The organizers of the Good Vibes Festival are giving the British band until 14 August to pay damages for alleged breach of contract.
ADVERTISEMENTBritish band The 1975 have been ordered to pay RM12.3 million (approximately €2.3 million) in damages over their recent set at Malaysian music festival Good Vibes.
The band has until 14 August to pay the fee or it faces potential legal action.
The 1975’s now infamous performance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 21 July was cut short after Matty Healy criticized the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws onstage and kissed bassist Ross MacDonald.
After kissing MacDonald, Healy told the crowd it was “fucking ridiculous to tell people what they can do with that and that,” gesturing to his groin.
“If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can fuck off. I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good, and I’m fucked off.”
Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital subsequently cancelled the remaining two days of the festival.
Earlier this week, the festival’s organizer, Future Sound Asia (FSA), outlined its plans to seek financial damages from the 1975, although the €2.3 million figure was not disclosed at that time.
In a new statement to the Malay Mail, the festival’s organiser’s legal counsel David Mathew from Steven Thiru & Sudhar Partnership said that the seven-day notice is dated 7 August, meaning the band have until 14 August to pay the damages before legal action is taken against them.
“In the letter, FSA has demanded that The 1975 admit their liability and also pay the sum of £2,099,154.54 (RM12,347,967.91) within seven days,” David Mathew told Malay Mail. “The Letter of Claim is written in accordance with the provisions of the English Practice Direction Pre-Action Conduct and Protocol which are part of the English Civil Procedure Rules.”
According to Mathew, a large component of FSA’s Letter of Claim is attributed towards frontman Matty Healy’s breach of contract. “Healy’s representative categorically provided a pre-show written assurance that he and The 1975’s live performance ‘shall adhere to all local guidelines and regulations’ during their set in Malaysia,” Mathews said to the Malay Mail.
“Despite this, the assurance was ignored, and the band’s actions also clearly contravened the contract with FSA, which led to the cancellation of the festival and caused significant losses to FSA.”
Following their actions at the headline set last month, the Malaysian LGBTQ+ community havecondemned Healy, suggesting his actions would make life for the LGBTQ+ community in the country worse.
