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The 1975 have been sued by organizers of Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival after frontman Matty Healy protested the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws by kissing bassist Ross MacDonald during their performance last July.
The band’s members are also individually named in the suit, which seeks damages of $2.4m (£1.9m) because the band’s actions led to the festival being shut down.
In court documents filed in the UK High Court and seen by Variety, festival organizers Future Sound Asia claim that The 1975 and their management team had been made aware of various restrictions surrounding the performance.
The band had previously performed at the festival in 2016, and organizers say they were repeatedly reminded of restrictions around swearing, smoking, drinking alcohol on stage, removing clothes and discussing politics or religion.
The organizers also maintain that the band was aware of specific rules issued by the Malaysia Central Agency for the Application for Foreign Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (PUSPAL) that prohibit “kissing, kissing a member of the audience or carrying out such actions among themselves.”
They say that the band was paid $350,000 to perform and agreed to abide by these rules.
The lawsuit also states that PUSPAL had at first rejected the band’s application to perform in Malaysia in 2023 due to a 2018 article about Matty Healy’s past drug addiction. The band was able to overturn the decision after an appeal by promising that Healy would follow “all local guidelines and regulations.”
The suit goes on to claim that the band decided the night before the festival that they would not perform, then changed their mind and went ahead with “a completely different setlist” while acting “in way that were intended to breach the Guidelines”.
This included Healy making a “provocative speech” denouncing the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws and taking part in a “long pretend passionate embrace” with MacDonald “with the intention of causing offence and breaching the regulations and the terms of the agreement.”
The 1975’s performance was cut short, and the following day the organizers’ license was revoked. The remaining two days of the music festival, which had been set to include a performance by The Strokes, were canceled.
Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil tweeted that the government had “called the organisers” of the festival before it was then cancelled outright.
Healy poked fun at the controversy on his Instagram Stories after sharing Good Vibes Festival’s cancellation statement.
The singer added: “Ok well why don’t you try and not make out for Ross for 20 years. Not as easy as it looks.”
The Independent has approached the 1975 for comment.
