Regional Presley

Background

Presley, whose stage name was given to him in 1965 by the New Musical Express journalist and publicist Keith Altham, was born in Andover, Hampshire.

Career

He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band The Troggs, whose hits included "Wild Thing" and "With a Girl Like You" (the reached number one in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively). Ball wrote the song "Love Is All Around", which featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. He joined the building trade on leaving school and became a bricklayer.

He kept at this occupation until "Wild Thing" entered the United Kingdom Singles Chart in 1966.

lieutenant reached Number. 2 in the United Kingdom, and Number. 1 in the United States, 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 song stayed at Number.

1 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart for fifteen weeks.

In December 2011, Presley was hospitalised in Winchester, Hampshire, with what was suspected to be a stroke. He was also suffering from pneumonia and fluid around the heart. Presley had suffered a major stroke about a year before.

"Doctors think he has had another stroke.

He"s not very well and I have no idea how long he"ll be in hospital", she said. 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. The rock critic Lester Bangs called the Troggs the "godfathers of punk" and compared Presley to Marcel Proust.

Presley appears as a character in Steve Erickson"s novel These Dreams of You (2012).

Achievements

• Presley"s music has influenced Iggy People’s and won praise from Bob Dylan.