With his thick head of hair and boyish charm, Peter Noone was the kind of teen idol who could have been compared to a Justin Bieber or a Harry Styles of his day. But there was one major difference between Noone and the modern heartthrobs who came after him: by the time he was 19 years old, he was already sitting in his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
The Making of a Teen Sensation
Noone skyrocketed to stardom in his teens as the frontman of Herman’s Hermits, a band that became one of the defining acts of the 1960s British Invasion. The group toured both America and Britain and landed their first No. 1 hit in England in 1964 with “I’m Into Something Good.”
“Herman’s Hermits sold millions of records before anyone even saw us, which just doesn’t happen now,” Noone recalled. “I didn’t know what I was doing: my stage persona was a shy little boy, which is basically what I was.”
The band released more than 20 hit records and even outsold the Beatles in 1965. Their biggest hits included “I’m Into Something Good,” “No Milk Today,” and “There’s a Kind of Hush (All Over the World).” They signed a million-dollar record deal by the time they were 17, and one of the highlights of Noone’s career came when Elvis Presley performed their hit “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am” on stage in 1965.
“He was making fun of me, but who cares?” Noone said. “It was Elvis!”
Living the Rocker Lifestyle
Even at this young age, Noone was living the quintessential rockstar life — though he insists he never got into drugs. “That was never my thing,” he said.
But the other typical rock ‘n’ roll habits? “Sure. We were 16, 17, and we could easily stay up all night, go on the rampage, then be up the next morning to do interviews and go to gigs. It was a brilliant time.”
He partied with the biggest names in music. “I used to love the Beatles and the Stones and I’d always want to hang out with them, even though they were about seven years older,” he said. “We’d go to the Ad Lib club in London, and John Lennon would buy my drinks because he knew I was only 16 and I wouldn’t get drunk and try to beat someone up.”
He also went out drinking with actor Richard Harris — and tried to out-drink him.
“A Fly on the Wall”
Noone admitted that one of his main motivations for drinking was simply to fit in with the older crowd. “I remember going to the house of one of the Moody Blues and it was considered this real den of iniquity,” he recalled. “None of the girls smoked dope, so I used to hang out with them. I was a fly on the wall.”
The AA Meeting That Changed Everything
At 19, Noone attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting alongside his father, who was also a heavy drinker. He wouldn’t have classified himself as an alcoholic — but he knew something had to change.
“You have to be sensitive to people’s feelings and be able to do the job on stage, so after that I decided to cut down,” he explained. “I needed to do it for my own sake and haven’t touched a drop for about 16 years.”
He added: “I insist that my wife still drinks if she wants to — I wouldn’t stop other people around me doing it.”
A Marriage That Lasted
Noone has been married to his wife, Mireille, for 43 years. They met when he was 20 — while he was still spending time with other women. “I think it was probably lust at first sight with Mireille,” he admitted. “Then I found out how nice she was and it turned to love.”
She kept turning him down, so he rented the apartment next to hers while she was on vacation in Ibiza with her mother. “Her mother liked me because I was respectful,” he recalled. “I wore Mireille down.”
The couple married in 1968 and had one daughter, Nicole.
Leaving the Band and Finding a New Path
Noone quit Herman’s Hermits in 1971 at the age of 24. “Even though all of us in the band were close in the beginning, by the end, we’d been together so long and wanted to do different things,” he said.
His solo career plateaued, but he found new life on the stage in the 1980s, appearing in a Broadway production of “Pirates of Penzance” and hosting the U.S. television music show “My Generation.” Just a few years ago, he appeared as a mentor and voice coach on American Idol.
Still Going Strong
Noone has lived in California since the 1970s and embraced the healthy lifestyle the state is known for. “Not many people survived the debauchery of the sixties,” he said. “So I feel very lucky and try to look after myself. When I went to Mickie Most’s funeral nine years ago, there weren’t many people left. It does make you stop and think.”
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Now 77, Noone is still touring. He’s been part of Britain’s Solid Silver 60s Show, sharing the stage with other stars of the era, and he says he never gets tired of the buzz. “I was probably going to be a clerk at the local NatWest. How lucky am I to still be doing this at 64? I know what I’m doing now, too. I’m not that shy little kid any more.”
From teen idol to rock ‘n’ roll survivor to a man who found lasting love and sobriety, Peter Noone’s story is one of the most remarkable — and surprisingly honest — in music history.
