One of the biggest bands in the world graced the stage of the Motorpoint Arena on Sunday evening. Was this The 1975 at their best? Gemma Cockrell found out.
The show opened with a short but sweet set from Scottish singer-songwriter Bonnie Kemplay, starting with some low-key bedroom pop before expanding into some full-band songs. The latter half was where she truly shone, where she powered on defiantly despite there being an issue with one of her guitars. A track that stood out was 'Static', which she explained was about a repetitive strain injury in her arm that prevented her from playing guitar for 18 months. The song had emo rap-tinged drum and vocal patterns and made me eager to check out Kemplay’s music afterwards. A curtain then fell over the stage, and we all knew that it wasn’t long now until The 1975 would begin their performance. With a stage set-up as complex as this was – an intricate house set-up with multiple rooms – it seemed miraculous that there was only a mere 30-minute gap between sets, but Motorpoint kept things moving swiftly.
"Stumbling round stage with a bottle of wine and a cigarette in hands at all times, it was sometimes difficult to know whether you were watching a creative genius or a man having a genuine mental breakdown."
The performance was split into two very clear halves, with all of the material in the first half of the show being taken from their latest album 'Being Funny in a Foreign Language', with the exception of 'Be My Mistake', 'fallingforyou' and 'I Like America & America Likes Me'. For the latter, Matty Healy climbed on top of the house, becoming a silhouette lit only by a singular light. It was clear that this show was a product of Healy’s brain, with each element thought out and planned intricately. The concept, he explained, was that it represented the paradox between his private and professional lives, but that the line between the two continued to blur to the point where he felt he was losing his identity. Stumbling round stage with a bottle of wine and a cigarette in hands at all times, it was sometimes difficult to know whether you were watching a creative genius or a man having a genuine mental breakdown. This only escalated when we reached the interlude at the halfway point, when he fell to his knees and began to eat raw meat off a plate.
The second half of the evening was definitely more of a typical The 1975 show, favouring their older material and fan favourites. This was when the crowd warmed up more, concentrating less on the complex, conceptual performance art of the first half, and more focused on dancing and having a good time. During 'TOOTIMETOOTIME', we were treated to a remix of the ‘don't throw menthols on this stage, don't like menthols’ viral TikTok moment, with lozenges rather than menthols. This was the song that loosened everyone up, before fan-favourite track 'Chocolate' proved that it had aged brilliantly, despite Matty pointing out that is now a decade old. He highlighted that the lyrics to
'Sex' perhaps hadn’t aged as well, admitting that he wouldn’t write those lyrics in 2023. Ultimately, he blamed the fans and claimed that they were all part of the issue, since the song has clearly maintained popularity despite this flaw. It definitely still went down well, and I don’t imagine they’ll be disowning it anytime soon.
When the crowd was given the choice to vote between 'A Change Of Heart', 'Paris', or 'Medicine' and 'Menswear', the latter won confidently when the Motorpoint sound team monitored which song generated the loudest cheers from the audience. Afterwards, Matty decided to treat us to Paris as well, laughing that no one was in a rush to go home anyway. 'I Always Want to Die (Sometimes)' and 'Love It If We Made It' were included to honour the underrepresentation and overexploitation of the North, an area which he proclaimed his love for and which he clearly includes Nottingham within. I’m not so sure about this, firmly believing myself to be from the Midlands, but if being from the North will reward us with those songs, I’ll gracefully accept the categorisation.
Matty might not have kissed any fans tonight, and they may not have returned for an encore, but they didn’t need to. After a set that lasted over two hours, The 1975 had made enough of an impression on the crowd, ending the evening on explosive sing-along moment 'Give Yourself A Try'. It’s undeniable that they are one of the biggest bands of this generation, and when you watch them live, it’s easy to see why.
Edited by: Jake Longhurst and Ali Glen
Live show photos courtesy of Jordan Curtis Hughes
All other images and videos courtesy of The 1975
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