Hot Press mourns the loss of The Troggs' Reg Presley

Hot Press was deeply saddened by the death yesterday of 71-year-old Troggs singer Reg Presley from lung cancer.

Formed in 1964, the Andover, Hampshire outfit were chart regulars for a decade with the likes of ‘I Can’t Control Myself’, ‘With A Girl Like You’, ‘Love Is All Around’ and, most famously, ‘Wild Thing’ which were hits on both sides of the Atlantic.

Along the way they inspired the likes of Spiritualized, Buzzcocks, MC5, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Jimi Hendrix and REM who helped The Troggs piece together 1992’s wonderfully titled Athens Andover.

More recently, the Four Weddings And A Funeral soundtracking ‘Love Is All Around’ was a mega-seller for Wet Wet Wet and ‘With A Girl Like You’ featured in 1991’s Nicole Kidman vehicle, Flirting.

The much bootlegged Troggs Tapes – a recording of an expletive-laden studio argument between band members – provided much of the inspiration for Spinal Tap and the all-night ‘My Lovely Horse’ writing session in the Eursong episode of Father Ted.

Our man Stuart Clark interviewed The Troggs in 1992 and recalls that, “Reg was a lovely man. He was really appreciative of Michael Stipe & Co. wanting to work with The Troggs, and had some brilliant stories. He was also really looking forward to the Irish shows they had coming up. I caught them in a Limerick disco called Tropics, which had a hydraulic stage that descended from the ceiling amidst clouds of dry ice. They were a bit bemused by the setting, but played a blinder. Another big fan of theirs was Ronnie Wood who told me that – much to his annoyance! – other musicians used to call him Reg Parslaaaaaaay because of his broad west country accent.”

We’ll have more on Reg and The Troggs later today on hotpress.com