The 1975 Tour Overview
The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in 2002 in Wilmslow, Cheshire. The band consists of lead vocalist, principal songwriter and rhythm guitarist Matty Healy, lead guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and drummer and primary producer George Daniel. The name of the band was inspired by a page of scribblings found in Healy's copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac that was dated "1 June, The 1975".
The band members met in secondary school, and first performed together as teenagers in 2002, before professional releasing music in 2012 under independent label Dirty Hit. From 2012–13, they opened for several major acts and released a series of extended plays – Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars, IV – before releasing their UK chart-topping self-titled debut album (2013), which included the popular singles "Sex", "Chocolate", and "Robbers".
About The 1975
In 2002, at Wilmslow High School, Adam Hann who plays guitar, recruited Matty Healy to be the drummer of a band he was forming with Ross MacDonald who plays bass. Hann wanted to form a band because a local council worker had begun organising gigs for teens, and wanted to play at one. When the band's prospective singer, Elliot Williams, dropped out after one rehearsal, Healy took over the role playing double duty as lead vocalist and drummer. He eventually relinquished playing drums to George Daniel, recalling that meeting Daniel "changed his life". Daniel describes his first impression of Healy as "the most outwardly passionate person in school — endearing, and intimidating." The quartet began as a band playing covers of punk and emo songs at school and at Healy's house before eventually writing their own music.
To keep the band together, Hann, MacDonald and Daniel all went to university in Manchester while Healy briefly attended music school. They played gigs and recorded their own music while working as delivery boys at a local Chinese restaurant.
By 2010, the band was being managed by Jamie Oborne but remained unsigned due to their genre-hopping approach, so he set up his own independent record label – Dirty Hit – and signed the band for 20 pounds.
The 1975 Facts
- When questioned about the band’s peculiar name, Healy says that he had stumbled upon it scribbled within a book at a yard sale. “It was almost suicidal, and it was dated at the bottom ‘1st June The 1975’. The use of the word ‘The’ really stuck with me. It was the perfect band name.”
- We all know by now that the song “Chocolate” is a euphemism for cannabis, the song describing a flee from the police with a stash of “chocolate” in the car. Healy said the song portrayed classic “small town boredom”, the video of which featured the band riding around in a vintage 1975 Ford Consol. Popular in ski resorts throughout Canada, this song became an immediate epic track.
- Lead singer Matty Healy is one of the most interesting frontmans in popular music, his actions speaking much louder than his colourful tattoos and hairstyles: at a recent show in Dubai, Healy leans forward to kiss a boy in the crowd to violate the country’s current homophobic laws. Message heard, loud and clear! Between kissing boys, girls, and whatever gender you identify with, and most recently speaking out against climate change, The 1975’s music is on a mission to change the world.
- Record labels were just not interested in the quartet, as they could not be placed in a standard genre. What do you do when you come up against the word no, you start your own label.
