Picture this: you’re in a band, that band’s been active since 1979, you have 15 chart singles under your belt and your most successful album spent 30 weeks on the charts. Follow all this up with a 14-year hiatus and a whirlwind of different band members. Who could you be? You’re post-punk royalty The The, fronted by Matt Johnson, and you’re heading Down Under for the 2018 Melbourne Festival.
The band are heading on a 2018 tour, already having played a few shows in Nottingham and Leeds before extending to the rest of the UK, and then moving across to the States for September. They’re fronting the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne in October, and have a killer setlist prepared boasting new tracks as well as the older classics.
“We won’t be using any samplers… or synthesisers,” says Johnson. “It’s just five musicians, performing reinterpretations of my back catalogue. If people really want to hear the albums, they should just put on headphones and listen to the albums.”
The The became post-punk icons of the ’80s alongside The Smiths and New Order, releasing albums such as Infected (1986) – the initial release was withdrawn thanks to a masturbating devil on the cover – and Mind Bomb (1988) – featuring Sinead O’Connor. Since their hiatus commencing in 2003, The The haven’t been heard or witnessed live in almost 20 years, and haven’t been back to Melbourne in 30. I guess you could say this is a bit of a big deal?
MIAF Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway seems to think so: “As a massive fan of post-punk music in the eighties in England… it takes a second to say ‘yes’ to bringing this special event to Melbourne.”
