The 1975's Frontman Kissed His Bandmate, Gets Sued

The organizers of a music festival in Malaysia are suing the 1975 for $2.4 million, accusing the UK pop band of breaching its contract after lead singer Matty Healy went on the attack against the Southeast Asian nation's anti-LGBTQ+ rules. Variety reports that the incident took place during last summer's Good Vibes Festival, during which Healy kissed a bandmate onstage, cursed while talking to the audience, downed alcohol, and smoked cigarettes—all in violation of the fest's guidelines, which organizer Future Sound Asia says the band had agreed to in order to perform. Those agreed-to prohibitions included drinking, smoking, and using profanity onstage, as well as stripping one's clothes off and bringing up either politics or religion.

There was also a ban against "kissing, kissing a member of the audience, or carrying out such actions among themselves." FSA says in its suit that the 1975 had been warned repeatedly about the guidelines, and had also performed at the same festival in 2016, so therefore couldn't plead ignorant about the restrictions. Per the complaint, the band decided the night before its turn onstage not to perform, though members subsequently changed their minds and carried on with the show. During that performance, Healy engaged in a "long pretend passionate embrace" with bassist Ross MacDonald "with the intention of causing offense and breaching the regulations and the terms of the agreement," according to the suit.

The band also smuggled a bottle of wine onstage so Healy "could have easy access," per the complaint. "Their actions have had repercussions on local Malaysian artists and small businesses, who relied on the festival for creative opportunities and their livelihoods," the organizer said in a statement last year when it filed for damages, per Pitchfork. The BBC notes that a separate class-action suit has been filed against the band by multiple musicians and vendors who say their pocketbooks took a hit when the second and third days of the festival were nixed as a result of the band's antics. Healy also took some flak from Malaysia's LGBTQ+ community, some of whom were angry and worried that Healy's "performative activism" would ultimately make things harder for them. (More the 1975 stories.)