Easy Life band renamed following legal battle with EasyGroup

The British indie five-piece formerly known as Easy Life has rebranded themselves as Hard Life after being threatened with a lawsuit from EasyGroup, who own the budget airline EastJet, last year.

According to the Leicester band, the conglomerate company said that it would have been “unfair” for the group to use a name so similar to their own without royalty payments.

The legal battle with EasyGroup began last year, when the company claimed that the band’s 2021-2022 Life’s a Beach Tour posters infringed upon their branding, depicting an orange EasyJet plane that substituted the airline’s name for their own. The complaint went on to say that the band sold T-Shirts featuring their name written in EasyGroup’s trademark font and colour.

"We cannot allow [people] to simply use it free, gratis and for nothing," an EasyGroup spokesperson said at the time. "That would be unfair."

Earlier this week, the band announced their new name, Hard Life, along with the release of a brand new single, entitled ‘Tears’. The song, which is about “growing up and lawyering up” according to the band, serves as a fresh start for the newly denoted Hard Life crew.

"Hopefully, we can put this chapter behind us and move on - and focus on the music again,” Matrevers told BBC.