Ribbons of cigarette smoke, the rear half of a vintage car, a tattered leather jacket and black biker glove, box tattoos in full view: strewn across the Pyramid Stage were markers of The 1975’s visual iconography from the past decade. Bathed in blistering white light, frontman Matty Healy came out swinging, clutching a pint of Guinness with a cigarette permanently affixed above his ear – a near-caricature of the gloomy, near-grungy rock star he started out as with the band’s 2013 self-titled LP.
The push-pull between vulnerability and an exploration of aesthetics has always been there in The 1975’s music, manifesting in a trove of deep online lore, something which the band themselves tapped into as they hit the Pyramid Stage on Friday (June 27). “We are The 1975 from the internet,” Healy quipped at one point, staring down the camera with a conspiratorial glimmer in his eye.
For an hour and a half, without any instances of controversy-stoking showmanship – their last tour saw Healy devour raw meat on stage, lest we forget – the band turned over highlights from all five of their studio albums, highlighting the malleability and depth of their catalogue. This was a display of the questing musical curiosity which has made the band so beloved by Gen Z, an audience that is omnivorous in its taste, having grown up with infinite streaming possibilities.
Hits of contrasting styles were rattled out one after the other, pairing the band’s vintage teen-angst anthems with newer, more mature material. Healy offered earnest pronouncements about the band’s 23-year-long friendship and what this moment meant to him – walking the line between tormented pop star and a conflicted, deeply human figure.
There is an argument to be made, perhaps, that a set devoid of an element of surprise is a safe – and intriguing – approach to headlining the world’s biggest stage. But from that decision came a genuinely immersive experience; even if, at times, it didn’t raise many eyebrows, it was the kind of uplifting finely crafted Glastonbury set that no one present is likely to forget in a hurry.
Here are the five best moments from their headline show below.
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Fighting Talk
In a callback to their history, during “The Sound,” they referenced their 2017 BRITs performance (and the song’s music video), which were interspersed with baby-pink visuals showing negative messages about the band. Critics’ quotes such as “out of tune”, “shallow” and “punch-your-TV obnoxious” lit up the screens – all lifted from reviews of their debut album – before Healy began reading them out himself. “Unconvincing emo lyrics,” he shouted gleefully, throwing his head back and laughing.
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‘Smez Lie Chocolate’
In 2013, with a public image little more developed than that of being a chaotic ‘internet boyfriend’, almost every review marvelled at Healy’s penchant for singing about drugs. Not least on early single “Chocolate” – a song about fleeing the police with a stash of marijuana – where the sprightly melody soars at the expense of his enunciation. They visually played into this joke early on, with misspelled lyrics running on loop across the screens.
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Make Love, Not War
“We don’t want our legacy to be one of politics, we want it to be that of love and friendship,” declared Healy as the show drew to a close. It was a curious statement to make, not least underneath the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo that adorns the top of the Pyramid Stage this year – and against a backdrop of geopolitical unrest, at a festival which is platforming artists (such as rap trio Kneecap) with strong positions on a range of global issues.
The 1975, meanwhile, have long been associated with speaking out on climate and gun violence issues, but on Saturday, Healy said that going forward, he and the band are making a “conscious decision” to step back from politics. Only time will tell.
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Switch Up the Energy
Mere seconds after Healy made a speech about his changing the way he approached activism, the band charged forward into protest song “Love It If We Made It” – a curiosu choice, certainly, but one that unleashed four minutes of magnetic, righteous pop melodrama. Railing against social ills, the track remains a formidable cut, one that produces a towering wall of sound: chanting and intense, as maximalist a noise as The 1975 has ever produced.
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Where Do We Go From Here?
Having not released any new material since 2022’s Being Funny In A Foreign Language, Glastonbury could have been a prime opportunity to preview the band’s next era. Instead, they drew largely from their first three records, mixing some of their biggest hits (“Chocolate,” “Sex”, “Love Me”) with lesser-performed fan favourites (“I Couldn’t Be More In Love”). Given the feast on offer, few cared about what they were not hearing.
