Latest news with #popgroup
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The 1975, Glastonbury Festival, review: If you find it hard to like Matty Healy, watch this
The 1975 confused rather than commanded Glastonbury Festival, although that might well have been their intention. They are a post-modern pop group, so aware of the ironies, showbiz tropes and rock star hypocrisies of the celebrity business that they want you to know they don't take any of it too seriously… apart, that is, from their seriously impressive songcraft. Frontman, main songwriter and conceptualiser Matty Healy knows he is a divisive character: a mouthy, hyperactive, oversensitive contrarian constantly on the verge of being cancelled, and he chooses to lean into that persona. 'I have this thing where it's difficult to tell when I'm being sincere,' he announced early on in their spectacular, artfully designed set, before he then made a series of ludicrously pompous statements about being the greatest songwriter of his generation. 'These words I bleed for you,' he proclaimed, smoking a cigarette and swigging a Guinness. I'm pretty sure there would have been people watching the BBC broadcast at home ready to throw things at the screen, as the super slick band launched into early hit Chocolate with nonsense soundalike lyrics emblazoned on the big screens. The 1975's own fans grasp the joke, and sang along unperturbed by their complicated hero's displays of comedy ego. The first half of the show found Healy playing a kind of caricature of his controversial persona, dressed like a classic rock rebel in skinny jeans and a leather jacket. A short interlude commenced with a screen emblazoned with the legend 'MATTY IS CHANGING HIS TROUSERS'. He returned in a slick suit and tie, banging out big hits as if he genuinely wanted the crowd with him rather than against him. But even his sincerity is not to be trusted. He made a speech hoping that people wouldn't be disappointed by the lack of politics in their set, perhaps referring to several other Glastonbury performers leading Free Palestine chants. 'There's enough politics in the world, we want our legacy to be one of love and friendship,' he said. I think he means it, too. But I suspect the BBC won't have been too pleased with flashing images of riots, 9/11, dead children, flayed dogs and Kanye West during their fierce rock protest anthem Love It If We Made It. The 1975 formed at school in Manchester in 2002. The quartet have been together a long time and play like it, locking into slick grooves expanded with colour and scope by additional keyboards, horns and percussion. It's a very lush, hyperactive, mobile, richly melodious form of modern pop: big and daring songs full of challenging ideas but peppered with hooks. That the challenge extends to their artful presentation is to be applauded, albeit it can make them hard for the casual onlooker to love. It was a Glastonbury set that wobbled precariously between triumph and disaster, which I suspect might be exactly where Matty Healy and his loyal crew feel most comfortable.
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
J-pop megaband Tokio ends 30-year run after member's alleged misconduct, says trust lost
TOKYO, June 26 — A popular Japanese pop group hired to be the poster boy of disaster-hit Fukushima has announced it is disbanding following the latest scandal to hit the country's embattled entertainment sector. Five-member Tokio emerged in 1994 from Japan's now notorious boyband empire Johnny and Associates, which unravelled in 2023 following revelations about its late founder's decades-long sexual abuse of young boys. Recent years have seen Tokio trimmed to a trio, and in a final death blow, it declared itself defunct yesterday after it emerged that one of its members had engaged in unspecified misconduct. Details surrounding the alleged misbehaviour of Taichi Kokubun, 50, are scarce, with official statements vaguely describing it as a 'violation of compliance protocols'. A few mainstream media outlets in Japan, including Kyodo News, cited 'behaviour that could be considered sexual harassment,' quoting unnamed sources. 'We have decided it's no longer possible for Tokio to regain the trust and support of everyone', the group's statement, released Wednesday, said. Aside from its music success, Tokio for long had another face: the ambassador for Japan's Fukushima region, hit in 2011 by a huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Tokio's relationship with Fukushima predates the disaster, but afterwards it deepened even more with its members tapped to promote the region's reconstruction efforts and food safety. Fukushima's prefectural government even has the 'Tokio Department', a division tasked with collaborating with the musicians to communicate the region's attractiveness. 'For many years, Taichi Kokubun has aligned himself close to us and spread word' of Fukushima, its local government said in a statement, describing Tokio's disbandment as 'extremely regrettable'. 'Tokio's contributions to our prefecture's reconstruction are significant', it added. Kokubun's fall in disgrace is just the latest in a recent series of bombshell scandals to rock Japan's showbiz industry. Johnny & Associates, which has since changed its name, admitted in 2023 that its late founder Johnny Kitagawa had sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men for decades. More recently, high-profile celebrities have found themselves entangled in sexual assault allegations, including J-pop megastar-turned-TV host Masahiro Nakai, who announced his retirement earlier this year. The Nakai saga shed the spotlight on the toxic culture of young women being pressed into attending dinners and drinking parties with powerful industry figures. — AFP
Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
When boyband Five went to prison: the police wanted autographs
One morning in December 2000 I was outside the office of the Official PlayStation magazine in Dublin, where I worked, when I saw Jason 'J' Brown, a member of the pop group Five, walking along the street. I approached Brown and asked if the band would like to do an interview for the mag. Brown was keen and gave me his tour manager's number to set it up. The interview never happened. That afternoon Brown and his bandmate Ritchie Neville were arrested and imprisoned following a fight in Temple Bar. Nine months later the band broke up under the weight of court cases, exhaustion and nervous breakdowns. So it comes as a surprise to be seated in front of Brown, Neville, and their bandmates —
