Welcome to THE THE’s Official Bootleg Series of recordings. The design is based on the bootlegs Matt collected in his late teens / early twenties.
Our bootlegs are presented as vinyl-look CDs with simple white labels, encased in our vintage-style, heavy card sleeve with hand-stamped numbering, debossed foil logo and a holographic stamp of authenticity, with description and track-listing inserts included.
The releases are retrieved from tapes in our large, dusty archive – each containing either demos, live or rare recordings, rough mixes, interviews or promotional performances. Each volume of our miniaturised digital version is mastered at Studio Cinéola. Due to the age and nature of these recordings certain imperfections and distortions may be audible at times.
Volume 003 features ‘The Gadgets’ tracks that were written and sung by the teenage Matt Johnson – contemporaneous with the very early days of THE THE – plus a previously unheard version of a Colin Lloyd Tucker-penned track (9*) from the same sessions. Also includes a 2010 conversation between Matt and former bandmate Colin discussing their days as badly-behaved boys working in a Soho recording studio in the late 1970s – and two previously unreleased performances the pair recorded on the same afternoon as their chat. Mastered at Studio Cinéola.
TRACK LISTING
1 THERE OVER THERE
2 DEVIL’S DYKE
3 SIX MILE BOTTOM
4 SLIDDERY
5 SHE’S QUEEN OF TOYLAND
6 SLEPE
7 AUTUMN ‘80
8 CHECKING TO MAKE SURE
9 DUPLICATE (original version)*
10 CONVERSATION PART 1
11 CONVERSATION PART 2
12 CONVERSATION PART 3
13 CONVERSATION PART 4
14 WHAT GOES ON
15 THE AZIMUTH KEY
