GVF to The 1975: RM12.3 million in seven days or face legal suit in UK

SHAH ALAM - British band The 1975 has been given seven days to pay RM12.3 million in damages or face a legal suit in the United Kingdom.

According to the MalayMail, the notice was served by Good Vibes Festival 2023 organiser, Future Sound Asia over the recent controversy at the event's 10th anniversary.

The organiser's legal counsel David Mathew from Steven Thiru & Sudhar Partnership told the portal that the firm had already sent the band a letter of claim yesterday.

“In the letter, FSA has demanded that The 1975 admit their liability and also pay the sum of £2,099,154.54 (RM12,347,967.91) within seven (7) days.

“The Letter of Claim is written in accordance with the provisions of the English Practice Direction Pre-Action Conduct and Protocol which are part of the English Civil Procedure Rules," as stated by the counsel.

The legal action comes after the three-day festival was cut short last month when the band's frontman Matt Healy used abusive language, hurled insults at the government, damaged equipment, behaved indecently and was drunk on stage.

The incident, which saw Healy calling the Malaysian government "retarded" for laws on LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans) community and "protested" with an on-stage kiss with bandmate Ross MacDonald, took place on June 21.

It seems Healy has not quite healed from the controversy as he continued to raise the matter on both his social media platforms and public events.

More recently, he attempted to tell the crowd about Malaysia yesterday during their set at Lollapalooza music festival but kept getting “cut off” by his bandmates. Tom DeLonge of Blink 182, who was also performing at the festival, later posted a picture of him getting a peck on the cheek by Healy in which garnered negative comments especially from Malaysia.