Early years (1977–1981) While trying to get his band going, in 1978 Matt Johnson had recorded a solo
demo album (
See Without Being Seen) which he sold at various underground gigs on cassettes. In 1979, working with Colin Lloyd-Tucker (a friend and colleague at
De Wolfe Music, the Soho music publisher/recording studio) Johnson recorded his first album proper,
Spirits. This album remains unreleased, though the track "What Stanley Saw" was later licensed to
Cherry Red Records for their
Perspectives and Distortion compilation album, which also featured
Virgin Prunes,
Lemon Kittens,
Thomas Leer,
Kevin Coyne and
Mark Perry. In November 1977 Johnson had placed an advertisement in
NME seeking "bass/lead guitarist" who liked
the Velvet Underground and
Syd Barrett. In 1979 he placed a second advertisement in the
NME, stating his new influences as
the Residents and
Throbbing Gristle. made their debut at London's Africa Centre on 11 May 1979, third on the bill to
Scritti Politti and
PragVEC, using backing tape tracks that Johnson created at his day job at De Wolfe studios for the drums and bass. The band at this point consisted of Johnson on vocal, electric piano, guitar and tapes and
Keith Laws on synthesiser and tapes. Laws suggested the name to Matt Johnson. As was now getting under way, Johnson was simultaneously working with experimental synth-pop combo the Gadgets, a studio group he formed with Colin Lloyd Tucker, his colleague at De Wolfe recording studios.
Peter Ashworth, then known as Triash and later to become a noted photographer, became drummer in 1980, and Tom Johnston (also managing at this point and later to become a cartoonist for the
Evening Standard,
Daily Mirror and
The Sun newspapers) was added on bass. Although both Ashworth and Johnston were credited with appearing on debut single ("Controversial Subject"/"Black and White") on
4AD Records, neither actually played on the
recordings, which were produced by
Wire members
Bruce Gilbert and
Graham Lewis. All instruments were played by Johnson and Laws. Johnston and Ashworth soon dropped out of and returned to their respective day jobs. As a duo (Johnson and Laws), began performing concerts with Wire,
Cabaret Voltaire,
DAF,
This Heat,
the Birthday Party and Scritti Politti. In early 1981 also contributed the composition "Untitled" to the
Some Bizzare Album. In September of that year Johnson and Laws signed a
recording contract with
Some Bizzare Records and released the 7" single "Cold Spell Ahead". Johnson apparently ran off some cassette copies for friends, and several tracks ("Mental Healing Process", "Leap into the Wind", "Absolute Liberation") were subsequently issued as additional tracks on the "This Is the Day" single. "Three Orange Kisses from Kazan" and "Waitin' for the Upturn" (featuring
Steve James Sherlock playing flute and saxophone) also date from this era, and appeared as
B-sides. Some of the previously mentioned cuts, along with the tracks "The Nature of Virtue" and "Fruit of the Heart" (which were similarly recorded around the same time), appeared as bonus selections on a cassette-only issue of the band's eventual debut album, but
The Pornography of Despair album as a whole remains unissued. Around 1982 played a series of four concerts at the
Marquee Club in
Wardour Street,
Soho, entitled 'An evening of Rock n Roll with '. These concerts were weekly for four weeks and featured
Marc Almond on guitar and vocals. released their official studio album debut, the synth-noir effort
Soul Mining, in 1983. The band embarked on a lengthy world tour in 1989–90 called
Versus the World. The live film of the same name, directed by
Tim Pope, was filmed during the three nights performed at London's
Royal Albert Hall at the end of the tour. Vocalist Melanie Redmond, who had just completed a world tour with
Duran Duran, joined the tour during the European leg as a session musician. The studio EP
Shades of Blue was released in 1990. This included cover versions of
Fred Neil's "Dolphins" and
Duke Ellington's "Solitude" as well as a new original song "Jealous of Youth" and a live version of "Another Boy Drowning" from
Burning Blue Soul. This and a later EP of remixes, 1993's
Dis-infected, were compiled into a 1994 full-length album for the North American market called
Solitude. In 1993, with Johnson, Marr, Collard, Eller and Palmer, Some Bizzare Records/Epic issued their fourth studio album
Dusk, which debuted at No. 2 in the UK and spun off three top 40 singles in the UK, which was completed in autumn 2010 and won the Special Jury Remi Award for Theatrical Feature Documentary at the 2011
WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. The soundtrack was released in 2012 as volume 2 in the series of original soundtrack albums produced through Johnson's Cineola imprint. For Swedish filmmaker Johanna St Michaels, this has included
Best Wishes Bernhard (prize winning film of Dokumentär Films Premien Nordic Panorama 2003),
Snapshots from Reality (Nominated for Best International Short at the
Birds Eye View Film festival at London's
ICA 2007),
The Track (2007),
Going Live (2008),
The Island Amid the Worlds (2010) and
Bilder av Dina (2010). The latest collaboration between Johnson and St Michaels,
Penthouse North, premiered at the
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2014. In June 2009, it was announced that had created an original soundtrack to the Gerard Johnson debut feature film
Tony, released February 2010 on Cineola imprint in March 2010, as the first volume of several forthcoming soundtrack and instrumental albums. In May 2014, completed an original soundtrack for Gerard Johnson's subsequent film,
Hyena, starring
Peter Ferdinando,
Stephen Graham, and
Neil Maskell. The album was released on 6 March 2015 as the third part in the Cineola series. In May 2007, released a new download-only single on their web site. Entitled "Mrs. Mac," the track is an autobiographical song about Johnson's first day at school as a child in
Stratford,
East London. All instruments and vocals on the track were performed by Johnson. A press release was issued along with this track, announcing a forthcoming album called
The End of the Day with various songs from catalogue being performed by some of Johnson's favourite artists including
Elysian Fields,
JG Thirlwell,
Thomas Leer,
Elbow,
Rob Ellis,
John Parish,
Anna Domino,
Meja,
Angela McCluskey, Ergo Phizmiz, and Rustin Man (a.k.a.
Paul Webb), among others. On 29 October 2021, released
The Comeback Special on Cinéola and earMUSIC, a live album recorded at the Royal Albert Hall gig in 2018. This album was released in a number of formats, including one release with an art book and a film of the performance. In October 2023, announced their first tour since 2018 that will take place in 2024. In May 2024, it was announced that
Ensoulment, the band's first studio album in nearly 25 years, was released in September to accompany the tour. == Members ==