Although Troggs bassist Pete Staples was sacked the year before 1970’s infamous Troggs Tapes cemented the band’s “brickies-turned-pop stars” image, his memoir is unwittingly bathed in similarly naïve country logic (expletives detailed).
Rich in rural working-class roots and tour japes but low on jaw-hanging insights beyond late singer Reg Presley being a sneakily rich “arsehole” who betrays him to his face, Staples takes the barroom bard approach to revisit that time when bands were hyped to stardom, sent on merciless tours, ripped off by predatory managers and recorded on the fly; for the Troggs, producing hits from Wild Thing to Love Is All Around (most mentioned briefly before the next fart-lighting or red-faced trouser escapade).
Staples’ crudely-edited tale predominantly favours a lighthearted approach, only mentioning The Tapes that clinched immortality (and influenced Spinal Tap) to illustrate the band’s tendency to swear. Best read in an Andover accent with sporadically inserted “Oi shit ’em”.
