The 1975, no matter how much stick they get from such critics as NME, are a band which I thoroughly enjoy listening too as much as I enjoy seeing them live. The four piece band originated from Manchester with big dreams to become famous. Their first EP 'Facedown' was released in 2012, the lead track of the EP
The City attract the attention of national radio stations and was featured in BBC Radio One's introducing segment. Their second EP 'Sex' followed hot on the heels of the first in 2012, and was once again recognised by national radio stations. In the year of 2013 they released two more EPs, one of which contained arguably their most popular song
Chocolate- which reached number 19 in UK charts, as well as receiving lots of air time on popular radio stations both in the UK and internationally. The 1975 released their debut, self-titled album in September 2013 and it went down a storm reaching No.1 in the UK album charts. From then on they were on an extensive world wide tour, attending major festivals such as Reading and Leeds in 2013 and more recently Glastonbury in 2014. They have played many venues with an incredible size gap from Camden's Barfly to more recently playing Alexandra Palace.
Having seen The 1975 in January of this year I knew the show was going to be incredible, it felt like it had been a life time ago since I had last seen them so I was very much looking forward to the gig. With high anticipations, dressed in black bar the small pink dragon on my-so-hideous-it's-cute shirt and a topped up oyster card, myself and two friends hit the trains to make our almost two hour treck across London to the great 'Ally Pally'. When we arrived the hike up the hill wasn't as bad as we first thought, when we reached the top the breath-taking views of London were surpassed fairly quickly by the hideously long queue to get in. Thankfully being in good company along with Alexandra Palace's good organisation skills the line moved quite fast. Before entering the crowd I nervously anticipated a great size difference between the O2 Academy Brixton (having only seen them there before) and Ally Pally and worried we wouldn't get a good spot. However we managed to land a good viewing space to the side, where we were fairly close and could see the whole of the stage.
The first warm up act was the band Y.O.U, we entered just after they had started and managed to miss the first song, but it wasn't so bad as many people where still pouring in so they must have missed the first song too. The stage was brightly lit with colourful, what can only be described as, light cubes and cuboids. The band members consisted of three men performing music which very much reminded me of 80s indie-pop songs, somewhat echoing melodies you'd expect to hear from Pulp or The Smiths. Even the opening of one of their songs sounded strangely similar to
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (that classic 80s jam), so much so I was expecting a cover until it became evident the lyrics were different. Although the crowd didn't seem too enthused (to be honest I wasn't really) Y.O.U still managed to get the vast amount of people to clap with a few songs, a job well done.
The second warm up act I am thrilled to say were Circa Waves! Before a gig I don't usually look into who the opening acts are going to be, so when I found out that Circa Waves were performing I was most excited as I can't make their show in November. The four piece band from Liverpool were amazing, playing their hits
Young Chasers, Stuck in My Teeth and (their newish song)
So Long. Their stage presence and interaction with the audience was very enjoyable, plus their lively song choices made for a show that is meant to be danced to. However the dancing seemed to scarce around the area in which we stood so unfortunately our dancing had to be scaled down during Circa Waves' act. If you haven't yet heard any of Circa Waves' songs they are really worth checking out, plus (as addressed briefly) they are doing a show in November-which unfortunately I cant make- which I'm certain is going to an amazing night.
During the break between Circa Waves and The 1975 the lights which lit up the audience were turned on, during this time there was the odd serge of movement towards the front; which wasn't too bad as it got us closer to the stage it was just at inappropriate time really. So now everybody was a lot closer to each other the temperature of the crowd began to rise, and the waiting began to get a little tedious. When the time got closer to them coming on stage the lights began to dim painstakingly slowly, and a purposeful background humming was getting louder through the speakers, as smoke was pouring out from the sides of the stage. In retrospect this was a very clever and artistic move; building the suspense of the audience whilst being elaborate with really simple elements of the stage (smoke, lights etc.) but at the time my feet were hurting and I just wanted it to start. When the band finally entered the stage the excitement of the room went through the roof. All the band members entered and took their place, Matty entered with a 3/4 finished bottle of wine and once he sat it down they began with their classic
The City. They then continued to perform hit after hit such as
She Way Out, Settle Down and
Heart Out. They also played my favourite song from the album which is
Pressure which was so great to hear live again.
The setlist seemed to never ending, but when it did come to the end it was quite a melancholy anti-climax. But of course they returned to do the encore which was my highlight of the whole evening. They performed the ultimate crowd pleasers that were,
Robbers, Chocolate and
Sex. During
Robbers Matty announces they were bringing a fan onto the stage. A girl arrives on stage looking like she is having the time of her life, Matty was incredibly nice and welcoming to the fan and it was a very heart warming moment, but also a moment which I very much wished I was the girl on stage... I would say the only negative of the evening was that although the three of us were belting out the lyrics to every song performed, what we really wanted to do was dance and go a little bit wild... yes it's a concert I think that's a normal request of such events. Yet most of the people around us hardly moved. However, once
Sex came on we were persistent and jumped around like mad-men which seemingly encouraged others around us to join in and for the entirety of the song we were singing and jumping- this became the best moment of the night- it was amazing.
During the performance Matty stated that “This is the biggest fucking gig we’ve ever done”, making the evening a lot more special and something that feels almost a privilege to be a part of. The band announced that they were going to be away from the gig scene for a while in order to start work on a new album. So, fingers crossed, if the new album is anything like their first it will brilliant and will result in a good night out.
