By Frances Welch
Sunday Telegraph
July 16, 1995
Reg Presley, the leader of the Troggs, believes we are but playthings of Martians. "It's like humans exploring microorganisms. They call it work, but it's really entertainment. What do the Martians do if they're two million years ahead of us? They come to visit us for fun."
Presley -- born Reginald Maurice Ball -- believes the Martians give us "kick starts" every 2000 years and that they sent us Christ to bring us to order. "Before Jesus and that set-up, man was a bit cruel. We'd kill just because it suited us. The Romans were the worst offenders."
"Then Jesus came with all those miracles. Easy-peasy. Two thousand years before that they gave us another kick start with the wheel."
The Presley proclamations are rendered additionally surreal by his rich Hampshire burr. He believes we're due for another kick start, the nature of which will probably be revealed in "corrrn cirrrcles". He has high hopes that a cobweb pattern revealed earlier this year is prefigurement of something mysterious. "It was absolutely beautiful. But what does it mean? God knows," he says, and then, remembering that he is an atheist, adds: "God knows! Oh! That's a good one!"
His song "Love Is All Around" (recorded by Wet Wet Wet as the theme of Four Weddings and a Funeral) was originally inspired by a religious song by The Joy Strings. But Presley puts its recent success down to the PR of the Martians.
"Because I'm in a high profile situation people are listening to what I'm saying about crop circles. Six years ago they wouldn't take any notice."
We progress... to the "Water Connection".
"In 1991, 3.5 million gallons of water disappeared from a fish farm in Andover. Where did it go? I worked it out on my computer. It would have taken 11.5 days for all the firemen in Andover to shift it... Now Wet Wet Wet do my record. Is that a coincidence?"
Presley was born and grew up in Andover. His parents were non-practising Anglicans and who nonetheless persuaded Reg to attend Sunday School run by the Salvation Army. "I think I believed in God when I was a child. My main problem was who made God? But I do believe in the teachings of Christ, like the Ten Commandments."
Presley's own most recent sighting was two years ago when he persuaded a camera crew to accompany him on a watch in Wiltshire. "I saw this elliptical light the size of a crescent moon. But the crew didn't bring their cameras out because they didn't want to get them wet."
[One further note... ]
"Did you know the Sphinx was made by Zulus from Mars? Its chin is 14 percent too large for a Caucasian so he must have been black. People laugh and say the Zulus could only build mud huts. Now they've found a face on Mars just like the Sphinx."
Original file name: .CNI - Reg Presley talks 1.8
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