THE THE dust off their old 16mm projectors and head back down to their roots of OrganicElectronica for June 25th’s one-off performance at David Bowie’s Meltdown with an evening of twisted, spooked-out instrumental versions of their 23 year old catalogue. All accompanied by slides and projections.

Joining Matt on stage in this new stripped down line-up of THE THE will be James G Thirlwell a.k.a FOETUS. The last time the pair appeared on stage together was 20 years ago at the legendary ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll with The The’ residency at the old Marquee club in Wardour Street (see photo below) where as part of an underground ‘supergroup’ that included members of Cabaret Voltaire, Orange Juice and Soft Cell as well as Thomas Leer, Kid Montana and numerous others, Matt and Jim played everything including the kitchen sink.

Also on stage alongside them will be the young British film director, Benn Northover, whose film for THE THE–’In The A.M.’–debuts at the ICA’s Cybersonica Festival on Friday the 7th June.

The evening will also feature Thirlwell’s side project Baby Zizanie in support as well as various THE THE films, including ‘Pillar Box Red’ by Tim Pope and an unusual filmed version of the song by the talented young German singer/songwriter Suzanne, sung in German! As well as Northover’s ‘In The A.M.’

Jim, Zeke & Matt

To tie in with this unique event THE THE will be releasing a special edition 3 track ‘Interpretations’ EP of ‘Pillar Box Red’. The brilliant young British group ELBOW have covered the classic ‘August & September’ while America’s wonderful SNAKEFARM bring their trademarked twisted rythyms to their own unique interpretation of ‘Pillar Box Red.’

PART 2. J: Another striking thing from the early days was Andy’s artwork. What was the sort of motivation there, other than “Oh, he's my brother - I'll do something?” Did Andrew's artwork already have that style? Because it's a very distinctive style. M:  Yeah it did. There was, for instance, the sleeve on 'Uncertain Smile'. Originally it was a painting of someone else, but I just really liked the look of it so I just got him to repaint it with this distorted version of me in it. 'Burning Blue Soul' was a very different type of sleeve that was sort of ... J: Psychedelic ... Read more >

MJ & Andy Dog

PART 2.

HB: So, we were talking about your plans for Lazarus, with the current joint venture with Sony and this upcoming series of compilations and re-issues but who will be releasing future TheThe albums?

MJ: At this moment in time I’m really not sure how many future albums there will be ... although there will be be at least one, as I’m writing that at the moment! But as from May 2002 we’re working on a two year period of releases, both old and new, leading up to TheThe’s 25th anniversary. At that point I’ll decide whether to continue. Or at least how to continue. Everything has a life span whether it’s a person, a plant, a planet or a pop group, so we’ll see...

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45rpm vol 1 is in the shops from Monday May 20th and includes the extra 12" CD for a limited period only. Get out and buy!