WEBVTT - Peter Noone 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:13.000 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob left Sets podcast. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:18.680 My guest tonight is the one and only Peter Nude, 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.919 a k A. Hermit of Hermit's Hermits. Peter, so great 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.160 to have you. It's great. It's great to be hit Bobby. 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:27.800 I listened to your podcasts, and as you know, I've 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.360 been reading your left Sets letter for as long as 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.720 it's been out like a fan. Okay, thanks so much 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:36.640 for being a fan, and I'm certainly a fan of 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.000 you and your work. But we're here in Hollywood at 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.720 the studio. You dropped your wife off at L a X. 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.680 You live in Santa Barbara. Yeah, I live in Santa 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.879 Barbara and I my wife and daughter are going. My 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.320 wife's family have a house in the south of France 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.480 and they like to go via Dublin, so they've dropped 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:56.040 him off at L a X. They flying to Dublin 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.600 and and to Nice and I'll join them in about 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.080 two weeks now. One of the reasons I asked this 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.160 is you got married when you were twenty what twenty 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.000 one birthday, and you have been married to the same 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.280 woman for fifty years exactly. We had our fiftieth wedding anniversary, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.880 and the only person who showed up actually Mickey Moost's 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:22.080 wife and and Mickey mostly was my producer. His wife 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.880 and Tom Jones were the only people that we knew 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.360 that is still around from our wedding. Okay, so we 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.960 all know what being a rock stars like you were 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.240 as famous as anybody in the world. How did you 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.720 find this particular woman to marry? Um? It was very 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:42.440 it was. It was a strange one. I went to 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.440 the Bag of Nails to see Jimi Hendrix, who was 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.680 like newly in town. I think Eric Burdon had mentioned him. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.040 And I went to the Bag of Nails and there 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.680 was a girl there and she was with another with 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:59.520 her sister, and they were speaking Hebrew and obviously I 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.600 can't we can wrote of Hebrew, and they were speaking Hebrew, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.600 so that I because I could speak French, and they 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:13.800 were French, having spent some time in Israel. And the 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:15.960 guy who was with them said, would you dance with 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:20.280 my sister? And were they were aware of who you were? No, 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:22.960 absolutely no idea and the kid would snicks you know 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.360 then nothing about me, And of course they knew who 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.720 Johnny Halliday was, but there were no other people in 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:35.239 their lives musically, and we we met and we spoke 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:37.600 a little. I had schoolboy French, you know, like a 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:44.120 pretty good schoolboy French. And you know, we actually gave 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.959 me her phone number and it was Ambassador double two 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:53.800 six and I kept it on a card and I 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.760 went away. And five months later I was in Hyde Park, 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.000 which is a big park. It's like walking in Central Park. 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.880 And I saw my future wife's sister and I walked 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.919 over at said, who where's your sister? And she said, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.440 she's back in England. She's staying my mother's place on 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.800 Cleveland Square. That's the Ambassador double two sixties. I said, great, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.400 So I called her and she had no intent, no 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.600 intention I have ever seen me again. Um. You know, 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.959 she had a dentist appointment the next day and a 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.840 headdressed as performance. So eventually we went out to dinner 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:33.639 with other friends. Um, and you know, she found out 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.880 I was the real real thing. Then another time, then 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.040 we separate again. I went on an American tour and 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.320 we she saw me singing on the television on Top 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.120 of the Pops and her sister said, look that's the 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.120 guy that we that you danced with that night. It 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.280 keeps calling, and you went out to dinner with Francois, 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.760 and all those people actually goes, oh my goodness, I 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.240 had no idea. And she makes a joke. He said 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.560 he used to draw pictures of beds and wardrobes and things, 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.680 and I thought he was a furniture senter, you know. 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.440 So you know, I never learned Hebrew, but my French 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.800 got much much better. I only learned French because I 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:14.640 had a good you know, you're always good at the 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:16.400 things you have a good teacher. I had a great teacher, 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:21.599 father Murray. And and I I went to I was 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:23.640 I went to the evenings. I went to the Manchester 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.279 School of Music because my dad thought I was. I 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:32.000 needed to be a musician, knowledgeable musician. And there was 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.880 a library nearby, the Manchester Library, and on the second 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:36.960 floors where I would go to do my homework because 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.440 it was very quiet, and there was there was the 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.279 art department. And there was a picture in one of 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.920 the books of Bridgie bard Do. And I thought, I'm 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.480 going to learn French so bad that I can walk 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.880 up to Bridgitte bard Do one day and and and 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.280 pick her up. You know, that kind of school boy, 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.479 and of course it wasn't Bridgie, but it was someone 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.839 even better, which is my wife Mary, much much better. Okay, 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.159 so you meet her the second time, then she goes 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.880 back to France. How does it ultimately okay, well, how 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.760 how it gets going is I come back to England 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.039 and I say no, no, no, no no, excuse me. She 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:22.080 moves to Spain. Her mother has a house in the 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:29.280 Ibis in the Baliaric Islands, and I decide to rent 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.680 the place next door, which was pretty cool. And I 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:35.960 moved into the place next door, and her mother really 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.440 likes me, and I end up spending a lot of 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.440 time talking to the mother, who's very interesting, not the 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:46.479 lots of Second World War intrigue and dead husband's from 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.000 the Holocaust and the great, great interesting stuff for me. 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:55.200 So uh, we make this friendship. And one day we're 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.960 sitting on the balcony of this little apartment of mine 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:06.600 and we hear this voice Peter Noon, Peter Noon, because 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.280 there are no phones or there are no communication this that, 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.960 and and I got, yeah, I'm Peter Noon, what what 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.040 is it? And he goes, I'm from the British Consulate 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.880 and you need to come back to England immediately, and 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.120 I got what. I think, something's happened to mynd So 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.839 I come come downstairs. I go, what's going on? He goes, 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:34.800 your record is in the charts. It's sunshine girl. I 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.719 didn't even know it was out and I needed to 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:40.760 be Everyone was looking for me to go on top 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.479 of the pops on the Thursday. So, you know, it 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:44.280 was easy in those days. You've got to the airport, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.599 you buy a ticket and you there's no tar, say 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.880 there was nothing. You just went, oh, okay, I'll be 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.400 back in two days. I went to England, did to 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.279 the posts, went back to there, and then I said, 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.200 I got to go to New York. My my manager, 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.240 Charlie Silverman, is getting married in New York and my 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.800 future wife's and I don't do planes, so I go, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.400 you don't do planes. Uh, So we had to take 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.960 a ship. We took the America. I think we've called 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:15.760 the United States the fastest ship on the ocean, and 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.480 it was the worst crossing. Even the captain was sick, 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.600 you know, And that was she took planes ever since then. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.440 So we went to New York, married, we went to 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.960 the wedding, and then we set off and went to Mexico. 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.760 And Porto Rico, and we did that show business stuff 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:33.840 and I said, you know, let's get how about we 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.720 get married? And she goes on, I'm not sure. I said, 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.920 you know, you should see me on stage, but you 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:44.160 see who I who who who I'm being some of 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.120 the time. You may may not like that character. So 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.960 we go to vis Baden and we're playing an American 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:56.000 airport base in vis Baden, and she saw the show 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.160 and she still wanted to get She said, okay, yeah, 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.760 that could be fun to be married. You you'd be fun. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.080 You're a gentleman. And we got married. So how long 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.640 did you know her before you got married? Well, I 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:13.600 think September to November. I mean we I've I've finally 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.240 got to spend a night with her in September sixty 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.720 eight and we got married in November sixty eight. So 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.200 when did you that I first met her in April 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.800 six I think. Okay, so April to November. Yeah, it 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.040 was just that fast. It was. It was really love 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.240 at first. My pot everybody gets divorced. What's the secret 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.920 to staying together? My wife has a very good sense 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:42.240 of humor. You know, it's you know, it's really She 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.840 still likes me quite a lot. You know, I am 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.160 I'm amusing and I make fun of him self deprecating, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.280 which is good. You know, I say, watch out, I'm 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:52.600 going to be naked and second stretch the lights often. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.319 You know, she likes all that kind of stuff. She's 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.319 got a very good sense of humor. And she's from 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.320 you know, she's from a dysfunctional type of Emily and 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.000 I am as well. So we know that the family 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.839 is the most important thing. So we know that keeping 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.680 the family together is the most important part of the world, 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.480 of the whole thing that we've got. Now, one would assume, 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.880 being a young man on the road top of the charts, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.400 that you would partake as some of the things that 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.680 were going on on the road. Would that be accurate 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.920 before I got married? Oh yeah, so twenty one is young. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:27.240 But you just saw her and you said this is 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:33.359 the one. Yeah, you know, I think I probably, um, 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.319 I probably was looking for you know once somebody, I 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.840 think Saul McCartney said, you know, you can you can 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.880 have a full on life in show business. You can 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.679 make show business your life, but you may want to 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.640 take some time and have a life at the same 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:48.679 time as being in show businesses, and I was really 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:54.200 I thought, because of the nature of my childhood kind of, 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.080 I thought it would be really important to concentrate on life. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.720 My parents, um, we're very busy when I was young, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.200 so we which made me into me, you know, because 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.360 they were always gone. So I became very independent, and 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.840 I thought I would like to have some settling thing. 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.920 Some part of me needed to be settled. That's why 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:16.839 I live in Santa Barbara. I live on a golf course. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.200 I've never played golf in my life, and I live 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.960 on a golf course because it's a settled place, you know, 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.120 it's my Okay. So you're growing up in Manchester, right 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.280 in Manchester, yes, suburbs of Ventures Destruction, and I've been 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.640 there a few times with some people. So in any event, 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:39.400 your father does work for a living. My father was 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.640 a trombone player who became an accountant and he was 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:48.120 in the Royal Air Force. And part of my story 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:52.280 is my father was in the Second World War and 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.520 my mother was sent away to some village during the 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.800 Second World War and they got married. I think my 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.080 mother got married on her sixteenth birthday and my sister 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:07.359 was born five months later, and then in the fifties, 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:11.440 all those people who had been messed up with the war, 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.240 I messed up, I can't think of it would but 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:20.000 transported away from their lives. They both went back to university. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.960 My mother went to Cambridge and my father went to Edinburgh. 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.600 And this was after they were married. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.439 this was after I know I was six or seven. Okay, 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.480 those those places are physically apart. But you went to 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.160 the university of that, remember, you earned it, didn't You 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.160 couldn't buy your way into a university. They chose which 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.200 one you were good enough? Okay, so, but but they 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.160 were ultimately separated absolutely. Who was taking care of the 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.320 kids grandmothers. We lived my sister and I lived with 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.200 my grandmother and that was for how long three three 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.720 or four years. My mother got out a year earlier. 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.400 But so, but the marriage sustained even though they were 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:03.000 the mary sustain Yeah, they were married until they died. Yeah, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.640 they were married till death to his part. It's a 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.720 family kind of tradition, I think maybe in my family. 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:14.480 But but m because they were separated and they lived apart, 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.800 that made me want to be sort of more settled somehow, 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.160 you know, And I know this is like a psychiatry. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.680 Think here we got going up. But then I I 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:31.600 needed to be settled, and um, I found a woman 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.079 who liked that kind of thing, you know, from the 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:39.080 kibbutz to beats to a country and country place in 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:44.319 England to Santa Barbara. Means we've always been very connected, okay, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:46.400 and then you didn't have a child to like, after 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.400 fifteen years you have been married, correct, maybe more than that. 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.320 My daughter's thirty one, so maybe twenty nine years after 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.319 we met. After we've got married. Now I don't know. 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.200 I can't do the maths. And so why did you 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.680 wait so long? We didn't. We were very happy not 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.000 to have children, and then I think my wife decided 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.199 that it would be really now we were pretty well 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.959 organized once once we moved. We lived in France for 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.080 a bit and it was a bit dysfunctional, and then 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.400 then we moved to America and we found Santa Barbara 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.840 and we go, this is probably this is probably a 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.760 good time for us. We could have children and it 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.120 would we could make it work as an airport. I 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.600 could go to work and we could do you know. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:25.960 And I was going through a lot of changes in 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.839 myself so it was really good for me what you 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.600 were going through. I became ambitious. I had not been 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.000 ambitious for a long time. But you know what caused 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.280 you to be ambitious. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.240 show business, you know, and hanging out with musicians. I 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.480 spent too much time with actors and things like that. 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.959 Who are okay? So after your hey day, were you 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.720 left with anybody? Not really? But but I never did 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.760 it for money, so it never really counted. You know. 0:13:57.800 --> 0:13:59.800 I had enough money to buy a house, you know, 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.720 And think part of part of the thing that happened 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.480 to me was my my parents were very successful in 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:11.480 a business, and they didn't desert us, but they gave 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.520 me a massive amount of freedom. And then they their 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.440 business failed and I ended up taking care of them, 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:21.360 and a lot of the money that I made I 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.600 spent on them. I bought them a house, and I 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.120 bought them a hotel, and I bought you know, if 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.960 you've got a couple of alcoholic parents, it's probably not 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.240 a good idea to buy them a pub. But I 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:35.120 did that, and so so that I didn't really have 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.200 a lot of money, although I had probably earned a 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.960 lot of mon money. But the question did you become 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.240 ambitious because your fine answers were low? No? No, I 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.760 was ambitious because I I thought I went to France 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:49.560 and I had kind of retired. I think I was 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.720 maybe twenty five, and i'd kind of retired, and I 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.240 was making enough money that I could. I didn't really 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.480 need to make a lot of money to live a 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.320 nice style. And a friend of mine he was he 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.280 was making he was the director of the midnight special 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:06.360 and he came to stay in our house in France. 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.920 Stan Harris's name was and I had a hit records 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.360 in France and in a big hit record, And he goes, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.280 what are you? What are you doing here? How well 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.000 it is it? Look it's easy. I can make a 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:20.640 record and I can put it out and I can 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.160 make it. You know, it's a it's you've got to 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.400 come back to America, come back to America. I said, 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.480 I can't afford to come back to America, can't keep this. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.240 And he says, well, you can stay in my house. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:30.880 I have a house in Beverly Hills. You can live 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.160 in my house until you So we couldn't resist the 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.360 opportunity to come and stay in his house. In Beverly 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.600 Hills and Hanger, and within three days of staying there, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:41.680 we found a little apartment on Oak Coast, you know, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.160 in Beverly Hills. We moved into a farm. We had 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.880 no furniture. We went Robert Rentals or something and rented 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.000 all this stuff and we we seally should come here 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.360 six weeks at a time. I could only come six 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.800 weeks at a time my visa, and and every time 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.120 I got a job, I would have to get a 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:01.960 visa again. So we're going backwards and forwards and packtorism forwards. 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.920 And then one day we I started a band. I 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:07.960 started a little band called the Tremble. As I got 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.560 more and more, you know, I got i'd listened to 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.320 the radio and saying, you know I could, I bet 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.560 I could make a record. I could like it would 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.080 be like Herman's Hermits Part two, you know where where 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.920 if Herman's Hermits had stayed together, where what kind of 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.360 music would we be doing now? And I became ambitious. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.680 And during that period of trying to put a band together, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.840 I got a job in Pirates of Penzance, just the 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.640 touring company, and I think I was really good in it. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.320 And so then I did the tour and then I 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.760 did a year on Broadway. Then they asked me to 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.840 do the London West End one for a year, so 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.720 I did that one. Then I went to New Zealand 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.760 and I found out like four years of full on work. 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.560 You know, I had insurance, I had Social Security payments, 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.440 and I thought, this is like a real gig my foot, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.680 you know, because it's from from the big from Herman's 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.320 hermits when I was the sort of money per person 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.840 which was ridiculous, you know, the youngest person in the band, 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.920 because we've got four pounds ten, we've got to pay 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.320 the petrol and there's only enough for us to get 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.040 chips without fish. You know. I was not the greatest 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.879 manager of money to being somebody taking care of it. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.080 I said, this is great. It's having a gig and 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.120 a regular gig. And I became more and more ambitious, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:27.040 and people started to say the reason I got back 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:33.800 into being Herman again was there was a club in Kitchen, 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:39.000 Ontario called Lulu's and they would call me and they say, 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.639 we want you to come and play LULUs And I said, 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.520 first of all, I don't know who you think I am, 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.600 but I'm not playing in a club called Lulu's, it 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.160 sounded like. And he goes, well, you'd be very surprised 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:55.480 if you come up here. We'll pay you just to 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:57.040 come up and have a look at it. And I go, no, 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.800 I'm not interested. Just I can't see the words p 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.760 noon and luluse in the same sentence. How about performing 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.840 Arts center? You know that sort of nonsense. And eventually 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:09.800 they said they call me and they said, look, we 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.040 put a band together. They've learned all your songs. All 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:13.520 you have to do is come up and show up 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.960 sing your songs and we'll pay you X dollars. And 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.119 I will, Oh, that's more money than I've made in 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.840 the last forty years or a long time since I've 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:25.840 made this kind of money. So I go up there 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.000 and I do a rehearsal with the band, and they're 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:33.639 really nice guys. They're called on the air, and this 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:38.679 kind of all strange luck things happened to me. I'm 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.720 in the guitar soul of I'm into something good. I speak, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:43.960 we begin I always opened, I'm into something good. It's 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.600 just like a traditional thing with me. And in the 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.920 guitar solo, I'm into something good. I get this thing 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:55.240 like you are not Frederick, You're not even Peter Noon, 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:01.040 You're this guy who sings I'm into something good. And 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.919 it was such it was it overwhelmed me. It was 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:09.040 like a I found out who I am in Lulu's 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.240 and kitchen. Okay, two questions, what a what year was this? 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.760 No idea? And second, what was Lulu's like it was? 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:21.399 It was a five thousand standing room only X came 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.400 on that had become a nightclub and it was massive. 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.000 And of course I went back three weeks later and 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.040 five weeks later inten it became a tradition. I was 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:33.760 one of the guys who played it, you know. It 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.200 was Del Shannon and and it was all the big 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.080 oldies but goodies actually played up there. And I was 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.600 home and I got this. I love this. I just 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:49.159 loved and I really loved all my songs. I have 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.480 a bit of a story and that I'm in my 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.080 car in Santa Barbara at this time while I'm playing, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.040 while I'm practicing for Lulu's, and i have the window 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.920 of my car open and I'm singing along to Herman's herm, 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.760 It's Mrs Brown, You've got a lovely daughter. People are 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:11.000 walking past, and I got, oh, my god, you're doing 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:15.520 an impersonation of yourself and people can't see you and 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.919 hear it, because you know, you didn't think of it. 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.240 You know, you know your own song on the radio. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.080 So I don't know the year, but probably eighty four 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:28.720 somewhere in there. Okay, let's go back to me and Chester. 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.840 So what was the business your parents ultimately started. My 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:36.080 mother was the CFO of a company called it's called 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.879 Austin Walter's and it was they made neon signs and 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.520 it was hugely successful. And my father had some history 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.320 in Germany. He used to fly over there a lot 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.199 at night, never spend the evening there, and so he 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:49.879 could speak a bit of German. He'd been on a 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.040 base there. And they decided to go in into another business, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.680 which was making sinks. They were in the neon business, 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.320 fluorescent lighting business, and they decided that are going to 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.679 use the same factory to make plastic sinks. And that failed, 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:07.879 and that was a big, big failure and they lost. 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.240 I remember they had a beautiful house in Manchester opposite 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:15.280 a golf course and they couldn't pay the electricity bill. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.719 I mean, it went down big time. They financially. So 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.720 now you're growing up and now, of course in England 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.080 they call private schools public schools. What kind of school 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.800 did you go to? I started off in a local 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.879 primary school. Then I went to English Martyrs, which was 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.080 a Catholic, full on Catholic school, because my grandparents thought 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.560 that I'd do better if I went to a Catholic school. 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.760 And from there there's there's a thing called the eleven 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.000 plus and if you pass that, you get to choose 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.440 which grammar school you go to. And I thought I 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.080 wanted to go to Manchester Grammar School because that was 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:54.720 a good school. But I failed the test to get there, 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:59.320 I think the actual personality test I failed, not the 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.840 written test, and I ended up at my father's old school, 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:04.960 which is St Bede's College, which was a full on 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.480 you know, priests teaching young boys how to become men. 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.439 And I did pretty good. Then I was pretty I 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.080 was one of the smartest kids there. Then I got 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.600 into some fights and stuff like that, and my father 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.919 sent me to Stratford Grammar School. And I arrived at 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:29.879 Stratford Grammar School and all the work that I've been 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.720 doing at the St Bede's hadn't been done yet. I 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.199