THE THE

The The

The The are an English musical and multimedia group that have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer/songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member.In November 1977, Matt Johnson placed an advertisement in the NME, asking for "Bass/lead guitarist into Velvets/Syd Barrett". Johnson later placed a second advertisement in the NME, stating his new influences as "The Residents/Throbbing Gristle".

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

Finally, 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. It was Keith Laws who suggested the name 'the the' to Matt Johnson; the non-capitalized spelling was later dropped.

As The The was now getting underway, Johnson was simultaneously working with experimental synth-pop combo The Gadgets.

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 playing shows with Wire, Cabaret Voltaire, DAF, This Heat, The Birthday Party and Scritti Politti.

In 1981 Johnson was signed up by Ivo Watts-Russell for 4AD Records to record a solo 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, due to a request from Johnson it would be re-issued and credited to The The.

In early 1981 The The also contributed the composition ‘Untitled’ to The Some Bizzare Album. In September of that year, the duo (Johnson and Laws) signed a deal with Some Bizzare Records, and released the 7" single "Cold Spell Ahead". Shortly thereafter, Laws left to pursue his studies and the only remaining member of The The was Johnson. Later in 1981, Colin Lloyd-Tucker and Simon Fisher-Turner would team up with Johnson for a series of stripped down The The acoustic concerts in London.

Origin: United Kingdom

Genres: Alternative, New Wave, Post-punk,

Years active: 1979–present

Labels: 4AD, Some Bizzare, Epic, Nothing/Interscope, Lazaru

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The The - Soul Mining Full Album