Claims against the band are for an alleged breach of contract.
British band The 1975 have been told to pay €2 million worth of damages by Malaysian festival organisers.
The Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumper was cancelled last month after lead singer Matty Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald on stage and spoke out against Malaysia’s strict homosexuality laws.
Future Sounds Asia, the company behind the festival, are alleging that Healy and his bandmates signed a “pre-show written assurance” that their show would adhere to all local guidelines.
In a statement, legal spokesperson David Mathew said the claim against the band is “essentially for breach of contract.”
“They entered into a binding contract with Future Sound Asia to perform and the position of Future Sound Asia, among others, is that this contractual obligation was breached.
“Further, Mr Healy’s representative categorically provided a pre-show written assurance that Mr Healy and The 1975’s live performance ‘shall adhere to all local guidelines and regulations’ during their set in Malaysia.
“Unfortunately, the assurance was ignored.”
Malaysian festival cancelled after The 1975 on-stage kiss
As well as sharing a kiss with his bandmate, Healy also blasted Malaysia’s criminalisation of homosexuality while on stage at the festival in July.
In a speech on stage, the 34-year-old singer said:
“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it (Malaysia’s laws)”.
“I don’t see the f****** point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with”.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and with laws making it punishable by imprisonment. Healy’s actions have also faced backlash amongst some of the LGBTQ+ community in the Muslim-majority country, saying their situation has been made more difficult because of the incident.
The 1975 have now been banned from Kuala Lumpur and other tour dates in Indonesia and Taiwan have also been cancelled.
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