The The
The The is a British rock band led by singer and songwriter Matt Johnson. It is difficult to determine the exact style of the band, it contains elements of blues , new wave and underground . The British producer Warne Livesey , who is a close friend of Matt Johnson, played a major role in the success of the two albums Infected (1986) and Mind Bomb (1989) .
The best-known pieces are This is the Day , Infected and The Beat (en) Generation . On the studio albums by Johnson, who is not a band leader in the usual sense, but instead gathers constantly changing musicians, well-known guest musicians such as Jools Holland for Uncertain Smile (album Soul Mining ), Neneh Cherry for Slow Train to Dawn (album Infected ) or Sinéad O'Connor on Kingdom of Rain (album Mind Bomb ).
Band members
Current
- Matt Johnson - vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards
- Eric Schermerhorn - guitar
- Brian MacLeod - drums
former members
- Johnny Marr - guitar, harmonica (1988–1994) (see also The Smiths )
- James Eller - bass (1988-1994)
- Gail Ann Dorsey - bass (1994-1996)
- David Palmer - drums (1986-1994) (see also ABC )
- Zeke Manyika - drums (1983)
- Andy Duncan - drums (1983)
- Keith Laws - keyboards
- DC Collard - Keyboards (1991-1997)
Band history
Johnson formed the first line-up in 1979 with keyboardist Keith Laws. After The The initially acted as opening act for Scritti Politti , they released their first single Controversial Subject in 1980 with the record company 4AD . A year later they contributed a track to the Some Bizzare album by the label of the same name.
In 1981 Johnson released the album Burning Blue Soul , which is very often considered the first The-The-album, although it was de facto a solo work by Matt Johnson. Contributors to the album were various musicians from the English underground scene, including various members of the band Wire .
In 1982 The The had become Johnson's solo project, which he supplemented with different musicians. That year the album The Pornography of Despair was recorded, but it never found its way into the record stores. In 1983 the band released their first "real" album Soul Mining , from which the single This Is the Day was decoupled.
In 1986 the next album, Infected , was released, which was supposed to be a commentary on modern urban life in Great Britain and delivered the first UK hit single Heartland . As a guest musician, Neneh Cherry was among others . The full album was also released as a music video, with which Johnson also went on tour as a one-man project.
In 1989 Mind Bomb was released , which clearly set itself apart from the previous The-The style due to its rather "craft" sounds and from which the hit single The Beaten Generation was decoupled. The The consisted at that time of Johnson, guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths , the bassist James Eller and former ABC - drummer David Palmer, who also were in this group for the first time as a band on tour.
In 1993, The The released the more blues-oriented album Dusk with the same line-up , from which the three UK hit singles Love Is Stronger than Death , Slow Emotion Replay and Dogs of Lust come. The 1995 album Hanky Panky , a collection of cover versions of songs by country musician Hank Williams , fell through merciless criticism, with only the single I Saw the Light achieving a respectable success in the UK. At the time the band consisted of Johnson, guitarist Eric Schermerhorn, keyboardist D. C. Collard, harmonica player Jim Fitting and drummer Brian MacLeod.
The album NakedSelf was released in 2000 and brought a number of changes with it: D. C. Collard had since left the group, the album was released on the new label " Nothing Records ", and Johnson had moved to Chinatown, New York. In 2003 Johnson celebrated the 20th anniversary of The The with the compilation 45RPM , which is a kind of retrospective of the previous The-The-work and contains two additional new pieces. Johnson now lives in London again. The only new releases since then have been a download single and two soundtracks ( Moonbug and Tony ) on his own label, and Johnson has also founded a publishing house that published an autobiographical work by his father, among other things. In 2019, after the sold out, limited release of See Without Being Seen in the original cassette format, an extended CD version was also released with three bonus tracks.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1981 | Burning Blue Soul | - | - | - |
UK65 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: September 1981
|
| 1983 | Soul mining | - | - | - |
UK27  (5 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: October 1983
|
| 1986 | Infected | - | - | - |
UK14th (30 weeks)UK |
US89 (18 weeks) US |
First published: November 1986
|
| 1989 | Mind Bomb |
DE24 (19 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK4 (9 weeks) UK |
US138 (12 weeks) US |
First published: May 1989
|
| 1993 | Dusk |
DE23 (11 weeks) DE |
AT28 (6 weeks) AT |
CH20 (6 weeks) CH |
UK2 (4 weeks) UK |
US142 (4 weeks) US |
First published: January 1993
|
| 1995 | Hanky Panky |
DE66 (7 weeks) DE |
- |
CH50 (1 week) CH |
UK28 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: February 1995
|
| 2000 | NakedSelf |
DE80 (1 week) DE |
- | - |
UK45 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: March 2000
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
Compilations
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2002 | 45 RPM: The Singles of | - | - | - |
UK60 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: May 2002
|
More albums
- 1978: See Without Being Seen
- 1979: Spirits
- 1982: The Pornography of Despair
- 1993: Solitude
- 1997: Gun Sluts
- 2000: Karmic Gravity
- 2002: Film Music
- 2002: London Town Box Set
- 2007: The End of the Day
- 2019: See Without Being Seen (Expanded)
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 1982 | Uncertain Smile Soul Mining |
- | - | - |
UK68 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: October 1982
|
| 1983 | Perfect Soul Mining |
- | - | - |
UK79 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: February 1983
|
| This Is the Day Soul Mining |
- | - | - |
UK71 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: September 1983
|
|
| 1986 | Sweet Bird of Truth Infected |
- | - | - |
UK55 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: May 1986
|
| Heartland Infected |
- | - | - |
UK29 (11 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: July 1986
|
|
| Infected Infected |
- | - | - |
UK48 (8 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: October 1986
|
|
| 1987 | Slow Train to Dawn Infected |
- | - | - |
UK64 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: January 1987
( feat.Neneh Cherry ) |
| 1989 | The Beat (en) Generation Mind Bomb |
DE82 (8 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK18 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 1989
|
| Gravitate to Me Mind Bomb |
- | - | - |
UK63 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: July 1989
|
|
| Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) Mind Bomb |
- | - | - |
UK70 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: September 1989
|
|
| 1991 | Shades of Blue (EP) | - | - | - |
UK54 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: February 1991
|
| 1993 | Dogs of Lust Dusk |
- | - | - |
UK25 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: January 1993
|
| Slow Emotion Replay Dusk |
- | - | - |
UK35 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: April 1993
|
|
| Love Is Stronger Than Death Dusk |
- | - | - |
UK39 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: June 1993
|
|
| 1994 | Dis-Infected (EP) | - | - | - |
UK17 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: January 1994
|
| 1995 | I saw the light hanky panky |
- | - | - |
UK31 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: January 1995
|
swell
Web links
- Website of The The
- The The at laut.de.
- True Happiness This Way Lies , fansite, no longer updated as of December 2004
- The The at Allmusic (English)