And so another of the 1960's beat group era pop stars has gone.
Reg Presley of The Troggs will always be cast as the singer and writer of 'Wild Thing' and 'Love Is All Around' both hits all over the world.
'Wild Thing' was the first Troggs hit that took Reg from his full time job as a bricklayer into a fully fledged pop star and many a young rock band has had the song on their set list since.
Even Jimi Hendrix adopted it in his incendiary performance at Monterey in 1967.
Reg Presley's fans have included Iggy Pop and Bob Dylan who first met him as The Troggs recorded in the adjoining studio. The music writer Lester Bangs named them "godfathers of punk".
Which is completely incongruous to his persona and his appearance. On 60's TV pop shows his round faced features and their white with black pinstripe stripe suits set the Troggs apart in the way you'd expect them to be appearing at some seaside resort and not the sweating rock clubs of the 60's. The Troggs could ignite those audiences too in those small club performances.
The band must have never forgotten how that felt and embraced the new punk era unlike many of their contemporaries and performed at the infamous Max's Kansas City in New York, in 1978.
And years later his song 'Love Is All Around' was covered by 90's pop group Wet,Wet,Wet, and the royalties poured in once more for Reg, which he once again incongruously and totally out of character to his rock star image invested by funding his research on the subject such as alien spacecraft, lost civilisations, alchemy and crop circles.
He was often interviewed for short television documentaries in the UK when it came to crop circle season. His seriousness on the matter was always... well, serious.
Here's 'Wild Thing' recorded at Max's Kansas City. A perfect example of Reg Presley's classic Garage Punk vocal tone and as he talks to the audience the sound of his country Hampshire accent. Again completely incongruous to what he is about to perform.
There really was only one Reg Presley. RIP.
