The Last Dinner Party is sizzling on a hot Friday afternoon at the Latitude Festival in July 2023. They have congregated around a picnic table as they wait for their stage transport. Singer Abigail Morris laughs about having to get on a boat to reach the tiny Sunrise Arena, on the other side of a man-made lake, from the festival’s dressing rooms. Nevertheless, the band’s momentum is gaining as they draw a fan base that overflows out of the tent and into the forest. Morris exclaims, “Christ, there are a lot of you” as she takes to the stage. The audience knows all of the words to their bombastic art-rock anthems, even the yet-to-be-released ones. The band only released their first single in April, but they have the crowd transfixed.
Morris and the other four band members met in college seeking cheap beer and live music. Morris, Georgia Davies, and Lizzie Mayland studied at King’s College, while Aurora Nishevci and Emily Roberts were at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The group decided to form their own band, but COVID-19 hit, forcing them to take a hiatus. However, Morris did not let that derail their mission. Instead, lockdown granted The Last Dinner Party a chance to refine their music. They spent over a year performing on the live circuit before committing any music to tape, preferring organic growth.
However, some disapproved of their newfound success once their first single was released, accusing the band of being “industry plants” and “nepo babies,” despite their time and effort put into earning their recognition. Their critics pointed out their signing with Island Records and management from Q Prime, who also represent Metallica and Muse, as evidence of unfair advantage. Nonetheless, the proof of The Last Dinner Party’s success lies in their music, which Justin Hawkins of The Darkness praised. As they embark on a new stage in their career, their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy, set to release in February, is eagerly awaited.
The band is enjoying immensely sold-out concerts before the pandemic shut down everything, and on the comeback, they
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More