The 1975 stake their headliner claim at Reading 2016

Over at Reading Festival’s biggest tent, screams like nothing else on this planet fill the place to the brim, and that’s twenty minutes before kick-off. By the time The 1975 stride out onto a pastel-drenched stage, tiny Playmobil figures in front of choppy pink blocks, it’s impossible to gather a single coherent thought; the roaring crowd is the loudest of the entire summer.

It figures, really – by now, Matty Healy and co. are superstars. Having made a giant, lightyear leap up from distinctly average beginnings, to this – the ridiculously titled ‘I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it,’ in all it’s bass-facey, gurny panache, – The 1975 take their big Reading moment, seize it by the scruff of its neck and out-run almost everyone else in the process. They’ve played this same slot before, of course, but this year, they’re totally magnetic. Strolling across the stage idly smoking a cigarette, and airing the grief of a bad comedown atop the fidgeting bass of ‘UGH!’ Matty’s an intriguing prospect as a frontman; filled with earnest declarations, pouting expressions, and some fairly captivating takes on interpretive dance. While the spliced up hook of ‘Loving Someone’ plays behind him, a micless Healy screams along silently like everything depends on it. The 1975 even search for Jesus christ mid-set with ‘If I Believe You’ – an initially sincere song which manages to sneak in the lyric “I thought I’d met you once or twice but that was just because the dabs were nice and opening up my mind”. Oh yeah, and there’s a sax solo to rival George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’.

Closing with a euphoric ‘The Sound,’ quickly followed by debut cut ‘Sex,’ The 1975 go out on a decidedly confident bang. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I can promise you two things,” Matty announces. “One: we’re gonna go away and make another record. Two: we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna fucking headline Reading, I fucking promise you.” He might be packed with bravado, but it’s what makes him so captivating. He’s right, too. The 1975 need to headline Reading.