Troggs lead singer and UFO hunter, Reg Presley, has died after a year-long struggle with lung cancer. The 71 year old rock ‘n’ roller who was christened, Reginald Maurice Bell, spent most of his life living in Andover, Hampshire, England with his wife of 49 years and it is where he died on Monday.
The Troggs hit it big in 1966 with “Wild Thing.” The song was introduced to the band by producer, Larry Page and later received new life when Jimi Hendrix reworked it into a psychedelic masterpiece.
Page packaged the group in loud, striped suits and admonished them to have an impeccable image. That meant no drugs and no swearing. Presley was a moderate drinker and didn’t do drugs, at least not the illegal kind. He was, by his own admission, an 80-cigarette-a-day smoker.
“Wild Thing” was followed by the Presley-written hit, “Love Is All Around.” The band had seven hits, altogether, on the charts in the 60’s.
After that, they sunk into a sea of obscurity. Presley was rescued from that in 1994 when Scottish band, Wet Wet Wet, recorded “Love Is All Around.” Their version was featured in the film, “Four Weddings and A Funeral” and shot up the charts and spent 15 weeks at number one in the U. K. charts.
The royalties from that gave Presley the funds to devote much time to research what he felt were neglected areas of science. This included alien spacecraft, lost civilizations and alchemy.
Presley published a book in 2002, entitled, “Wild Things They Don’t Tell Us.” It dealt with alien abductions, crop circles and what he described as a close relationship between UFO’s and ancient monuments.
If he had been offered a ride on an alien space craft, he said, “I hope I would have the bottle to go. I’d like to ask them a lot of bloody questions and they’ve probably got all the answers. These beings may be 20 million years in advance of us.”
Presley also developed a plan to reclaim deserts and patented a fog-warning system. In recent years, he became interested in the possible benefits of ingesting powdered gold.
His friend, Keith Altham, said of Presley, “I have always liked Reg because he has an innocence about him, in a profession dominated by people who are self-important and unreceptive. Even when he is wrong, he is sincerely wrong. He is very likeable. His interests are harmless. He is not mad.”
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