The 1975, At Their Very Best
The 1975, English pop-rock band based in Manchester will be making their return to Leeds in January on their exciting new tour, ‘At Their Very Best.’ The tour begins in November when they take on North America, and then begin their UK & Ireland leg in January 2023. Of the second half of their tour, First Direct Arena in Leeds is their tenth stop of the fourteen UK & Ireland dates:
- 8th January Brighton Centre
- 9th January Bournemouth International Centre
- 10th January Exeter, Westpoint Arena
- 12th January London, The O2
- 15th January Birmingham, Resorts World Arena
- 16th January Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
- 19th January Glasgow, SSE Hydro
- 20th January Manchester AO Arena
- 22nd January Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
- 23rd January Leeds, First Direct Arena
- 25th January Newcastle, Utilita Arena
- 26th January Liverpool, M&S Bank Arena
- 29th January Dublin, 3Arena
- 30th January Belfast, SSE Arena
Though quite far into the tour, I am expecting a high-energy show filled with music both new and old. From what I have seen of their performances in the past, the band never disappoints and based on the songs they’ve released from their new album, I feel this tour will exceed any expectations I already have.
Image Credits: @the1975 on Instagram
The 1975 have been teasing fans by dropping singles from their up-and-coming album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language. The songs released so far are the 80s-type song, ‘Happiness’, the light and buoyant track ‘Part of the Band’ and the most recent, synth-pop anthem ‘I’m in Love with You.’ In an interview with Apple Music, The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy, stated that ‘a lot of [his] work- a lot of [his] videos, especially, [are] about the construction and one’s identity and the construction of the self. There’s a realism to this song [speaking about Part of the Band] that exists across the whole album.’ With the tracks that have been released already, I am certainly understanding that this album is going to be less about creating chart-topping conventional radio tracks, and instead exploring the band’s chemistry and their history, taking us all the way back to their roots. The songs released so far all have different sounds and feelings, they feel authentic to the band’s tastes and style, something I felt was lost a little in their previous 2020 album, ‘Notes on a Conditional Form.’
Tickets were released on the 9th of September, and for the Leeds show, only a few remain, which you can get through Ticketmaster. Unsurprisingly, standing tickets and the best seats sold out almost instantly in both the presale and general release as fans queued online from 9 am. It appears that their support act has not yet been revealed to fans, though based on their last tour, we can expect alternative, synth-pop artist[s] as previous openers included Pale Waves, The Japanese House and Beabadoobee.
I think this is a tour that you won’t want to miss. I can imagine it being one which redefines the band, taking them back to their old sounds, while still incorporating what they have learned on the way. I am looking forward to seeing how they convey the ‘realism’ that Matty Healy speaks of, and how their construction or deconstruction of themselves is portrayed to the listener.
