A Malaysian music festival is threatening legal action against The 1975 after frontman Matty Healy kissed another bandmate on stage.
Good Vibes Festival – which was held in Kuala Lumpur last month – was cancelled following The 1975’s headline set after the Manchester-based band’s frontman, Matty Healy, spoke out against Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws on stage, before proceeding to kiss his bassist Ross MacDonald live onstage in front of the crowd.
During the band‘s performance, Healy first told the crowd he had planned to pull-out of the festival, as he didn’t “see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with”, but then explained he didn’t want to disappoint fans.
The 34-year-old reportedly told the crowd: “Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m f****** furious and that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government.”
He added that the crowd was full of “young people” and he was sure “a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool”, before proceeding to kiss his bandmate.
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A short while later, Healy was seen walking off stage before coming back on and informing the audience: “Alright, we just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, see you later.”
The festival confirmed in a statement issued on social media following what it called the band’s “controversial conduct” and the remarks made by Healy that it had taken the decision to cancel the rest of the three-day event.
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The festival’s other two headliners did not play after the incident.
The festival said in its initial statement that the decision to axe the rest of the event was after the country’s Ministry of Communications and Digital had “underlined its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule, or contravene Malaysian law”.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia, and are punishable under federal law.
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Now, several weeks after the incident occurred, the organisers of the festival, Future Sound Asia (FSA), has claimed Healy’s “use of abusive language, equipment damage, and indecent stage behaviour” has impacted the company financially, and it would be taking legal action in England if the band does not respond to a claim letter that was issued today.
FSA said in a follow-up statement that its letter calls for The 1975 to “acknowledge their liability and compensate FSA for damages incurred”.
The company also claimed the band had “tarnished the reputation” of the festival.
Part of the company’s statement reads: “FSA would like to reiterate their strong disapproval of the band’s behaviour during their performance at GVF2023. In particular, lead singer Matthew Timothy Healy’s use of abusive language, equipment damage, and indecent stage behaviour not only flagrantly breached local guidelines and Malaysian laws but also tarnished the reputation of the 10-year-old festival.”
FSA also claimed the band’s actions had a negative impact on “local artists and businesses that depended on the festival’s success” and affected “the livelihoods of many Malaysians”.
The 1975 is yet to publicly acknowledge the threat of legal action, it is understood.
Featured Image – The 1975
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The AO Arena is giving away FREE tickets for a year to celebrate 30 years in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
The AO Arena has announced it’s giving away free tickets for a year to celebrate its 30th anniversary in Manchester.
The iconic music venue has welcomed the biggest names in the world in its three decades, with millions of us making memories for life inside its huge space.
And now you could win VIP tickets for an entire year, simply for sharing those memories with the AO Arena.
Fans who submit their old photos, videos and tickets will be in with a chance to win tickets to all the shows coming up in 2025 – which already includes massive gigs like Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry and Busted vs McFly.
AO Arena wants to dig deep into ‘first gig’ nostalgia territory, using fan-submitted snaps to build a collection of Manchester memories.
Were you in the same room as Taylor Swift, did you party like it was 1999 (because it was) with Spice Girls, did you cry over the sight of Gary Barlow or cry laughing with Peter Kay?
Whatever your AO Arena memories are, you can share them before the end of the month to be entered into the competition to win VIP tickets for the year.
One overall winner picked at random will get the ultimate VIP experience, including access to a premium suite and The Beautiful North, as well as access to The Mezz with panoramic views of the main stage.
The 30th birthday campaign has been inspired by Adele’s monumental When We Were Young performance at Glastonbury, and all these memories will be projected around the arena before every performance.
You can submit your footage and enter the competition via the AO Arena website HERE.
David and Victoria Beckham’s son Cruz is kicking off his own music career
Danny Jones
David Beckham’s son, Cruz, is the latest member of the Beckham family to try and make a name for themselves, as he is now making his first foray into the music business.
Cruz, 19, is the third child of David and Victoria Beckham and while daughter (youngest of the four) Harper is still just a kid, each of the famous couple’s boys has begun making a name for themselves.
First-born Brooklyn has already enjoyed multiple ventures at just 25, trying everything from modelling, photography, being a chef, as well as investing in everything from hot sauce to saké and more. As for Romeo, the former footballer looks to have hung up boots at just 22 to focus on his fashion career.
Now, though, it’s the turn of Cruz who is looking to follow not in the footsteps of his dad but rather ‘Posh Spice’, as he has now started releasing the first glimpses of his new music.
As you can see, Becks junior has been spending plenty of time in the studio and trying to create his own unique sound.
While the fledgling musician will no doubt have greater access to the industry thanks to his mum’s massively successful career in pop, and no doubt a few contacts through his dad here and there, there’s clearly plenty of natural talent there the youngster it clearly putting the work in.
It’s also worth noting that the 19-year-old dabbles in various different instruments: as well as the guitar, he has taught himself to play drums, piano, mandolin and isn’t shy from offering vocals either.
Cruz looks to be working with multi-platinum songwriting and production duo, The Wavys – made up of musicians Jack Brady and Jordan Roman – and although he hasn’t properly released anything of his own just yet, we have now had a snippet of his original track, ‘Ya Love’, which is rumoured to drop very soon.
Rewind to 2016 when he was just 11, the little lad even did his own festive single for charity entitled, ‘Every Day Was Christmas’, which was his first-ever bit of original music.
It’s safe to say that while he’s still a pretty fresh-faced teenager, his general creative direction has come quite some way since then.
From what we’ve heard, it’s all sounding pretty too; you only have to head to the comments to see followers complimenting the funk guitar and overall sound, as well as even drawing comparisons to the likes of Oasis and more. One person conceded: “Nepo baby aside this is actually very good.”
Son of a Man United legend and British popstar or not, there’s enough style to his stuff so far that we’ll be keeping on his music – who knows, maybe the next famous Beckham will be an artist called Cruz?