The 1975’s Matty Healy has claimed to be his generation’s “best songwriter” during his band’s Glastonbury Festival headline set on Friday night.
The Cheshire-formed band, backed with a saxophone, opened with Happiness from 2022’s Being Funny In A Foreign Language, with Healy wearing a black leather jacket, white t-shirt and blue jeans, with a pint of stout in his hand on the Pyramid Stage.
After performing Part Of The Band, sat on a stool and smoked while sipping his drink, Healy said: “What this moment is making me realise is that I probably am the best songwriter of my generation.
“The best what they say, a poet, ladies and gentlemen, is what I am.
“Generational words, and I just wanted to remind you, over the next couple of minutes, these lyrics are poetry, I believe.”
The band then launched into Chocolate from their 2013 self-titled debut, before Healy remarked, “I was only joking about being a poet” at its conclusion.
Made up of four school friends, the group, comprised of singer Healy, bassist Ross MacDonald, guitarist Adam Hann and drummer George Daniel, were headlining the festival for the first time.
Midway through the set, Healy told festival goers: “Use your platform, that’s what they say, right?”
He continued: “People who are watching this may, I don’t know, they might be disappointed at the lack of politics in this show and our forthcoming shows, and probably a few shows, because I always know it’s a conscious decision, and we honestly don’t want our legacy to be one of politics.
“We want it to be that of love and friendship, because we and I’m not trying to be too earnest, but you can go out into the world, and there’s loads of politics everywhere.
“And I think we don’t need more politics, we need more love and friendship.
“And I know that’s really basic, but if you are a young kid and you are inspired by like about this band or something like that, don’t aspire to like play a stage or be a certain size, aspire for like this level of friendship and love in what you do and you’ll never fail and I love you, thank you so much.”
Love Me, the lead single from 2016’s I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It, prompts the first sing-a-long from the crowd, with Healy pushing guitarist Hann to the front, announcing: “Ladies and gentleman, in 2025 with zero irony, a guitar solo.”
Their stage set-up included a car, which Healy got into to sing Somebody Else while smoking a cigarette, before getting out during the song and walking on a travelator.
While performing She’s American, Healy dipped into The Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way, before returning to his own 2016 song.
Before Paris, the singer declared “this is my favourite 1975 song”, and prior to playing Robbers from the band’s debut album, he said: “For the first time in my life I don’t know what to say.”
The band ended their set with About You from Being Funny In A Foreign Language.
Before the song, Healy said: “Ladies and gentlemen it’s very cool to be mysterious but I think it’s cooler to be honest and we’re not going anywhere, we’re not going anywhere, everything’s going to be fine.”
Earlier in the day, festivalgoers were treated to surprise performances from alternative pop star Lorde, who played her new album Virgin in full, and Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, who played two years after a performance at the festival during which he struggled to manage his Tourette syndrome symptoms.
