The New Breed Of Pop Star

Articles published in RAVE magazine January and February 1968

Peter Frampton of the Herd | With the looks of Scott Walker and the girl appeal of Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton of the Herd has every chance of becoming the biggest rave star of 1968. RAVE’s Dawn James talks to him here, and tells you what he’s like from a bird’s point of view.

Describe yourself, Peter. He shrugged. “I’m chairman of the Mickey Mouse Club because I’m five foot seven, and I weigh eight stone three pounds. Ha! What a rake!” he said.

Grey-blue eyes, smooth skin and lots of hair make up the rest of Peter Frampton, the singer in the Herd. He is seventeen, and girls adore him. As well as singing, he writes songs. “I write when I’m depressed,” he said. “Something sad and calm starts inside me, and a song comes out. Some of the songs are very happy ones. I quite like being melancholy.”

Vietnam doesn’t make me sad

What makes him miserable?

“Vietnam and all that doesn’t make me sad. It’s small things that matter to me. I get brought down when people whistle at me just because I’m long-haired and I dress the way I do. In the centre of London I only get it from old workmen, but about ten miles out of London I get it all the time! I can’t go with the idea that a short haircut and a white shirt makes a man.

There are millions of people hiding behind that image. I like individualists. If you look good in short skirts, or loud clothes, or coats made of sacking, then wear them.”

Peter Frampton Of The Herd

Peter thinks that no matter how with-it you are when you’re young, you will grow square with age.

Prejudice is part of growing up, and I bet we all end up knocking the next generation,” he said, and spoke flippantly of bumping himself off before he gets to thirty! But his humour vanished when we spoke seriously of death. He admits to a tremendous fear of dying.

“I’m scared of it. I think I’m scared of what is ahead, but even more of what is behind me. I get sick when I realise that when I die this world will go on. People will eat steaks, and go to pop tours. “I’ve been reading up about reincarnation, because the idea of my coming back soothes me. I don’t like to travel at high speeds, and I loathe planes.”

I like me best of all

Peter isn’t one to worry over the world’s problems.

“I don’t take any interest in politics because I’m a very irresponsible person. I am a pop singer, and that is all I care about. Mind you, a lot of this generation do care about politics. The pop tours are doing alright so why should I care? I daren’t say any more about politics in case Mr. Wilson reads about me.”

Who does Peter cart about? He didn’t even pause for thought.

Myself,” he said, “my family, and the Herd. I really do like the other group members. But I like me best of all.” He switched from world problems, Mr. Wilson, and self-adoration, to girls. “Girls are a good thing,” he decided. “I like good-looking ones, but I have no set idea of what is good-looking. The most important thing about a girl is her intelligence.

I don’t like the ones who nod and giggle and say ‘yeah’ every now and then. It is very important to me that a girl should be understanding and sympathetic.”

Peter Frampton Of The Herd

Peter is one of the pop world’s marriage-knockers.

“Marriage is a social habit that should be broken. I’d like to live with a girl all my life, without actually having to legally. I object to a priest telling me I have got to stay with her for ever.

“It’s hard to find a girl who accepts my ideas, but if I do we’d have to consider the result of them on our children.”

Though he has been in the pop business for several years, Peter is still shocked by its insincerity.

Pop is fake

“Pop is fake. Many people in it are just getting as much out of show-business as they can. Groups don’t give themselves to their audiences. We are trying to give our audiences more for their money. We talk to them, and look at them, and we come off-stage feeling good somehow.”

Peter doesn’t take drugs. He doesn’t practise transcendental meditation, but he says he understands why the Beatles do.

“They have to keep sane, don’t they? They’ve done everything, got everything. All that is left for them is to look into the unknown and try to conquer that. Every man must have something to conquer, or there is no point in life.”

Peter Frampton Of The Herd

Like so many in pop, he is involved in his career.

“I’ve lost all my school friends because I’m never free to see them. I spend my life singing, being bundled out of theatres into vehicles, and sleeping. I live with my parents but I never see them. They are in bed when I get home, and are gone to work when I get up. I’m moving to a London flat soon, because the journey from London to Bromley, where my parents live, is too far, and I’m losing sleep.

“I often wish I could get closer to my fans. We are not allowed to linger after shows, and there is seldom any opportunity to meet. I think a singer can learn a lot by talking to fans. They tell you what they like, and what they want from you. Anyway, it’s nice talking to them.”

When he grins he shows quite a lot of teeth, and his hair is usually tousled. He’s cute and irresponsible, and totally unconcerned with war and killing, but scared to die. Sum yourself up, Peter.

He grinned. “I’m great.”

The Herd Instinct

The fabulous Herd talk to RAVE’s Jeremy Pascall and use their Herd instinct to forecast their future!

It was cold and Andy Bown was desperately counting his fingers to make sure that none had dropped off. Andrew Steele was making bored faces at passing motorists, Gary Taylor was running on the spot, while Peter Frampton had given up the ghost and was allowing his body to shiver uncontrollably.

Apart from that the Herd were happy. They have a good right to be, for after a lot of work and some disillusionment the group is really moving now. Hits are being made, and they’ve completed an LP of delightful quality.

The Herd is a group comprised of four very varied and individual members, with personalities that refuse to fit nicely under one label. Unlike most groups there is no spokesman; they all speak for themselves, and say they are sick of conventional interviews by the Press.

They start off by interviewing the interviewer, until he realises how tiresome it is answering the same old questions in the same old way. Talking to the Herd is refreshing and stimulating, partly because they only chat about what they want to.

So here are the Herd, climbing steadily towards the top, talking for themselves. They have some success behind them and they have a long way in front, so what lies ahead?

Andrew Steele

Andrew Steele is an inward-looking character, meticulous, organisational and aware. Never ask him a stupid question, you’ll receive a withering look. Encourage him and he’ll talk for hours. Andrew said:

Personally I’ve done superbly over the past few months! I’m very pleased with myself and I’m very fond of the group, a fine bunch of fellers, Where would I like to be this time next year? Well, I hope our records will still be selling. Most of all I’m looking forward to going to America.

That seems to be my ambition for the year. I want to improve my playing there. One of the most noticeable advantages of being on tour is that it gives us a chance to see other groups playing. In America It’ll be nice to see the way their artistes work and record. I take my Influences as a drummer from just about every American drummer who has ever recorded.

“America is an enormous thing In my life. The trouble is that when we go it will be for three weeks of hectic work, and the only thing we’ll see in our free time is bed. We’ll come back with heavy eyes wondering what it was all about. It’s hard to realise that our tiny country could be swallowed up into one state over there.

I’m drawn towards America

“I’m drawn towards America. I like the way they organise things.

“I’d like to experiment with a big band sound. Musically I’ve still got a long way to go. I’m not anywhere near satisfied with my drumming. My technique has disappeared because we’ve had to go for loudness on stage and consequently I’ve lost quality.

I toyed with writing for some time, but I haven’t had time to continue with it. I want to do something musically away from the group, but stay with them. A big band with a gospel setting is my idea of heaven at the moment.

No doubt my ideas will change in the course of the year. One thing I must do this year is learn to play the piano. Other than that all I can hope for is continued success!”

Forward, then, with Andrew Steele towards better, bigger musical sounds.

Gary Taylor

But what of Gary Taylor, the tallest, blondest Herdsman with a quiet sense of humour and a cool, detached manner? What has success meant to him?

“It hasn’t changed my life a lot, apart from being recognised occasionally, which is not as wonderful as you might think! We get more money now, we work a lot harder. It’s physically more tiring than before, but it’s hard, enjoyable work.

When one finds oneself getting up at seven in the morning and going to bed at two for a couple of weeks, it begins to get one down a little. Sometimes we get on each other’s nerves, which Is bound to happen.

We’re with each other every day, all day. We don’t have any big fights, but sometimes the humour gets wearisome.

“There are good things, though. We meet a lot of very nice people. Now we are a hit group people want to know us all of a sudden. Of course It’s a little bit phoney, but that’s the way it goes.

“My biggest ambition sounds corny, but I want the group to be the best there’s ever been! Eventually I’d like to act. No particular parts, but something modern. Certainly not a group film though. I do loath group films. I hate that sort of thing, and it’s very difficult to write something around four people.”

And who says Gary won’t do it? He has the looks, and he believes he has the talent. A lot of people have gone a lot further with a great deal less!

Alan Bown

Third to speak was Andy Bown. Funny, creative, with a unique face, Andy finds his ambitions leading him into different fields.

“I’d like to be much more creative in some way. I’d like to do something big, like designing the exteriors of houses. Something I could splash down in a moment’s frenzy and somebody else could do the details. Assuming all goes well and I carry on earning good money I’d like to set up a company for designing clothes or material.

“I don’t know much about business. I suppose I’ll have to think about business some time, but Ireally only want money to spend! I’d like to spend it on recording gear and instruments and a house. I like clothes too.

None of us are feeling very fulfilled at the moment. It’s great to have a hit record, but not the greatest thing in the world! It’s better to have eight hit records behind you. Then you can start doing something really good. None of us are walking around saying, ‘We’ve had hits so look out Beatles!’

“I don’t see much of the people I knew before we were successful. Sometimes people phone and say ‘Remember me? I used to go to school with you’ or ‘I’m the girl with the yellow plaits’. They are the real phonies who didn’t want to know be-fore and are all over us now.

When we meet them they are incredibly boring. It’s quite nice to do a real star act on them if we really can’t stand them! Theirs is a completely perverted sense of friendship. They only talk to you because you’re in a successful band.”

Peter Frampton Of The Herd

No illusions for Bown! But what of Peter Frampton, one of pop’s youngest stars? He’s been thrown into an unnatural situation for a person of his age. Does he have trouble communicating with others of his age?

“I don’t regard myself as abnormal. I started playing in groups when I had Just started in secondary school. I didn’t get on well with my own age group. I was always going around with the sixth formers, so it’s not really strange to me.

I’ve been with people in show business for years, so that’s not unusual either. Even now I don’t meet a lot of people of my own age. The communication I have with people now is on a very superficial level.

“There are sickening aspects to this business. On stage we go on like parrots. We can muck about a bit but we know what’s coming next, and it’s always the same.

Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley

“In our spare time Andy and I write music. It’s our sanity valve! We’ve spent quite a lot of time in the studios, and have surprised ourselves! We would really like to have a self-written hit record, but we’ve got so much confidence in Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley (who wrote ‘Under-world’ and ‘Paradise’) that there’s not much point in trying with our own stuff just yet.

We have got one sound in the can, though, which Is a big secret, so watch out!”

The Herd are developing, looking around them, individually and as a group. They love pop and want their own brand of pop music to make even more of an impression on people than it does now. But they are still a young group with lots of time in front of them, and they’ll explore many musical avenues.

A golden future lies before them, rock-hard experience behind, and with that combination good things are bound to happen. With the Herd It’s instinctive, they call it Herd instinct!

Herd reviews on the Monocled Alchemist