The 1975 sued for RM11.25 million in the UK

Organisers of Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival – Future Sound Asia – has filed a suit against British band The 1975 and its members individually seeking RM11.25 million, equivalent to 1.9 million pound sterling.

The suit was filed at the United Kingdom’s High Court.

The 1975 frontman Matt Healy had criticised Malaysia’s LGBT laws and kissed his male bandmate Ross MacDonald onstage on July 21.

This led to the festival being immediately cancelled even though it was supposed to continue for another two days.

Future Sound said in the documents filed to the court that the band and management team were aware of the prohibitions that the band must abide by so that they can perform.

These prohibitions included swearing, smoking and drinking on stage, taking off clothes and talking about politics or religion.

Further guidelines issued by the Malaysia Central Agency for the Application for Foreign Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (Puspal) included a ban on “kissing, kissing a member of the audience or carrying out such actions among themselves.”

The 1975 were paid RM1.6 million to perform and agreed to abide by the rules.

It added that the band then decided to play “a completely different setlist” in protest and and “act in way that were intended to breach the guidelines”.

These acts included Healy making a “provocative speech” and taking part in a “long pretend passionate embrace” between Healy and bassist MacDonald “with the intention of causing offence and breaching the regulations and the terms of the agreement”.

“The band also planned to smuggle a bottle of wine onto the stage next to the main drum kit so Healy could have easy access,” it said citing from the filed documents.

In the lawsuit, Healy is also accused of drinking alcohol, acting “in a drunken way,” smoking cigarettes “appearing to vomit on the stage and or grunt and spit excessively including towards the audience,” delivering a “profanity-laden speech” and deliberatively damaging a video drone hired by the festival organisers.

“Following the kiss PUSPAL officers ordered the band to stop their performance at which point Healy was “very aggressive” towards them, the lawsuit alleges, “swearing at them and others” to the point that he had to be restrained by his managers,” the Variety reported.