I’m
not sure how many people remember the
Troggs. My old mum does – I
asked her - “disgusting”, she said,
“tight trousers and filthy lyrics”.
There are six of us who do (who all, I should
add, jumped at the chance for tickets), and a
few more besides in the 100 Club, but it is, let’s
say, far from crowded for a Friday night. It’s
a shame.
The
Troggs, you may recall, were propelled to stardom
in 1966 when only their second record, a song called
‘Wild thing’ (written by American composer
Chip
Taylor) went to number one in both the United
States and the UK. Hard-edged, with a distinctive
driving guitar and suitably risqué lyrics,
it became an overnight classic. They followed this
up with a string of hits over the next couple of
years.
One, ‘Anyway that you want me’, was
also written by Taylor, but the remainder were
penned by front man and vocalist, former bricklayer,
Reg Ball, otherwise known as Reg Presley, thanks
to an adroit name change by then manager Larry
Paige (whom they shared, with amongst others,
the Kinks). Presley certainly had a way with words:
‘Give it to me’, ‘With a girl
like you’ and ‘I can’t control
myself’ (banned by the BBC) were three of
his more suggestive works. But
his most famous, and the Troggs’ final chart
hit of any measure was 1967’s ‘Love
is all around’, adopted by Richard Curtis
as the theme for his film Four Weddings and a
Funeral, and as performed by Wet Wet Wet, a British
number one hit for fifteen weeks. Reg, known for
his interest in the para-normal (his 2002 book
Wild things they don’t tell us displays
his love of conspiracy theories), used much of
the money to fund research into crop
circles, a phenomenon of some importance in
Presley’s native Hampshire. Which, of course
is where his piratical West Country burr comes
from, a somewhat disarming accent for an apparently
salacious and scandalous sixty-eight-year-old
rock and roller.
Reg
Presley
He
is an effortless performer, barely breaking sweat
as the band work through fourteen songs including
all of their hits and a smattering of R&B standards
such as ‘Louie Louie’ and ‘Walking
the dog’. The hard work was being done by
the band, and notably original Troggs guitarist
Chris Britton, whose crunching guitar sound defined
‘Wild thing’, and earned the Troggs
their status as one of the forerunners of punk and
garage rock, their influence acknowledged by the
likes of Iggy Pop and the Ramones. It’s interesting
to compare Britton’s technique (or possibly
lack of it) with that of Jonathan Brentman, lead
guitarist with the
Foxes, whose quick-fire melodic pop tunes (strongly
reminiscent of Joe Jackson I thought) made up the
first set of the evening. Brentman was very good,
but if there was a difficult way to play something
then he chose it. By comparison Britton took route
one each time, and it has to be said, to far greater
effect. Presley leered and letched his way through
the songs (with an unnerving steely glance with
which he held the audience captive) and added a
few reminiscences between numbers. The audience
danced, sang, and playfully heckled in absurd accents,
and generally enjoyed a very good, if undemanding,
Friday night’s entertainment.
The
Troggs are about to tour the UK with what’s
left of the Move and Love Affair in one of those
dreadful sixties
packages that seem to be cashing in on the ‘grey
pound’ at the moment, so if you are in the
UK there’s a chance to see them in some of
the lesser venues that the country boasts (I used
to live in Bedworth,
but does anyone else really even know where it is?).
However in the meantime you could always get a taste
of Reg and the boys at work by listening to the
‘notorious’ Troggs
tapes, said amongst other things, to have inspired
a scene in This is Spinal Tap. Enjoy. - Nick
Morgan (photographs by Kate)
Listen:
MySpace pages of Chip
Taylor and a fairly recent medley by the
Troggs on the inevitable Youtube. Oh, and
Wild Thing on... an iPhone:
