The The

are an English rock band from London, formed in 1979 by singer-songwriter Matt Johnson, the only constant member, and often the sole member.

achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles, seven reaching the top 40. Their most successful studio album, '' Infected'' (1986), spent 30 weeks on the chart. They followed this with the top-ten studio albums '' Mind Bomb'' (1989) and ''Dusk'' (1993).

The The operated as a solo project from 1982 to 1987, though their albums featured contributions from musicians such as Jools Holland, JG Thirlwell and Neneh Cherry. It became a full band from 1988 to 2002 and featured the guitarist Johnny Marr until 1994. The The went on hiatus from 2002 to 2017, and released their first studio album in 24 years, ''Ensoulment'', in 2024.

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, although 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.

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 '' to Matt Johnson.

As was now getting underway, 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 drummer in 1980, and Tom Johnston (also managing 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 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 and returned to their respective day jobs. As a duo (Johnson and Laws), began performing concerts with Wire, Cabaret Voltaire, DAF, This Heat, the Birthday Party and Scritti Politti.

In early 1981 also contributed the composition "Untitled" to the ''Some Bizzare Album''. In September of that year Johnson and Laws signed a recording contract with Some Bizzare Records and released the 7" single "Cold Spell Ahead". By this stage Matt Johnson had begun playing all the instruments himself so Laws left to pursue his studies, leaving Johnson as a solo artist using a group moniker.

Johnson was signed up later in 1981 to 4AD Records by Ivo Watts-Russell to record a solo studio album, '' Burning Blue Soul''. Although all of the instruments and vocals were performed by Johnson, the album featured various producers including Wire's Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, Ivo and Johnson himself. Years later, owing to a request from Johnson, it would be re-issued and credited to so all of his albums would be in the same rack together.

Towards the end of 1981, Colin Lloyd-Tucker and Simon Fisher Turner joined the band for a series of stripped down acoustic concerts in London.

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.

next single was a retooling of "Cold Spell Ahead", now entitled " Uncertain Smile". Produced in New York by Mike Thorne, it reached No. 68 UK. 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 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 played a series of four concerts at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street, Soho, entitled 'An evening of Rock n Roll with '. These concerts were weekly for four weeks and featured Marc Almond on guitar and vocals.

released their official studio album debut, the synth-noir classic '' Soul Mining'', in 1983. It featured the minor UK No. 71 hit " This Is the Day", as well as a new recording of 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 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.

In 1985, the none-album track "Flesh and Bones" was released on the compilation album ''If You Can't Please Yourself, You Can't Please Your Soul'' by EMI.

For their second studio album '' Infected'' (1986), still consisted only of Johnson, but was augmented by session musicians and featured friends such as Manyika and Rip Rig + Panic singer Neneh Cherry and Anna Domino. This album spawned four charting singles in the UK, notably "Heartland", which made the UK top 30. It was also unusual for having a full-length accompanying film. Costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, ''Infected: The Movie'' was shot on locations in Bolivia, Peru and New York. Different songs were directed by different directors, mainly Tim Pope and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson (of Throbbing Gristle).

Throughout 1986–1987 Johnson toured the world extensively with ''Infected: The Movie'', showing the film in cinemas in place of performing live concerts. The film was also shown twice in its entirety on Channel 4 in the UK, on MTV's ''120 Minutes'' in the US, and on MuchMusic's ''City Limits'' in Canada.

In 1987, Johnson also took some tentative steps back into live performance. Whilst promoting ''Infected: The Movie'' in Australia he had a chance encounter with Billy Bragg, who persuaded him to return to Britain and support Red Wedge, a coalition of like-minded musicians supporting the Labour Party in its general election campaign. Johnson agreed and enrolled longtime friend and collaborator Manyika to join him in performing shows in London featuring stripped-down versions of political songs such as "Heartland". This experience convinced Johnson to put a band together once again.

Return to a full band (1988–2002)

By 1988, was an actual band again, Johnson having recruited ex- Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, ex-Nick Lowe

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