The pivotal moment Green Day made The 1975’s Matty Healy want to become a musician
As a young impressionable teenager, favourite bands are viewed as more than musicians — they are everything. They can change how their fans dress, epitomise feelings they’re yet able to express fluently and alter their perspective on how the world works positively by expanding their perspective. For The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, Green Day went a step further when they played Newcastle Arena in 2002.
Twenty years later, it’s a venue where he’s played on numerous occasions with his own band, but back then, they were four school friends who’d just practise for fun in their spare time and were years away from becoming a serious endeavour.
At the time, Healy had just turned 13, and music had become an all-encompassing addiction in his life. He was soaking up everything he possibly could. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to see Green Day in the North East, it wasn’t an event Healy was prepared to miss.
Every music fan has a stand-out show from their teenage years which proved to be a pivotal moment in their love affair with the art form. Being in the same room as the band which litters their bedroom walls is already incredibly empowering. However, Green Day exceeded his expectations with one act, making Healy want to become an arena-filling musician.
During the show, they scouted Healy in the audience and asked him to join them on stage, with The 1975 singer filling in on bass duties. Every night, they’d pick a young fan from the crowd and make their wildest dream become a reality.
Speaking to Spin in 2016, Healy recalled: “Mike Dirnt was fucking there. I jumped up, and he put his bass on me… 10,000 people in fucking Newcastle Arena! It was a defining moment for me. Looking out and thinking, ‘OK, this is awesome’. I still have the pick.”
Years later, Healy elaborated on the formative experience with Apple Music presenter Zane Lowe in 2020: “I played with Green Day once. So I was like 13 and they did that thing where they get kids up on stage. And I was at the front and then I got up and played bass with them.”
However, his bandmates weren’t particularly impressed when he returned to Manchester and recounted the life-changing incident once they returned to school. “I told them the whole story and they weren’t remotely interested. So yeah,” Healy added.
Unfortunately, no footage exists of Green Day picking Healy from the crowd. If it took place in the modern age, it would have potentially become a viral moment in a similar vein to ‘Alex from Glasto’ who performed ‘Thiago Silva’ with Dave at Glastonbury in 2019. However, the memory of the event remains fresh in the memory of Healy, who got his first taste of playing an arena that evening, and subsequently became the frontman of one of the world’s biggest bands.
