About Us

The Band

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Ollia Alexis: Vocals

Richard Barker: Drums and Backing Vocals

Sean Cocklin: Bass

Pauline Hutchinson: Guitar

John Rolls: Guitar, Vocals and Keyboards

The members of Urban Moth originally came together in November 2000 with American vocalist Daniel Blackmoor to write and record some songs in a style influenced by the goth music of the 80's and grunge of the 90's best described as Groth.  John and Sean had worked together on and off for many years since their school band Genghis Chainsaw did one gig in 1985.  At the turn of the century, John and Pauline had been in a covers band together called the Voodoo Sheep.  John, Sean and Pauline were joined by Richard, a jazzer and general all-rounder who had been stalking the Voodoo Sheep for several months.  The original line-up of this as yet un-named band recorded two songs in November 2001 with Daniel on vocals.  Daniel then departed to join Thee Exit Wounds and the group played its first gig the following month with guest keyboard player Ben Carpenter.  


The line-up solidified during the next two years of intensive song-writing.  The name Urban Moth and the album Shovel of Ignorance exploded onto London's unsigned band circuit in a series of memorable gigs in 2004 and 2005, including such legendary venues as the Hope & Anchor, Bull & Gate, Heaven and The Pleasure Unit.  During this period the band's eclectic and uninhibited approach to song-writing meant that their genre became very difficult to pin down.  The would soar from punk rock, jazz-funk, hip-hop, reggae and ska to prog rock conceptualisation over a few minutes of music.  A style which could only successfully be described as SUPER PEACHY DELUXE.  The mini album Nepalese Attack Monkeys with its spectacular Sean-designed cover art appeared in late 2005 at a time when CD's were still a thing.


Live performances became rarer over the next few years, although a raft of new songs, collectively known as The Laughing Cares Of No-one were written and recorded, usually without the entire band being present at the same time.  Richard vacated the drum stool for a while and was replaced in 2011 by Herbie Taylor, who had previously been a member of Nature's Cruel Jest with John in Brighton in the late 80's.  Keyboard player Andy Parker joined the following year, and a collection of new, distinctly proggy pieces were collated and aired in a new series of live concerts.  Work started on the never completed fourth album, which was to be known as Invertebrate Stress.  Andy and Herbie departed in late 2013 and the group finally completed the recording of the 18 minute song-cycle A Darker Love in 2014 with Richard returning on Drums and former Genghis Chainsaw person Jon Evans on keyboards.  Lyrics for this project and several subsequent mothsongs were provided by Dave Hussey.


Richard left again and was replaced (again) by Herbie.  New vocalist Ollia was recruited, providing a wider range and more ear-friendly delivery, which was apparent in the funky Feel Love EP recorded by this line-up in 2017.  Richard returned once more at the end of that year and newly energised band returned to live performance, still spritely after nearly 20 years.

 The Music

All new music will be uploaded to our Soundcloud page


More content can also be found on our Youtube page