The 1975 at Glastonbury 2025 review: hard to take seriously

Times

4 hours ago

The 1975Pyramid Stage
The first headliner of the weekend was a strange choice. The 1975 certainly made a big splash about ten years ago, combining rock, pop and everything in between as a reflection of the new genre-free era of music, but more recently they have been working on an album yet to be released and singer Matty Healy has become known for being immortalised by his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift in her song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.
Still, they were determined to make an impact, from the blinding lights of the multi screen setup to Healy arriving on stage with a pint of Guinness (a real glass one — where did he get that from? Did he bring it with him?) and a cigarette before leaping about in imagined rock star fashion. It was all very flash, but with their uptight white funk sound, and Healy coming across like a drunken George Michael, it was frankly hard to take seriously.
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'Love me if that's what you wanna do,' sang Healy on Love Me, strutting from one side of the stage to the other, and you did feel that he really would like you to love him. Sometimes that desire reaped dividends. She's American was a nice bit of 80s pop funk, Paris was a sweet love song featuring the line 'I think my boyfriend's a narcissist', and there was a certain charm to Healy and his mix of arrogance and insecurity. But then he had to ruin it all.
Looking like he was about to cry, he announced, 'This moment has made me realise … that I probably am the best songwriter of my generation.' There followed a nonsense novelty pop song after which he announced, 'Only joking. I'm an idiot.'
It was also hard to equate Healy's dissolute rocker image, complete with ever-present cigarette and tendency to wobble about like he was really out of it, with the word-perfect delivery, the way he knew exactly where the cameras were at all times, and the precise, clean, rather soppy pop coming out of the band.
There were some good songs here, especially the state of the world address Love It If We Made It, although showing horrific current affairs scenes to accompany it was gratuitous. But this Glastonbury headline set was unconvincing, like Healy would love nothing more than to be cast in a film about a troubled rock star and this was his audition. It was all an act, in other words: not a bad act, and certainly a high budget one, but ultimately rather empty.
★★☆☆☆