The The was always a personal project for songwriter Matt Johnson. Started in 1979, when Johnson was a teenager, the post-punk outfit became central to the political and personal pop of the 1980s. Never a singles band - they managed seven top 40 singles, with 1989's anti-Thatcher anthem 'The Beaten Generation' reaching number 18 - their albums were hits. Infected in 1986 reached No. 14, followed by 1989's Mind Bomb at number four and 1993's Dusk at number two. Band members included Johnny Marr and DC Collard with other collaborators including JG Thirlwell, Jools Holland, Neneh Cherry, Zeke Manyika, and Sinead O'Connor - a Who's Who of 1980s independent pop. A reluctant live musician, Johnson created Infected: The Movie instead of a world tour in 1986. The Mind Bomb band, including Marr and Eller, launched the 1989-90 The The vs The World tour, while Dusk was supported by the 1993 Lonely Planet.

Johnson appeared to retire following 2000's Naked Self. Although Johnson kept busy, with a sideways move into scoring movies, it wasn't until 2018 that The The returned to playing live with a Comeback Special tour. This was followed in 2024 with new album, Ensoulment and accompanying tour - almost a quarter of a century after the band's last recorded music. In recent years Johnson's been busier than ever with the Radio Cineola podcasts, an Official Bootleg series of CDs exploring rare material, and other idiosyncratic projects.