This article needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. January 2017 The The are an English band. The The achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles seven reaching the Top 40 , and their most successful album, 1986 , spent 30 weeks on the chart. They followed this with the Top Ten albums 1989 and 1993. While trying to get his band going, in 1978 Johnson had recorded a demo solo See Without Being Seen which he continued to sell at various underground gigs on cassettes. The The made their debut at London's Africa Centre on 11 May 1979, third on the bill to and , 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 on synthesiser and tapes. It was Keith Laws who suggested the name 'the The' to Matt Johnson. As the The 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. All 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 , , , , and. 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 to record a solo album,. Although all of the instruments and vocals were performed by Johnson, the album featured various producers including Wire's and , Ivo and Johnson himself. Years later, owing to a request from Johnson, so that all of his albums would be in the same rack together, it would be re-issued and credited to the The. Towards the end of 1981, Colin Lloyd-Tucker and joined the band for a series of stripped down the The acoustic concerts in London. The solo years 1982—1987 Now freed from the politics of a permanent group line-up, Johnson was able to take the The up to the next level, and spent the next few years collaborating with a diverse range of creative individuals, freely changing personnel from project to project. Produced in New York by ; it reached No. This version is different from the more familiar album version, and featured sax and flute by session player Crispin Cioe rather than as on the album version the piano of 's. 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 were subsequently re-recorded and issued as b-sides, but the original album remains unmixed and unissued. Around 1982 the The played a series of four concerts at the Marque 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 album debut, the synth-noir classic , in 1983. It featured the minor UK No. Produced by Johnson and , it featured guest appearances from 's drummer , , and aka. 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 , using the pseudonym Andy Dog. For the 1986 album , the The still consisted only of Johnson, but was augmented by session musicians and featured friends such as Manyika and singer and. 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 and of. 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 in the UK and on 's in the. 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 who persuaded him to return to Britain and support , a coalition of like-minded musicians supporting the British in its election campaign. This experience convinced Johnson to put a band together once again. Return to a full band 1988—2002 By 1988, the The was an actual band again, Johnson having recruited ex- guitarist , ex- bassist and ex- drummer as fully-fledged members. This line-up, plus guest singer , recorded the album , which debuted at No. Keyboardist was added to the official line-up in 1989 keyboard player , who'd played on , had initially been asked to join but opted instead to become the new lead vocalist of. 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 , was filmed during the three nights The The performed at London's 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 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. 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 and New York bassist , respectively after Johnson relocated the band to America. Also added was Boston harmonica player formerly of , who auditioned in New York in early 1993. Palmer bowed out partway through the tour and was replaced by ex drummer. The band headlined the main stage at the 1993. Another full-length film, directed by longtime collaborator , was made for this album. From Dusk Til Dawn was shot in New Orleans and New York, and along with Johnson and Johnny Marr also featured various characters from the New York underground scene such as sexologist , writer and raconteur , founder , and porn star Rick Savage amongst many other carnival characters. Now permanently relocated to New York, The The's next project was 1995's , an album that consisted entirely of cover tunes. The The severed their eighteen-year relationship with Sony and moved to , on 's imprint. In 2000, The The, now consisting of Johnson, Schermerhorn, Nashville bassist Spencer Campbell and New Jersey drummer Earl Harvin, released and embarked on yet another lengthy world tour, the Naked Tour, this one lasting 14 months. Not counting soundtrack albums, remains The The's final released studio album to date. Both songs were produced by and for the 2002 compilation album In June 2002 The The made a sole live appearance at the at London's Royal Festival Hall as guests of. At this point, the band consisted solely of Johnson and longtime friend and collaborator aka on tapes and loops, and young film director on film and video. 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 Film festival at London's 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 in May 2014. In June 2009 it was announced that The The had created an original soundtrack to the debut feature film. The was released on The The's Cineola imprint in March 2010, as volume one of several upcoming soundtrack and instrumental albums. In May 2014 The The completed an original soundtrack for 's latest film, Hyena. Starring , and , this controversial crime thriller about people trafficking and corrupt elements within the UK police opens up 2014's. The album was released on 6 March 2015 as the third part in the Cinéola series. For English director it has included the documentary One Man Show: Dramatic Art of Steven Berkoff 1995 and a documentary feature film about the , Moonbug, which was completed in autumn 2010 and won the Special Jury Remi Award for Theatrical Feature Documentary at the 2011 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. Je t'aime Infiniment, a film co-directed by Lebanese filmmaker Corine Shawi and Danish director Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen was completed in 2010. The latest film collaboration between Johnson and Larsen is End Of Season a Turkish film which premiered at the in Istanbul in January 2014. In May 2007 The The also released a new download-only single on their web site. All instruments and vocals on the track were performed by Johnson. To date, the album remains a work in progress, although a preview can be heard at the band's official site. Since 2009 a new generation has been exposed to The The's music on American television. The The's music continues to be used on British radio and television such as in 2010 series and in 2013 in the award-winning British sit-com. The broadcasts are presented by Johnson and other guests. Shows have so far included contributions from, and collaborations with, musicians , , Hayley Willis, Thomas Feiner, , Colin Lloyd Tucker plus poet John Tottenham, photographer , actress Marlene Kaminsky, spiritual healer Abdi Assadi and many others. Monthly downloadable Radio Cineola broadcasts ceased at the end of December 2010, although the broadcasts continue at randomly chosen dates. The first release, in 2012, was Tales From The Two Puddings, a memoir by Matt's dad, Eddie, which recounts the Johnson family's time owning one of East London's most notorious pubs and music houses, the Two Puddings in Stratford. It features many of the legendary customers of this famous pub, such as , the , , , , , , and countless others. The book has been endorsed by personalities as varied as , and. He was a founder member of the committee and directed and narrated a short film for its cause. Along with fellow artists such as Brad Lochore, and he has been fighting the eastwards expansion of the into and the probable demolition of much of this East London neighbourhood. The day after the London Olympics finished in August 2012 Johnson made a rare public appearance on the current affairs programme, in order to debate with , the Mayor of , about the impact and legacy of the upon , the part of London Johnson grew up in. In the spring of 2014, it was announced by that they plan to release a Soul Mining 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Boxset in the summer of 2014. The reissue was remastered by Matt Johnson at. Authored by Neil Fraser, it will apparently have the full cooperation of Matt Johnson. Johnson told Uncut magazine in early 2015 that he was starting to write the first new vocal-based The The album since 2000's Nakedself. 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 on 5 June 2018. The Royal Albert Hall tickets sold out, with two extra performances added at O2's Brixton Academy and The Troxy, both in London. Several more shows around the UK and Europe were subsequently added, as well as eight shows in the US. 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 comes with 48-page bound book which includes album lyrics and exclusive photos. Current touring band members On May 18, 2018, the band members for the live comeback were announced on the official The The Facebook page. From 1983 to 1988, and again from 2002 to the present, he was the only official member of The The. Now a Professor of at the. Now a cartoonist for national newspapers. The 1993 re-release of Burning Blue Soul credits this album to The The. Despite their unavailability on disc, Johnson includes these albums in almost every official discography issued by the band. Year Artist Title Notes Description Release status 1978 Matt Johnson See Without Being Seen A Matt Johnson solo project Very limited cassette release, only available at concerts 1979 Matt Johnson Spirits A Matt Johnson solo project Unreleased in any form. Some cassette copies were run off for friends of Matt Johnson. Alternate title: Two Blocks Below Canal Street. Was eventually released in October 2017 in the Radio Cineola - The Trilogy box set. British Hit Singles and Albums. Guinness World Records Limited. Archived from on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011. The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music. Archived from on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011. Archived from on 12 May 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2011. Archived from on 9 May 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2011. Australian Chart Book 1970—1992 Illustrated ed. The Kent Report chart was licensed by between mid-1983 and 19 June 1988. Australia's Music Charts 1988—2010. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. London: Guinness World Records Limited. It was necessary to search for each entry by title on the source site, as searching for 'The The' yields search results with all artist names containing 'the' in the title.
