Matty Healy From ‘The 1975’ Learns Band Got Banned From KL Good Vibes Festival
UPDATE (22 July, 2.40pm): Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced the cancellation of the remaining programme for the Good Vibes Festival in KL in a series of tweets on Saturday (22 July). He arrived at the decision after a meeting with the organisers following the viral incident involving UK band ‘The 1975’.
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Fans of UK band ‘The 1975’ would probably be familiar with frontman Matty Healy and his rather erratic stage antics. Although he has managed to get away with them many times, he found out that he couldn’t pull off the same trick recently at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia.
After smooching bandmate Ross MacDonald onstage, Matty stopped the show and told the audience that the band had been — well — banned.
The 1975 has been banned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after Matty Healy and bandmate Ross MacDonald kissed on-stage during their set at Good Vibes Festival.
Before the kiss, Healy gave a speech on his disappointment in the country’s discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community. pic.twitter.com/XcHuPHiYr5
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 21, 2023
Matty Healy kisses ‘The 1975’ bandmate onstage in KL
The first day of the Good Vibes Festival in KL got off to a rather wild start on Friday (21 July).
Not long into a performance by UK band ‘The 1975’, bassist Ross MacDonald walked over to frontman Matty Healy and pulled him close as they locked themselves in a passionate kiss.
The embrace lasted roughly 20 seconds, with the duo seemingly in their own world.
Source: @PopCrave on Twitter
Matty then continued singing for a while before stopping and stepping aside to talk to festival staff.
He walked back to the mic shortly after only to tell the audience,
Alright, we gotta go, we just got banned from Kuala Lumpur. See you later.
Ranted about LGBTQ rights during show
Prior to the fiasco, Matty had delivered an impassioned speech about his dissatisfaction with inappropriate portrayals of him in the media.
@jellyboarder Matty Healy’s impassioned speech (not complete) about being told by the Malaysian government about who he can have sex with, before he brought up the gay community and was kissed by his male bandmember on stage. The set was shut down shortly after, 35 mins before schedule. #the1975 #mattyhealy1975 #gvf2023 #kualalumpur #sepanginternationalcircuit
Since such incidents upset him, he said that fans unfortunately “don’t get a set of uplifting songs” because he’s “f**king furious”.
He added that this was unfair to fans who are not “representative of their government”. He also assumed that many fans are “gay, progressive and cool”.
Matty further shared his experience of being in countries where he felt it’s “ridiculous” that they tell people what to do with their private parts.
He then declared that people from such places can “f**k off” if they decided to invite him to do a show. The singer subsequently took a swig from a glass bottle in his hand.
Actions onstage were disrespectful
In response to a report about the incident, Malaysia’s Communication & Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil tweeted that Matty’s actions were “very disrespectful”.
Source: @fahmi_fadzil on Twitter
He has since demanded an explanation from the organisers and will work with the authorities to get the full account of what happened.
In a media statement, Good Vibes Festival organisers expressed their regret over the incident. They explained that ‘The 1975’s’ set had to stop “due to non-compliance with local performance guidelines”.
Nevertheless, the event will go on, with other shows coming up today (22 July) and tomorrow (23 July).
The organisers apologised to ticket buyers and acknowledged their disappointment. As compensation, they’ll be allowing concertgoers with single-day festival wristbands for Friday to return for shows either on Saturday or Sunday.
According to New Straits Times, ‘The 1975’, which was the last act, was due to perform for an hour. However, their set ended just after five songs.
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Featured image adapted from Twitter.
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