When Rage Against The Machine finally embarked on their long-awaited world tour earlier this year, many fans were left worried after the band’s frontman Zac de la Rocha sustained a leg injury at their Chicago show – only 2 days into their tour. The band continued with Rocha performing mostly sat down, but now it has been announced that they will be cancelling their UK and EU leg of the tour to follow ‘medical guidance. Their headline slot at Reading and Leeds Festival fell within the cancelled dates, so yesterday the festival announced the new Sunday headliner. The 1975.
We heard you @the1975 will now be headlining #RandL22 Don’t say we never treat you pic.twitter.com/c8DzAcbVfN
— Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) August 12, 2022
After Rage Against The Machine made the surprise announcement of their live return back in 2019, their plans quickly fell apart. Their headline slot at Reading and Leeds Festival 2020, as well as a long list of dates worldwide, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the rescheduled dates have finally come along, and again any European fans hoping to finally get a glimpse of the band have been left disappointed. A night at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre, and headline slots at Rock en Seine Festival, Andalucia Big Festival, and Mad Cool Sunset have all also been cancelled – as well as 7 other headline shows spread across Europe. The band are set to return to the stage for the second leg of their North American tour in February 2023.
On a slightly lighter note, now Rage Against The Machine have been forced to remove themselves from the festival, there is room for new headliners – The 1975. Matty Healey and co. are currently in the leadup to the release of their 5th LP, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, you can pre-order the album here. The announcement for their appearance at Reading and Leeds Festival comes together with a lengthy US tour set to take place in November. This, paired with 2 appearances at Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival, ends The 1975’s known tour dates. But that being said, we can essentially guarantee an announcement of a UK tour coming soon.
So far, 2 singles have been released from the 11-track album. “Part of the Band”, and “Happiness” have received a reasonably positive response from fans and critics, but some have argued that the band’s subtle change in direction – from their buoyant, bouncy production style to something quieter and more subdued – may not gain the same level of interest. That being said, The 1975 have shown no signs of slowing down since they really hit it big with their 2nd LP, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (what a pretentious mouthful), so let’s not judge them just yet.
