The 1975 will take an indefinite hiatus from touring once their current dates wrap up, Matthew Healy said at the band’s North American tour opener last night. “We love coming to this place and playing for you guys whenever we have the chance, and it’s wonderful you’re all here,” he told the crowd in Sacramento, California. “After this tour we will be going on an indefinite hiatus of shows so it’s wonderful to have you guys with us tonight.”
The 1975 have proceeded, with little interruption, through their marathon tours behind last year’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language: The 1975 at Their Very Best and Still… at Their Very Best. At the same time, controversies have mounted: First, Healy did an apparent Nazi salute onstage while performing the “Love It If We Made It” lyric that quotes Donald Trump’s praise of Kanye West. Not long after, on the Adam Friedland Show podcast, he joked about masturbating to racially degrading porn and laughed as the hosts made racially insensitive comments about Ice Spice. He half-apologized onstage, around the same time he reportedly started (and soon finished) dating Taylor Swift. In July, he defied Malaysia’s homophobic laws by kissing bassist Ross MacDonald onstage at Good Vibes Festival, prompting the government to pull the entire event. Festival organizers asked him to pay approximately $2.6 million in compensation.
Healy’s wording indicates the hiatus only applies to live shows, and the band often refer to breaks after album cycles, such as the Music for Cars era, as hiatuses. Pitchfork has emailed the band’s representatives for more details.
