ABOUT
When Mark Deacon (bass/vocal), John Togher (drums) and I formed The Moths in 1982 out of the embers of London band Rogues Gallery, no one would have expected it to last nearly 40 years! All we cared about then was being the best 12stringindierockswingjazzfeedbackballadeeringpowertrio that South East London has ever produced.
All these years later I have absolutely nothing to add to that.
Andy McNally replaced John in 1983 and soon after that the first recordings were laid down. Early shows on the London circuit caused a bit of a buzz, with mentions on Capital Radio and interviews on BBC Radio Kent. This led to performances at The Woolwich Tramshed, and The Orange Box in Deptford, and from there to regular dates at both venues. The Orange Box soon turned into London’s greatest psychedelic club of the 80s, The Crypt, and as a virtual house band we couldn’t have found a more perfect environment for our music – an all-night venue situated in a church crypt filled with light shows and film projections, but most of all with people.
Having been messed about by a couple of major record companies (you probably don’t even remember who you are now do you?) we financed the first album ourselves. Summer Snow was released in 1986 and received a fair bit of radio airplay and more features on BBC regional stations. Distributed through Crash Landing Records the original pressings sold out, with 1,000 copies going to both Australia and The Netherlands.
In 1988 we went back to the studio to try and capture our live sound on record, and the “Walking on a Wire” EP, on Distortion Records, was pretty indicative of what was happening at the gigs we were playing up and down the country at the time. This release went to several pressings and once again sold out, although I did see one advertised recently on an internet collector’s site.
Unfortunately in 1989 The Crypt and other venues began to close and we realised that time had moved on. Mark left, followed by Andy, to be replaced by Alan Lacroix (bass/vocals) and Gerry Pettit (drums). This line up gave rise to 5 new recordings, which were either not released at the time or only circulated as demos or charity releases. Sadly this period ended in a power struggle between band and management, and we all walked away.
After I’d spent a period as a session guitarist on the C&W circuit playing for a leading electric bluegrass band, Mark got in touch and within days we were back up to speed with Gerry on drums. This hybrid line up was musically interesting, gigged a lot to good press reviews, but was never recorded.
A further change in 1997 reunited Mark and me with Andy McNally who had been playing drums and keyboards in club bands in Norfolk, where he now lives. More live dates followed, including a couple in front of shell shocked Norfolk club audiences, and a limited release EP Bubbles in the Water. Incidentally the track “I’m Laughing” was written about the 1997 general election, but it has applied equally to every one since!
It’s the year 2000 and the regular grind up the M11to and from rehearsals causes Andy to leave once more. Enter Dave Bennett, former Bootleggers drummer and enthusiastic new band member and organiser. Dave sorted out the first website, arranged live dates, recording sessions, and kicked off the Moth-Balls project – a double CD anthology containing 28 tracks spanning 25 years. This involved tracking down the master tapes of all the old recordings, locating various historic tape machines on which to play them, and uploading everything onto state of the art digital recording equipment. This took 2 years to put together, and we included 5 new tracks featuring the then current line-up. You can download the anthology and all our back catalogue from i-Tunes and other internet retailers. Search under The Moths or just go to the music section of this website.
Having spent so much time in the studio putting Moth-Balls together, we needed to get out and play, and spent the next two years gigging in the UK and France without recording a note. Unfortunately Dave’s health had become an increasing problem and he finally left the band in 2011 after 11 years.
At this point we took a long hard look at what we were doing and decided to change direction. Out went the 12 string and a lot of the material associated with it (it may well return one day), and in came more R&B based material with a definite 50s feel. At the same time we were joined by new drummer Geoff Pearce, a 60s R&B band veteran and Motown enthusiast. Geoff’s fluid, jazzy style changed the band’s sound significantly, as did Mark’s debut as lead vocalist on a couple of numbers (it’s only taken him 30 years!).
2012 was spent building up a new circuit of gigs and festivals, with renewed enthusiasm from Mark and myself, and with Geoff fitting in very quickly. A new release was urgently needed and in March 2013 we recorded the EP Sunset Blues containing four tracks from the current live repertoire. It’s a mixture of 50s style Rock and swampy R&B and represents exactly where we were as a band then, and as we still are now. If you don’t like it then you don’t like us I’m afraid, and that’s a shame. Thankfully a lot of people do like it so please click on the thumbnail in the music section for a free i-Tunes preview.
What have we been doing since? Mainly more of the same with regular live gigs up and down the country which always seem to get in the way of the next recording project. You can see from the dates in the Gigs section of the website that we were working right up to the end of 2019, and we all know what happened in 2020. Thankfully we’re all still here, and as we come out of the extended hiatus caused by the lockdowns and bans on live music, we have a considerable amount of new material which we’ll hopefully get to record very soon as the studios are open again. Live bookings are coming in again now as well, so we can begin to look to the future and hopefully some more good plays – check out the Gigs section as we’d love to see you there.
We’ll that’s it so far - this website is dedicated to all the people who have helped us at any point along the way, who have bought the records, come to shows, danced, applauded, or who understood, appreciated, or just got off on what we do, because at the end of the day it’s all about the music and nothing else. It’s also dedicated to those of you who missed it, either by accident or design.
See you soon loud ‘n’ live!
Duncan Wallis.
September 2021