When the Glastonbury 2025 headliners were first announced, the reception to the announcement was one of polite disappointment. This will come as no surprise to fans of The 1975, who are well acquainted with the (somewhat unfair) derision of their favourite band, sometimes purely by dint of having so many young, female fans. But today proved that derision was entirely undeserved.
The band, comprised of frontman/notorious antagonist Matty Healy, drummer (and Charli xcx beau) George Daniel, bassist Ross MacDonald and guitarist Adam Hann, broke through in 2013 with their self titled debut album.
You’re going to read a lot about how the field was half empty for The 1975. It’s not because they were bad. It’s not because of the clashes. The Cheshire-founded band simply played what they considered to be them at their very best.
The 1975, at their very best. Their last tour went by this name. A lot of people won’t have thought this about their Glastonbury performance, where they chose fan favourites ahead of crowd pleasers. It’s well known that some of their best performances in memory have been entire sets dedicated to their self-titled first album, released in 2013 — but this was far from that.
Instead of leaning on their winning discography and set lists from recent tours, the band appeared to be putting on their version of “A Show”. Starting with Happiness and moving through to Love Me, She’s American and Part of the Band, it became immediately clear that The 1975 were not playing a Greatest Hits set.
Even true 1975 fans were kept on their toes as they moved through to Chocolate, Paris and Robbers. Voice boxes that planned to be ruined gradually between songs were decimated. Meanwhile, the band, with little on stage other than a captivating light show (changing colour scheme with each song), kept moving through songs like they didn’t have a care in the world.
There was humour to it, as you’d expect with Matty Healy — such as a moment where he went off stage with bright text on screen accompanied by “Matty is changing his trousers” — but less politics than fans may have thought, or hoped, there would be. “We don’t want our legacy to be one of politics,” Healy said at one point, a marked departure from type.
A slight disappointment for the fans who hoped they might speak out on the many wars and injustices in the world. But was it a satire? Within moments, Healy was singing Love It If We Made It, a song that directly quotes Donald Trump and references police violence against Black Americans.
By the time The 1975 finished, the Pyramid field was half empty. But rest assured ,this wasn’t the damp atmosphere that was (regrettably) witnessed during SZA on last year’s Sunday. It was the filtering down of true fans, many of whom won’t count this as a good performance. This was The 1975 at their very best, whether you like it or not.
