Canadian post-punk band Viet Cong have decided to change their name.

Earlier this year the group had a US college gig cancelled when the promoter became troubled by the band’s “awareness of their name inflicting offence, coupled with a seeming indifference to its effects.”

The band released a statement explaining their decision, saying they are “not here to cause pain or remind people of atrocities of the past”.

They explained: “Over this time we’ve been listening, talking and having lots of valuable conversations with the members of the Vietnamese community about the name. Through this dialogue and hearing about what the name means to so many people, we have decided we will be changing the name of our band.”

“Art and music are about creative expression. However, our band name is not our cause, and we are not going to fight for it. This is not what our band is about.”

They had been planning to change the name “for months”, they added.

“We don’t know what the new name of our band will be, and we owe it to our fans to honour the concerts we have booked. We rushed into our last band name decision, we don’t plan to rush into this one, but know that will be rolling out a new name as soon as we agree upon one.”