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 a quarter of a century. 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, one of which, "Circles", is included in the sound files. Early shows on the London circuit caused a bit of a buzz, with mentions on Capital Radio and an interview 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 house band we couldn't have found a more perfect place for our music - "Run A Million Miles" dates from around these first Crypt shows.

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, and regularly turns up on internet collectors’ sites. “Dance Your Life Away” is included in the sound files.

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. “For The Ages” is included in the sound files. Sadly this period ended in a power struggle between band and management, and rather than compromise the music, we all walked away.

After I'd spent a period as a session guitarist on the C&W circuit (the electric bluegrass stuff is great, the rest isn't) 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 "I'm Laughing" was written about the 1997 general election, I’m sure it will apply equally well to others in the future!

It's the year 2000 and the regular grind up the M11 to and from rehearsals causes Andy to leave once more. Enter Dave Bennett, former Bootleggers drummer and enthusiastic new band member and organizer. Dave sorted out the website, arranged live dates, recording sessions, and kicked off the latest project Moth–Balls, a 2 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 has taken 2 years to put together, and we have also added 5 new tracks featuring the current line up. You can download the album from iTunes and other internet retailers. Search under "The Moths".

This site is dedicated to all the people who helped us at any point during this time, who bought the records, came to shows, danced, applauded, or who understood, appreciated, or just got off on what we were doing, 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.
March 2007