'Every UK label turned down The 1975' says label exec

The 1975’s label head and manager Jamie Oborne has revealed how “every label in the UK" passed on the band twice before he signed them to his own indie record company, Dirty Hit.

Speaking at last week’s Belfast Music Week, the exec discussed a seven-year struggle to get industry attention.

The band's successful recent singles Chocolate and Sex were “written about three years ago,” said Oborne - but most labels couldn’t see how they would translate to radio.

Chocolate was voted Radio 1's top track of the last five years in September and reached No.19 on the UK Top 40 earlier this year.

“I managed The 1975 for almost seven years and it got to the point where the band were sick of listening to promises that never came off,” Oborne explained.

“[When the band started to get attention] people on Twitter were saying how they had blown up out of nowhere - but it’s like, fuck, if only you know the amount of manpower and money that went into that artist [beforehand] you wouldn’t be saying that.”

The Manchester band’s self-titled debut album was released in early September and reached No.1 on the UK albums chart. Released on Dirty Hit via Universal, it has since been certified Silver.