THE 1975 + BONNIE KEMPLAY – BRIGHTON CENTRE 8.1.23
I was excited to be kicking off 2023 by seeing The 1975. The 1975 have recently embarked on a USA tour and tonight was their first show on the UK leg of the tour. After watching numerous videos of hilarious moments from the US leg of the tour, I was excited to see what strange antics frontman Matty Healy would bring to their concert at the Brighton Centre. I’ve seen The 1975 before at the Reading Festival in 2016, so I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong… little did I know, I was in for the wildest few hours of my life!
The evening kicked off with Bonnie Kemplay. Scottish singer songwriter Bonnie Kemplay was a self-taught guitar player before studying at both City of Edinburgh Music School and Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. She covered a song by The 1975 on the BBC Live Lounge, and now she is supporting them on the UK leg of their tour. She is signed to record label ‘Dirty Hit’ and released her EP in 2022.
Bonnie has been to Brighton before, performing at The Great Escape Festival in May. I’m thrilled to have discovered Bonnie tonight as her music is exactly the style I like. Her vibe is similar to Phoebe Bridgers, with soft and powerful vocals and emotional lyrics. My favourite song from the set was ‘Checkers’ from her 2022 EP ‘Running Out Of Things To Say, Running Out Of Things To Do’. Another highlight was her performance of ‘Static.’ She told us that static was about an injury which meant she could not play the guitar for two years, capturing her feelings around being unable to continue her musical passion. It was lovely to see her able to play the guitar again and perform such a moving song. Her lyrics are relatable; I found ‘Blushing’ to be another beautiful song. The audience were very receptive. I’m hoping she’ll tour soon as I’d like to see her in her own concert. I’ll definitely be recommending her to my friends, and if you like artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Orla Gartland, Clairo, Dodie, and Lana Del Rey, I’d recommend checking out Bonnie Kemplay.
www.instagram.com/bonniekemplay
Then came the interval where we waited in anticipation for The 1975 to come on (made easier by the venue’s choice to play ‘Question…?’ by Taylor Swift, which I am obsessed with!). The 1975 are a Manchester based band who formed in 2002, made up of Matty Healy (lead singer), Adam Hann (lead guitarist), Ross MacDonald (bassist), and George Daniel (drummer). The band met as teenagers and performed together at small gigs. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2013 and was chart topping, having an incredibly influential impact on the teenage indie music scene. Their following albums ‘I Like it When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’ (2016), ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ (2018), ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ (2020), and ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ (2022) were all well received in the charts.
The fans did not fail to disappoint with their outfits and signs. Many people were dressed in the classic 2014 Tumblr era fashion, which I’d tried to do too! Others were dressed in the style of ‘Robbers.’ My favourite outfits were the unhinged t-shirts—I saw people in shirts which read “lol ur not Matty Healy” and another saying “I hate Matty Healy.” Denise Welch, Matty Healy’s mum, was in the audience which was lovely to see. One sign paid homage to this, with “Denise Nutz” on a ripped up piece of paper. Other signs were asking for one of Matty’s famous mid-concert kisses. The fans really knew how to create a funny environment.
At 8:30, the curtain rose to reveal an impressive stage set. On stage there was a house with different rooms. Each member of the band walked on stage through doors in the house, being introduced on screen as if we were watching the intro to a classic 90s sitcom like ‘Friends.’ Frontman Matty Healy came straight out smoking a cigarette and taking swigs from his hip flask. I’ve never seen anyone smoking, drinking, singing, and playing the piano at the same time, but somehow Matty managed to do exactly that!
Matty spoke about his method acting that he does on tour. He tries to say “when you do method acting” but slips up and said “when you do meth.” He laughs, looks into the cameras and says “can we cut that?” Suddenly, the lights go up and people come on stage to move around the set, with hustle and bustle all around; it was as if we were watching a TV show being recorded and we were seeing the messed-up scene begin again. Staging like this was very clever and kept the audience engaged.
One of my favourite pieces of staging was during ‘I Like American & America Likes Me’ when Matty stood on the roof of the house. The lighting made it look like the sun was shining on him and created a shadow which filled the auditorium. It was such a beautiful moment and I felt so connected to the music. It was so simple in comparison to the other performances, which made it stand out.
During breaks between songs, Matty partook in various pieces of dramatic behaviour, the most bizarre being sat on the floor and taking a bite out of raw beef. At first I thought it was a banana with raw meat wrapped around it, but after having a closer look, I’m really not sure. Hearing the tear of the meat made me shudder; I have no idea how he managed to stomach that. He then turned towards the set of TV screens behind him and did press ups whilst videos of Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, and Donald Trump played. I thought I spotted Logan Paul in one of the videos, but without any photographic evidence, perhaps I made it up! It was the most bizarre few minutes of my life, but it captures the spirit of the tour—you never know what to expect!
My favourite song from the new album is ‘About You’ and I was thrilled to hear it live. Polly Money—who plays guitar, keys, and does vocals for The 1975—did a beautiful job on the vocals; she is so talented and her voice completes the song. It was such a joy to watch.
Right before ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ it has become a tradition that Matty says something in an autotuned voice following the viral video of him singing “Don’t throw menthols on this stage. Don’t like menthols” which went viral in 2022. Tonight, Matty went political, supporting the union workers and his anti-Tory views. With autotune on, Healy said: “We support the union strikers … it’s simply how industrial action works … can’t demonise it.” It’s the message we all need to hear; seeing this clip doing the rounds on TikTok less than twenty-four hours later shows the impact this had. Matty was upfront about his political views all evening, making important statements beyond base level political comments.
Matty made me laugh so much by voicing every thought that came into his head, such as kicking around and finger gunning into the audience saying “pregnant!” He looked shocked that he’d said that himself! At another point, he was looking at the setlist and saying “oooh I like this song” with such excitement! Whilst he was laying on the floor, he asked the band to play a C Major, and when it didn’t sound right he said “wait is this song even in C major?” It was funny little moments like this that made the night so enjoyable.
As I’m sure is the case with many others, ‘Chocolate’ was the song that first got me into The 1975 ten years ago. I couldn’t stay still as soon as I heard the first note, I’d been looking forward to hearing that song all night. Of course, the band’s performance did not disappoint, they were most definitely on top form the whole night.
Security were working extremely hard given that Matty kept throwing himself into the audience. There has been a tour running tradition that Matty kisses an audience member during their song ‘Robbers’ and he stuck to tradition tonight. He took it even further this time, sucking the thumb of a member of the audience! The beauty of tonight’s concert was that each time you thought things couldn’t get any stranger, Matty Healy would up the antics and do progressively more unhinged activities.
Whilst on the US leg of the tour, the internet went wild over the way Matty thrusted into the cameras, questioning his relationship with the woman filming. Tonight, Matty informed us that in fact the person on camera is “a bloke” to which the man grinned and put his thumbs up. That put an end to all the rumours!
The night ended with ‘Give Yourself A Try’ which is the perfect closing song. Everyone was dancing around, jumping, singing, and just having a lovely time. Matty climbed up an electricity pole, said goodnight, and pulled the switch, leaving the stage in darkness. It was a dramatic end to an incredibly dramatic night. The 1975 put out all the stops, and performing for over two hours was impressive. I loved every minute. Matty Healy is quite the showman.
The 1975 setlist:
‘The 1975 (Being Funny In A Foreign Language)’
‘Looking For Somebody (To Love)’
‘Happiness’
‘Part Of The Band’
‘Oh Caroline’
‘I’m in Love With You’
‘All I Need To Hear’
‘Roadkill’
‘Antichrist’
‘I Couldn’t Be More In Love’
‘fallingforyou’
‘I Like America & America Likes Me’
‘About You’
‘When We Are Together’
‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’
‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’
‘Chocolate’
‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’
‘Paris’
‘Robbers’
‘Somebody Else’
‘Love It If We Made It’
‘The Sound’
‘Sex’
‘Give Yourself A Try’
