The The

History

Early years (1977–1981)

While trying to get his band going, in 1978 Matt Johnson had recorded a solo demo album (See Without Being Seen) which he sold at various underground gigs on cassettes. In 1979, working with Colin Lloyd-Tucker (a friend and colleague at De Wolfe Music, the Soho music publisher/recording studio) Johnson recorded his first album proper, Spirits. This album remains unreleased, though the track "What Stanley Saw" was later licensed to Cherry Red Records for their Perspectives and Distortion compilation album, which also featured Virgin Prunes, Lemon Kittens, Thomas Leer, Kevin Coyne and Mark Perry.

In November 1977 Johnson had placed an advertisement in NME seeking "bass/lead guitarist" who liked the Velvet Underground and Syd Barrett. In 1979 he placed a second advertisement in the NME, stating his new influences as the Residents and Throbbing Gristle.

The The made their debut at London's Africa Centre on 11 May 1979, third on the bill to Scritti Politti and PragVEC, using backing tape tracks that Johnson created at his day job at De Wolfe studios for the drums and bass. The band at this point consisted of Johnson on vocal, electric piano, guitar and tapes and Keith Laws on synthesiser and tapes. Laws suggested the name the The to Matt Johnson.

As the The was now getting under way, Johnson was simultaneously working with experimental synth-pop combo the Gadgets, a studio group he formed with Colin Lloyd Tucker, his colleague at De Wolfe recording studios.

Peter Ashworth, then known as Triash and later to become a noted photographer, became the The's drummer in 1980, and Tom Johnston (also managing the The at this point and later to become a cartoonist for the Evening Standard, Daily Mirror and The Sun newspapers) was added on bass. Although both Ashworth and Johnston were credited with appearing on the The's debut single ("Controversial Subject"/"Black and White") on 4AD Records, neither actually played on the recordings, which were produced by Wire members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis. All instruments were played by Johnson and Laws. Johnston and Ashworth soon dropped out of the The and returned to their respective day jobs. As a duo (Johnson and Laws), the The began performing concerts with Wire, Cabaret Voltaire, DAF, This Heat, the Birthday Party and Scritti Politti.

Matt Johnson solo years (1982–1987)

Johnson spent the next few years collaborating with a diverse range of creative individuals, changing personnel from project to project.

The The's next single was a retooling of "Cold Spell Ahead", now entitled "Uncertain Smile". Produced in New York by Mike Thorne, it reached No. 68 in the UK singles chart. This version is different from the more familiar album version, and featured saxophone and flute by session musician Crispin Cioe rather than (as on the album version) the piano of Squeeze's Jools Holland.

In 1982, the intended debut album by the The (The Pornography of Despair) was recorded, but was never officially mixed nor released. Johnson apparently ran off some cassette copies for friends, and several tracks ("Mental Healing Process", "Leap into the Wind", "Absolute Liberation") were subsequently issued as additional tracks on the "This Is the Day" single. "Three Orange Kisses from Kazan" and "Waitin' for the Upturn" (featuring Steve James Sherlock playing flute and saxophone) also date from this era, and appeared as B-sides. Some of the previously mentioned cuts, along with the tracks "The Nature of Virtue" and "Fruit of the Heart" (which were similarly recorded around the same time), appeared as bonus selections on a cassette-only issue of the band's eventual debut album, but The Pornography of Despair album as a whole remains unissued.

Around 1982 the The played a series of four concerts at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street, Soho, entitled 'An evening of Rock n Roll with the The'. These concerts were weekly for four weeks and featured Marc Almond on guitar and vocals.

The The released their official studio album debut, the synth-noir effort Soul Mining, in 1983. It featured the minor UK No. 71 hit "This Is the Day", as well as a new recording of the The performing "Uncertain Smile". Produced by Johnson and Paul Hardiman, it featured guest appearances from Orange Juice's drummer Zeke Manyika, Jools Holland, Thomas Leer and JG Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus).

During the The's more prolific period of releases, from Soul Mining (1983) to Dusk (1992), most artwork used on the albums and single releases was produced by Johnson's brother Andrew Johnson, using the pseudonym Andy Dog. The artwork has a distinctive style, and sometimes courted controversy, most notably the initial release of the 1986 single "Infected", which featured a masturbating devil and was withdrawn from sale and re-issued with an edited version of the same drawing.

Return to a full band (1988–2002)

By 1988, the The was an actual band again, Johnson having recruited ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, ex-Nick Lowe bassist James Eller, and ex-ABC drummer David Palmer as fully-fledged members. This line-up, plus guest singer Sinéad O'Connor, recorded their third studio album Mind Bomb, which debuted at No. 4 in the UK Albums Chart and featured the band's highest-charting single to that time, "The Beat(en) Generation", which peaked at No. 18 in the UK singles chart.

Keyboardist D.C. Collard was added to the official line-up in 1989 after the band's former session player Steve Hogarth, who had played on Infected, opted to become the new lead vocalist of Marillion instead. The band embarked on a lengthy world tour in 1989–90 called the The Versus the World. The live film of the same name, directed by Tim Pope, was filmed during the three nights the The performed at London's Royal Albert Hall at the end of the tour. Vocalist Melanie Redmond, who had just completed a world tour with Duran Duran, joined the tour during the European leg as a session musician.

The studio EP Shades of Blue was released in 1990. This included cover versions of Fred Neil's "Dolphins" and Duke Ellington's "Solitude" as well as a new original song "Jealous of Youth" and a live version of "Another Boy Drowning" from Burning Blue Soul. This and a later EP of remixes, 1993's Dis-infected, were compiled into a 1994 full-length album for the North American market called Solitude.

In 1993, with Johnson, Marr, Collard, Eller and Palmer, Some Bizzare Records/Epic issued their fourth studio album Dusk, which debuted at No. 2 in the UK and spun off three top 40 singles in the UK, led by "Dogs of Lust". Another world tour followed, the Lonely Planet tour, at which point the band's line-up was reshuffled; Marr and Eller left, and were replaced by Atlanta-based guitarist Keith Joyner and New York bassist Jared Michael Nickerson after Johnson relocated the band to the US. Also added was Boston harmonica player Jim Fitting (formerly of Treat Her Right), who auditioned in New York in early 1993. Palmer bowed out partway through the tour and was replaced by ex-Stabbing Westward drummer Andy Kubiszewski. The band headlined the main stage at the 1993 Reading Festival.

Another full-length film, directed by longtime collaborator Tim Pope, was made for this album. From Dusk Til Dawn was shot in New Orleans and New York. Along with Johnson and Johnny Marr, it also features various characters from the New York underground scene such as sexologist Annie Sprinkle, writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, and pornographic film actor Rick Savage amongst many carnival characters.

Hiatus (2003–2017)

Since 2003, the reclusive Johnson has generally kept away from the public eye and has concentrated primarily on soundtrack work, scoring numerous documentaries, films, and art installations. The The's music has featured in a diverse range of cinema over many years, from cult classics such as Jürgen Muschalek's (Muscha) Decoder ("Three Orange Kisses from Kazan") and Gregg Araki's Nowhere ("Love Is Stronger Than Death") to big-budget epics such as Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd ("Darkness Falls"), prompting Johnson's move into film score composition.

For English director Nichola Bruce, it has included the documentary One Man Show: Dramatic Art of Steven Berkoff (1995) and a documentary feature film about the Apollo Moon landings, Moonbug, which was completed in autumn 2010 and won the Special Jury Remi Award for Theatrical Feature Documentary at the 2011 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. The soundtrack was released in 2012 as volume 2 in the series of original soundtrack albums produced through Johnson's Cineola imprint.

For Swedish filmmaker Johanna St Michaels, this has included Best Wishes Bernhard (prize winning film of Dokumentär Films Premien Nordic Panorama 2003), Snapshots from Reality (Nominated for Best International Short at the Birds Eye View Film festival at London's ICA 2007), The Track (2007), Going Live (2008), The Island Amid the Worlds (2010) and Bilder av Dina (2010). The latest collaboration between Johnson and St Michaels, Penthouse North, premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2014.

In June 2009, it was announced that the The had created an original soundtrack to the Gerard Johnson debut feature film Tony, released February 2010 on the The's Cineola imprint in March 2010, as the first volume of several forthcoming soundtrack and instrumental albums.

In May 2014, the The completed an original soundtrack for Gerard Johnson's subsequent film, Hyena, starring Peter Ferdinando, Stephen Graham, and Neil Maskell. The album was released on 6 March 2015 as the third part in the Cineola series.

In May 2007, the The released a new download-only single on their web site. Entitled "Mrs. Mac," the track is an autobiographical song about Johnson's first day at school as a child in Stratford, East London. All instruments and vocals on the track were performed by Johnson.

Reformation and new material (2017–present)

For 2017's Record Store Day, after premiering the song on a Radio Cineola broadcast, the The released a new 7" record called "We Can't Stop What's Coming," collaborating once again with Johnny Marr. On 10 September, it was announced that Johnson would be touring as the The again for the first time in 17 years. Two dates were announced, in Denmark on 1 June 2018 and at Royal Albert Hall on 5 June 2018. The Royal Albert Hall tickets sold out, with two extra performances added at O2's Brixton Academy and Troxy, both in London. Several more shows around the UK and Europe were subsequently added, as well as eight shows in the US. The The also played on 2 and 3 October 2018 in the Sydney Opera House.

The touring announcement came subsequent to the The announcing a new triple-vinyl limited-edition box set, Radio Cineola: Trilogy, to be released when they kick off their first gigs since 2002. Featuring three albums – The End of the Day, The Inertia Variations, and Midnight to Midnight – the triple box set package, available for pre-order from 6 October 2017, also came with 48-page bound book which included album lyrics and exclusive photos. The End of the Day contains interpretations of a selection of the The songs from singers across the globe and includes the The's recent single "We Can't Stop What's Coming". The Inertia Variations features Johnson narrating John Tottenham's epic poetic cycle. "Midnight to Midnight includes interviews and soundscapes taken from Johnson's 12-hour UK Election Day Radio Cineola shortwave broadcast plus the electronic score from The Inertia Variations documentary," said a spokesperson for the band speaking to The Quietus.

In January 2021, the soundtrack to the 2019 film Muscle, directed by Gerard Johnson, was released. The first track on this EP was "I Want 2 B U," a new song that was released as a 7" single for Record Store Day 2020.

On 29 October 2021, the The released The Comeback Special on Cinéola and earMUSIC, a live album recorded at the Royal Albert Hall gig in 2018. This album was released in a number of formats, including one release with an art book and a film of the performance.

In October 2023, the The announced their first tour since 2018 that will take place in 2024. In May 2024, it was announced that Ensoulment, the band's first studio album in nearly 25 years, was released in September to accompany the tour.

Members

Current touring band members

On 18 May 2018, the band members for the live comeback were announced on the official The Facebook page.

Matt Johnson – vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, melodica, engineering (1979–2002, 2017–present)

James Eller – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1994, 2018–present)

DC Collard – keyboards, melodica, backing vocals (1989–1997, 2018–present)

Earl Harvin – drums (1998–2002, 2018–present)

Barrie Cadogan – lead guitar, backing vocals (2018–present)

Official members

Matt Johnson is the only permanent member of the The. From 1983 to 1988 and again from 2002 to the present, he was the only official member. Some former permanent members currently play in the band as touring musicians.

Official band members have been:

Collaborators and contributors

The following artists were not official members of the The but made notable contributions to various projects by the band:

Discography

Commercially released albums

Matt Johnson: Burning Blue Soul (1981) – AUS No. 198

Original release and 1983 reissue credited to Matt Johnson. The 1993 re-release of Burning Blue Soul credits this album to the The.

Compilation albums

Solitude (1993) – AUS No. 126

45 RPM (2002) - AUS No. 180

London Town Box Set (2002)

Exclusive the The tracks appear on the following compilation albums of tracks by various artists:

Some Bizzare Album (1981)

Natures Mortes – Still Lives (1982)

If You Can't Please Yourself, You Can't Please Your Soul (1985)

Judge Dredd Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996)

Mitra Music for Nepal (2015)

90's Rarities – Volume 2 (2016)

Unreleased, limited edition and promo-only albums

The recording career of the The and Matt Johnson features numerous albums that have never seen commercial release. Despite their unavailability on disc, Johnson includes these albums in almost every official discography issued by the band.

Singles

See also: Solitude (EP) which was released in December 1999 and contained remixes of the The songs—most notably, "That Was the Day," a version of their single, "This Is the Day".