The The

In 1961 Matt Johnson was born in London's East End. From a very early age Matt Johnson had but one ambition to become a singer. Matt left school at the age of 15 and became a tea boy at a small publishing house called De Wolfe in London's Soho.

Nearly three years later, Johnson was made assistant engineer in De Wolfe's eight track studio. After hours he used to work on his own demos.

The The was formed while Johnson, then 17 years old was still working at De Wolfe. The line up comprised Johnson on vocals and guitar with Keith Laws on WASP sythesiser. The group also made copious use of samples and drum machines.
In 1980 Matt Johnson met up with an aspiring young promoter called Stevo, who wanted The The to support Cabaret Voltaire. For this performance , The The were paid with a crate of beer-but it was the beginning of a long and important relationship during which Stevo became The The's manager.

In 1982-1983 Stevo signed The The to Epic Records after first recording the new single 'Uncertain Smile' in New York.

In October 1982 the track 'Perfect' was released as the follow up to 'Uncertain Smile'. The early part of 1983 was spent writing and recording the new album, the prelude to which was a single called 'This Is The Day'.

Soul Mining, The The's first Epic Records album, was released in the autumn of 1983. Among the musicians featured on the sessions were Manyika (Drums), Thomas Leer (Synthesisers) and Jools Holland (Piano). Soul Mining , co-produced by Paul Hardiman, became a British Top 30 album and eventually earned Johnson his first gold record.

In 1984 Johnson became very ill and much time passed before Johnson was to return to The The. The Following year, 1985 , Johnson resumed his career. Working in isolation and at very much his own pace, he spent months writing songs for a new album. It took a year to record , but Infected - and its four singles - properly signalledJohnson's emergence as a songwriter of real and enduring quality. Prior to Infected's release, Johnson embarked on an ambitious plan for an album-length video, a film to complement the often cinematic quality of the music.The film was shot in a variety of locations , from the brothels in Harlem to a remote prisonin Bolivia, the banks of the Amazon to a disused gas terminal in South London.

Infected sold over a million copies world-wide. It was on the British chart for 30 consecutive weeks, along the way qualifying for a platinum disc. Singles from the album included 'Sweet Bird Of Truth', 'Heartland', 'Infected' and 'Slow Train To Dawn'.

The next few years were spent on the road with the release of a new album 'Mind Bomb' in May 1989. The album provided The The with their first top 20 single when 'The Beat(en) Generation' made # 18 on the UK chart. Following the release of Mind Bomb, The The toured playing 100 sell out shows in 22 countries.

By the late summer of 1991, Johnson was back in the studio recording a fresh repertoire of songs. November 1992 saw the release of the album 'Dusk' featuring the same band that had played the world tour : Matt Johnson, Johnny Marr, D.C. Collard, James Eller, and Dave Palmer. Dusk went to Number 2 on the British national chart.

On May 6, 1993 The The began another world tour with a New York City performance broadcast live to the leading alternative rock radio stations in the U.S. The The's sixth and last album, Hanky Panky , was released in the US on Epic Records on January 31 1994.