Herman's Hermits rock fuckin' HARD

I just watched “Mrs Brown etc.” on TCM. What a weird movie. I didn’t realize it was released in 1968. It felt like it was filmed a couple of years earlier, except for the scene where the Hermit’s minus Noone do a couple of faux-Cream “heavy” instrumentals at a nightclub.

As Michael Weldon put it in the Psychotronic Guide: “the damned movie’s about dog racing!”. Indeed.

The plot just dissipates. I don’t know if SPOILERS are necessary here, but:

Noone loses his prize greyhound (Mrs. Brown) at the same time his True Love (Mrs. Brown’s – a human – daughter) leaves him for a modeling shoot in Rome. He therefore misses out on the Big Race for which the Hermits were hustling their asses at menial jobs for in London to earn the entrance fees, while the Hermit’s lose their make-or-break gig and go back to Manchester (“there’s 500 bands better than us in London”). Mrs. Brown the greyhound does return – with child (er, puppy) – and yes, Noone sings the title song to her, but Noone and Mrs. Brown’s daughter never do get back together, with Noone settling for the rather hapless girl next door (who truthfully is just as attractive as MBD). The credits roll over scenes cutting between the Hermits tooling around in a bus and MBD making like Twiggy in various Rome settings. I suppose the message is There’s No Place Like Home, but it’s strange how everything just falls apart and all the storylines amount to nothing.

The movie’s limited but real charm is in its portrayal of an England where everyone from a wealthy fruit market magnate on down to a cheeky hobo is lovably eccentric and good-natured. Even the two ostensible assholes – the Phil Spector-style promoter, and the bullying photographer – are harmless.

It’s a dumb movie, but I will admit to getting a shiver when “There’s a Kind of Hush” (among the loveliest of UK invasion songs) starts up during the inevitable falling-in-love montage, and frustrated when the score teases “No Milk Today” several times, but never delivers.

Well I'm sold.

For those who have always wondered what the Hermits got up to on their tours in the 1960s, the group's former manager Harvey Lisberg has a new memoir coming out in March which promotional copy describes as "uproarious, frank, and moving."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4RQdhfBXRc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlbH8MRF2WY

They had three great songs (that I know of). I don't know how hard they actually rocked, though.

They achieved Maximum Heavy Hermanosity!

Who knows, Herman's Hermits could have rocked hard. Harvey Lisberg offered them Graham Gouldman's 'For Your Love', but producer Mickie Most turned it down as a single and on the song went to The Yardbirds.

Mickie Most also turned down Rice & Lloyd Webber's 'Any Dream Will Do' for Herman's Hermits, pre-Joseph & His Technicolor Dreamcoat, so there could have been a very different trajectory for Noone & Co.

Speaking of different trajectories...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxv8n5OpzQ

Just think...Hermie Stardust and the Hermits From Mars

Total Hermanosity, yes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsYsHuzqZy4

Their Psych-adjacent LP Blaze from '67 has hit streaming/digital in Stereo & MONO...

...and even as programmed with the ten songs in stereo followed by a repeat in mono, the thing is still just under 47 minutes in length.

Recognize the cover very well. We had a store in Toronto, Sam the Record Man, with a famous sale annex; used to see it up there for years for $0.99. Of course I stupidly never bought it.

this bump is making me nervous 😰😰😰...... is it safe to assume that noone from herman's hermits has just passed away?

Peter No-one has not passed away

ah, thanks for clearing that up!

Recognize the cover very well.

I've seen this one many times before years ago and didn't know til today what it was. Maybe it was at the local library.

We had a store in Toronto, Sam the Record Man, with a famous sale annex

My regret is not buying up the 70s Van Morrison albums they had up there for $6.99.

The vinyl copies of Knee Deep in the Hoopla can stay, though.

A couple Blaze standouts both written by three band members not named Peter Noone

"Moonshine Man": Somebody's spent some quality time with Revolver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJc3v5mC8hk

"I Call Out Her Name": Somebody's spent some quality time with some Buck Owens singles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIO9OAegTiE

Is it Green Street Green that has them choogling before Creedence became established?

I kept hearing Blaze as a blueprint for the Stone Roses for ages when the Manchester scene was happening.

Got a copy for like 60p in like 1981. Played it a lot at the time. Got the Repertoire CD remaster when I got a chance.
Need to stick it on when I get home.

Well they were Mancs after all.

If there is actual choogling on that album who is doing it? John Paul Jones, Davey Graham…? Don’t imagine Derek Leckenbie with all due respect.

I meant Bobby Graham, sorry

Right, it's Moonshine Man not Green Street Green

…written by Leckenby and other Hermits so maybe they are the chooglers