Britain fondly remembers an old singer-songwriter called Reg Presley and a band called 'The Troggs' who gave the world 'Love is All Around'

Singer-songwriter Reg, best known as the lead singer with 'The Troggs' died at the age of 71 in 2013, but his musical legacy lives on.

He was born Reginald Maurice Ball in Andover, Hampshire where his father was a bus driver and his mother ran a cafe. He attended Andover Secondary Modern School and left school at 15. He then played the guitar in a local skiffle group and by day worked as a bricklayer. He helped form 'The Troglodytes' which won a 'Battle of the Bands' talent contest in Oxford in 1965 and sent a demo tape to the rock entrepreneur Larry Page, who signed them on and shortened their name to 'The Troggs' and had their debut single with 'Lost Girl'. (link)

Next came 'Wild Thing', written by James Wesley Voight, younger brother of actor Jon, under the name of Chip Taylor which the band recorded in one complete take at Olympic Studios in London.(link) He was still working on a building site when he heard on the radio that 'Wild Thing' had just risen from No 44 to No 8 in the hit parade and later said : "I thought, whew, and threw my trowel down. I put my head in the door and said, "clear out my tools, I'm off'."

He saw the song reach number 2 in the Britain and number 1 in the USA in the Summer of 1966 and was covered by 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience' at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where it as introduced as : 'The British/American joint 'national anthem'. (link)

Reg followed up with 'With a Girl Like You' which he wrote and which became the group's one and only number 1 in Britain.(link) and then wrote 'I Can't Control Myself'.(link) 

Next came 'Anyway That You Want Me'.(link) and 'Love is All Around (link) in 1967 and the band became part of the pop elite and setting off on a tour with the Walker Brothers he said : "It was so great. It was like landing on the moon for the first time."

With no further success, Reg saw the band split up in 1969 and then reform and saw it regaled as the inspiration for a host of performers, including Iggy Pop and was hailed by the American, Lester Bangs, in a 25,000 word eulogy as, the godfathers of punk, whose music was 'holy'. He credited them with igniting the raw energy that later fueled the punk rock movement. He admired their track "Wild Thing" and songs like "Give It To Me" for what he called, their direct, unvarnished adolescent lust and democratic sexual connection. He noted that they did not overthink their music like avant-garde or self-reflective bands, keeping their primitive art honest and effective.

In 1987, Reg was hailed by Bob Dylan on the set of Richard Marquand’s film, 'Hearts of Fire', in which he was appearing as an extra and said :“I had this guitar around my neck, Dylan recognised me. He came up and said : "How long have you been playing the guitar?" I said, "All bloody afternoon, mate." "

He then saw his slow descent from celebrity dramatically interrupted in 1994 when he was 53 years old when his composition, 'Love is all Around', which had been a Top 10 hit for 'The Troggs', 27 years earlier, covered by the Scottish group 'Wet Wet Wet' with singer Marti Pellow. This was used on the soundtrack of the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', reached No 1 and remained there for 15 weeks.(link)

Reg used substantial royalties from 'Love is All Around' to fund his personal investigations of what he felt were neglected areas of science, notably : alien spacecraft, lost civilisations and alchemy and in his 2002 book, 'Wild Things They Don’t Tell Us', concentrated on alien abductions, crop circles and what he saw as the close relationship between UFO’s and ancient monuments.

In 2003 he saw  a modified version of 'Love Is All Around' featured in the film 'Love Actually', performed by actor Bill Nighy. (link)

His friend, Keith Altham once said of him : "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.”

In December 2012 he was diagnosed with lung cancer after becoming ill during a tour in Germany and wrote to his fans on the band's website: "I am receiving chemotherapy treatment and at the moment not feeling too bad. However I've had to call time on The Troggs and retire. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the cards and calls and for your love, loyalty and support over the years … I shall miss you all. Lots of Love."

Britain is now a country where old men lead shorter and shorter 'healthy lives' before they die

Healthy life expectancy for men in Britain has fallen from 62.9 years in the 2012-14 period to 60.7 years in 2022-24 and from 63.7 to 60.9 years for women over the same timeframe.

According to the Office for National Statistics, this means that the proportion of life a man spends in good health is down from 79% to 77% and, for a woman, from 77% to 73%.

The stark reality is that men and women in Britain are spending fewer years in good health than they were a decade ago. This sharp decline in Britain’s healthy life expectancy, the amount of time someone spends free of illness or disability, is in sharp contrast to its recent rise in most other rich countries around the world. The fact is that Britain's population’s health is poor, getting worse and not undergoing the same steady improvement for old men seen in countries such as Japan, Norway and Spain.

The decline in Britons’ health in recent years is so significant that, in more than 90% of Britain, people now start suffering from illness before the state pension age of 66.

 Dr Jennifer Dixon, the Health Foundation’s Chief Executive said : “These findings reveal a stark truth – the UK’s health is going backwards. The lights on the dashboard are flashing red. We are the most obese country in western Europe, mental ill health has surged to unprecedented levels and more people than ever before are living with chronic health conditions.”

The Office for National Statistics stated in its Report that : 'Obesity – which is leading to more cases of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer and high numbers of deaths caused by alcohol, drugs and suicide help explain the loss of two years of illness-free life'. In addition it said that people’s worsening self-reported health and deep health inequalities between rich and poor are also key factors. Its report found that Britain was one of only five countries where healthy life expectancy has declined, and it had fallen from 14th to 20th in the 21-nation international league table, with only the USA below it.

Britain has deep and widening inequalities in healthy life expectancy. In wealthy Richmond upon Thames, London, the average man enjoys 69.3 years and average woman 70.3 years in good health. Whereas in Blackpool an average man in Blackpool gets just 50.9 years. 

The Report found that the UK was one of only five countries where healthy life expectancy has declined, and it had fallen from 14th to 20th in the 21-nation international league table, with only the USA below it.

Britain is no country for sick old men who live in an idyllic Lake District village called Coniston

After having a succession of family doctors for 170 years, the village of Coniston, nestled in the Cumbrian Mountains, has lost its last doctor and has been unable to find a replacement. Its present population numbers 800 and despite inducements, like an advertising campaign stating that with seven pubs “we’ll never run out of beer”, alas, not a single permanent medic has come forward to fill the breach. 

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Furness has said it would be a “tragedy” to lose the village GP service for the first time since the 1850s. He went on to say : “Small surgeries like this just have to exist because they cover vast rural areas and an elderly population and we’re not tolerating it closing. Once you lose this you lose it for good, and it’s all part and parcel of the atrophying of rural communities. It’s a move that just leads to substantial Lake District villages becoming ghost towns.”

Coniston, with its surgery in Wraysdale House, is the latest victim of a chronic shortage of doctors nationwide in Britain after years of underinvestment and the demands of more and more old men and women with increasingly complex illness. Nearly one in three of the parish residents in Coniston are over 65, while about one in seven are disabled. 

At the moment they are not without a doctor but, following
the retirement of Dr. Frey and departure of Dr. Abbas in 2025, a 'caretaker team' was brought in to ensure the continuity of general medical services and although it is in place there is uncertainty regarding the long-term future of the surgery. If it closes, patients would have an hour round trip by car to the nearest full-time surgery in the market town of Ulverston and travelling by bus would take about two hours and include an almost half-hour walk. 

The Coniston Patient Group, which has fought for more than a decade to keep the surgery open has said : “We will not accept the loss of our GP service without a renewed and determined effort to find a provider. We have demonstrated overwhelming local support and a clear clinical need.” 

Videographers Jago Miller and Russell Howard enlisted the support of villagers to highlight the benefits of living in Coniston. “It’s been a real community effort,” Tracy Coward, Chair of Coniston Parish Council, told the information website, 'Cumbria Crack'. “We just wanted to get the word out that there is a fantastic opportunity to come to Coniston and work as a GP. We’re a friendly community and everyone pulled together to make the film.” Within 24 hours, 38,000 people had watched the film which has been shared on Facebook. A previous similar appeal to find a new headteacher worked and film-makers hope applicants will be tempted to apply. Tracy said : “I think you have to make your own luck and we’re hopeful the film will make a difference.” (link)