Suit Against The 1975 An Illegitimate Attempt To Blame Band Says Lawyer

---

 
The organiser of the Good Vibes Festival filed a suit against The 1975 and its members last July after lead vocalist Matty Healy kissed a male bandmate during their 2023 performance. (Facebook pic)
PETALING JAYA: The lawyer for British band The 1975, whose onstage actions led to the shutdown of a music festival in Malaysia some two years ago, has described the suit against it as an “illegitimate, artificial and incoherent” attempt to pin the blame on the band members.
Edmund Cullen also said that the individual members of The 1975 should not be held responsible for the move by the Malaysian authorities to cancel the event, BBC reported.
The organiser of the Good Vibes Festival filed the suit against The 1975 and its individual members in a UK court last July after lead vocalist Matty Healy kissed a male bandmate during their 2023 performance, causing the festival to be shut down.
Future Sound Asia (FSA) is seeking RM11.25 million. It also claims that The 1975 Productions LLP breached its contract, and that all four band members owed a duty of care.
But Cullen, in seeking for the suit against the band members to be struck out, said it was bizarre that the individual members should be held liable as FSA only had a contract with the band’s company.
He also disputed the allegations of a breach in duty of care.
“They are breaches of Malaysian statutes and guidelines. That is why this claim is completely artificial against my clients,” Cullen was quoted as saying.
In a written submission for FSA, its representative Andrew Burns said the band members, who were due to be paid US$350,000, had “deliberately behaved in a way to challenge and provoke the Malaysian authorities”.
Burns said The 1975 first played at the festival in its 2016 edition, where it agreed not to swear, smoke, drink, remove clothes, or talk about religion and politics onstage.
However, he said the band had planned “provocative conduct” in 2023, allegedly smuggling wine onstage and performing songs to “punish and upset the Malaysian audience and authorities” in addition to sharing the onstage kiss.
Burns said it could be argued that the band members had been on a “frolic of their own rather than simply acting within the course of their ordinary role as LLP members”.
“It is therefore fair, just, and reasonable for the duty of care to be imposed and for them to answer for their acts of procuring breaches of contract,” he said.
The festival, scheduled to run from July 21 to 23, was cut short after Healy criticised Malaysia’s position on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community before kissing his male bandmate on the first day of the event. - FMT

---