The 1975, O2 Brixton Academy, review When the Brit Awards nominations were announced on Thursday, Manchester indie upstarts The 1975 were unlucky to be overlooked among the fresh-faced breakthrough acts. If it were up to the 16-20-year-old fans who have made the quartet one of the biggest young British rock bands, they would be up for every category. These core devotees have helped them sell out this and two further nights at the Brixton Academy, plus a date at the Royal Albert Hall this April, and catapulted their self-titled debut album to Number One last year. They also screamed ceaselessly throughout this bracing 90-minutes set - in particular at flamboyant frontman Matthew Healy. The son of former Coronation Street actress Denise Welsh, Healy cut a theatrical character, all head flicks and sideways pouts, wearing ripped jeans, a biker jacket and a hairdo somewhere between a pompadour and a Mohican. Indeed, Healy and his tattooed, coiffed bandmates oozed a kind of manicured rock 'n" roll chic: like a band straight from an Asos catalogue. That's not to say The 1975 were all hair mousse and no tunes. The quartet were a tightly sprung, well-oiled live unit, delivering overdriven, four-chord rock, pitched somewhere between Foals" arty indie, the dirgey post-punk of Echo and the Bunnymen and American emo bands like Fall Out Boy. When topped with catchy refrains about youthful excess and group harmony vocals, this made songs like The City and She Way Out irresistible. There were subtler flourishes, too: warm synth glow, occasional saxophone, and one soulful piano ballad. Healy has claimed influences as diverse as Brian Eno and D'Angelo, and these were hints that the band may yet expand their musical horizons. But it wasn't all great: Healy's voice can be overwrought, while too many tracks chugged with the gait of Eighties AM radio rock but failed to hit top gear. The frontman's swagger proved a welcome distraction. At one point, he emerged bustling through the balcony seating area upstairs. Hysterically delighted teens were crying as they scrambled to take snatched selfies with a flailing arm or stray wisp of Healy's hair. For the encore, the tunes returned, first via piledriving breakthrough single Chocolate, then Sex, a surging, knife-edge tale of lust with a widescreen chorus that could make the Mumfords blush. "This has been one of the best nights of our life," Healy said. There'll be plenty more to come - at least until the tweens grow up. The 1975 tour until Saturday, then from February 7. Tickets: the1975.com