This is Mr Keith Hopwood, the most delicious-looking rhythm guitarist on earth at this moment. Yes, even cuter than Ray Davies! Even cuter than Mike Nesmith (as they are now, of course, not in the 1960s, because then it’s a draw. Ooh, the greying hair, the cute little beard, the twinkly blue eyes… *sigh*)! Even cuter than… *drum roll please* John Winston/Ono Lennon! Although if your name is Ashley Long then you won’t agree with me. Oh well.
THAT cute.
Oh yes.
Anyway, that’s not telling you much about him, is it? Nope. So I’ll let you know a bit about him.
Name: Keith Hopwood
DoB: 26 October 1946
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Dark Brown (only now it’s going grey and he’s got this little beard thing and OH he looks stunning! I want a Keith Hopwood of my very own, pleasethankyou!)
Height: 5’9” (only half an inch taller than me! Aww!)
Lives: Somewhere in Cheshire. OHMIGOD! I’ve just realised that that’s the same county as where my good friend and Mirror Image lives! Yes, I know I’m terribly slow, but what do you expect from someone who’s head is permanently in the clouds?! Must move in with aforementioned Mirror Image so I can devote my time to finding Keith’s house and asking to borrow a cup of sugar or Mrs Hopwood’s husband, that sort of thing…
Marital Status: I’ve no idea but the last I read he was being pressured into buying a Jack Russell terrier, I don’t know who by, and I don’t know who for. Maybe by his kids, I don’t know. Anyway, that’s my answer. I e-mailed him and told him he should buy one because he wouldn’t even need to think of a name for it. Which is true. You could either call it Jack or Russ. Anyway, I suppose he’s married, I can’t be the only person on earth who’s noticed how gorgeous he is, surely?
Played: Rhythm Geetar, er, Guitar. That’s it. Rhythm Guitar. And a lovely job he made of it too! Just listen to the intro of Dandy! It’s totally swoonworthy! *sigh*
What would I do if he read this page: Faint. Mainly through embarrassment. If you, the reader, happen to answer to the name Keith Hopwood and you played guitar for a band called Herman’s Hermits in the 1960s, then I’m very sorry for all of these inane ramblings. Oh and I still love your jacket from Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter. If you, the reader, DON’T answer to the name of Keith Hopwood, then didn’t it look gorgeous on him? Wow, it was all lovely and fitted and everything and every time I watch that scene I always end up having teeth marks on my arms… Oh and have you noticed that no-one on earth eats a banana quite as sexily as Keith does? It’s true. Look at the party scene and he’s eating a banana with a knife and it’s just like WOOF! Ahem. Oh and when they were looking for somewhere to stay and they went to that boarding house type place and the oldish woman answered the door and Keith had his foot up on his suitcase and you got a lovely leg and thigh shot of him in black trousers with that lovely bumfreezer jacket… oh god, I really am rambling too much!
Best Keith Quote: “Hey, it’s the first time any of us have been a mum!” – Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter. How I laughed! Mainly because Lek just looked at him with the most disgusted expression on his face, that just stole it! OH! And also “Yeah, the little darlin’s!” from the same film. He was lying on top of his bed and pulled just THE cutest face EVER and shockingly enough I don’t know what the next scene is as I am generally unconscious for it!
This is the part of the scene which leads up to the line where I usually faint. It also contains my thought processes so you know how my mind works (scary, eh?):
BEAN: And ‘oo’s gonna pay for these photos we’ve had done? To say nothin’ of this new gear!
PETER: Oh, we won’t have to pay for that until the end of next week, and by then we’ll have got the money from the Black Eagle Club.
PETER:And then we'll get another ten thousand of those photos printed.
LEK: Ten thousand?! For TEN FANS?!?!?! And they’re all Touper Street kids, aged eleven!
PETER: We’ve only got ten fans now, five of them are potty over us, and five of them are just plain potty!
PETER: That’s where strategy comes in.
PETER: You get the first five to write to the other five about starting a fan club. Or ten clubs. Then you make them all fan club presidents. EVERYBODY wants to be a fan club president!
KEITH: And then the ten clubs become a thousand!
PETER: Exactly, and before you know it, you’re on ten thousand bedroom walls!
BEAN: It’s a regular orgy isn’t it?
KARL: Yeah, once you’re on their bedroom walls, you’re part of their lives, aren’t you?
KEITH: Yeah, the little darlin’s!
So there you go, there’s my page about Mr Hopwood. A very lovely person and shockingly enough, he is my favourite Hermit (except of course for Michael Palin and Eric Idle in the Hermits Sketch on Monty Python! “Are you, er, a Hermit by any chance?” “Yes I am, are you?” “I most certainly am!” “Well I never! What are you getting away from?!”)! Bet you never guessed that, eh?!
Can I also mention now that since the breakup of Herman’s Hermits, Keith’s gone into the TV and film music production side of things, and I only found this out the other day, he composed the theme tune to the 80s kids TV show Wind in the Willows. I used to watch that show all the time when I was a Little Spev! I LOVED THAT TUNE! No, seriously, I did, even before I knew he’d composed it, or indeed, even before I knew he existed! “The Wind in the Willows said softly to meeeeeee, follow my voooice, lalalalaaalalalaaaaaa!” Oh I forget all the words, it’s been fourteen years since I last watched it, but the tune will stay with me forever! Wonder if he sang it too? AND he did the music to the BFG (for which he won an award *applauds loudly*), and some other things which I forget offhand. But suffice to say, Keith Hopwood is NOT just a pretty face, he’s exceptionally talented too, so please don’t forget it, cos I won’t!
If you’ve got anything you want to say about Keith that I’ve not already mentioned here, please send it to me so I can print it here for you! Thanks ever so!