The 1975 to pay Malaysian festival organiser £2million in seven days or face legal action in the UK
The 1975 have been ordered to pay a Malaysian festival organiser over £2million in damages within seven days or face legal action in the UK.
Future Sound Asia (FSA), the organiser of Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival (GVF), has confirmed that it has issued a seven-day Letter of Claim to the UK band requesting for RM12.3million (£2,099,154.54) in damages following the cancellation of the festival last month.
The Letter of Claim was previously announced on August 7, though further details were unknown at the 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 August 7, meaning the band have until August 14 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 (7) 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.”
Failure from the band to meet FSA’s Letter of Claim will result in legal proceedings in the UK, though details remain unknown at the time of publishing.
NME has reached out to representatives of The 1975 for comment.
FSA’s Letter of Claim comes after The 1975 were banned from Malaysia mid-performance at Day 1 of Good Vibes Festival on July 21. During their headlining performance on the first day of the three-day festival, the band’s Matty Healy criticised the Malaysian government for anti-LGBTQ laws during their headlining set at Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival.
“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it. I don’t see the fucking point, right, I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” said Healy.
He continued: “I am sorry if that offends you and you’re religious and it’s part of your fucking government, but your government are a bunch of fucking retards and I don’t care anymore. If you push, I am going to push back. I am not in the fucking mood, I’m not in the fucking mood.”
Healy would go on to kiss bandmate and bassist Ross MacDonald on the lips onstage before their set was cut short two songs later – just seven songs into their setlist – and it was announced that the band were banned from Malaysia and had to leave. The following day, the Malaysian government ordered the cancellation of the remaining two days of Good Vibes Festival.
Following their actions at the headline set last month, the Malaysian LGBTQ+ community have condemned Healy, suggesting Healy’s actions would make life for the LGBTQ+ community in the country worse.
Most recently, Healy addressed the controversy during a concert in Hawaii. “All I’ll say is that I don’t give a fuck about any white saviour complex bullshit. What I’ll say is that doing the right thing often requires quite a lot of sacrifice and very little reward. And being seen to do the right thing requires very little sacrifice, and that’s when you get all the rewards,” Healy said. “And me and Ross [MacDonald] nearly shaved our heads because we thought we were going to prison for being f*gs”.