Boomers rock with the Hermits in ’Boji

Baby Boomers from across Northwest Iowa, including a bunch from Storm Lake and Alta, gathered Sunday night at the historic Roof Garden ballroom in Arnolds Park to listen to jaunty rock and roll with Herman’s Hermits led by the everlasting Peter Noone.

Herman’s Hermits were one of the many British bands that invaded the U.S. in the 1960s with their feel-good music of the time, along with outfits like Gerry and the Pacemakers, Dave Clark 5, Rolling Stones and, of course, the Beatles.

I’ve been a longtime fan of Herman’s Hermits. I played keyboards (not very well) in a high school band whose playlist included many Herman’s Hermits songs, like monster number one hits “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” and “I’m Henry the VIII I Am.”

Noone, front man for the original band, closed out the evening with these two singalong showstoppers, but the non-stop hour and 15 minute concert was filled with countless other hits of the 60s from the Hermits as well as other bands.

Herman’s Hermits have played many gigs at Arnolds Park and Clay County Fair in nearby Spencer over the decades, and Noone entertained the crowd with jokes about the Great Lakes area.

I’ve heard that Herman’s Hermits played the Cobblestone Ballroom in Storm Lake years ago, but I haven’t been able to confirm that.

There are actually two competing Herman’s Hermits bands. In the early 2000s frontman Noone and band founder Barry Whitwam got crossways with each other and split the band in a legal dispute. It was resolved when Whitwam’s band agreed to tour as Herman’s Hermits outside the U.S., but in North America they are billed as “Herman’s Hermits Starring Barry Whitwam.” Meanwhile, Noone’s band tours North America as “Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone.”

Noone’s band is busy, touring a couple hundred dates a year. He’s original, but the rest of the band members are much younger. They are on the road nearly every night this summer. That’s no mean feat for Noone, who is 76 years old, but like fellow aging rockers Paul McCartney and Mike Jagger, acts 50 years younger as he dances across the stage. Noone moved effortlessly throughout the crowd during his non-stop performance Sunday, his voice sounding as strong and true as it was when he was just another long-haired kid from Manchester, England. (He still has the long hair.) Much of his patter made fun of his age and that of the audience. Everyone was in on the joke. As the show closed he sang through the crowd and into the lobby, where he signed autographs for all of his white-haired groupies.

We kids were warned that a life of drugs, sex and rock and roll would lead to an early grave, but guys like Noone, Jagger and McCartney make me wonder.