Music Review: The 1975
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Black ripped jeans, DMs and a floppy Mohican stood in front of the audience’s eyes in the form of lead singer; Matt Healy. Trudging onto the stage with a glum look upon his face, the words “don’t call it a fight when you know it’s a war” began to emanate through the speakers. Brixton Academy, filled to the brim with an odd mixture of hormonal teenage girls and middle class adults, was feeling as alive as ever.
The four-piece band from Manchester, who’s name actually comes from a date Healy found scrawled in the back of a poetry book, managed to snatch No1 in the UK with their self-titled debut album last year. Their unique mixture of the fixation on the ‘80s and passionate poetry enables the new era of ‘pop’ to stride its way into the limelight. Catchy self-produced backing tracks and lyrics about sex, drugs and family problems turned into philosophical metaphors is all it seems to take to entice an audience these days.
Throughout the gig, everyone – drummer George Daniel, bassist Ross MacDonald and guitarist Adam Hann – swaps comfortably between their instrument and its digital version: keyboards and drum pads. With their grebo haircuts and black and white grunge dress code the 1975's songs feel emotionally dense rather than disposable. Whilst Matt Healy tries to remain endearing to the audience with a wine bottle in one hand and winningly awkward banter to match, George Daniel gets all the Girls reared and ready to go for the final few songs by the removal of his shirt.
“No phones are allowed” is all it takes for the whole academy to be phone free and the famous Chocolate to start blaring through the speakers. An almost intimate affair with meaningful lyrics turned into a insane rave of indie rejects. The majority of people seemed delirious to the fact the band were reminiscing about the days of drinking and smoking recreational drugs in a supermarkets car park.
Live, the audience screams are shrill. “We want Sex! We want Sex!" Whether by accident or design, the 1975 have inspired one of the more notable encore chants in recent memory and any sane person may think everyone incased in this room was a sex-crazed pest! A final farewell and the “beautiful” audience were on their way home. Fortunately for me, my concert experience didn’t end here; when I bumped into Ross, the bass player, on the tube on the way home!
In my eyes, it is no mystery as to why The 1975 have risen to fame in recent months but it gives me great pleasure to say there is more to the band than a kooky outer surface.
The four-piece band from Manchester, who’s name actually comes from a date Healy found scrawled in the back of a poetry book, managed to snatch No1 in the UK with their self-titled debut album last year. Their unique mixture of the fixation on the ‘80s and passionate poetry enables the new era of ‘pop’ to stride its way into the limelight. Catchy self-produced backing tracks and lyrics about sex, drugs and family problems turned into philosophical metaphors is all it seems to take to entice an audience these days.
Throughout the gig, everyone – drummer George Daniel, bassist Ross MacDonald and guitarist Adam Hann – swaps comfortably between their instrument and its digital version: keyboards and drum pads. With their grebo haircuts and black and white grunge dress code the 1975's songs feel emotionally dense rather than disposable. Whilst Matt Healy tries to remain endearing to the audience with a wine bottle in one hand and winningly awkward banter to match, George Daniel gets all the Girls reared and ready to go for the final few songs by the removal of his shirt.
“No phones are allowed” is all it takes for the whole academy to be phone free and the famous Chocolate to start blaring through the speakers. An almost intimate affair with meaningful lyrics turned into a insane rave of indie rejects. The majority of people seemed delirious to the fact the band were reminiscing about the days of drinking and smoking recreational drugs in a supermarkets car park.
Live, the audience screams are shrill. “We want Sex! We want Sex!" Whether by accident or design, the 1975 have inspired one of the more notable encore chants in recent memory and any sane person may think everyone incased in this room was a sex-crazed pest! A final farewell and the “beautiful” audience were on their way home. Fortunately for me, my concert experience didn’t end here; when I bumped into Ross, the bass player, on the tube on the way home!
In my eyes, it is no mystery as to why The 1975 have risen to fame in recent months but it gives me great pleasure to say there is more to the band than a kooky outer surface.
