IT was great being a The 1975 virgin. I didn’t really know their music or what to expect. I got Alexa to play me some songs and looked up their history but did not really know them and they blew me away.
When the show started I thought I’d somehow stayed at home and watched Call the Midwife. They appeared on stage on a kind of theatre set, old-fashioned style rooms with old style TVs in the lounge and they were wearing suits that reminded me of going to working men’s clubs way back with my Dad – memories of lemonade and lime and a packet of Walker’s roast chicken flavour crisps. Good memories that set the night off. And they were wearing suits to match the era.
It was really cool how they came on one by one and turned on the lampshades, before lead singer Matthew Healy suddenly appeared on the sofa. Had he been there all along?
It was music as theatre and it had us all gripped. Healy spoke about character acting and seemed to be playing the part of a tortured soul, stumbling around with booze, and cigarettes, in hand. It appears they played their new songs for the fist half, moving around this ‘house’ set, looking out the window, even climbing on the roof.
It was a really dramatic performance that had us all bewitched. I loved it.
That half ended with the band leaving the stage, the guitarist turning out all the lights, Healy headed to the door and then reappeared, thanking the crowd for their attention and transforming into a more joyous presence, saying he was now getting down to business as they played a second half of crowd pleasers. Their songs have a real easy listening- in a good way – groove that gets you going. And they seemed to move up in tempo through the night before really rising to a crescendo, showing they can get a real party going. The whole of the Brighton Centre was bouncing on its feet.
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Healy’s parents Tim Healy, the actor and Denise Welch, the actress, well known for Loose Women, were both in the crowd to see their son and the rest of the band pull off a great show. They received great cheers too on what was a truly feel-good Sunday night.
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