Watch Matty Healy cover Colin Hay and Donny Hathaway as he supports The 1975 in Dublin

9 June, 2023

The 1975 Matty Healy

Matty Healy has covered tracks from Colin Hay and Donny Hathaway while opening for his own band, The 1975. He also performed the live debut of their song ‘Then Because She Goes’ — check out the full setlist and footage of the show below.

The frontman’s solo performance took place at The 1975’s show in St. Anne’s Park, Dublin on Wednesday (June 7). Shortly before the gig kicked off, it was announced that Healy would be performing as the opening act for his own band, following Caroline Polachek dropping out of the show at the last minute due to illness.

While there was speculation as to what the singer-songwriter would play during his support slot, he later delivered a stripped-back set for fans, which included both acoustic variations of 1975 songs, as well as covers of some other artists.

Playing 10 songs as a solo act before later returning to the stage for the second time with his fellow bandmates, a highlight of the show came almost immediately after Healy began his set — performing the live debut of ‘Then Because She Goes’.

The song is taken from the band’s 2020 album ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’, and was played for the first time during the solo segment of the evening. From there, he also performed renditions of tracks including ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’, ‘All I Need To Hear’ and ‘Woman’, before also debuting the first ever live rendition of ‘Playing On My Mind’ — also taken from their 2020 LP.

Another highlight for fans, however, came as Healy covered two tracks from outside of his discography. The first was ‘I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You’, the 1998 ballad from solo artist and former Men At Work singer Colin Hay, and the second was a cover of Donny Hathaway’s ‘A Song For You’, which was performed alongside touring guitarist Jamie Squire.

Check out footage from the solo segment of the show below, as well as Healy’s setlist.

Matty Healy’s setlist was:

1. ‘Then Because She Goes’ (Live debut)
2. ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’
3. ‘All I Need To Hear’
4. ‘I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You’ (Colin Hay cover)
5. ‘I Couldn’t Be More in Love’
6. ‘Woman’
7. ‘Playing On My Mind’ (Live debut)
8. ‘A Song For You’ (Donny Hathaway cover. Performed with Jamie Squire)
9. ‘When We Are Together’
10. ‘Be My Mistake’

Later in the show, The 1975 took to the stage and performed a 21-song setlist, which features hits from across their five-album discography.

The four-piece kicked off the show with ‘Give Yourself A Try’, taken from their third album ‘A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships’ (2018). From there, they launched into renditions of fan favourites including ‘About You’, ‘Robbers’, ‘Somebody else’ and ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’.

Highlights of the headline set included an acoustic variation of ‘Paris’ — a ballad taken from their 2016 second studio album, ‘I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It’ — as well as the ‘Real World’ version of ‘I Like America & America Likes Me’.

The covers weren’t limited to Healy’s solo set, however, as midway through their set, the band shared their own live take of the hit Backstreet Boys single ‘I Want It That Way’. Find footage and the setlist here:

The 1975’s setlist was:

1. ‘Give Yourself a Try’
2. ‘
Happiness
’
3. ‘Oh Caroline’
4. ‘
I’m in Love With You
’
5. ‘Me & You Together Song
’
6. ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)
’
7. ‘fallingforyou’
8. ‘
Me
’
9. ‘About You
’
10. ‘Robbers’
11. ‘
I Want It That Way’ (Backstreet Boys cover)
12. ‘
She’s American’
13. ‘
Somebody Else
’
14. ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’
15. ‘
Paris’ (Acoustic)

16. ‘Love It If We Made It
’
17. ‘People’
18. ‘
I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’
19. ‘
The Sound
’
20. ‘I Like America & America Likes Me’ (‘Real World’ version)

21. ‘Sex’

Another highlight of the show arose when the frontman issued a response to Noel Gallagher, who recently branded him as a “slack-jawed fuckwit”.

The comments came from a recent interview with Spin, where the High Flying Birds musician shared his annoyance at discovering that Healy had claimed that he and Liam Gallagher needed to “grow up” and reform Oasis.

“Noel Gallagher called me a ‘slack-jawed fuckwit’… I love Noel Gallagher. We asked Liam to open up and he said he would have done it but he was busy.”

“But I love Noel Gallagher… He’s just getting on,” he added. “The difference between me and Noel is that I do a series of interviews to promote an album, whereas he does an album to promote a series of interviews.”

He also proceeded to directly address the artist, and once again call for a reformation of the Brit-pop band: “But we love you Noel. Get Oasis back together!”

More recently, Gallagher once again shared disdain for The 1975 in the latest instalment of NME‘s In Conversation series — labelling them as “shit” and “certainly not rock”.

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