Interview: Chris Britton from The Troggs
In the 60s British legendary rockers The Troggs made millions of hearts sing with their ubiquitous classic hit Wild Thing. Fast-forward 50 years later and this garage punk legacy is still one of the most recognised, highly acclaimed rock songs of all time! We chatted with their guitarist Chris Britton who revealed all the treats in store for their upcoming Aussie Tour, his opinion on the rock music of today, and a handful of fun facts you make not know about the boys.
What are you most looking forward to about coming to Australia?
I’m looking forward to seeing Australia again! It’s about 15-20 years since we were last there. We had a really good time and it’s magic they’ve been able to fit a tour together. We were first asked to go over for this ‘Rock The Boat’ cruise in Brisbane and we thought it was a bit pointless coming all the way to Australia to do a couple of gigs on a boat and fly back home again, although it would have been lovely.
But while we’re there we wanted do something else so we asked to put a tour together and now we’re practically booked out for the whole of November. The bonus is we get to go on a plane to do a week in New Zealand as well, so we get to see a lot of your Southern Hemisphere.
Awesome! What can fans expect from these shows?
They’re going to be getting us playing The Troggs music. We don’t do any covers or anything, and they’ll be getting songs they know, hopefully (laughs). Because we find if we play people songs they haven’t got a clue about or don’t know of our new songs, they don’t understand it but if you play them what they’re used to and what they know of you, then at least you get a reaction and that gives us a buzz and we all have a good time.
Congratulations on the 50th Anniversary of Wild Thing! Did you ever think it would be as big a hit as it has become?
Well thank you very much. (Laughs) No, never! Not in a million years! It’s one of those strange things. In the 60s when it all kicked off it was absolute chaos. You can’t imagine living in those days, it was sheer magic. But again it was all unpredictable and quite new so everybody thought it might last a couple of years, and then a couple of years go by, and we thought it might last another couple of years and then it might last another year. Eventually the years add up and all of a sudden you find you’re 50 years down the road, which took us completely by surprise because it seems like only yesterday, really.
Is it strange to know your hits still play in bars and clubs around the world?
It is! It’s very odd. You count back 50 years from the 60s when we started in 1966 and there certainly wasn’t music from the 1920s playing in clubs and bars at that time so it shows it’s got incredible longevity, which is very pleasing for us. But the thing is, it’s been picked up and added to and changed by generation after generation. It’s still basically rock and roll music but they create it in their own way and make it their own rebellion, which is good. That’s what music is all about!
How did you get the name The Troggs?
The boys were travelling up to…I think it was the first gig they were doing in a university up in Doncaster. They hadn’t actually gotten their act together as much as they didn’t have a name. They picked up a couple of students, hitchhikers, on the way up who got in the truck and obviously saw they were a band with the guitars and gear in the back. They asked, “What do you call yourselves?”. The boys said they didn’t really know yet. (The hitchhikers) had a look around and it was all long hair and frayed jeans.
They said, “You really ought to be the Grotty Troggs” – Troggs being an abbreviation of Troglodyte, and ‘Grotty’ meaning what they looked like. We dropped the ‘Grotty’ bit and just kept The Troggs, which is quite short and snappy and did the job. It’s an easy name to remember so it fitted the bill, that’s why we did it!
What have been a few of the best highlights in your years as a Trogg?
Obviously having big hit records in the first place is a big highlight because at one time – fifty years ago – we had Number 1 in America for Wild Thing and Number 1 in England with the follow up With A Girl Like You. Those two or three years were just storming. And we’ve done some incredible gigs since then, we did a three month tour in America with The Who, which was quite eye-opening and good fun and we’ve done various tours all over the place, visiting lots of countries around the world that most people don’t get the chance to see. It’s all the stuff of memories and great to look back on.
In contrast, what have been some of the biggest challenges?
Ooh, I don’t know! Managing to stay awake for long trips on the road when driving – things like that can always be a challenge (laughs). We’ve not had any serious challenges or serious problems…well I suppose the biggest and recent challenge we’ve had was when our dear old lead singer Reg (Presley) died about three years ago. He wanted us to keep going and we wanted to keep going.
We found that none of the three of us had a good enough voice to do it but luckily we met up with Chris Allen who’s the chap who sings with us now. Reg managed to see us on a couple of gigs so that was good. He gave us his blessing to carry on as it were and that was a bit of a challenge and a hurdle because losing your main man takes some getting over.
Back in the 1960s The Troggs were known to push the boundaries of rock ‘n’ roll. Was it a deliberate aim or did it come as just a surprise to you?
I don’t think we even knew we were doing it intentionally, it was just the way we played music. Most of the bands around that time from England were either from London, Manchester, Birmingham, or Liverpool – they were all big city bands. We were country boys from out in the sticks; we live about a mile from Stonehenge. We probably had a slightly more bluesy, aggressive fear and attitude towards it but we didn’t intentionally set out to change anything or produce an aggressive sound, it was just the way we naturally were.
As The Troggs highly influenced both garage and punk rock in the 60s, what do you think of this type of rock today?
So they say. My impression of music – all music – is good! Anybody who tries anything to do with music and goes for it has got to be good. The whole object of teenage music and kids music has got to rebel against what went before, really. It must be getting more and more difficult to find something to show that they’ve put their five eggs in and rebelled against what went before. They usually manage to fix it. If they can make anybody from the older generation disapprove of their music I think they’re doing it right!
Where do you hope to take The Troggs in the future?
We obviously want to carry on playing gigs, but we’re also testing out the idea of doing some more recording. We’re just a little bit worried it might get lost in the pile because we’re a bunch of old boys and there’s so much new stuff coming out. But we’ll bear it in mind and see what happens. Watch this space. Maybe something might come out of it!
The Troggs ‘Wild Thing 50th Anniversary’ Australian Tour
THU 3 NOV
Beach House Hotel, Hervey Bay
FRI 4 NOV
Hamilton Hotel, Brisbane
SAT 5 NOV
Caloundra RSL, Sunshine Coast
MON 14 NOV
Brass Monkey, Cronulla
TUE 15 NOV
The Basement, Sydney
WED 16 NOV
Lizotte’s, Newcastle
THU 17 NOV
Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood
FRI 18 NOV
Entrance Leagues Club, Central Coast
SAT 19 NOV
Revesby Workers Club, Revesby
SUN 20 NOV
The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle
TUE 22 NOV
The Gov, Adelaide
THU 24 NOV,
Factory Theatre, Sydney
SAT 26 NOV
The Palms at Crown, Melbourne
Get Tickets HERE
