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The 1975’s lawyers in talks with Good Vibes Festival following threat of litigation

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 18 August 2023

A lawyer for the Malaysian festival that was forced to cancel because of on-stage comments made by The 1975’s Matty Healy has confirmed that he is now in talks with the band’s legal team.

Healy hit out at Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws during his band’s set on the first day of the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur last month, adding “your government are a bunch of fucking retards”.

The comments not only caused The 1975’s set to be cut short, but the Malaysian government forced the remaining two days of the festival to be cancelled.

It emerged earlier this month that the promoter of the festival, Future Sound Asia, had sent a legal letter to the band demanding that they accept liability for the cancellation and pay over £2 million in damages. Failure to do so, the legal letter added, would result in litigation through the English courts.

That would basically be a breach of contract lawsuit, because FSA says that the band specifically committed – before playing the Good Vibes Festival – to adhere to local rules governing live performances. Which includes not delivering sweary rants against the country’s government.

In a statement to the Press Association earlier this week, a legal rep for FSA, David Matthew, said that the band’s legal team had responded to the letter and that a resolution process was “now in progress”.

He added: “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”.

“The dispute resolution process is now in progress”, he concluded, “and on advice of legal counsel, we have no further comment at present”.