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Rina Sawayama calls out Matty Healy live at Glastonbury for offensive podcast comments
Healy responded to the backlash earlier this year but some feel it was less of an apology and more of a deflection.
Matty Healy might be one of the biggest frontmen on the planet right now but he’s also one of the most controversial figures in the music industry too, as those watching Glastonbury found out after Rina Sawayama called him out live on stage in front of thousands.
The 32-year-old singer, actress and model was performing on the Woodsies on Saturday, 24 June, when she decided to dedicate her song ‘STFU!’ to The 1975 singer, songwriter and guitarist following a number of offensive remarks he made or was involved with on a recent US podcast episode.
Healy, 34, appeared on The Adam Friedland Show back in February, during which he made a series of comments that many labelled inappropriate and racist, such as watching a porn genre which degrades Black women as well as joining in speculating about rapper Ice Spice’s ethnicity and discussing her body.
The Wilmslow-bred musician also went on to laugh when the hosts mocked the artist with attempts at Chinese, Hawaiian and Japanese accents, to which Sawayama — who was born in Japan before moving to London as a child — responded by screaming “I’ve had enough!” to the Glastonbury crowd.
As you can see in the clip below, the recent John Wick 4 star said, “I wrote this because I was sick and tired of these micro-aggressions. This goes out to a white man that watches ‘ghetto gaggers’ and mocks Asian people on a podcast.”
She then went on to say, “He also owns my masters” — with Sawayama and The 1975 both belonging to Dirty Hit Records, of which Healy was creative director and is one of multiple shareholders — before adding defiantly, “I’ve had enough!” before being met with rapturous cheers and applause for the crowd.
It is worth noting that Healy’s role as a director has since ended in the time since the podcast controversy, with online records showing that his contract in that capacity was terminated after five years back in April, though it’s unclear if the decision is linked.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Healy also suggested that Harry Styles of “queerbaiting” fans and also made jokes about women’s synchronising while on their periods, which also upset many people, fans or otherwise. Regarding his Ice Spice comments, he apologised on stage this past April.
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Nevertheless, The 1975’s 2018 single ‘Sincerity is Scary’ seems fitting here, as many still feel that there wasn’t much genuine remorse in his apology, especially given his comments in an interview with The New Yorker a month later where he said, “it doesn’t actually matter.”
He went on multiple-award winning musician insisted, “Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.”
He even went so far as to say, “If it does [offend people], you’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar. You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt. It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.”
Neither Healy nor Dirty Hit are yet to issue a response following Rina Sawayama’s comments at Glastonbury but it’s certainly sparked quite the discussion online surrounding a public figure who is well-accustomed to being amongst the headlines for his antics, being on or off-stage.
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Featured Image — Rina Sawayama/The 1975 (via Instagram)
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Pierce the Veil are bringing their massive world tour to Manchester’s Co-op Live
Danny Jones
Contemporary rock heavyweights Pierce the Veil have just announced a massive world tour and they’re bringing it to Manchester for their Co-op Live debut.
The emo, prog rock, pop-punk, hardcore and all-round heavy hitters last played Manchester this past April, putting on a pretty huge gig at Victoria Warehouse, but now they’re set for their biggest show here to date.
Co-op recently welcomed Sleep Token for their first real metal show last month, one that proved the venue is more than up to the task of putting on a proper rock show, and now Pierce the Veil are the latest confirmed to be headlining the state-of-the-art arena.
Announcing the news on Tuesday, 3 December, the California-based band will be heading to the moody skies of Manchester next year.
First forming back in 2006 and now five studio albums deep, the new world tour which features nearly 50 dates around North and South America, the UK and Europe, the aim of this new show is to span their whole career thus far.
With a healthy selection of songs from each era, this one will not only as a walk down memory lane for die-hard fans but a pure celebration of Pierce the Veil throughout each evolution of their sound.
Speaking in an official statement after the tour was announced, the band said: “Nearly two decades in the making, this tour is a monument to everything we’ve built with our fans.
“These shows will honour our roots, spanning all five albums and the music that brought us here. We’re bringing to life the songs you’ve been waiting to hear in some of the most iconic venues in the world, including Madison Square Garden, The Forum, Red Rocks, and Wembley Arena.
“This will be our largest, loudest, and most unforgettable tour yet. PTV fans, it’s time to raise our voices like never before. Can you hear us now?”
We’re certainly about to…
Better yet, with a wide breadth of modern rock on show in the support acts too as the San Diego sons will be bringing along Cavetown, Hot Mulligan (a personal favourite of ours) and Crawlers as their UK warm-up acts, these shows are going to be plenty good value for money.
Pierce the Veil’s landmark Manchester gig takes place next autumn on Thursday, 25 September 2025 and, if Sleep Token’s attendance even just a year into their massive boom was anything to go by, this one will sell out pretty quickly.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Friday, 6 December and official Co-op Members can access exclusive pre-sale from Wednesday (4 Dec).
You can get ready to grab your tickets HERE.
See you in the circle pit.
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Featured Images — Stefan Brending (via Wikimedia Commons)/The Manc Group
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Noel Gallagher says there ‘won’t be any fighting’ as he speaks on Oasis reunion for the first time
Danny Jones
Noel Gallagher has spoken about the Oasis reunion for the first time and has promised there’ll be ‘no fighting’ when they set off on tour next summer.
In contrast to the younger Gallagher brother, who has been arguably more active and vocal about himself and Oasis since the reunion was confirmed, Noel has been pretty quiet on the comeback up until now.
However, speaking at the recent ‘Legends’ exhibition by Zoë Law held at the National Portrait Gallery, the guitarist and solo artist was quoted as saying that things won’t be anywhere near as rock and roll as it was back in Britpop’s heyday, as well as assuring he and Liam won’t be at each other’s throats.
The main reason being: age, in a word.
The Oasis songwriter said of the upcoming tour dates: “No, it won’t be as raucous as back in the day, because we’re on the wrong side of 50 now, so we’re too old.
“We’re too old to give a s**t now, so there won’t be any fallouts, there won’t be any fighting.” When asked if he’s glad to have buried the feud after a decade and a half of bad-mouthing and back and forth, the 57-year-old could only reply, ‘Of course.’
In Noel’s eyes at least, while many have been speculating that this reunion tour isn’t just a one-off (fingers crossed), he described wanting the now enormous world tour – with dates in the UK, Ireland, US, Australia, Japan, South America and more – to be a sort of “lap of honour” for the band.
Make of that what you will.
There have been reports that the duo have new music ‘ready to go’ or at least written, but let’s just say we got our Christmas wish with the reunion itself, so we’re not going to push our luck and risk jinxing anything by asking for too much. For now, we’ll settle for them remembering they love each other.
As for relations between him and Liam, we don’t know too much beyond the pictures we eventually saw of them smiling and joking together during that photo shoot for the official announcement in the summer.
That being said, iconic frontman and part-time troll has enjoyed playing a very comical version of kiss and make up on social media – as well as using the word ‘celestial’ a lot for some reason. He did, however, respond to what he called a “ridiculous question” rather recently.
Although he refused to name who it came from, he replied in truly irreverent LG fashion: “Oasis gonna be as good as you once were because when some bands get back together there not as good I said listen here you c*** even on our bad day we’ll still wipe the floor with [the] majority of bands out there.”
Meanwhile, it really does like the two have overcome their difference as Noel had the following to say in his interview for the Law’s photography series. We only hope this means there’s nothing holding them back from putting on the shows of a lifetime…
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Featured Images — National Portrait Gallery (screenshot via Facebook)/Press Image (supplied)
