Treadmills, giant iPhones, and live debuts aplenty...

The 1975 made a dazzling return to the stage tonight as their UK and Ireland arena tour kicked off in Belfast.

Hitting the road in support of their acclaimed third album, ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’, Matty Healy and co. played their first show at Belfast’s SSE Hydro Arena this evening (January 9) – with support coming from Pale Waves and No Rome.

Opening with the album’s lead single ‘Give Yourself A Try’, the band were illuminated by their most ambitious stage production yet. At one point, the much-teased light show allowed Healy to stand in the centre of a giant iPhone above George Daniel’s drums.

During ‘Sincerity Is Scary’, the frontman reenacted the single’s video by walking on a treadmill in front of moving street footage. “MATTY HAS A BLOODY TREADMILL THIS IS SO GOOD!!!!” one excited fan tweeted.

Elsewhere, the bouncing ‘Love Me’ was dusted off, before the group aired live debuts of ‘A Brief Inquiry…’ highlights ‘How to Draw/Petrichor’ and ‘I Like America and America Likes Me’. Support act No Rome also joined the lads onstage for a collaborative performance of ‘Narcissist‘.

The arena-ready anthem ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’ appeared for the first time ahead of the encore. Having handpicked cuts from across their three-record career throughout the evening, The 1975 ended proceedings with the pure pop ‘I Like It When You Sleep…’ hit, ‘The Sound’ and early favourite ‘Sex’.

Ahead of the gig, the band’s manager Jamie Oborne tweeted to say that disposable cameras would be given to attendees on the front row. “If you get one take pictures through the show and hand camera back at [the] end,” he said.

The 1975’s setlist was:

Intro: The 1975 (A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships version)
Give Yourself a Try
TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME
She’s American
Love Me
Sincerity Is Scary
It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)
Loving Someone
The Ballad of Me and My Brain
A Change of Heart
Narcissist (No Rome cover) (with No Rome)
How to Draw / Petrichor(Live debut)
Robbers
fallingforyou
You
I Like America & America Likes Me (Live debut)
Somebody Else
Girls
I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) (Live debut)
Love It If We Made It
Chocolate
The Sound
Sex