Herman's Hermits! Live in Cape May!

I didn't expect Peter Noone/Herman to be so funny. He took the stage as front man for Herman's Hermits a little after 8:00pm on August 12 and owned that Cape May Convention Hall stage every minute until 9:30 with funny stories, impersonations, and of course those great British Invasion songs. A great performer is easy to recognize no matter what the genre.

"My mother is Elton John and my father is Mick Jagger!" This silly, unexpected statement propelled Noone/Herman into a spot-on impersonation of Jagger singing "Start Me Up," complete with Mick's moves. Moments before we had been treated to Noone/Herman channeling Johnny Cash for a brief rendition of "Ring of Fire." Wow.

The Inn of Cape May: Crank up that Amp!

 Noone/Herman shared some impressions of Cape May that were not just local names plugged into a rehearsed script to be used in every town listed on the back of their concert tour shirts available in red, white, and black. Some comments were scripted, I'm sure, but even still someone researched the local lingo. Villas, NJ, a section of Lower Township, is known as "The Villas" around these parts, and someone from Noone/Herman's team found this out. He liked staying at the old-fashioned rocking-chair-porched Inn of Cape May across the street because, "we could really turn our amps up" (referring to the hearing of the average guest's age).

We were having so much fun we didn't mind that it wasn't until the second half of the show that the band got around to playing the Herman's Hermits hits we had come to hear. There was a kind of hush over the sell-out crowd when he sang "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" with the familiar banjo-sounding accompaniment. Did you know that this song was written by the actor Trevor Peacock, who played the character Jim Trott who prefaced all of his sentences with "no, no, no, no" on The Vicar of Dibley TV show? (If you don't know The Vicar, proceed to Netflix, please.)




Another of their hits, especially big in the US, is "Henry the Eighth I Am." Did you know that this tune was written in 1910 and was featured in English music halls then? Herman couldn't remember more than the first verse, so it is just repeated. And yes, Noone/Herman does say "SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST!" in performance, too. (I'm so glad there is not a video of me watching these videos!!)


Peter Noone was poised in front of an audience from the start because he attended the Manchester School of Music and Drama and starred in a British show called "Coronation Street." His dream was to become a singer and he jumped at the chance to fill in for the singer of a local group. Someone thought he looked like the character Sherman from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. 'Sherman' became 'Herman,' and that group became the Hermits. I read somewhere that they had more hits in the U.S. than any other British Invasion band aside from the Beatles during the Hermit heyday (1964-1967), but then came the Monkees and less clean-cut styles of popular music. Herman's Hermits faded away and Peter Noone worked on his acting career. Check this out: most of Herman's Hermits' hits were recorded when Noone/Herman was still a teenager.



Those well-loved Herman's Hermits songs remain part of our culture and their happy simplicity makes for a delightful concert experience across the ages. A friend of mine said, "I felt like I was in high school again!" with a giant smile. Maybe it wasn't high school for me, but i thoroughly enjoyed the performance of this engaging Herman and his Hermits, and I loved meeting him after the show!

What a thrill!

He's holding my program in the top photo and it now looks like this!