Watch Johnny Marr Reunites with The The at Forever Now

Johnny Marr has been a busy man lately.

Turning up for Glastonbury discourse, standing with Kneecap, and generally being one of the only elder statesmen in music who doesn’t just say the right things but actually means them. But the other night at Milton Keynes’ Forever Now Festival, Marr gave us something else entirely: a full-circle moment with his old band, The The.

Marr joined Matt Johnson’s cult-favourite post-punk outfit back in 1988, after splitting from The Smiths, and stayed onboard until 1994. In that time, they dropped two of the most vital records of the era: Mind Bomb and Dusk — both knotty, weird, and deeply ahead of their time. And on Sunday night, under a bruised summer sky at the National Bowl, he plugged back into that legacy.

As The The tore through a set packed with righteous angst and punchy precision, Marr emerged mid-show to rip through ‘The Beat(en) Generation’ and ‘Dogs Of Lust’. The latter, in particular, landed like a fist — swaggering, guttural, and completely locked in. No nostalgia glaze, no forced smiles. Just two artists who still sound like they’ve got a point to prove.

Forever Now’s lineup leaned heavily into post-punk nostalgia — with Kraftwerk headlining, and heavy hitters like PIL, The Damned, and The Psychedelic Furs all on deck — but Marr’s cameo was a reminder that some reunions don’t feel like museum exhibits. This one had heat.

This wasn’t their first brief reconnection — Marr played on The The’s 2017 comeback single ‘We Can’t Stop What’s Coming’ — but this marked the first time in decades we’ve seen them back onstage together, shoulder to shoulder. If you’d blinked, you’d have missed it. But for those watching, it was a blink you felt in your chest.

The The might not be for everyone, but in this corner of Milton Keynes on a Sunday evening, they didn’t need to be. They were just loud, locked-in, and right on time.