The 1975 at the O2 Arena

Set against a meticulously crafted set designed to look like the inside of a house, The 1975: At Their Very Best tour is presented as if the band are filming a TV special – there’s pre-recorded audience clapping, and the musicians enter the stage through what look like stage doors. Holding a bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, the ever-charming (and notoriously annoying) frontman Matty Healy staggers around the stage, mumbling to the audience between songs. The role he plays, of the drunk and arrogant rockstar, clearly relates to the themes of their latest album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, released in October 2022.

Toxic masculinity is explored here with sharp irony and mockery. Healy, however, can sometimes be too on the nose. He’s a great songwriter – his songs are witty and often very timely – but his rally-like speeches are less compelling and can come across as a bit cringe. “Men are confused,” he says at one point, images of Vladimir Putin and Prince Andrew flashing on the screens, before proceeding to grope at himself while drinking. After the first half of the show, dedicated almost exclusively to material from their latest LP, there is an interlude where the band stop the show in order to re-do a take of a song. Finally, after doing push-ups half-naked, Healy crawls into an old rear-projection television and the stage goes black, thus concluding act one.

After Taylor Swift’s random appearance on stage the day before, people were expecting another special guest of that calibre (some were whispering the name of Harry Styles), but in a pretend apologetic tone, the frontman explained that there would be no guest tonight. “We did ask Harry, but he said no…,” he jokes. The crowd quickly get over their disappointment as soon as act two starts.

The second half is filled with the band’s greatest hits, and the gig quickly picks up speed. Everyone in the arena goes wild when songs like The Sound, Give Yourself a Try and It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With you) start playing. The vibrant If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know) brings about a refreshing change of atmosphere after the bizarre but interesting previous hour, the crowd jumping like crazy as Healy turns into the best-known, and most successful, version of himself: hot pop heartthrob who kisses young adoring fans in the front row.

At two and a half hours long, and given its “unusual”, very theatrical first half, this show is challenging – definitely more so than previous ones. You can see the band, and Healy in particular, as incredibly innovative or just pretentious, but the ultimate truth is: there’s no one else like The 1975.

Diletta Lobuono
Photo: Courtesy of The 1975

For further information and future events visit The 1975’s website here.

Watch the video for the single About You here: