Matty Healy tells Leeds Festival crowd The 1975 were 'exiled' from Manchester

27 August 2023 , 20:35

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Matty Healy tells Leeds Festival crowd The 1975 were 'exiled' from Manchester

The 1975's lead singer says the group from Cheshire were 'exiled' from Manchester at the start of their career, as they called Leeds Festival their "hometown show" instead this evening.

The band, fronted by lead singer Matty Healy, performed at Reading and Leeds Festival as a headline act this weekend as they replaced Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi when he stepped back from music earlier this year, with the pop rock group kicking off their two shows in Reading last night.

Performing in Leeds this evening, the chart topping band entertained the crowd as they performed hits from their debut album and wowed festival goers with songs from their past decade of hits, before they revealed that they have been forced from Manchester and their hometown of Wilmslow due to "naughty stuff".

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy claimed the band is "exiled" from their hometown of Manchester (Getty Images)

Speaking to the Leeds crowd, frontman Matty Healy said: "We are the 1975 from Wilmslow. Let’s have the biggest cheer of the evening so far for Lewis Capaldi who couldn’t be here this evening, we love you bro, when Lewis decided to take a well earned break, it left this slot open and it’s been ten years since we put our first album out and there is no more a hometown show than Leeds festival, we were exiled from Manchester. This is where we grew up and cut our teeth and did some naughty stuff."

The show marked 1975's first gig back in the UK since the coronavirus, which had forced them to cancel their European tour dates over health and safety concerns. They performed at Reading on Saturday before then headlining at Leeds on Sunday. They took the headline spot following Lewis Capaldi stepping back from performing after Glastonbury in June.

Matty Healy angers The 1975 fans with peculiar rant seemingly 'mocking' Yungblud

Lewis pulled out of performances across the year including Leeds and Reading over struggles with his Tourette's Syndrome and mental health battles. The 1975 was also announced as the replacement act for the Rage Against the Machine at Reading and Leeds 2022, after the US band had been forced to pull out at the last minute over its leaders singer's medical concerns.

The band paid tribute to Lewis Capaldi, who they replaced at the summer music festival (Lensi Photography / SplashNews.com)

Frontman Matty Healy's appearance comes after the singer is said to be moving on from his brief relationship with Taylor Swift as he reportedly jetted off to Hawaii to enjoy a holiday with his model ex-girlfriend Meredith Mickelson.The couple were linked earlier this year and she was "blindsided" when he went public with Taylor just four weeks after they went their separate ways.

A source close to the model said at the time: "She did not see this coming at all. All the time Matty was in the studio with Taylor, she thought nothing of it. He’d spend the day in the studio and then come home to her. Things were going well until around March 29 then, out of the blue, he stopped replying to messages and calls. He just ghosted her and that was it. Then, four weeks later, he went public with Taylor. She was totally blindsided and, of course, it has stung her a bit. She doesn’t want to play the victim and has no intention of saying anything publicly."

Niamh Spence