Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Peter Noone Encore

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

GGACP celebrates the birthday (November 5th) of pop singer, radio host and British Invasion icon Peter Noone with this ENCORE of an episode from 2020. In this episode, Peter joins the boys for a loos...e and laugh-filled conversation about rock and roll excess, the birth of the Beatles, entertaining the Queen Mum and rubbing shoulders with Bob Dylan, Keith Moon and Elvis Presley (among others). Also, Alice Cooper climbs the charts, Keith Richards lays down the law, Imelda Marcos requests a tune and Herman's Hermits perform "If I Were a Rich Man." PLUS: "The Pirates of Penzance"! Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders! Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars! The genius of Mickie Most! And Gilbert "sings" "I'm Into Something Good"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:36 a million delicious instant prizes and a grand prize of twenty five thousand dollars play at games.circlek.com or at participating Circle K stores. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried. This is is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre. Our guest this week is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, music historian, TV host, radio host, and an occasional actor, a former teen idol, and a genuine rock and roll legend. At the tender age of 15, he became the lead singer and frontman of one of the most popular and successful recording acts of all time, Herman's Hermits. With hits like, I'm into something Good, Can't You Hear My Heartbeat,
Starting point is 00:01:48 There's a Kind of Hush, Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter, and I'm Henry VIII I Am. They sold millions of records, scored 18 top 40 hits, performed to arenas packed with screaming fans, and in the year 1965, at the peak of their success, they outsold even the Beatles. He appeared in feature films as well as hit TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, Laverne and Shirley, Married with Children, Quantum Leap, American Idol, and has starred on the Broadway stage and on national tours. And his popular rock and roll history show Something Good with Peter Noon can be heard on the channel 60s on 6 on Sirius XM. In a long and impressive career, this man has worked with and shared the stage and screen with and rubbed elbows with Elvis Presley, Danny Kaye, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, the Bee Gees, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page, David Bowie, the Hollies, Louis Armstrong, John Lennon, the Supremes, and Paul McCartney. And as Frank likes to say, that's barely scratching the surface.
Starting point is 00:03:26 Bloody hell. And he's entered his seventh decade in show business. He's still out there performing with upcoming live concerts and appearances all over the U.S. and Canada. Please welcome one of the key figures of the cultural explosion known as the British Invasion and a man who says he was told to stay away from drugs by none other than Keith Richards, the legendary Peter Noon. I'm out of here. That's the longest, most incredible introduction I've ever had in my life. And not only was I told to stay away from drugs, I was threatened by Keith Richards.
Starting point is 00:04:25 He said, we will come and find you and beat you up. If we ever find out you're smoking pot or anything like that, we're going to come and find you and we're going to beat you up. He couldn't catch me now. Now, I want to put you on the spot, first thing, and to the end of you. You acted in Pirates of Penzance.
Starting point is 00:04:56 Yeah. Now, either with the script or without it, can you sing? You don't have to sing the whole song, obviously, but some of a modern major general. I am the very model of a modern major general of information, vegetable, animal, and mineral. I quote the kings of England and I quote the facts historical from Mamelon and Waterloo in order categorical. Can I have another go?
Starting point is 00:05:21 I am the very model of a modern major general Of information, vegetable, animal, and mineral I quote the facts of England and I know the facts of story From animal and auto-luminal auto-petro-valuable Ah, great! Almost. And it wasn't even a song he did in the show. No, but I always wanted... You know, everyone wants to play Fagan in Oliver
Starting point is 00:05:39 and they want to play the major general in that. I always got the leading man role. You know, always always which is like oh you know old guys go oh god oh god oh god you know like oh is there not one maiden breast you played frederick yeah frederick you know i was good at it because it's like uh Yeah, the Frederick. You know, I was good at it because it's like the director led me to a person that I could be, you know, in the play. So it was okay.
Starting point is 00:06:11 I'm sorry I didn't see you. I saw the first one with Kevin Kline in the Duronstadt. But you replaced… Rick Smith. Rick Smith. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you did it with Jim Belushi and Pam Dauber? Jim Belushi.
Starting point is 00:06:22 Do I have that correct? Yeah. Jim Belushi. I didn't do it with Pam. I can't. I did it with Maureen McGovern. Was it Ma Do I have that correct? Yeah. Jim Belushi. I didn't do it with Pam. I can't. I did it with Maureen McGovern. Was it Maureen McGovern? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:29 On Broadway. Yes. Fantastic. Got to be a morning after. Yeah. There's got to be a morning after. Yeah. My mom's favorite song, that.
Starting point is 00:06:39 And Let's Twist Again. Oh, both good choices. Yeah. Okay, sing a little of Let's Twist Again. Let's twist again like we did last summer. Come on, lads. Shake, both good choices. Okay, sing a little of Let's Twist Again. Let's twist again like we did last summer. Come on lads, shake it up baby. That's my mother.
Starting point is 00:06:53 She thought it was cool to say the words. Shake it up baby. Oh, I can't get enough of that funky stuff. Well, there you go. She was from Liverpool and they were all kind of dropped.
Starting point is 00:07:13 Now, I just heard a story yesterday that you told. Well, you were working at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. As a lad. What? As a lad, I was there. It was called. Yes. It was called. And the Beatles at the same time.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Yeah, well, they were in another room. Yes. And I always, I was so young and naive that I thought I could just walk over and be one of the boys. So I'd see like John lennon coming out of the thing and i'd sort of ease over towards him you know like and i go uh hello john there you go who are you and i'd say oh stop it stop it okay her. And I said, what are you lads doing here? And he go, recording. So mean. When I first met him, he was like, I was a big fan of the Beatles,
Starting point is 00:08:21 but I got to be in the same room of them as they were often because I was in a band as well so you'd think that because you're in a band that they would accept you as one of the boys but I so I was standing we did Top of the Pops and and I I feel like I know them because I've seen them so many times and not actually spoken to them I'm standing there like and he goes uh nice suit hermit he always called me hermit which really was jarring nice suit hermit oh thank you do they make it in your size and i quickest rep r2 was not my thing but, yeah, and my tailor can make collars too.
Starting point is 00:09:09 He's got these stupid jackets with no collar on. And I think that was endearing to him. Somebody who had the balls to give him something back. And the next time I see him, it's like, I get in a lift, an elevator, and I've gone to this place because I know he goes there. It's called the Adlib Club. And it's like a private club and it's just drinking and lots of pretty girls. And I was famous for having lots of pretty girls in my entourage.
Starting point is 00:09:38 And I think that was also an attraction too. And Herman, Hermit, had a lot of attractive young girls with him. And so I get in the lift at the Ad Lib Club and standing in the lift is Terry Doran, who's this hard, like dangerous man from Liverpool, who's also John Lennon's manager. Mind a hard, John Lennon's manager, mind a hard, keep away from my boy here. Don't come anywhere near this. And he talked like, don't start trouble here. And John had showed up in like a psychedelic painted Rolls Royce.
Starting point is 00:10:22 It's that very inconspicuous, you know what I mean? Not under the radar at all so and I get in the lift and we go up and we get out and I'm 17 I'm not even allowed in this club but I'm with one of the Beatles so nobody questions I'm not with them I just have to enter at the same time as them so I get in and I'm stuck I'm standing in this like nightclub and John Lennon feels sorry for this kid who's sort of stood there by their table. He says, the last one to sit down is an egg. Which I don't know what that means, but I mean, I'd never wanted to be an egg,
Starting point is 00:10:58 so I guess I should sit down. So I sat down. I sat down and this woman comes over, this cocktail waitress. Woman, she was probably 22. But when you're 15, 16, 17, 22-year-olds are like old people. And she comes and she looks me straight in the face. And she knows I'm not 18.
Starting point is 00:11:18 And she says, there's a two-drink minimum. Like, you probably can't afford to have a drink here, can you? There's a two drink minimum so John says Grace I'll have
Starting point is 00:11:29 two Bacardi's and he'll have two Cokes so she comes over like because he's one of the Beatles you can't refuse him
Starting point is 00:11:36 so he comes over and he does that magic trick where he gives me one of those little bottles
Starting point is 00:11:42 those airline size bottle Bacardi's and takes one of my Cokes and I those airline-sized bottle Bacardis, and takes one of my Cokes. And I sat there and had a Bacardian Coke. And I said, I'll get the next ones. I'll have two Cokes and he'll have two Bacardis, please. And I became like a drinking power.
Starting point is 00:12:01 Your first drink. Well, it wasn't my first drink. Believe me, I was already pretty good at drinking. I thought there was a competition going on and that you could only win. And at Abbey Road, one time you were looking at a recording that the Beatles made.
Starting point is 00:12:20 Oh, yes. Oh, that's a fun story. I stupidly... I thought they wanted an opinion and uh i almost got myself beaten up because it came to this bit in this i'm standing like oh carl listen as a kid you know i'm very naive and it's very it's you get much more done if you pretend to be even more stupid than you actually are and i so said, we were kind of in a band, so you think that all bands want to share stuff.
Starting point is 00:12:49 So he says, can I listen to what you're doing? Like thinking they'd say, well, let's listen to yours first. You know, I'll show you mine if you show me yours. So he said, okay, okay. And I step in this door and there's like, I mean, it's actually absolutely, it's all unbelievable stuff. But I think,
Starting point is 00:13:09 they'll think more. They'll think I'm much smarter than I really am if I say something critical. You know what I mean? Like, oh, you're not leaving that
Starting point is 00:13:19 in, are you? And they basically threw me, physically, like held me, pushed me against the wall and open the door and push me out oh my gosh we didn't want to fuck this and i'm out and but then there was also a time you saw your name like they had written a song oh yeah a beatle song just for you there's lots of stuff happened it wasn't even called abbey road You saw your name like they had written a song. Oh, yeah. A Beatles song just for you. There's lots of stuff happened.
Starting point is 00:13:49 It wasn't even called Abbey Road then. It was on Abbey Road. It was called Manchester. So it's called EMI Studios. And so everybody's getting a song written. Cilla Black has got a song written for her. And she's Tommy Quickly. Billy J. Kramer. Billy J. Kramer. And the foremost, everyone's getting a song written for her and she's Tommy Quickly and Billy J. Kramer and the foremost. Everyone's getting a song written.
Starting point is 00:14:07 Everybody from the scene that I'm from has had a song written by Lennon and McCartney and they're all bloody number ones. Everything that they do is like even Cilla Black's bad songs are being number one because John Lennon has written them. So I'm thinking as I go in there and see
Starting point is 00:14:24 oh my god, look fellas, look, fellas, look. Look, they've written a song for me. And they go, what, where? And there's all these boxes with song titles on it. Look, look, for noon. And it was for no one. Good try. Can you believe that?
Starting point is 00:14:44 I read the rude word noon. It's an honest mistake. No one. And of course, it was much better than the song that they never wrote for me. Tell us about seeing them for the first time. It was kind of... Was in the field near your grandmother's house? Exactly.
Starting point is 00:15:01 How do you know this stuff? So what happened was me and this guy called Alan Wrigley. can i swear on your show yes we insist please i don't normally swear but it's part it's in it has to be in his words so we're practicing and we go and we can hear someone else practicing in the distance and you know in those, every street had like at least three groups and 11 guitar players. Every street in Manchester, every street in Liverpool, every street in Newcastle had at least 11 bands. It's like New Jersey today. So, and we can hear this and it's like ding, ding, ding. Who's that?
Starting point is 00:15:43 So me and Alan Wrigley get up and and we go looking following the sound it's another group somewhere and we cross a field and then in the next field across on a stage that is about 18 inches high the Beatles are doing what we thought was practicing but it was a sound check because they were only practicing the words one two one two and and it's the Beatles practicing so we go oh it's the Beatles you know we've seen them live before but we've never seen them with this new drummer who's on a bit of the stage that's even higher than the band so called a drum riser but we'd never seen one like that only big time drummers added things oh what who does he think he is you know sydney stapleton or something so so we said we
Starting point is 00:16:34 stay we're going to watch the beatles and and they come on stage and they're in their first song i can't remember even what the song was but halfway through the song this bass player he was the bass player in this new group that we just put together, Pete Novak and the Heartbeats. And he's looking at the band and I'm looking at the band and we've never seen anything quite like this. And he goes, Pete, what? We're fucked. It's over. He wants to quit show business because he's seen the future doesn't include anything that he's ever going to be. He knows in his head that if he practices every day
Starting point is 00:17:11 for the next 35 years, 11, 12 hours a day, he's not going to be as good as any one of those Beatles. So he quits the business. That minute, that is the last you ever see of him with a guitar. And I'm inspired. I'd love to be in a band who have fun with each other like that.
Starting point is 00:17:30 You know, these guys that I've got in my band, they're not really that fun. Look at the way the Beatles interacted with each other. And they're like singing. He was just 17. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then John Lennon is the lead singer of this band, this part of the Beatles thing. The lead singer is this guy called John Lennon.
Starting point is 00:17:51 And at the end of the show, he steps off the stage to the right and he talks to boys. There are boys in the audience. No one's ever seen a band who have boys who are fans. It's the beginning of that bit where i think the fabian thing you know this pullover that you gave to me isn't really hitting a home run with any boys you know because they don't those kind of boys haven't been born yet who want a pullover from a guy so that's interesting yeah so there's this new thing that like rock and roll thing where rock
Starting point is 00:18:29 people can connect with boys in the audience because he's standing at the side of stage talking to like a bunch of 15 year old boys because he knows that they're gonna need a following if they're gonna be a big band and And I go, wow, that's incredible. Because the only people I know who do that are like the Everly Brothers. You go backstage and hang around the stage door. The Everly Brothers come out and Phil is nice to everybody and Don's kind of quiet, but they talk to all their fans.
Starting point is 00:18:58 Yeah, yeah, thank you for coming. And I go, wow, they've got all that package and look. So they were polished entertainers. and I go, wow, they've got all that package and look. So they were polished entertainers. They were stilted. It is scary because they had everything, kind of what you would call perfection.
Starting point is 00:19:16 All the vocal, you know, they didn't have monitors. Right. There was no, they just played with each other. It was like one total thing. It's inexplicable really, but there was so much joy amongst them on the stage that you say, I'd love to be in a situation like that where I like all the people, and when they play a bum note, everyone laughs.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And there's all this kind of joy going on, like a soccer team winning the cup kind of vibe. And for young boys, that was very inspirational. And the girls all liked it because they were all cute guys and they had non-rock and roll names. Remember, it was like George. They were names. Everyone was called Elvis and Billy Fury
Starting point is 00:20:02 and Adam Faith and Georgie Fame. And here's these guys like George Harrison. Sounds like a working man. Sounds like a potato digger almost. You know what I mean? So I say potato digger because my parents only went to England because they couldn't find a potato where they lived. So they swam.
Starting point is 00:20:22 Yeah, so it was a very refreshing time in the music business because they changed all the rules about lighting and spotlights and and choreography because until then all british bands had a couple of steps that they did the shadows and johnny kidd and the pirates would like and they'd had they've had choreography here's these guys who just say, we got all these tunes that we'd like to show you how they're supposed to be played. And we can smile during all these songs because we truly enjoy music.
Starting point is 00:20:55 You know, we're not playing to anybody else's rules. We've just created this new thing and we've been in Germany playing to a bunch of assholes for ages and ages and ages who don't even look at us when we're playing they just come for a bevy and here we go look at this
Starting point is 00:21:10 these people look at look their audience they're coming to the front of the stage and look those two idiots at the back who are going to quit show business because we're that good and it was a magic moment and it was in a field it was called the Urmstead it was Abbotsford Park which is a little park in Urmston,
Starting point is 00:21:26 which is no one's ever heard. It's where the River Mersey begins is in this little town, Urmston. Where your grandmother first put you up on stage. Same place. That's where we lived. I lived with my grandparents. My parents are from Liverpool,
Starting point is 00:21:38 but my parents were at university when I was a kid. Me and my sister lived with my grandparents because my parents, there was this thing called the war that ended in 1945, that one. We've always had one goal. We've always got a good war going somewhere. So my parents were in it
Starting point is 00:21:53 and my mother was sent to the countryside because they were bombing Manchester because they thought there was stuff in Manchester and Liverpool. They were bombing it and they sent the women and the children out into the thing and they put all the guys, because they thought there was stuff in Manchester and Liverpool. They were bombing it. And they sent the women and the children out into the thing. And they put all the guys, they gave all the guys a bayonet and sent them off there.
Starting point is 00:22:11 You know, off you go. My dad was in the Air Force and he was gone. And then at the end of the war, like about 1953, they tried to recover all these people's lives that had been destroyed, you know, just messed up with the war. So my dad went back to Edinburgh University. and i can't remember what his degree got my mother went to cambridge and lots of the people in my neighborhood in manchester and liverpool live with their grandparents it was just part of the culture and you know there's no better person to live with than your grandparents because they're usually deaf
Starting point is 00:22:41 they're usually deaf. They're deaf and they go to bed at nine o'clock and they sleep. They sleep without any ambient or anything. They just go to sleep. So you can bring girls in. You can sleep with girls. You can have a drummer in the living room playing as loud as John Bonham
Starting point is 00:23:01 and they don't wake up. What was this I heard about your grandmother burning someone's house down? Oh, don't. She never did it. She just wanted people to believe it was her. Okay. She never did it. People believed her.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Watch out for that Noon family. They're crazy. They're crazy. She's from Ireland, you know, and she's crazy. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast, but first, a word from our sponsor.
Starting point is 00:23:31 You know, it's funny when you said about the joy of the Beatles, because it reminds me like old, like the cool rock stars snarled. They all had an angry look on them. Yeah, yeah. It just, it was different. They all had an angry look on them. Yeah, yeah. It just, it was different.
Starting point is 00:23:50 They weren't, it was Elvish. You know, they had odd names. They were not names that normal people had. They were sort of put on a pedestal and idolized. Beatles had the opposite kind of vibe. You didn't need to idolize them. You just wanted to be one of them. And yesterday, Frank sent me a clip I had never seen before. of vibe you didn't need to idolize him you just wanted to be one of them interesting and yesterday frank sent me a clip i had never seen before and i knew it was going to be a clip that i would like
Starting point is 00:24:12 okay you were uh herman's hermits were playing in front of the royal family oh yeah i knew you'd like that clip oh absolutely i knew i said do you remember this he knows was it london palladium yeah yeah herman's hermit performing if i were a rich man can you believe it and we didn't know that that was not appropriate i sent it to paul shaver how about we did name you guys and you know what's right it was the i I called when I saw it recently I didn't know there was a time I didn't know they even recorded it I know they televised stuff but BBC dumped all that
Starting point is 00:24:53 stuff a long time ago they sold the tapes to someone so I didn't know it existed and I watched it and I had to call all the hermits you know I don't speak to them often I call them I said Carl have you ever seen that Royal Command performance that we did? I said, no.
Starting point is 00:25:14 I said, you've got to watch it on YouTube. I said, let me just ask you a question. When we did it, did anyone come up to you, like your mum or one of the managers or anybody? Did anybody come up to you and say, bloody hell, man, I didn't know you could do that. You were brilliant. And he goes, no, no one said that. I said, well, let me tell you now. I just watched it.
Starting point is 00:25:38 You were brilliant. They were not dancers. They didn't do choreography. We sat for four weeks. We hated every minute of it. dancers they didn't do choreography we sat for four weeks we hated every minute of it we hated because they were trying to change us into from this kind of punk band into what we thought was the bachelors which was a mom and dad's kind of cabaret band and the guy who put that show together and did all the choreography had done the bachelors you know ramona i hear the mission
Starting point is 00:26:03 bells are calling. All that stuff, you know, which we didn't want to do any of that. We were not caro me or mine or anything. We were the opposite of that. We were like, you know, woke up this morning feeling fine. You know, that was our thing. And I couldn't believe it. I think we were brilliant. And it was the Queen Mother.
Starting point is 00:26:22 And I didn't know much about any of that. I'd seen the coronation. And I remembered for the coronation, we were all at my school. We were given a banana. We'd never seen a banana before. This is all going through my head as I'm singing If I Were a Rich Man. There's a Queen Mother. That's the Queen's mum.
Starting point is 00:26:45 And do you remember 1953, for the Coronation Street, they came for the school and they gave all the kids a banana. And some teacher explained how this was the perfect package. It had a peel and you just peeled it off and ate the insides and then you threw away the package. And God, this school is called the English Martyrs, by the way, and God had packaged this so well that they could ship it from what we don't know where it came from this banana probably Panama who knows
Starting point is 00:27:12 we don't know but we peeled it you know I mean and we ate and it was like this is a memorable thing for English people because fruit was non-existent my mom and dad had a ration book and my dad used to trade his petrol ration for cigarettes. That's all I can remember. And I remember every Friday night, we'd get a quarter pound of chocolate caramels on the ration book. And that was a big deal, chocolate caramels. Now I buy them in the hotel and eat two boxes. You know, they've always got them.
Starting point is 00:27:43 So that was all from World War II. Yeah. From having the ration. Everybody was from World War II. I used to run into John's dad. And I'd say, you know, of course he slammed the door in your face because, you know, it's his drinking talk.
Starting point is 00:27:58 Yeah. Getting pissed, it's called. And when you get pissed, you have great information to fix other people's problems you know so i'm pissed you know i was kind of normal that you've oh piss means drunk in england and so so uh i'm drunk and i you know probably you know deserted him and and running off to see and not coming back would probably hurt his feelings. Leaving him with his anti-mimi,
Starting point is 00:28:32 you know, I'd be disturbed by that. I mean, my parents went away, but at least they went to university, didn't go sailing around the world. And he said, well, you've got to understand, Pete, you've got to understand that it was boring being at home. What do you mean, boring? Well, yeah, it was boring being at home what you mean boring well just boring you know when you're on the ship with the sailors you can play cards and you can drink all night and you go you should have been in a band so so john lennon's father was explaining to you why he
Starting point is 00:29:04 no he was sad because he was sad he was sad because he'd gone out to John's house. He was regretful. And he couldn't understand that John wouldn't deal with him. I see. Fred was trying to be a pop star. He was like, I think you're Tom Jones' manager. Gordon Mills? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:20 It was like managing this Beatles dad. Wow. And now I want to put you on the spot again. No, it's called tear. We're Irish people. We're all Irish, all those people in rock and roll in England. They've all got some Irish virus, and we were all getting drunk and sharing our secret.
Starting point is 00:29:40 Every family has a secret. My grandmother burnt people's houses down. That's a secret. Gil, you were's houses down. That's a secret. Gil, you were close to your grandmother. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She lived to 104. When did she go deaf?
Starting point is 00:29:54 Very early. Yeah, see, if you live with your grandmother and they're deaf, you don't have to communicate that much. You know, they make sandwiches and everything. I got to put you on the spot again. I need to hear a little of If I Were a Rich Man. If I were a rich man. All day long I'd giddy giddy gum.
Starting point is 00:30:18 If I was a wealthy man. Oi! I wouldn't have to work hard. That's no material. I didn't realize to work hard. That's new material. I didn't realize that was really politically incorrect, especially in front of the Queen Mother. In this life, one thing counts in some... I mean, it's all wrong.
Starting point is 00:30:36 It's new material for the show, Pete. You know, that was the only time I've ever done that. It's on YouTube. Everybody can see it. Fiddler on the Roof. Herman Sh see it. Fiddler on the roof. Herman Shurmich's Fiddler on the Roof. And Jerry Herman. You loved it. I knew he would.
Starting point is 00:30:50 I did. Yeah, when you had your arms connected. Like Greek dancing men. Yes. Yes. We hated every second of it. It was fucking great. And you know what's great?
Starting point is 00:31:05 The hermits were like counting. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And they'd never, ever, ever done a dance step. That was great. And they were great. And they're faultless. I go, look, I go, nobody makes a mistake.
Starting point is 00:31:23 And this is live. And there's another band playing the music. We'd never done that before. We have to listen to someone else playing. Before, we'd always accompanied ourselves. We were not used to having that. And they were in a pit, and they hated us, the guys in the pit. They were looking at us, oh, gee, look, that crap.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Well, I advise everyone to watch Herman's Herm's on youtube how did you work i thought it was great gilbert i knew he'd love it how did your working class parents feel about you entertaining the royal family you know i mean that must have been one of my greatest regrets is i never ever said to my parents i'm happy that you're proud of my work. You know what I mean? I never thought to use, I never went home and said, hey, dad, what do you think of that?
Starting point is 00:32:11 Thanks for, you know, getting me. I never thanked them for getting me into whatever place I got to. You know what I mean? My only regret is that I never thanked my parents properly for being, you know, letting me live with my grandmother. Which opened up kind of a lot of pressure and i i saw something paul just a second the queen
Starting point is 00:32:33 mother was cool because i i you know that line where you're standing and i'm sort of kowtowing it's the queen this is the royal family and i'm like a real loyal british citizen especially then and i'm i'm like bowing in front of her as if she's like you know jesus like big this is a big deal and and she she very kindly says um you had won the best dressed man in england twice and one of her relatives uh Anthony Snowden Lord Snowden had also tied with me one year I was like the coal best-dressed man of the year so she knew about the best-dressed man because it was part of her family that she goes that's a lovely suit and I said you know
Starting point is 00:33:22 the materials English but I had it made in France. It wasn't an English tailor. And she goes, oh, yes, your wife's from France, isn't she? And I was like, she must have read the bio before the show. Wow. That she knew that I was married to a Frenchman. Why? And she connected all the dots, and she was probably 80.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Did her homework. Yeah. And then I realized probably they all do their homework. Yeah, probably. Wherever they go. People briefing them. Yeah. And I saw something.
Starting point is 00:33:59 I think Paul Schaefer was stalking to you. Stalking me. Yeah. Yeah, stalking you. And you said they used to call you, I'll see if I'm pronouncing it correctly, a yuck with a Yiddish cup. Yuck.
Starting point is 00:34:14 A yuck. Yuck. I'm the yuck with the Yiddish cup because nobody knows how this happened. Nobody knows how this happened. Could you explain? I'm going to try and explain. In Manchester, there was a thing called the JLB, which was the Jewish Lads Brigade.
Starting point is 00:34:31 And there was a girl who went there. Her name was Wendy Herman. It's really weird. I'm not in Herman's firm. I used to go to the jail, Jewish Lads Brigade. And for some reason, nobody questioned me. What are you doing here? And the Jewish lads brigade was like people
Starting point is 00:34:47 young English Jewish boys who would fight if anybody started stirring up any more trouble. So it was very attractive to me, I'd like a fight, I'd fight for that, something worth fighting for, you know, instead of fighting over who gets the next drink, I can fight for something
Starting point is 00:35:04 that means something. So I'm friends with this and graham gouldman is a member harvey lisberg who's my manager eventually is they're all members of this sect this little place that i'm not even part but i'm a musician so i can play there and eventually i'm called herman so they think i'm So I can play there. And eventually I'm called Herman Sermit. So they think I'm the Yock with the Yiddish cop. They think that I'm smarter than I really am because all the newspapers are saying, the happiest millionaire, the luckiest millionaire, one hit record, and they've got a million pound deal from the label.
Starting point is 00:35:42 And I'm going to the news. No, no, no, no. It's a million dollars and I've got 11 partners. You know, I've not got the million. Because cup is... Head. Yach means I'm not Jewish.
Starting point is 00:35:56 And the Yiddish cup means I've got a Jewish brain. Oh, it's like a Goya Shapunim. Right, Gil? Yes. Yes. Exactly. How come you're all Schaefer, Guy? A Yiddish cup. a shaponim right gil yes yes exactly exactly shaper guy but yeah do i have that right there yeah it's like a compliment it means someone's smart for some
Starting point is 00:36:15 reason yeah for some reason i could speak yiddish better than most of the okay people i'm not going to do it anymore because i've forgotten most of it but i i do now i do bruno yiddish better than most of the people. I'm not going to do it anymore because I've forgotten most of it. Now I do Bruno Yiddish. And my wife is from Strasbourg where they speak a dialect and I can
Starting point is 00:36:41 make her fall on the floor laughing when I do when I speak German or Yiddish to her so you were able to speak Yiddish years ago yeah when I was a kid because I lived in this culture where almost a hundred percent of the people in the culture were were speaking Yiddish just happened to be that neighborhood that I was in because I I wanted to be part of theirs that that there was a band called the Mockingbirds which which Graham Gouldman was in which was my favorite sort of local band and they would they're the one that they'd made the first recording of For Your Love which was it we pre-recorded as well there was three versions there was the Mockingbirds then there was the theann's Hermits version and then the Yardbirds got it right. They had
Starting point is 00:37:26 the hit, For Your Love, and they would also do, they recorded Bus Stop which we did and then the Hollies had a number one with. We used to give all these songs to our friends. We never ever spoke to any of them ever again after we gave them the hit song. I was going to say, why did the Hermits record Bus Stop and For Your
Starting point is 00:37:44 Love but you didn't put it out. We didn't think they were singles. You didn't think they were singles? We tried to make singles. Every time we went in the studio, we were trying to make a single. And the ones that failed were called album tracks and b-sides. Mickey Most didn't think those were hits, those songs. We wouldn't have ever recorded it if he didn't think they were hits.
Starting point is 00:38:02 Yeah, I see. You wouldn't have wasted the money on tape. I see. He was a genius, Mickey Mouse, because he could make you believe. I'd be singing Mrs. Brown, You Got a Lovely Daughter. You never liked Mrs. Brown, You Got a Lovely Daughter. It was just we needed one more track for an album. I see.
Starting point is 00:38:18 Every song in our set list was already somebody else had made a record of it. So we can't do that. We can't do Roll Over, Bay Over. We can't do Reeling and Rocking. We can't do this because you can't do... So all the popular local songs were already recorded. So he said, what else have you got? I said, Keith showing that...
Starting point is 00:38:39 He said, don't worry, we can put it on the... We put it track three on side two of the album. No one will ever get that far. So he truly believed that, that people wouldn't listen to the whole Herman Salman. That's interesting. Yeah. That came from a Tom Courtney movie? A play. A play.
Starting point is 00:38:55 A televised play? You know what happened? It's a really odd story. There was a play written by, I've forgotten his name now, but a play. And Tom Courtney was in it. And Tom Courtney, during the opening segment, sang Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter. And Keith Hopwood, this guy who was in Herman's Hermits,
Starting point is 00:39:16 he had this guitar called the Gretsch Country Gentleman. And it had a damper on it, a Chet Atkins version. It has like a little, it's hard to explain on the radio, but it had a little damper that made it supposedly sound like a banjo. But banjo is open string sounding thing. So it's not, it wasn't clang, it was more and we were both watching this thing and we were both watching the play at the same time in different buildings and uh you know he was at his mom's house and i was at my grandma's house
Starting point is 00:39:49 that's like my tv was much louder than his so i could hear it and and they they sing this song at the beginning of this play and it's got that and i said and so i said keith you know did you see yeah yeah yeah that song's, that song's great. It's a great song. It's Tom Courtney. I think we should try and get a record. And, you know, we could use, that's the one place we can use that Gretsch country gentleman. He spent a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:40:15 I think it was 300 quid when 300 pounds was what the Beatles were getting paid for a show. So it was a lot of money, this guitar. And we work it out. And it is incredibly incredibly difficult to play mrs i've not met a guitar player who can play it as good as the 16 year old keith hotwood plays it on the record wow it is really that's cool it's intense and very difficult what you it's very difficult and we recorded it as a you know and, and some disc jockey in Philadelphia or something
Starting point is 00:40:48 played the song for 24 hours. But once upon a time, DJs could like change thoughts. Oh, sure. Oh, that comes up a lot on this show. Yeah, and we had to put it out. And we said, we're not putting that out as a single. That'll ruin our careers. You know, we've got more serious stuff than that.
Starting point is 00:41:04 We're like a punk band you know we want to sing a song like no milk today we want like you know songs like good songs about real things and so you never put that up he said he says he's got 400 000 advanced orders what day are you putting it out how quickly they have you heard gilbert's version of mrs brown you've got a lovely daughter no but i bet i'm going to the fear in this man's eyes gilbert they also can't see on the radio yeah can we do something good first oh you do whatever you want it's your show i was trying to segue into that Why do you want to do something good first? Okay, well we have time for both. It's a
Starting point is 00:41:48 warm up. Okay. Okay. We'll do Mrs. Brown. He's got his process, Peter. I don't want to... Have you written new words for it? No. Oh. No. Okay. You sure Jackie the Joke Man Marthling hasn't written you some rude script for it?
Starting point is 00:42:04 Do we have this queued up? Mrs. Brown looks older than she ought to. Are you okay with a karaoke background? Absolutely. Because that's all we've got. I love it. Here we go, Gil. Why don't you let Peter start, and then you'll pick it up from here.
Starting point is 00:42:17 I'll pick it up from tell her? Yeah. This way Peter will acquaint the audience. He will acclimate them to what it actually is Oh so I sing a bit You start us off Here we go Here goes nothing
Starting point is 00:42:33 It's pretty good Mrs. Brown You've got a lovely daughter Girls as sharp as her are something rare But it's sad She doesn't love me now She's made it clear enough It ain't no good to pine
Starting point is 00:43:06 Return ain't no good to pine. Return. And she wants to return those things I bought her. Tell her she can keep them just the same. Walking about. She doesn't love me now. She's made it clear enough
Starting point is 00:43:26 He ain't no good to pie You know the tune, Gilbert. Walking about Even in a crowd Well, you pick her out Makes the bloke feel so proud If she finds that I've been round to see her Tell her that I'm well and feeling fine
Starting point is 00:43:54 Feeling fine Don't lean on Don't say she's proud of her I don't know nobody's best No good to mine Walking around Even in a crowd You'll be in hell
Starting point is 00:44:21 Makes a bloke feel so proud If I'd have got a lovely daughter Lovely daughter Mrs Brown, you've got a lovely daughter Mrs Brown, you've got a lovely daughter Lovely Jordan! Wow. That would never have been a single. That should go on side two, track three.
Starting point is 00:44:58 But I'm really impressed with your knowledge of the song. So am I. You've obviously heard it before. At least twice. Oh, God, I hope your wife's deaf. Not a bad Gilbert Gottfried impression, Peter. Oh, really? I just shouted as loud as I could. That's all it is.
Starting point is 00:45:23 And I just didn't go anywhere Near the melody Or the rhythm You know One is where you want it It's like working with Ginger Baker You're just supposed to
Starting point is 00:45:34 Imagine where one is And if you don't know It's because you haven't Done heroin With me and Phil Seaman Yeah Beware Mr. Baker Beware
Starting point is 00:45:44 Gottfried singing. We might put you through another one later, but before I get off this track. What a lovely day we're having here. More vocals with Mr. Gottfried. You mentioned Elvis before. Do tell us about meeting Elvis. And you got to interview him.
Starting point is 00:46:00 Incredible. It was the worst interview. When are you coming to England? Also on YouTube. Oh dear, oh dear. You know what happened was we saw, we were in Hawaii, we had one day off. It says in the story that Peter Noon is meeting Elvis Presley on his day off from a 360 day tour. We were so young and stupid that our agents figured we had one more year left in the
Starting point is 00:46:26 business and to sell us every night everywhere. So we'd go France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Hong Kong. And we end up a day 196 with a day off in Honolulu because it's been a time change. We've earned a day. And in the hotel, we see Colonel Tom Parker, who to me is one of the most fascinating people on the planet. And he's got the cigar and the hat and the fake Texas thing going. And we coerce him into letting us meet Elvis, who is there making a movie. And there's a DJ called Tom Moffat who plans the whole thing.
Starting point is 00:47:09 He said, I can set it up, but you will say you're going to do an interview with him because he met the Beatles and he didn't have a really good time with them because he thought they were disrespectful. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I mean, that's just an aside.
Starting point is 00:47:22 So there's going to be nothing but maximum respect from Peter Noon, whose watch is now saying, have you fallen over? I don't know why. I have to say no, because otherwise it calls 911. So we get in this car. Peter's ignoring a warning on his wristwatch. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:43 Have you fallen over? Must have been that singing Hey, hey, hey Why was there an interruption? Because I'm missing a page Okay I need you to print up You're not going to sing an Elvis song, are you?
Starting point is 00:47:54 Something good Oh, yeah Well, they'll prep it for you In big print They'll prep it for you I know the words He's So they arranged to take us And we've got to be in the car at 5 a.m so me and barry the drum barry
Starting point is 00:48:11 whitwam the drummer from hermit's hermits stay up all night because when you're young you think if i stay up i'm definitely i'll be ready yeah i'll be ready at five o'clock otherwise the rest of the hermits all overslept they didn't make the five o'clock wake up thing that, you know, to me, Elvis, because they were tired, you know,
Starting point is 00:48:30 192 days on the road. So we, we get in this car and they take us up there. And the best part is Elvis punks us. They take us into this hut. It's all these Hawaiian huts. He's making a movie, Paradise Hawaiian style or something i
Starting point is 00:48:45 can't remember and we walk in and there's an elvis flat out on the floor uh face down as if he's just been out at a party with keith richards you know what i mean like a a wimp. Like done. Fixed. Like, oh, somebody has dropped him off there after a big night out, just taking him out of the taxi and throwing him in this hut. So we're standing there. We don't know what to do. And then Elvis walks in, and he looks like Elvis Presley, like the most beautiful guy I ever saw in my life. I go, he's in makeup, and he's ready to go for a movie.
Starting point is 00:49:25 So they've made him up and he looks like Elvis Presley. Wow. And I'm like in shock just from seeing him because he's this idol figure in my world. You know, like they've got statues of Jesus and St. Francis of Assisi, but we've got a statue at home of Elvis. You know, my sister is like a big Elvis fan.
Starting point is 00:49:42 And I don't know what to do, but I've got this microphone. I wish they'd stop calling me on my watch. Excuse me. So can you hear that? That's all right. So Elvis is there, and he goes, I put this microphone in front of him, and I say, my sister has a phone,
Starting point is 00:50:02 and I've called her from the Hawaiian hotel. Throw this bloody watch in the toilet, will you? So my sister, I called her. She lives in Liverpool and her husband works in Ellesmere Port in a car factory. And I've called her. I'm meeting Elvis Presley. Denise, can you believe it? I'm going to meet Elvis Presley. Wow, can you believe it? I'm going to meet Elvis Presley.
Starting point is 00:50:27 But I've got to ask him some questions. You got any good questions? She goes, ask him, does he dye his hair? And you did. So I look at Elvis and what's going through my head is I've got to introduce him. I've got to make this interesting. So I say, when are you coming to England? And he goes on this long lie kind of thing.
Starting point is 00:50:51 The reason he's not going to England is because Colonel Parker's got a bad hip and he can't fly. We don't know that Colonel Parker doesn't have a green card or an immigration statement. This only comes out 40 years later. So I'm listening to this story. Oh, shame about this thing, but all the time I'm looking at his hair. So my brain isn't working on all the questions that I've got. All that I go on, I'm like, he does dye his hair.
Starting point is 00:51:15 You can tell he dyes his hair. Also wears a lot of makeup, you know what I mean? Because he's on a movie set and his hair is perfect. And I look at him and I'm like, his clothes are perfect. I'm like, I feel like
Starting point is 00:51:28 this is the most beautiful, I didn't know I would ever find a man beautiful but this is one. I didn't know that I was going to go, wow,
Starting point is 00:51:37 this is really, this is like one of those moments like when I saw the Beatles in that field that you go, shit, this guy's got the whole thing,
Starting point is 00:51:44 he's got the whole package and He's got the whole package. And he's funny. He's making, you don't know the part about Elvis. He's a bit of a character because they don't want him to do interviews. They want everybody to think he's like a truck driver, kind of, donk, hon-yon, hon-yon. But he's like being funny.
Starting point is 00:52:00 And I say, who's your favorite group? And he goes, oh, I like the Beatles and the Stones. And Herman's Hummets of course you know like that and all these clowns that he's got working for him who weren't around his friends who weren't around when he died you know like oh yeah he's been in the bathroom
Starting point is 00:52:17 for 11 hours perhaps we should go and check him out all these guys are there just laughing at everything he says and not laughing at anything I say. It's like a competition. Fools. And I'm friends with some of those guys still. Some of them were cool,
Starting point is 00:52:32 but their job was to make everything Elvis did better and more funny than it really was. What are you, 16 at this point, 17? 17, yeah. It's really, really nice. Your questions are so cute. People can see it it's online is it yeah yeah the whole thing is there yeah you know it's that's the great thing about
Starting point is 00:52:50 the internet things that you thought were covered like my grandmother burning down houses well listen i had to write that one down we will return to gilbert gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. What did you find out about the Colonel? What disgusting... Well, you know, I stayed friends with him because I was interested in him as a character. Once I'm doing a gig in Las Vegas, and he lived at the Las Vegas Hilton. In his final five years, he lived at the Las Vegas Hilton. In his final five years, he lived at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Starting point is 00:53:26 He had a room there. And he would be found in the lobby taking groups to see the Elvis suite, charging $20 or something, and all day on a $5 poker machine. He was a big gambler. So perhaps that's why they gave him a room there. But he was a character, and so perhaps that's why they gave him a room there but he was
Starting point is 00:53:45 a character and he had lots of fun stories you know about being being in a circus and finding his way to texas because you could in texas you could play poker with money on the table if you had a hotel room so he obviously got off a ship from rotterdam in norfolk virginia roanoke found his way to d Dallas and played cards and was not successful and ended up on the road and, you know, found himself in a circus. And he would tell the story that they said, come and see the animal.
Starting point is 00:54:15 And I said, get yourself, put animals up there. And they said, well, they were from Hungary or something. I said, well, we've only got one animal. They were being honest, you know what I mean? He says, well, we'll just throw a bucket of paint on it, put a different girl on it and take the animal, take the elephant around the building, bring it back in the other door.
Starting point is 00:54:35 It was brilliant. And, you know, he'd tell me stories like, you know, I'd say, you know, we ran into this union problem because British musicians had problems with the union in America. And I'm a union guy. My dad was in a union. I was in the union. So British musicians had problems with the union in America and I'm a union guy my dad was in a union I was in the union so I never had a problem and so he got a problem he said well what I what I used to do I can't do his accent but he said what I used to do is like if we'd run into that problem and they'd say you know he had a trio at the beginning Elvis Presley at the beginning had a trio like the most brilliant trio and the musicians you need to employ 12 people this is the rule of this
Starting point is 00:55:06 room is there needs to be 12 musicians paid and you'd make them play six in the ladies room and six in the men's room he would make them play if you're going to pay you you're going to play and that was kind of we don't know if it's true but it was a great anecdotal story about a union and and he was a character so i'd say say, I'm playing this gig in another casino. And it's Paul Revere and the Raiders and Peter Noon, Herman of Herman's Hermits. And he's charging the wrong money. I said, what?
Starting point is 00:55:37 It's $40. It's a good deal. He said, $39.95. I said, what's that? He said, people, there's a barrier at 40. Interesting. He still thought he was in the business. A businessman.
Starting point is 00:55:50 Yeah. Through and through. All the time, completely giving me suggestions on how to run my business, even though he was like an old geezer. And you knew, well, at least you hung out with Bob Delon. Well, only I didn't really hang out with him. I just would find myself sitting at a table next to him often, and Captain Beefheart and John Lennon. People would invite us because when you were a pop star in those days, you'd get invited to like a new group.
Starting point is 00:56:16 If somebody had a new group that they wanted to promote, they'd invite whoever was in town to come and be seen in the audience. Now it's Paris Hilton. But in those days, it was John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and that kid from Herman's Hermits. Maybe they won't let him in because he's only 17. But, you know, if he's with John Lennon, they'll give him a drink. So I would be sat next to him often.
Starting point is 00:56:39 It just was one of those people that whenever I came to New York, I had a friend in New York called Gloria Stavis, who was the editor of 16 magazine and she was the coolest woman i ever met she was like from another generation and powerful too very powerful yeah and and she would tell i'd come into town i didn't really know what to do and she said go to this place go to this place go to this place and one day i saw there she go she actually i go i'm coming into new york and she said go to this place go to this place go to this place and one day i saw there she got actually i go i'm coming in new york and she said don't bother what do you mean don't bother said your thing's all over i said oh you mean the monkeys oh no jim morrison alice cooper you're done that's a good friend isn't it
Starting point is 00:57:22 nobody knows who you are anymore the whole business business has changed, and it's now Alice Cooper and Jim Rohn. I remember the words. I go, who the hell is Alice Cooper? Some girl taking over the... And it was true. The business went overnight from being pop stars and Bob Dylan and Beatles and monkeys to that next level. It kept changing. Well, of course, and the Beatles themselves
Starting point is 00:57:47 and the British Invasion Acts knocked out a lot of those. Yeah. Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and a lot of their heroes. It was just disturbing. So cyclical. It was just disturbing to be told that my career was over and name the people who'd ruined it. What do you remember about coming to the states for the first time and and and entering uh
Starting point is 00:58:06 it was joining up with dick clark's review that i would suggest that any 15 16 year old boy has an experience like that because we saw the real america we were kids from you know provincial england had a taste of london and we get on a bus with Billy Stewart, Ike Turner, Little Anthony and the Imperials. We connected instantly with Little Anthony and the Imperials because we knew who they were and they knew who we were. And they'd been ours once before in a completely different culture. In our culture, people wanted to beat us up because we had different clothes and long hair. Are you a boy or a girl?
Starting point is 00:58:47 Always turned into a fight. We couldn't accept. What do you mean? Are you a boy or a girl? You know any girls with one of these? And then there'd be a big fight and stuff would happen. We came over here and we thought, whoa, this is a completely different. They knew who we were because they'd had that kind of stuff happen to them.
Starting point is 00:59:03 This is 65 when you came? late 64 or 65 yeah and you know we'd play in cities where you know our managers would say you should close tonight you should you know because when we started on the tour we were the opening act you know it was like it was like uh little anthony imperials bobby v freddy kennett and from england direct from England, Herman's Hermits, right? But by the halfway through the tour, we had three records in the top 20, and our manager's saying, you should close the show.
Starting point is 00:59:32 Sometimes we'd walk out onto the stage, we didn't know, we didn't know any better. We'd walk out on the stage, and it would be 100% black audience, and we'd have to sort of change the show. You know, we got Mrs mrs brown you got a lovely daughter coming up this is not going to work with this crowd you know being cute is not going to work after that somebody's just an it's all right it's all right it's all right with the splits and
Starting point is 00:59:55 everything now we're going to stand up like these wooden little english twerks you know following that so we just you know some nights we we better let Anthony go on after us. They were fantastic. They were so fantastic. And during that tour, Bobby V had this band called Myron Cohen and the Caddies. Terrible name for the band, the Caddies. Sounds like you're carrying someone else's gear, doesn't it? So halfway through the tour, this is a perfect experience for you. Sounds like you're carrying someone else's gear, doesn't it?
Starting point is 01:00:26 Halfway through the tour, this is a perfect experience for you. Halfway through the tour, there was this beautiful girl on the bus and round Robin, who is this guy from America, and Billy Stewart, who was this 380 pound fantastic person who I sat next to on every bus ride,
Starting point is 01:00:44 basically because he weighed 380 pounds, so seven I sat next to on every bus ride basically because I he weighed 380 pounds so seven eighths of the seat was taken up by him and I was last on the bus because I was doing the promotion so my arse my arse would fit into one eighth of the seat I weighed 110 pounds so between us with the 500 pound people so one day a round robin gets on the bus and fires a couple of rounds at billy's i don't know how he missed him because he was a 380 i would have i could have gunshots rounds yeah boom boom so i learned to how to eat cigarette ends and bits of pieces chewing gum wrappers that were on the floor of the bus. And that night, Dick Clark shows up and said, we're going to get you a station wagon like Bobby V. Because Bobby V was at a station wagon that we, and we'll get you a driver because we know you're not old enough to
Starting point is 01:01:36 drive. And we got, I call Randy, who drove us all around America. And we followed Bobby V. By the second day, Bobby V had introduced Herman's Hermits to a thing called the Cherry Bomb, which was a piece of dynamite packed in a cherry. So we would be driving behind all giddy little English schoolboys, you know, and out of the window of his station wagon would, this smoking thing that would explode and basically four out of five hermits would shit their pants. And I never did.
Starting point is 01:02:14 I never did. The glory days of rock and roll. But we were, of course, the first stop, first time we ever got to talk to Bobby V about what was this item that he just introduced us to. It was called a cherry bomb. And we said, where'd you get it? And he said, well, you can't get them in this state.
Starting point is 01:02:33 You can only get it when we go to Ohio. So we waited every day. Now we knew what was coming out the window. Every time the windows rolled down. And remember, windows rolled down slowly because there was a winder. You could see the window coming. Ah, here comes another one of those things and the next time we bought one and
Starting point is 01:02:50 one of the i think it was bobby keys the saxophone player bobby keys was in the stones i think he says you should try dropping it in the toilet see what happens of course with kids from england you know with kids from we don't know what's going to happen it blows the bathroom wall out oh jeez so yeah you know but we always we always once we knew that we always paid for the bathroom wall before we were honest i'm gonna make a segue here speaking of destroying bathrooms and explosions, tell us something about your friendship with Keith Moon. Well, we introduced him to the Cherry Bombs. Oh.
Starting point is 01:03:31 You know, every time we became the old-timers, so we'd bring the animals on tour, and we'd show them Cherry Bombs, and of course they used them, and eventually used them as weapons. But then we bought the Hollies and Wayne Fontana. And by the time they'd finished the tour, they knew all about the Cherry Bombs. And then we brought the Who over.
Starting point is 01:03:51 And, of course, they took it to the next level. They dropped it in soon so that it was way up into the plumbing system before it exploded. And you could take out a whole floor, really, with it. Keith loved that. And we were take out a whole floor, really, with it. Keith loved that. And we were there when he first did it. You know, it's like when they want to claim stuff, like he put the car in the pool. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:13 The people who were there would say, I defy you. Go to a holiday and try and get a car past the ice machine and the wall. There's no car can get through there. And they always had that white railing around. We thought of all that stuff, but you can't get a car in America in a pool. and the wall there's no car can get through there and they always had that white railing around we thought of all that stuff but you can't get a car in america in a pool it's it's safe for children was it was there a story about keith moon's infamous birthday party at the holiday inn it's a big story because in flint yeah remember we're english schoolboy twits
Starting point is 01:04:43 twit is short for nitwit, just so you know. I think of the Python sketch, the twit of the year. Exactly. So we were really twits, and we didn't have much going. We always ordered the same thing in a restaurant because we'd seen. If we went for a drink, we'd have whatever they were having. I'll have a Singapore slink. Me too.
Starting point is 01:05:01 Vodka, Jim. I'll have one of those. Because we didn't know anything. We only knew beer. So we didn't know. So the Who come and is having his 20... He says it's his 21st birthday party because he can drink if he's 21 in this state.
Starting point is 01:05:14 And he was already drinking. So he didn't make it legal. So this is my 21st birthday. So we order... We had this guy called Bob Levine who was our tour manager. From the very beginning beginning he was always there and his job was to go to the hotel manager
Starting point is 01:05:29 and negotiate for a room for us to destroy because we were nice people we wanted to pay we wanted to prepay for any damage you know so they couldn't say oh those hermits got blah blah blah
Starting point is 01:05:42 so he goes to the manager he says look I know this is unusual, but it's somebody's birthday party tonight, and they're going to destroy a room. Have you got a room that you're going to redecorate soon? And we'll use that room to minimalise the cost. So I remember the room.
Starting point is 01:05:58 It was downstairs, and it had one of those concertina doors on it, you know, those like a concert, the doors that go like that. And he said, just this side here. I remember standing there going, well, can't we have that? No, no, no, don't leave that room. We're just down there. And we negotiate to have this one room on the side of this half of a room. And we ordered 100 birthday cakes.
Starting point is 01:06:21 And I remember that when Bob Levine, this guy, was ordering, they said, well, they're not going to said, well they're not going to eat them. They're not going to eat them. And it's like so bizarre because it was like, suddenly we're in this room downstairs and everybody
Starting point is 01:06:37 is in their underwear. Just their underwear because they know that it's going to be a pie thing. It's a non-sexual pie-throwing orgy. With 100 birthday cakes. 100 birthday cakes. And they're all laid out ready for it. And, of course, Keith Moon walks in and gets it immediately,
Starting point is 01:06:55 and he gets down to his Y-fronts, and he throws the first cake. But then 50 cakes. Everybody throws a cake at him. Everybody is going gonna plaster him because it's his birthday and we've paid for the room so he's getting
Starting point is 01:07:11 all these cakes and he climbs up on the table because he was very he was a very fit guy and he climbs up on the table and he starts
Starting point is 01:07:18 throwing this cake and I don't know if you've ever thrown a cake while standing on a four mic I can't say that you've ever thrown a cake while standing on a four-miker. I can't say that.
Starting point is 01:07:26 He slipped, and he slipped, and he hit his face on the table like that. Boom. And he knocked his front tooth. He broke half of his front tooth off. Of course, we thought that was funny. Your bra has fallen on his face and fuck, he's bleeding. He's bleeding. Brian's falling on his face and fuck he's bleeding
Starting point is 01:07:43 he's bleeding and then it is a dangerous thing it's probably very painful and they come and there is road manager Chris Stamp gets him and they take him out
Starting point is 01:07:59 and they take him to a dentist and he's going to miss the next gig and we're all worried now like being he's going to miss the next gig. And we're all worried now, like being so professional, will he make the next gig? So we get him a helicopter and they fly him onto the next, send him a helicopter and pick him up all for his birthday, see? And that was the end of it really. And then what happens?
Starting point is 01:08:19 It gets a bit out of control and he's gone, but the party's not over. And we're all running around in our y fronts and some other men in the hotel say those guys look at all those girls they're having a load of fun let's join them so now complete strangers are joining us in their underwear and they're running around so we've run out of. So we take those fire hydrants off the wall there and start shooting them up, firing the fire hydrants. We don't know that that's poisonous and can make you go blind.
Starting point is 01:08:54 And they're chasing us with them. And it's going on all the cars. And that foam in those things takes the paint off all those cars. And God was thinking four Herm Herman's Hermits that night and our bankers because these men, it was their cars. We didn't have a car. We came on a bus and all the paint was gone off their cars, but they all worked for Mutual of Omaha Insurance.
Starting point is 01:09:23 That worked out. That worked out great for us. There were insurance men and their cars had been destroyed. Moon turned that to driving a car in a swimming pool. There was a lot of damage to cars, but none of them went in the pool. What a character.
Starting point is 01:09:37 He was so much fun. You know, and I was kind of, this is so pathetic. I was his minder, Moon and Noon, the Loon twins, because I was a bit crazy. And I would say, you I was his minder, moon and noon, the loon twins, because I was a bit crazy. And I would say, you know, his manager,
Starting point is 01:09:49 he had a really nice guy manager called Kit Lambert, who was a very gentle, nice human being. And he would say, would you do me a favor? Would you watch out for Keith? Because, you know, he gets in trouble every now and then. And he trusted me to look after him. So I took it upon myself and said, Keith, ever been water skiing?
Starting point is 01:10:11 So every day, wherever we were, we would find somebody who would take us water skiing. It was summer. And I'd take him water skiing, not knowing that water skiing with a bottle of vodka in one hand isn't really that good. But when you fall, you don't hurt yourself at least you're not falling on fort micah but every day we'd go there's pictures of me and keith moon
Starting point is 01:10:33 in fort lauderdale and all over america we'd find a place we'd get there at 10 o'clock in the morning i'd take it thinking that was how he got fit not knowing that drinking all day was not a good thing morning I'd take it thinking that was how he got fit not knowing that drinking all day was not a good thing because what I could do it so why couldn't he go ahead and and okay now before because there was an argument I didn't you know something good feeling fine something good yeah it's it's it's my is my song the one it's it's called I'm into something good is my song. It's called I'm Into Something Good. Wait a second. I'm Into Something Good.
Starting point is 01:11:12 After all those terrible stories, you're going to sing now? Yes, yes. And you're going to sing with me. Okay. He won't know the tune. I'm just giving you a fair warning, Peter. Oh, I know the tune really well. Maybe you can carry him.
Starting point is 01:11:24 You've sung it before? Let's sing it together. Oh, okay. With apologies to Carole King. Alright. Here we go. Here we go. Woke up this morning feeling fine. There's something special on my mind. Last night I met
Starting point is 01:11:44 a new girl in the neighborhood. Oh yeah. Something tells me I'm into something good. Take it. Go ahead, Gil. She's the kind of girl who's not too shy.
Starting point is 01:12:00 And I can tell I'm her kind of guy. She then comes to me like I hoped she would Oh yeah Something tells me I ain't a something good We only danced for a minute or two Then she stopped close to me the whole night through Can I be at falling in love? minute or two. Then she stopped close to me the whole night through.
Starting point is 01:12:27 Can I be at falling love? Cause she's everything I've been dreaming of. She's everything I've been dreaming of. I walked out and she held my hand. I knew it would be just a one night stand. So I asked a senior to
Starting point is 01:12:43 search my telephone. Just a one night stand So I asked the senior To shake his shirt To my head Tell her I feel like a Something tells me I'm into something good Wait a second I feel like Ginger Bacon now Let the guitar player go
Starting point is 01:13:03 Okay You just look in admiration over the guitar player. Here we go. More coming now. I walked home and she held my hand. I knew it would have been just a one-night stand so i had to say something tells me i'm into something good something tells me i'm into something good do one on your own something tells me i'm into something good do one on your own something tells me i'm into something good let me do one something takes me i made a good something good
Starting point is 01:14:03 that was marvelous. I never thought anyone could make me feel that musical. It's good. I come from a musical family and no one ever did that. Thank you for letting me share that with you. That was beautiful, Peter. You're a brave soul. I hope I can still sing like that tonight. Do I have time for five minutes of questions from listeners, Peter?
Starting point is 01:14:30 Yeah, go. Real quick. This is fun. This is fun for a change. Andrew Hirsch says, I don't have a question. I just want to thank Peter for making my uncle happy in his unfortunately short life. His uncle was a huge Herman's Hermits fan. Oh, well, that's good.
Starting point is 01:14:44 I hope Herman's Hermits made lots of people happy. Yes. Alison Ward says, In August of 1965, you kindly signed an autograph for a shy 15-year-old girl who was terrified to approach you in suburban Virginia. And now 55 years later, that same woman wants to know, what's the most outrageously forward thing a fan ever did to get your attention? Oh, I couldn't possibly tell you that.
Starting point is 01:15:07 Okay. You know, it's so funny. Last night, we went to the Philippines, and Mrs. Marcos had asked us to do a song that we didn't know. It was recorded by Herman Sermits, and we'd just been with the Beatles in England and I said we're going to the Philippines what's it like and John said just say yes to everything which we didn't know what that even meant oh so we got over there and they said Mrs. Marcos would
Starting point is 01:15:37 like you to sing one little packet of cigarettes and it's a it's the stupidest song. It is the stupidest, most ridiculous song. And it's about a guy who writes a girl's address on a packet of cigarettes. Whoever did something so stupid? A phone number. A phone number. An email address. Excuse me, I'm attracted to you. Could you give me your address?
Starting point is 01:16:05 No, never happened. But that's the song. And I've looked here and I've looked there. On the table, on the chair. I've looked up, I've looked down. And one little packet cannot be found. What a stupid idea for a song. I regret quite a few things in the songs, but that is one.
Starting point is 01:16:24 So we had to go in the dressing room and learn the song um we only played it once ever and i did it last night because somebody requested it uh somebody from the philippines requested wow wow second time in my life was last night and a lot of bad things a lot of bad things have been written on bits of tissue paper you know about a drink in them already but some wonderful things yeah they're mostly what they'd like to do with your little winky wanky woo tell us about to get let's let's get to the plugs you're still doing the serious show yeah i do it got it's on every Saturday. Every Saturday. Yeah, Saturday afternoon. 60s on 6, Sirius XM.
Starting point is 01:17:08 Yes, and it's called, ironically, after that duet, Something Good. Well, that was kind of good if you like that kind of stuff. And your dates, people can go to your website and find out where you're going to be. You're here at the Iridium in New York this week. Yeah, and I'm always
Starting point is 01:17:24 somewhere. Everywhere. Yeah, I do about 150 a a year you'll know what that's like the road is pretty good fun really 150 a year yeah wow it's it's crazy i do three a week i told my i told my agent i've only got 10 more years i keep saying 10 more years i've been yet but like at least 10 years i've been saying 10 more years it just started again today the 10 more years and i say i want to work every Saturday, book all the Saturdays. And when you've booked all the Saturdays, get me the Fridays.
Starting point is 01:17:51 And then when you booked all the Fridays, get me a pick up date on either end. Because then, you know, last night, my friend told me I should call my show the Peter Noon Solo No Band Per Diem Show so because you want to get you i want to keep my my men on the road um making money you know so you don't want to go out and get stuck in you know i see these all these bands out there stuck on the road that'll kill you getting stuck in you know some town in the middle of nowhere for three
Starting point is 01:18:25 days off so we don't take days off we go home i leave on thursday and i get home on monday every week i admire you my friend you're still out there doing it i still make people happy people think that there's something wrong with me for enjoying my job but i really do enjoy my i like my i'm lucky see it's always been about the songs my dad used to say it's all about the songs you see you know why don't you get someone good opening for you like the stones instead of that bloody freddie in the dream is that setting yourself up so it doesn't work like that dad this is now you're right it's all about the songs it's all about and i've got all those great songs of course i sing them and i'm so proud of them you know i go who who got the luck you know i once i was hanging this is like roy orbison said to me you know i said i gotta sing henry d says listen there's only about at the time there's only 20
Starting point is 01:19:19 acts in the world who can go on the stage for 45 minutes and only sing their own material and the people will know all the songs. Yes, that's... And I stupidly said, have you got 45 minutes? But it was, and then the Bee Gees came along and the Eagles, but for a while it was like the storm. It was about 10 people. It was really very few people, so I'm lucky.
Starting point is 01:19:43 I'm so grateful that I was there to make those records because other people made a load of we've made versions of songs like I said Bust Up For Your Love we should have had
Starting point is 01:19:52 the singles of those we just weren't good at picking songs you've made a lot of people happy for a long time and we thank you and we've wanted you here for a long time
Starting point is 01:20:00 and we're glad you're finally here I was looking forward to it I knew that he'd be a load of fun I wasn't so sure about you because I've heard the show. I knew you're the serious one,
Starting point is 01:20:09 but I knew he'd be a load of fun. I wasn't quite expecting... Am I too serious for you, Peter? No, no, no, but on the show when I listen to the podcast, you're kind of very sort of,
Starting point is 01:20:21 shall I say mature comparatively. I'll take the compliment. We want to thank Jackie Martling, our friend, for his role in finally nailing you down. We want to thank Carice, who's here, who's been very patient. Thanks, Carice. You should ask Jackie Martling to teach him the songs
Starting point is 01:20:39 instead of just the words. You've joined an exclusive club, we told you. Ron Dante, Tom James, Tommy James, Peter Asher he sang with. Billy J. Kramer was here. Oh, good. You're not the only one that suffered. Billy's a nice guy. They're all nice guys.
Starting point is 01:20:56 All those guys. I think probably one of the reasons they stayed in the business so long is probably because people like them. They're likable people. Good people. And Ron Dante. Come back and play with us another time. Not tomorrow.
Starting point is 01:21:07 I want to go home. Well, let me just do the wrap-up. So this has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre. And we've been talking
Starting point is 01:21:21 to a man who really should learn the lyrics to the Herman song. Because it's pathetic. If I'm here, I'm a professional. And I want to work with someone who fucking knows the music and the lyrics. Peter Tilly. I got stuck with that second verse same as the first. I just keep singing the same
Starting point is 01:21:46 words over and over and over. Go to Peter's website. Find out where he's going to be. He's a great entertainer. The show is wonderful. And this was a treat. See what I mean? Much more mature. Somebody's got to be a pro. Exactly. Thank you, Peter.
Starting point is 01:22:03 Thanks a lot, guys. Thanks. There's a kind of hush all over the world. Tonight, all over the world, you can hear the sounds of lovers in love. You know what I mean? Just the two of us and nobody else in sight. There's nobody else and I'm feeling good just holding you tight. So listen very carefully. Close some now and you will see what I mean.
Starting point is 01:22:47 It isn't a dream The only sound that you will hear Is when I whisper in your ear I love you Forever and ever There's a kind of hush All over the world Tonight all over the world You can hear the sound
Starting point is 01:23:15 Of lovers in love La la la la la la la La la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la So listen very carefully Closer now and you will see what I mean It isn't a dream The only sound that you will hear Is when I whisper in your ear I love you
Starting point is 01:23:58 Forever and ever There's a kind of hush All over the world Tonight All over the world People just like us Are falling in love Yeah, they're falling in love
Starting point is 01:24:21 Hush They're falling in love Shh

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