Peter Noone Reviews & Such

Herman’s Hermits

From Buffalo News, 2/16/03

Outside the Seneca Niagara Casino Saturday night, it was cold enough to make brass monkeys shiver. Inside the intimate Bears Den performance space, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits brought a warm, fuzzy glow to a sold-out house of Noonatics.

It was a sweet Valentine weekend for fans of sixties pop music and gaming.

Almost four decades ago, the British got back at America with an invasion we couldn’t resist. The "Fab Four" are still familiar to anyone with a radio or a Back Street Boys CD.

Herman’s Hermits, on the other hand, seem to be part of ancient history for most "twists and twirls" (Cockney rhyming slang for girls). All they really need to know about Noone is that he was the Justin Timberlake of his day, only with talent. The affable singer looked trim in leather pants, a black Nehru jacket and a 1000-kilowatt smile beaming from under a blond thatch of hair. (No pattern baldness in the Noone DNA.)

His pure vocals and razor-sharp wit spun the room on its ear. He wore the audience’s approval like a laurel wreath as he performed under a British flag emblazoned with the band’s logo.

"I’m Into Something Good" (1964), "Wonderful World" (1965) and "Dandy" (1966) had one lady bopping on the edge of her seat non-stop while a gray-haired husband absent-mindedly slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulders.

Nostalgia was being served piping hot but never condescendingly. With a devilish choirboy look, Noone delighted the audience with his non-stop energy and patter, most of it self-deprecating.

He winked at a lady sitting in the first row. "Bet you thought you had a good seat. I spit all the time when I sing."

When a female fan shouted, "You’re cuter than Davy Jones," Noone immediately dropped to his knees and imitated the diminutive Monkee’s singer with "Day Dream Believer." Send-ups of Johnny Cash ("Ring of Fire") and Mick Jagger ("Start Me Up") were spot on as well, and delighted the packed house.

Rave-up versions of the Who’s "My Generation" and the Yardbirds’ "For Your Love" showed a genuine respect for the songs and singers.

A supercharged medley of songs concluded the 80-minute set with a pair of No.1 hits from 1965, "Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter" and "I’m Henry the VIII, I Am." The audience sang every word complete with the syncopated rhymes.

Noone is no museum piece. He knows how to entertain, sings with a pure tenor that has lost none of it luster and he has a great wry sense of humor. The music is banal but entertaining. If you’re too young to have ever heard his music, think "Smashmouth" without the irony.

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Herman’s Hermits

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