugh>.

Peter Noone (01:04:26):

So do they, so they go <laugh>. So they start to stand up and he goes, staler brothers flowers on the

Louise Palanker (01:04:32):

Wow. Staler Brothers

Peter Noone (01:04:35):

Flowers on the wall Beat. Sounds of silence. I, oh my God, kidding me. It's like a hush all over the room. You know what I mean? Oh my goodness. How could, and then when you listen to it, it's a pretty good record. It's a

Louise Palanker (01:04:46):

Good record.

Peter Noone (01:04:47):

Got

Louise Palanker (01:04:48):

Some more. You got Frank. Wow.

Peter Noone (01:04:51):

But, you know, all those memories come back when you hear the record. I remember, ah, sitting behind Art Fun and Tom Jones and you know, Tom Jones. Isn't it like one of the best British singer from the British? It's just, it just took one pair of pink panties to get him out of the rock and roll seat. <laugh> Brown, printed rock and roll gets a bra thrown at him. And then now's some sort of fluffy entertain guy. Cause he's a great singer. He should have Elvis Presley. Oh, yeah. I mean, all those Broad Stewarts and all those, they're good singers. But Tom was so proud. Oh, Tom and everybody

Louise Palanker (01:05:23):

Else, he's a musician. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's been such a blast to talk with you, Peter, and we really do appreciate you spending this time with us, Fritz. It's gonna tell people how they can review our show at which will be advantageous to us alone.

Fritz Coleman (01:05:35):

You are an extremely entertaining person. I'm, I'm just recommending people listen to you every week. Pete, it was a pleasure. If you enjoyed this episode of Media Path, it would help us to be more discoverable by potential new listeners. If you leave us a quick review on Apple Podcast, and if you're new here and this is your first time with us, please check out our back catalog. You may find something binge worthy. Thank you for spending an hour with us, and we would be overjoyed if you took a moment to share your thoughts with us or recommend us to a friend.

Louise Palanker (01:06:01):

And we would love for you to join us online on Instagram and Twitter, where we are at Media Path Pod and on Facebook where we are. Media Path Podcast. We also have a Facebook group called Media Path Podcast with Fritz and Weezy. You can find full episodes with all kinds of bonus visual content on our YouTube channel Media Path podcast. We would love to know what media you have been enjoying. You can contact us at our social media or email us at media path podcast gmail.com. We wanna thank our wonderfully entertaining guest, Peter Noon. You can go to peter noon.com. Is that's the correct,

Peter Noone (01:06:31):

Yeah. Or, or the, I I've got that. Peter Noon. Herman. So it's Facebook, which is the, where I do the live

Louise Palanker (01:06:35):

Stuff. Yes, absolutely. And we're gonna have links to all that stuff in our show notes. Thank you. So you can find Peter, our team includes Dina Friedman, Francesco Naman, John Maddox, Sharon Beo, bill Fiac, Thomas Hubble, Mason Brown, and you. Our theme music is by me and John Maddox. I am Louise Lanker here with Fritz Coleman. And we will see you along the media path Anywhere else people can find you online. Peter,

Peter Noone (01:06:58):

Uh, Peter Noon, Herman's home. It's Facebook Peter noon.com. I do a cameo thing as well, which is a load of fun. I, I'm all out. We just type my name in and it'll send you to Yeah, absolutely. Tell my name and it's Peter Herman Noon, not Moon

Louise Palanker (01:07:12):

<laugh>. So

Fritz Coleman (01:07:16):

Awesome. Thank you.

Louise Palanker (01:07:17):

Don't hang up just yet. We're gonna take a picture with you in front of the TV screen with your face on it. We're gonna walk over to that.

Fritz Coleman (01:07:23):

Thomas, give us a second

Peter Noone (01:07:23):

Meeting. You both.

Louise Palanker (01:07:24):

Nice meeting you. Thomas is gonna tell you when to smile.