The 1975 paid tribute to Rage Against The Machine during their headline set at Reading Festival tonight (August 28).

Earlier this month, The 1975 were announced as the last-minute replacement for Rage Against The Machine’s headline appearance at Reading & Leeds 2022; the latter band were forced to pull out after frontman Zack de la Rocha suffered a leg injury on their North American tour.

Closing out the third and final day of Reading earlier tonight, an interlude in The 1975’s performance saw frontman Matt Healy begin by asking the crowd if they enjoyed Saturday’s (August 27) headlining set from Arctic Monkeys.

He then riled punters up, urging them to “get your Doctor Martens, and your fishnets and your vinyl… get it all out” before addressing their role as a replacement act, and apologising for the fact that Rage Against The Machine couldn’t appear.

“We fucking love Rage Against The Machine,” Healy said. “Give it up for Rage Against The Machine. If we had the time, we would have done a cover of Rage Against The Machine. If it was the other way around, they definitely wouldn’t do that!”

Healy’s speech also addressed some controversial comments he made during their show at Leeds Festival two nights prior (on Friday August 26). According to Leeds Live, Friday saw the singer took a swing at Rage Against The Machine with his stage banter: “I’m sorry we’re not Rage Against The Machine but who’s Rage Against The Machine? I mean give it up for the greatest rock band of the previous generation, ladies and gentlemen please… Being literally in Rage Against The Machine and having a gammy leg is quite funny though.”

During tonight’s Reading set, Healy poked fun at critics of that joke while assuring The 1975’s fondness for Rage Against The Machine, quipping: “Shout out to them. I will stand by being Rage Against The Machine and having a gammy leg is quite funny. That is funny, but we love them. We love you guys.”

Healy finished up his chat with the crowd by explaining that The 1975 would have liked to have been performing on the back of their new album, but were content with performing a “greatest hits, 1975 thing”, calling the stage their “one of our favourite places in the world”.

“I know I can be a right dickhead,” Healy said, “but in my heart, I love you guys, it just means, I love you.”

The band went on to perform what Healy called “arguably the best 1975 song”, ‘Paris’. Elsewhere in their 19-track set, they performed some of their best-loved songs including ‘Chocolate’ ‘Somebody Else’ and ‘The Sound’.

Reading & Leeds boss Melvin Benn recently called The 1975 “one of the most extraordinary things to happen to the festival”, saying he was “shocked” at how quickly they managed to get them to step in for RATM.

Last week, the outfit declared that news of a UK tour would be announced at some stage this week. It comes as they gear up to release their fifth studio album, ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. Set to arrive on October 14 via Dirty Hit, The 1975 have already offered tastes of the new release with singles ‘Part Of The Band’ and ‘Happiness’, the latter song they performed at both Reading and Leeds Festivals over the weekend.