“I don’t know where we are, but I’d rather be a pretend supervillain than some pretend hero,” The 1975’s Matty Healy told NME back in 2022. It’s a role he’s always played so well. He’s adored by the mass cult who fill arenas to bask in his reflection of the impact of fame, internet culture and modern consumption, but pisses off everyone else who see him as a daft and pretentious foppy cretin.
Arriving on Glastonbury‘s Pyramid Stage for their headline debut in his boot-cut jeans, complete with roll-up and Guinness with a pre-split G, Healy lays it on thick as the Socks House Meeting bellend persona he’s created for himself. He struts the gangway with his cut-off mic stand like Freddie Mercury for the Tumblr age, knowingly ready to be the pop culture villain you deserve, but maybe not the one you need right now. But know, it’s all done with a wink.
Opening with the lilting blissed-out yacht rock of ‘Happiness’, the stage is draped in the band’s monochrome look and iconic box logos of their early days, with a space carved out for each member. Bringing in a little colour for the poptastic ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’ and a flash of neon pink for the Prince-y wig-out of ‘Love Me’, the set takes shape as a celebration of the band’s journey and aesthetic so far – their ‘Eras’ show, perhaps. Healy’s just a boy, in a massive field, asking Glasto to love him.
“I’m going to go back to being a rockstar, but this is really scary and I’m really nervous,” he says, unusually humble. “It’s difficult to tell when I’m being sincere on stage or not,” he offers later, knowingly. “What this moment is making me realise is that I’m probably the best songwriter of my generation – a poet is what I am; a generational wordsmith.”
The first of many moments to be taken at face value by armchair critics with no sense of irony, The ‘75 then belt out the often-mocked ‘Chocolate’ complete with phonetically-written lyrics on the screen in the style of Healy’s waify garble. “Yeh neh vuh gonaquidi buh ynebagonaquiddid…” clearly ain’t Dylan, and it gets a rise out of the field, but was lost on the haters at home. “I was only joking about being a poet,” he assures. “I’m an idiot.”
It was said that the band spent four times their Glasto fee on the production. It wasn’t as ambitious as The Talking Heads meets West End fever dream theatrics of the house they built for the ‘At Their Very Best’ tour, but it came with a car for Healy to sit in and largely lent itself to letting the songs hit with impact and without distraction. It’s about the music, but almost to a fault. “Use your platform, that’s what they say right?” offers Healy at one point, highlighting the lack of politics in their set. “We don’t want our legacy to be one of politics, but to be one of love and friendship,” he goes on, as there’s “loads of politics out there”.
It’s a pretty sideways flex, given the expectations of the often motormouthed soapboxer at the famously left-leaning festival, where many an act have already called “Free Palestine”, where Kneecap are expected to bring the headline-grabbing spice and, you know, with the world generally being a bin fire. They do play the polemic ‘Love It If We Made It’, however, which kinda says it all anyway.
There are bangers aplenty – the howling ‘Robbers’, the throbbing punk of ‘People’, the devastating grace of ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’ and the crowd-igniting ‘The Sound’, while some of the more tender moments like ‘Be My Mistake’ feel a little lost. “We’re not going anywhere,” ends Healy. “It’s gonna be alright. I know that’s trite”. With their one show of the year, “The 1975 from the Internet” clear the decks on their career so far to deliver a reminder of their chops for tunes and showmanship away from the headlines.
The 1975’s setlist was:
‘Happiness’
‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’
‘Love Me’
‘She’s American’
‘Part of the Band’
‘Chocolate’
‘Paris’
‘An Encounter’
‘Robbers’
‘HNSCC’
‘Somebody Else’
‘fallingforyou’
‘People’
‘Be My Mistake’
‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’
‘I Couldn’t Be More in Love’
‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’
‘Love It If We Made It’
‘Sex’
‘Give Yourself A Try’
‘The Sound’
‘About You’ (with Carly Holt)
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