Reg Presley

Reginald Maurice Ball (12 June 1941 – 4 February 2013), known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the 1960s rock and roll band the Troggs, whose hits included "Wild Thing" (#1 on the Hot 100 on 30 July – 6 August 1966) and "With a Girl Like You" (#1 on the UK Official Singles Chart on 4–11 August 1966). He wrote the song "Love Is All Around", which was featured in the films Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually.

Personal life Reginald Maurice Ball was born in Andover, Hampshire, in 1941. His father was a milkman, later a bus driver, and his mother ran a cafe. He left school at the age of fifteen. He joined the building trade on leaving school and became a bricklayer. He gave up this job when the Troggs' song "Wild Thing" entered the top ten in the United Kingdom music charts in 1966.

Career

The Troggs The Troggs in 1966. Left to right: Pete Staples, Ronnie Bond, Chris Britton and Reg Presley. His first band was a skiffle group he formed with friend Howard Mansfield, with Mansfield on lead vocals and Reg on bass guitar. It reached No. 2 in the UK, and No. 1 in the US, selling five million copies . Presley wrote the hits "With a Girl Like You", "I Can't Control Myself" and "Love Is All Around". Wet Wet Wet's 1994 cover of the latter 1967 song stayed at No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for fifteen weeks. Presley was in the Troggs until 2012, when he announced his retirement from the music industry after suffering from a number of strokes. Presley's departure left only guitarist Chris Britton from the original Troggs lineup still remaining in the group. Britton is still in the Troggs as of 2023.

The Corporation and paranormal interests In 1988, Presley formed The Corporation with Tony Crane, Clem Curtis, Mike Pender, and Brian Poole, who all were the lead singers of other pop groups during the 1960s: The Merseybeats, The Foundations, The Searchers, and Brian Poole and The Tremeloes, in the same order as the members names were listed. They recorded one single: Ain't Nothing But a House Party, that had its instrumental as the B-side. The song was released as a 7" single, and an extended mix, also with the instrumental as the B-side, was released as a 12" single.

Presley used the musical royalties he made from the Troggs' records and the royalties he made from the Wet Wet Wet cover to fund research on subjects such as alien spacecraft, lost civilisations, alchemy, and crop circles, and outlined his findings in his own penned book Wild Things They Don't Tell Us, published in October 2002. His interest in the paranormal began in 1990 when he walked into a crop circle at Alton Barnes in Marlborough, Wiltshire. The following month, Presley announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and therefore decided to retire from the music industry. Just over a year later, on 4 February 2013, Presley died from this cancer and, according to Altham, "a succession of recent strokes". Presley was cremated at Basingstoke Crematorium, Hampshire.

A blue plaque in his memory was unveiled in Andover High Street on 31 July 2016, marking where the Troggs used to practice.

Influence and legacy Presley's music has influenced Iggy Pop and won praise from Bob Dylan. The rock critic Lester Bangs called the Troggs the "godfathers of punk" and compared Presley to Marcel Proust.