As part of their role as ambassadors, their live performance at The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra will take place on Saturday 22 April. Their double LP recorded in 2016 features tracks from the band’s early career. Primary songs from different albums include, “Somebody Else”, “Chocolate” and “The Sound”. Participating record stores will be available for release.

The 1975 frontman, Matt Healy spoke about the importance of record stores. He says, “The guys and I are really proud to be ambassadors for Record Store Day this year. Independent record stores are the lifeblood of the music industry and have played a crucial role in our story so far. It couldn’t be more important to support their vital community and culture.”

Previous ambassadors including the likes of Taylor Swift, Noel Gallagher, The Big Moon and Sir Elton John remain dedicated to inspiring the team who run record stores all year.

Though they are not strangers to the cultural environment of record stores, they inspire music lovers to feel the joy of collecting vinyl by creating limited-edition versions of their albums which eventually will be compatible on the shelves of independent shops.

An exclusive white vinyl accompanied the band’s latest album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language. This was specifically made for record shops only plus an intimate performance at Kingston’s Banquet Records, the night before the release.

Ever since its release back in October 2022, their album vastly became the best-selling records in the UK and for the first time in 35 years, vinyl oversells CDs.

Three available formats from The 1975’s release come as follows: a 2xLP clear vinyl in a gatefold packaging, 1xCD and 1x cassette of this album released like never before. It will be available on the counter only and will be participating in RSD shops, on a first come first served basis commencing on Saturday 22 April. Please see below the order of the tracklist:

1. “I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It.”

2. Love Me

3. A Change Of Heart

4. Somebody Else

5. Loving Someone

6. Please Be Naked

7. Lostmyhead

8. If I Believe You

9. Chocolate

10. The Sound

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The ten-second preview- although it is indeed just a preview- feels like somewhat of a departure from the band’s retro-tinged pop sound, featuring a delicate piano and fluttering saxophone lines that almost feel like a score to a coming-of-age film. Healy has also posted lyrics to the song in the caption of the post: “She was part of the airforce, I was part of the band, I always used to bust into her hand, In my imagination, I was living my best life, Living with my parents, Way before the paying penance and verbal propellants.” The forthcoming tune was initially teased last month when posters were put up around London, featuring a black and white photo of Healy. On June 28^th, lyrics to the new song began to appear on billboards, pictures of which were shared on Instagram by the record label Dirty Hit.

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The group’s last full-length album Notes on a Conditional Form came out in 2020, and since then, a follow-up to the record has been highly anticipated by fans. As far back as last year, members of The 1975 have been alluding to a new album being on the horizon, with Healy saying in a now-deleted Instagram post from last year that he is: “Making another ‘classic record’ smh,”.

Healy has also been teasing new music from his musical project Drive Like I Do, informing fans last year that he has been working on “a little bit of new music” under the moniker.

The 1975 will be returning to live performance in August of this year, with two gigs at Japan’s Summer Sonic festival. This will be somewhat of a post-pandemic milestone for the four-piece, as they have not performed live since their show in Dublin, all the way back in March of 2020. The group are headlining the Summer Sonic bill alongside Post Malone, and are joined by the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen, One OK Rock, The Libertines, Måneskin, Megan Thee Stallion and The Offspring.

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The festival will take place across two dates and sites, Saturday 20th August 2022 and Sunday 21st August 2022 at Tokyo and Osaka. The 1975 are billed to perform at Tokyo’s ZOZO Marine Stadium and Makuhari Messe on Saturday and Osaka’s Maishima Sonic Park on Sunday. The festival’s line-up also includes Post Malone, Carly Rae Jepsen, fellow British rockers Kasabian, Libertines and Primal Scream, Eurovision winners Maneskin and Megan Thee Stallion.

In a statement posted on the festival’s website, Naoki Shimizu gives the following positive message, “Summer Sonic is going to make a full and strong comeback, Festivals overseas like Coachella are coming up very soon and moving forward to reach this goal. We cannot win back the time we lost, but please give us a chance to make it up! Instead of being afraid and staying inside, why don’t we feel the connection to the world by experiencing our Summer Sonic! Let’s bring back the exciting days with full of live music festivals! We cannot fulfil our dreams without dreaming.” The festival took to social media to post each day’s lineup.

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The “Popular” performers recently hinted at a new era for the group when their social media accounts and website were disabled, the accounts were then activated seemingly to support the release of their upcoming new album. The band’s follow up to their 2020 release Notes On A Conditional Form has been confirmed to be in the works, last month the group shared a video that showed the band in the studio. The Instagram post featured black and white footage featuring frontman Healy playing the guitar in a studio surrounded by recording equipment.

 

 

 

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The band first rose to fame with the release of their self-titled debut album, The 1975 was released on 2nd September 2013 and sired great critical acclaim. The album reached the top of the UK album charts was certified platinum in 2014, the lead single “Sex” was premiered on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show and was dubbed as the DJ’s Hottest Record in the World. The group’s following three albums also reached number one within the UK album charts, the band also experienced chart success with singles including “Chocolate” and “Robbers”. The band’s second studio album I Like It When You Sleep and the 2019 album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships were both nominated for the converted Mercury Prize award.

Pre-sale for the two days tickets are now on sale via the event’s website, the advanced registration for tickets is available for Mobile Gold members. Details concerning ticket sales for general release and tickets with benefits are yet to be announced for the two days ticket, one day ticket and platinum tickets.

Click here to purchase tickets.

According to travel advice from The Foreign Office, public displays of affection in the United Arab Emirates are frowned upon. In the past, arrests have been made. Last year, The 1975 donated significantly to a crowdfunding campaign that financed an LGBTQ+ centre in London. “When a friend of mine sent me the link, I was quite surprised that such a good idea had not yet raised enough to get over the threshold,” Healy said.

He also said. “I am a bit wary of talking about it because I don’t want to appear to be virtue-signalling, but me and the others in the band all felt it was obviously a good thing to put our money towards.”

He added. “You might wonder why it is needed, and even ask yourself what exactly is everyone still scared of, but sadly, I think stigma still exists even in London and we still have some way to go.”

The band’s critically acclaimed third album, ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’, released last November, was dubbed by NME as “the millennial answer to ‘OK Computer”. It was awarded five stars.

As summarised in the review, “So Healy had set out to describe his own experience, but in doing so has produced an artefact that sums up millennial life, a magpie pop masterpiece that could only be made right now and right here. And for every stupid joke you’ve heard about avocados and house prices and safe spaces and jazz hands, this is a piece of art that shows another side to a generation, one of achievement, wit and humanity in the most confusing of times. Clever boys.”

This announcement follows, and is roughly in-keeping with an ambiguous tweet posted at the end of September promising ‘New The 1975 – 2017’ without specifying exactly what this would be – album, single or LP. Of that Tweet, Healy said, ‘That was me slightly pissed and being honest with myself about how impatient I am. There’s not going to be another album next year because we all know how seriously I take our albums, but I think we’ll put out a piece of music.’

The band have been busy, finding time amongst their touring schedule, to develop new ideas and relationships. Healy said, ‘We’ve met so many artists, who we’re not necessarily going to be working with, but it’s been a very inspiring time for us. I just know we’ll definitely put out a single next year, or an EP which will lead up to the album, which I reckon will come out early summer 2018. It’ll be really sad but it’ll change the world ‘cause it’ll be fucking sick. You take what’s amazing about the previous record and you distill it and you refine it and extend it and you build on it, that’s always our idea.’

As for the tone of the album, Healy is clear that a definitive answer is a long way off, saying, ‘I don’t fucking know. I talk a million miles a minute. I’ll be writing one song and I’ll think I know what the whole record is going to sound like, and it completely changes. I know that it’s going to be more all over the place than the last record in regards to it being recorded in so many different places. It’s already quite a weird record. I’ve written a lot of it. It’s going to be… I don’t know. It is interesting to think I don’t know. I’ve got an idea of what I want to do visually and then it becomes a process of procrastination. Figuring out exactly what I want to do.’

Album speculation is not the only news Matt Healy has been making. He also hit the headlines after giving a speech critiquing Donald Trump and Brexit at the band’s gig at the O2 in London last night (15^th December), per NME. Healy concluded with a rallying, healing cry of ‘We love you London.’ That’s just as well, as they’ll stay in the city tonight to play their second night at the O2, before they hit the road to continue the tour in Newcastle, Glasgow, Bournemouth and Cardiff. After a week’s break the band will hit the continent taking in cities including Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona. The full UK dates are shown below:

16/12 – The O2 – London

17/12 – Metro Radio Arena – Newcastle

19/12 – The SSE Hydro – Glasgow

21/12 – BIC – Bournemouth

22/12 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff