According to pitchfork.com, The 1975 allegedly has been sued for 2.4 million by Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival, year after Matthew Healy kissed Ross MacDonald onstage to protest the country’s homophobic laws. The alleged damages are allegedly just shy of the 2.6 million that was originally requested last year and this is related to the Malaysian government’s subsequent decision to cancel the festival altogether.
Healy addressed the incident at a show in Texas last October, by alluding to being “briefly imprisoned” in Malaysia: “If you truly believe that artists have a responsibility to uphold their liberal virtues by using their massive platforms, then those artists should be judged by the danger and inconvenience that they face for doing so, not by the rewards they receive for parroting consensus.”
Festival organizers Future Sound Asia reportedly filed the lawsuit in the United Kingdom’s High Court, allegedly claiming the band allegedly and deliberately flouted the country’s laws after numerous reminders. Among those rules were swearing, smoking and drinking on stage, taking off clothes and talking about politics or religion.
Other guidelines specifically banned kissing and the alleged lawsuit reportedly notes that the band allegedly considered not performing but allegedly decided instead to protest the rules by allegedly playing “a completely different setlist” and defying the guidelines on purpose, including Healy’s “provocative speech” and “long pretend passionate embrace” with MacDonald.
During the set, Healy had denounced Malaysian government policies that make homosexuality punishable by up to 20 years in prison: “If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can fuck off,” he told the crowd. “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.” The set quickly ended with Healy saying: “All right, we just got banned from Kuala Lumpur. See you later.” The band canceled shows in Jakarta and Taipei immediately after the festival.
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna
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