“When I saw Nine Inch Nails when I was 18 like off. my. nut – it needs to be like that vibe”
Matty Healy has spoken of The 1975‘s upcoming Reading & Leeds headline slot, while revealing that seeing Nine Inch Nails at the festival as a teenager inspired the band’s live show.
The BRIT-winning group, who hit UK arenas with a mind-bending spectacle earlier this year, will return to the stage later this summer for a top-bill appearance at R&L.
After previously teasing a “slick” set that would push their show forward with “new production things“, Healy has explained that there’ll be bringing their full 2019 arena show to the August event.
“For Reading & Leeds, we’re gonna do the whole thing,” Healy told NME backstage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend. “When I realised I was doing Reading & Leeds, I thought, ‘That’s like my primary dream’. I was thinking it needs to be front on and it needs to be a show that I know. It can’t be some new hodge-podge thing – it needs to be amazing.
“Like when I saw Nine Inch Nails when I was 18 like off. my. nut – it needs to be like that vibe. It will be the full arena show.”
Explaining how NIN’s 2007 set inspired The 1975’s stage aesthetic, Healy said: “That informed the live show. There was just silhouettes with a video background, and to this day I’m still doing that. That was a big one.”
During The 1975’s performance on R&L’s NME/Radio 1 tent in 2016, Healy promised that the next time they’d play would be to headline.
“[Laughs] Did I say that?! That’s amazing,” Healy told NME.
“Mate, it was my Christmas. Like 2003-2010 I went every year – sometimes with a tent, sometimes without, sometimes with a tenner, sometimes without. It was the pilgrimage to culture for me – it was fucking amazing. Especially ’cause it happened up north as well.
He continued: “But yeah, I get so hyped about that. ‘Cause like Nirvana did it, and the most transformative experiences that I’ve had as a young person, culturally, have been in that field.”
Following up their acclaimed third album ‘A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships‘, The 1975’s ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ will follow later this summer.
