The Music Muse Interview

Peter Noone As Songwriter

2012-01-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

HERMAN'S HERMITS

Peter Noone, who was lead singer in the Sixties band Herman's Hermits, did in fact play a role in writing some of the band's music, although none of the chart topping hit singles heard in the USA and I don't think any of the chart singles heard in the UK, either. Thanks to Tim Chacksfield, Spencer Leigh, Peter Noone, and Hermit Keith Hopwood I am able to use the 4 CD set titled: Herman's Hermits & Peter Noone--I'm Into Something Good: The Mickie Most Years 1964-1972 to document Peter Noone's songwriting contributions to Herman's Hermits music.

THE FIRST CD

On the first CD the only song I find that Peter Noone wrote is Take Love Give Love. It was the B-side to Just A Little Bit Better, in the UK, possibly the USA too, in 1965. I will venture a guess it was on the UK album titled Herman's Hermits.

CD TWO

The second CD lacks any songs penned by Peter Noone. That should tell you that even when you are one of the most successful bands in the world and the lead singer of that band, how little record companies care for your songwriting skills. Moving along now to CD 3! By the way, this 4 CD set is a great set of around 121 songs. Just needed better packaging in terms of notes and information.

CD THREE

Daisy Chain (Part 1 & 2), a solid pair of instrumentals was written by the team of Green /Hopwood /Lekenby / Noone or Herman's Hermits minus Barry Whitwam. My Lady, the B-side to My Sentimental Friend in the UK, was written by Peter Noone and David Most. A very lovely song, My Lady is! It's Alright Now was written by the team of Hillary / Most / Noone, giving Peter Noone his final songwriting credit on CD 3.

CD FOUR

Smile Please was written by the team of A. King / Peter Noone / Dave Most and is a very pleasant B-side single. Don't Just Stand There is another B-side single and was written by the team of King / Most / Noone /Spiro. It was the B-side of Lady Barbara, a great 1970 song, meaning it's heard more today on the 4 CD set than when it was out. Finally, Because You're There by the team of Gouldman / Noone / Lovigny is the last song with songwriting credits attributed to Peter Noone and he was a solo act by then. For those interested, Don't Just Stand There is by Peter Noone & Herman's Hermits, if you remember that odd configuration of the band, as Peter Noone and the band prepared to go their separate ways.

THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE

If the opportunity presents itself in the future, I hope to return to Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits music, the songwriting credits of bandmembers, the hit songwriters for the band like Graham Gouldman, and whatever tickles my fancy about Herman's Hermits. I don't have access to all the music Peter Noone has done as a solo artist, but I would like to take the album One of The Glory Boys, which I have access to and The Tremblers CD Twice Nightly to try to better cover Peter Noone's songwriting credits and skills. As I often say, the five members of Herman's Hermits fail to get all the credit they deserve for being talented, as individuals and a group. (I didn't catch the name of the person who brought up this topic, for I discovered the topic while checking my blog statistics, but I thank you. It is an important topic to many of us. Hope I have helped someone out there.)

BEE GEES OF THE NETHERLANDS: PUSSYCAT

2012-01-19T22:47:00.000-08:00

IN THE BEGINNING

One evening while wondering through music on YouTube I kept seeing this one video to click on. Rain by a band called Pussycat. Curiosity, it's said, killed the cat. What I found fascinated me. It was a Dutch/Netherlands band doing a kind of Pop-Country Music. Later, I learned, they were known as the Bee Gees of the Netherlands. As someone who grew up listening to the wonderful harmonies of the Everly Brothers, then later the Bee Gees, this trio of simple-looking, mildly amusing ladies, with their smooth harmonies, backed by an excellent band of gentlemen, was impressive enough. I began to search for more of their music. Could they equal this simple song I was watching them sing. I doubted it. Take a look at what I saw and heard.

MEMBERS OF PUSSYCAT

The band originally consisted of the three Kowalczyk sisters: Tonny Wille', Betty Drastra, and Marianne Hensen from Limburg, Netherlands. Other members of the band are Lou Wille', husband of Tonny, Theo Wetzels, Theo Coumans, and John Theunissen. Tonny became lead singer and still has a solo career, while her sisters have stopped touring. Almost all their hits were penned by Werner Theunissen, a brilliant Dutch songwriter. They rose to internatiional fame with a song called Mississippi, which went to # 1 in the U.K. in 1976, knocking ABBA off the top of the U.K. charts at the time.

(The song Mississippi is on YouTube, for now. EMI is forcing the song off YouTube over copyright issues. So, why post a song sure to disappear? Nevermind, that I bought a Greatest Hits CD by Pussycat, thanks to hearing Mississippi and other Pussycat songs on YouTube. It is a shame EMI and other record companies, songwriters, and sometimes bands are not wise enough to realize, they are doing more harm than good to their own income by banning music videos. I'll save this topic for another day.)

The following song is one that endured me to Pussycat forever. It is a beautiful song called My Broken Souvenirs. Why this song did not go number one worldwide, I will never know. However, that's just my opinion. This song stopped me in my tracks, as I played it over and over. Your turn to listen to one of the greatest songs America has never had the chance to hear, until YouTube.

BAND FOR A DECADE

Pussycat was to last from the mid-1970s into the mid-1980s, creating numerous hits during that time. Smile would be the band's only other chart song in the U.K. They were popular in a large part of Europe, particularly West Germany (before re-unification of East and West). I believe they also achieved popularity in South Africa, while never traveling to the United States. I watched a documentary on the band on YouTube, with sub-titles. In the documentary, they stated their reason for not coming to the United States. It was because they had little desire to do the constant touring grind, usually associated with touring in the USA. They tried to limit their concert schedule to 3 days per week, if I understand the documentary right. That's an interesting concept. It worked very well for Pussycat. Whatever fame or fortune there was to achieve under those circumstances, Pussycat achieved it! YouTube attests to their continued popularity right into 2012.

THEY COULD ROCK THE HOUSE TOO

The final musical post is called Teenage Queenie or Teenage Queeny, depending on your source. This song proves the band was more than a Pop-Country band. They could Rock the house too! When you realize Pussycat was never heard in the USA, then disappeared from the U.K., with only two songs charting, it is incredible to see on YouTube, how many quality songs Pussycat is responsible for. However, it's time to show you that last video, so you can see for yourself.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In the future, I will return to Pussycat. Hopefully, with more YouTube videos, to bring this Netherlands band more into the minds, hearts, and CD buying public's awareness. EMI would do well to promote this Seventies-Eighties band on YouTube, rather than remove the videos and music of Pussycat. There is no understanding the music business sometimes. Often it seems to be the enemy of its buying public. Thank you for joining me in getting to know Pussycat.

SOURCES

(My humble thanks to AAWillemsen for the videos posted here from YouTube. Without his videoposts, I would not own a Pussycat Greatest Hits CD today. In fact, I doubt I would have heard of the band. Please view his other YouTube videos and consider subscribing to his video music channel.)

Other sources for this post are Wikipedia and the documentary. I shall attempt to find the documentary, with subtitles, then update this post with that information. I had not originally intended to use the information, but since I did, I like to cite sources, whenever possible.

UK CONCERTS OF PETER NOONE

2012-01-18T23:44:00.000-08:00

Hope this proves helpful to Peter Noone fans in the U.K., in finding a concert to attend. I will add the names of the others on this tour, once I locate their names. (Their names are Peter Noone, Chris Montez, Brian Hyland, Brian Poole, with Vanity Fare serving as back-up band. That's a great line-up. The show is called The Solid Silver 60s.) Start marking your calendars. Also, at this time, thank you to all my readers in the U.K., Germany, and other parts of Europe.

03/03/12 Watford @ Watford Colosseum

TIME: 8:00pm.

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03/04/12 Southend-On-Sea @ Cliffs Pavillion

TIME: 4:00pm.

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03/06/12 Sheffield, UK @ Sheffield City Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/07/12 Buxton, UK @ Buxton Opera House

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/08/12 Grantham, UK @ Meres Leisure Centre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/09/12 Swansea, UK @ Swansea Grand Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/10/12 Barnstaple, UK @ Queens Theatre

TIME: 6:00pm.

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03/11/12 Croyden, UK @ Fairfield Halls

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/13/12 Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/14/12 Birmingham, UK @ New Alexandra Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/15/12 Worthing, UK @ Assembly Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/16/12 Tunbridge Wells, UK @ Assembly Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/17/12 Dartford, UK @ The Orchard Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/18/12 High Wycombe, UK @ Swan Theatre

TIME: 8:00pm.

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03/20/12 Southsea, UK @ King’s Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/21/12 Reading, UK @ The Hexagon

TIME: 8:00pm.

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03/23/12 Folkestone, UK @ Leas Cliff Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/24/12 Saint Albans, UK @ Alban Arena

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/25/12 Leeds, UK @ Grand Theatre

TIME: 4:00pm. 2 shows 4 and 7 pm

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03/27/12 Bournemouth, UK @ Bournemouth Pavillion

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/28/12 Torquay, UK @ Princess Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/29/12 Northhampton, UK @ Royal and Derngate Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/30/12 Kings Lynn, UK @ Corn Exchange

TIME: 7:00pm.

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03/31/12 Southport, UK @ Southport Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/01/12 - 03/31/12 Milton Keynes, UK @ Milton Keynes Theatre

TIME: 4:00pm. 2 shows 4 and 8 pm

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04/03/12 Gateshead, UK @ The Sage

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/04/12 Stoke- om – Trent, UK @ Victoria Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/05/12 Hull, UK @ Hull New Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/06/12 Manchester, UK @ The Bridgewater Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/07/12 Darlington, UK @ Darlington Civic Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/08/12 Skegness, UK @ The Embassy Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/10/12 Cheltenham, UK @ Cheltenham Town Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/11/12 Crawley, UK @ The Hawth

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/12/12 York, UK @ York Barbican

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/13/12 Llandudno, UK @ Venue Cymru Llandudno

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/15/12 Blackpool, UK @ Grand Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/18/12 Oxford, UK @ New Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/19/12 Basingstoke, UK @ Anvil Arts

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/20/12 London, UK @ Cadogan Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/21/12 Chatham, UK @ Central Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/22/12 Weston Super Mare, UK @ The Playhouse Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/24/12 Bristol, UK @ Colston Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/25/12 Cardiff, UK @ St David’s

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/27/12 Derby, UK @ Derby Assembly Rooms

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/28/12 Salisbury, UK @ Salisbury City Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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04/29/12 Wolverhampton, UK @ Grand Theatre

TIME: 4:00pm.

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05/01/12 Halifax, UK @ Victoria Theatre

TIME: 7:00pm.

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05/02/12 Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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05/03/12 Dundee, UK @ Caird Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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05/04/12 Aberdeen, UK @ Music Hall

TIME: 7:00pm.

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05/05/12 Inverness, UK @ Eden Court

TIME: 5:00pm. 2 shows 515 and 830 pm

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05/06/12 Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Playhouse

TIME: 7:00pm. final uk show for 2012!!

Website: Click on Peter Noone.

RANDY VANWARMER: An Unfinished Life (Part3)

2012-01-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD NIGHT

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,

’Tis summer, the children all play,

The corn top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom

While the birds make music all the day.

The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,

All merry, all happy, and bright:

By’n by Hard Times come a knocking at the door,

Then my old Kentucky Home, good night!

Chorus:

Weep no more, my lady,

Oh! weep no more today!

We will sing one song

For the old Kentucky Home,

For the old Kentucky Home, far away.

They hunt no more for the possum and the coon

On meadow, the hill and the shore,

They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,

On the bench by that old cabin door.

The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart,

With sorrow where all was delight:

The time has come when old friends have to part,

Then my old Kentucky Home, good night!

Chorus:

The head must bow and the back will have to bend,

Wherever the weary may go:

A few more days, and the trouble all will end

In the field where sugar-canes may grow.

A few more days for to tote the weary load,

No matter ’twill never be light,

A few more days till we totter on the road,

Then my old Kentucky Home, good night!

Chorus:

HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears

While we all sup sorrow with the poor:

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;