Peter
Blair Denis Bernard Noone (born
5 November 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and
actor. He is best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s pop
group Herman's Hermits. Noone
was born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, England, the second of five children, the son of an
accountant, and attended English Martyrs (Urmston), Wellacre Primary School
(Flixton), Stretford Grammar School,
and St Bede's College, Manchester.
Noone played a number of acting roles on television, including that of Stanley
Fairclough in the soap opera Coronation Street. Noone studied voice and drama at the
Manchester School of Music, where he won the Outstanding Young Musician Award. Early
in his career, he used the stage name Peter Novac. At 15, he became the lead
singer, spokesman and frontman of Herman's Hermits, who
were discovered by Harvey Lisberg. As
"Herman", the photogenic Noone appeared on the cover of many
international publications, including Time Magazine's collage showing new faces
in popular music. The
band's hits included: "I'm into Something Good",
"Can't You Hear My Heartbeat",
"Mrs. Brown,
You've Got a Lovely Daughter", "Silhouettes",
"Wonderful World",
"I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am"
(in the U.S.), "Just a Little Bit Better",
"A Must to Avoid",
"Listen People", "The End of the
World", "Dandy", and "No Milk Today". Herman’s Hermits sold more than 60
million records and had 14 gold singles and seven gold albums. The Hermits were
twice named in the U.S. trade paper Cashbox as
"Entertainer of the Year". As Herman, Noone performed on hundreds of
television programmes and appeared with the Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye television programs. He starred in ABC's
musical version of The Canterville Ghost, Hallmark Hall of Fame's
presentation of the classic Pinocchio (in which he played the
title role), and three feature films for MGM: Mrs.
Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter, Hold On! and When
The Boys Meet The Girls. They were the opening act of the 1970 Royal Variety Performance from
the London Palladium performing
a medley of their hits to date followed by their rendition of If I Were a Rich Man, Where is Love? and Old Henry's Fish and Chips. They ended with their recent
hit There's a Kind of Hush.