Most returning artists are allergic to the notion that they are making a comeback, preferring to parrot the line that they have never really been away. Such reticence does not remotely affect Matt Johnson and the The, who have named their current UK and US tour the Comeback Special. Then again, it would be hard for Johnson to deny the extent of his recent indolence. The The’s last live gig was at a David Bowie-curated Meltdown in 2002, since when they have released the sum total of two singles, while Johnson has sporadically made music for film soundtracks and art installations.
This high-pressure return is rendered more difficult by the death of Johnson’s father four days earlier, with the singer confessing online that only “massive financial implications” have prevented him from cancelling these shows. The standing ovation as he dedicates the gigs to his dad indicates mass empathy and support.
The The have always been a vehicle for Johnson, who began his career in 1979 writing songs of intense personal turmoil before shifting his gaze to global geopolitics. The latter material dominates the first half tonight, with songs such as 1989 single The Beat(en) Generation wrapping their political message in the velvet glove of a gorgeous melody. The twitchy Johnson retains a gravel-voiced gravitas, and his band are taut and kinetic on barbed missiles such as Armageddon Days Are Here (Again). Yet the earnest social-commentary material can pall, and it’s not until the The dip into Soul Mining, the 1982 album that Johnson wrote as a callow youth, that the crowd rise from their seats as one.
With its fragile synthpop essays that sound like precocious teenage diary entries, the album was a masterclass in adolescent angst, and the rapt This Is the Day reunites tonight’s largely middle-aged audience with their inner Adrian Moles. The sublime encore, the halting 1982 single Uncertain Smile, remains the essence of youthful infatuation. The The really shouldn’t leave it 16 years until their next tour.
At Brixton Academy, London, on 6 June. Box office: 0844 477 2000. Then touring.
