The 1975‘s lawyers have been working on resolving the band’s ongoing lawsuit with a Malaysian festival organiser.
Future Sound Asia (FSA), the organiser of Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival (GVF), has demanded the band pay RM12.3million (£2,099,154) in damages after the band’s frontman Matty Healy‘s “indecent behaviour” caused the cancellation of the festival last month.
Lawyers for FSA previously confirmed that they issued a seven-day Letter of Claim before legal proceedings in English courts would begin.
In a statement issued to the PA news agency on Wednesday (August 16), David Matthew, legal counsel for FSA, said the resolution process was “now in progress”.
“We are able to confirm that our lawyers have received communication from the band’s solicitors and we are continuing to pursue the matter, as per our earlier statement,” said Matthew.
He continued: “The dispute resolution process is now in progress and on advice of legal counsel, we have no further comment at present.”
Matthew previously said that 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. 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,” said Matthew to the Malay Mail.
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, from then, banned from Malaysia . 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”.
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