Trivia / The The

• Creator Breakdown: Matt seems to have had several, most notably in the late 80s-early 90s due to the death of his brother.
• Executive Meddling: The reason Gun Sluts was never released, as detailed below.
• Reclusive Artist: Matt from 2003-2010.
• What Could Have Been: The The were going to release an album of much more experimental music in 1997 called Gun Sluts, however the label pulled the plug on it. Only the title track was released as an extremely rare promotional single on the NakedSelf tour, and the rest remains unreleased, although some of it has been played on Matt's Radio Cineola broadcasts.
  • The The were going to release a much more experimental debut album called The Pornography Of Despair in 1982/1983, which would have been a musical halfway point between Burning Blue Soul and Soul Mining, however Matt wasn't happy enough with the final product and created Soul Mining instead. "The Sinking Feeling" ended up on Soul Mining and "Screw Up Your Feelings" (also known as "Mental Healing Process"), was reworked into "Perfect". Most of the rest of the album was released on the original UK and Europe cassette release of Soul Mining, and "Dumb As Death's Head" was released on a Melody Maker flexi disc. The entire album is available as bootlegs and online.
  • Two other early albums, Spirits and See Without Being Seen were also reported to have been recorded but scrapped by Matt. Not much else is known about them however, though See Without Being Seen was re-released on cassette in 2019 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the band.
  • In 2007 The The released a new single to download on their website, "Mrs. Mac" and announced a new album and tour, however nothing ever materialised.