Managing Editor
Music is such an integral part of our daily lives that it’s hard to imagine what the world would be like without it.
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| Nancy Pierce, left, and her school principal Mary Jane Cooney, right, meet singer Peter Noone before the Herman's Hermits concert in Laconia, New Hampshire in September 2016. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
Here are a couple of stories about how I met several musicians whose songs are still remembered today.
In 1973, I was fortunate to be nominated to work for the Student Entertainment Committee at New Mexico Highlands University. The committee’s mission was to use fees appropriated during student registration to bring nationally known musicians and entertainers to perform on our campus. We booked bands and selected available dates for their performances.
After the dates were booked and confirmed, and once the performers arrived in town for their shows, committee members would assist them with transportation to and from the shows or locate area restaurants or other activities they requested.
Being a fan of progressive country in the early 1970s, I had both of B.W. Stevenson’s first two albums, once self-titled and the other called “Lead Free.” His music was powerful and ranged from singing about heartbreak to understanding the human condition. When I learned that the committee had booked him to perform a concert at our school, I volunteered to assist him and his band while they were in town.
They arrived by tour bus late in the evening the day before their show. I met Stevenson, who promptly instructed me to call him “Buck,” short for his nickname, Buckwheat. We made sure that the hotel suite he had chosen for his band was satisfactory and the next day I guided Stevenson and the band to the auditorium for a sound check prior to the concert.
While waiting backstage to be introduced, Stevenson pulled me aside and asked me if I knew of any parties or things to do in town after the concert. I told him that my fraternity was having a party with a keg of beer later and I invited him and the band to stop by. During the concert, Stevenson performed songs from his latest album, and I really liked one of them called “My Maria.” It was a smash hit for him and is the song he is most remembered for today.
After the concert, Stevenson and his band did indeed drop by our fraternity house and I had him autograph his albums in my collection. I found it incredible that I was standing and talking with someone whose music was all over the radio and it’s a memory that I cherish to this day. I was saddened to learn 14 years later that Stevenson had died at the age of 38 following open-heart surgery in Texas.
In 2016, I was the Editor of the daily newspaper in Laconia, New Hampshire and wanted to write about an upcoming concert there featuring Peter Noone of the 1960s band Herman’s Hermits. Event organizers gave me his cell phone number and I called him in California and did a phone interview with him while he was waiting to board a plane for the East Coast.
I asked him lots of questions about his career and his music and by the time that lengthy phone conversation ended, I felt like I understood Peter better and it was evident that his charisma, personality and talent were a major factor in his success. He had first started with the band as a 15-year-old lead singer and said he was proud of what he had accomplished in his career. He mentioned a fact I didn’t know that in 1965, Herman’s Hermits had sold more records worldwide than The Beatles did.
To me, Noone came across as down to earth, candid and humorous. I told him that I could recall dancing to one of his songs called "Listen People" with one of my classmates, Janet McGraw Howland, at a dance at Carlton Webster Junior High School in Henrietta, New York and he laughed and said, “Don’t we all wish we were young again?”
Before ending our conversation, I asked Noone if I could bring my wife Nancy backstage before the show to meet him and take a photo. He agreed to do so, and we got to his concert early and met up with my wife’s boss, Mary Jane Cooney, who was also attending the show. She was the principal of the Holy Trinity Catholic School in Laconia and when I told her we were going backstage to meet Peter Noone, she asked if she could go with us.
The three of us then met Peter and he graciously let us take photographs with him. He thanked me for writing about his concert for the newspaper and we returned to our seats. During the show, he dazzled the audience with some of Herman's Hermits' biggest hits such as “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” or “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am," and “I’m Into Something Good.”
A week or so later, Noone sent me an autographed photo and a CD of Herman’s Hermits’ greatest hits. Without reservation, I can say he’s as genuine as they get and remains one of my all-time favorite entertainers.
As a journalist, through the years I’ve met and interviewed many singers, but these two really stand out. <
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