ABC (label)
09 February 2008 (released)
31 January 2009
There was a time when Herman’s Hermits were actually bigger than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones – true.
After Mickie Most found them playing the northern R&B circuit he cleaned up their act and set them loose on the British and world markets with a string of 'poptacular’ hits.
This DVD was recorded in Australia in 1966 and features most of their hits – 'Silhouettes on the Shade’, 'Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter’, 'I’m In To Something Good’ et al and of course 'No Milk Today'.
Peter Noone was at worst a fair vocalist and his good looks and charming asides always set the girls to screaming but his live performances were marred by the fact that he actually couldn’t hit all the notes that the songs covered and he seems to have an annoying habit of singing away from the mike making his vocals occasionally indistinct. However, when the band delved a little deeper into their roots they do turn out good versions of Chuck Berry’s ' Talkin’ 'Bout You’ 'What A Wonderful World’ and the band were probably a great deal more able than they were sometimes given credit for.
Watching the dancers around the stage is great fun – go-go dancing with clothes on – as is watching Noone fending off the occasional toilet roll as the 'kids’ threw them onstage as streamers. The adverts that intersperse this for Hiltons Stockings – 'Hi-Tops for shorter skirts’ - are highly giggleable and overall, as a historical piece or an example of pop music from a point in time when all was more innocent and less openly manufactured, this is a fine release.
The extras, as ever, are almost more interesting than the main film – the American TV special with all five of the band in space singing 'Leaning On A Lampost’ – yes that one – country style us absolutely bizarre and the documentary on the rise and fall of the band is pretty good as well.
Of course some of this is positively excruciating but that really was half their charm.
