1st June.

Fans of The 1975 have been waiting for this day for months. We have been subjected time and time again to the same cryptic tweet (“1st June, The 1975”) from front man Matt Healy over the past four months with the expectation of an announcement or new music.

Of course, die-hard fans will recognise this date as being an integral part in the band’s history. The origin of thee band’s name lies within a scrawled phrase Matty found on the back page of an old Beat diary he was given. Finding the use of ‘the’ prior to ‘1975’ fascinating, it became the band’s name after a multitude of others (B I G S L E E P and Drive Like I Do being just a couple of examples).

Yesterday evening, (31/05/2015) each member posted an image of a cartoon strip on their social media accounts, seemingly implying The 1975 were to disappear. The cartoon appeared to centralise on the themes of finality and change through a series of statements and speech bubbles. There’s a swipe at NME magazine, two contrasting depictions of Healy (‘Old Matty’ presented as a figure dressed in black whilst ‘new Matty’ is a male dressed in pink) and a series of gossip-y, social media inspired speech bubbles. Fans were left even further perplexed this morning upon discovering all propaganda related to The 1975; official website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages in addition to the band’s solo social media accounts had all vanished from the web.

Fans were sent into overdrive as they perceived these manoeuvres as signifying the end of the band. This seems highly unlikely, however, considering the band’s existing success and reputation. It appears that the band is in the process of reinvention, a concept Matt Healy is obsessed with. This bold move more than likely reinforces his discontent of social media culture. Furthermore, it appears to signify the end of The 1975 as the public know them and the caricature Healy felt he had become of himself. It’s a clever move, one that’s certainly earned them publicity.

Whilst this may be an uncertain time for fans, it’s also an exciting one as it marks the beginning of a whole new era…