THE THE

'The The' are an English musical and multimedia group that have been around since 1979 in various forms, with Matt Johnson being the only constant band member. Releases are fairly few and far between but over the years The The have sold several million albums internationally and achieved critical acclaim - their 1983 album ''Soul Mining'' was voted the third best album of the year by British music magazine Melody Maker (the album featured the song "Uncertain Smile," which at one point was voted the fourth greatest song ever by Australian Triple J radio listeners).
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 Matt Johnson's brother Andrew Johnson (Andy Dog Johnson). The artwork has a distinctive style, and sometimes courted controversy, most notably the initial release of the single "Infected" which was withdrawn from sale and re-issued with an edited version of the cover art.
Recently, The The have enjoyed a small surge of attention in the United States thanks to an M&M's advertising campaign, which has been using the band's song "This is the Day" as its theme music.

Contents

Members

Current members

Past members

Collaborators

Discography

Singles

External links

Members

Current members

★ Matt Johnson - vocals, bass guitar

★ Eric Schermerhorn - guitars

★ Earl Harvin - drums

Past members

★ Johnny Marr - guitars and harmonica (1988–1994) (see also The Smiths and Modest Mouse)

★ Charles Blackburn - guitar

★ Keith Laws - keyboards (1979-1982)

★ James Eller - bass guitar (1988–1994)

★ D.C. Collard - keyboards (1991–1997)

★ Dave Palmer - drums (1988–1994) (see also ABC)

Collaborators

The following musicians were not official members of The The, but made notable contributions to various recordings by the band.

★ J. G. Thirlwell - Tapes, samples, percussion (1979–2006) (see also Foetus)

★ Jools Holland - Piano (1982)

★ Steve Hogarth - Piano (1986)

★ Thomas Leer - Keyboards (1979–1983)

★ Sinéad O'Connor - vocals (1988–1989)

★ Neneh Cherry - vocals (1985–1986)

★ Anna Domino - vocals (1985–1986)

★ Gail Ann Dorsey - bass guitar (1994–1996)

★ Keith Joyner - guitar, vocals

★ Zeke Manyika - Drums (see also Orange Juice)

★ Peter Ashworth - Drums aka Triash

★ Tim Johnson - bass guitar

Discography

★ ''See Without Being Seen'' (1978) (Lazarus - very limited cassette release)

★ ''Spirits'' (1979) (Unreleased)

★ ''Burning Blue Soul'' (1981) (originally credited to Matt Johnson - re-release as The The)

★ ''The Pornography Of Despair'' (1982) (Unreleased)

★ ''Soul Mining'' (1983)

★ ''Infected'' (1986)

★ ''Mind Bomb'' (1989)

★ ''Dusk'' (1992)

★ ''Solitude'' (1993)

★ ''Hanky Panky'' (1995)

★ ''Gun Sluts'' (1997) (Unreleased)

★ ''NakedSelf'' (2000)

★ '' (2002)

★ ''London Town Box Set'' (2002)

★ ''Silent Tongue'' (2002) (Unreleased, a compilation of The The’s film music.)

★ ''SnagelTooth the Epic Journey'' (2006) (unreleased due to copyright of the band name SnagelTooth.)
With ''NakedSelf'', the band moved from its previous label, Sony, to Interscope.

Singles

'Year'	'Title'	'Chart positions'		'Album'
		UK	USA Modern Rock
1980	Controversial Subject	-	-	-
1981	Cold Spell Ahead	-	-	-
1982	Uncertain Smile	# 68	-	''Soul Mining''
1983	Perfect	-	-	''Soul Mining''
1983	This Is the Day	# 71	-	''Soul Mining''
1986	Heartland	# 29	-	''Infected''
1986	Infected	# 48	-	''Infected''
1987	Slow Train To Dawn	# 64	-	''Infected''
1987	Sweet Bird Of truth	# 55	-	''Infected''
1989	The Beat(en) Generation	# 18	# 13	''Mind Bomb''
1989	Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)	-	-	''Mind Bomb''
1989	Gravitate to Me	-	# 15	''Mind Bomb''
1989	Kingdom of Rain	-	# 16	''Mind Bomb''
1990	Jealous of Youth	-	# 7	''Solitude''
1991	Shades Of Blue EP	-	-	-
1993	Dogs of Lust	# 25	-	''Dusk''
1993	Slow Emotion Replay	# 35	-	''Dusk''
1993	Love Is Stronger Than Death	# 39	-	''Dusk''
1994	Dis-Infected EP	# 17	-	-
1995	I Saw the Light	# 31	-	''Hanky Panky''
1999	Shrunken Man	-	-	''Naked Self''
2007	Mrs Mac	-	-	''TBA ''

External links

★ This is The The Day (Official Website)

★ True Happiness This Way Lies

★ The Ultimate The The Discography

★ TheThe Bootleg Discussion Forum