We only wanted a few good reviews
Flying high with their No.1 debut album, it’s clear The Last Dinner Party are only getting started
The Last Dinner Party are one of the most acclaimed new bands in these islands right now with a No.1 album and prestigious awards to their name. However if you ask Emily Roberts what the highlight has been for her so far as a member of the London quintet, the guitarist claims it is the stage dive she effected during their sold out show at Dublin’s Workman’s Club just before Christmas.
‘Actually, that is up there for me too,’ bass player Georgia Davies says. ‘I was standing onstage laughing my head off with Lizzie (Mayland, rhythm guitarist) and Abbie (Abigail Morris, lead singer) thinking, “I cannot believe this is happening”. My boyfriend was down the front and Emily just fell back on to his hands. The
‘We weren’t visualising a chart battle with the likes of Ariana Grande’
next thing you know she’s being carried aloft down the hall.’
‘I’d never done that before and I kept playing too!’ Emily laughs.
I was there that night and it was one of those shows that many may claim to have attended in the future just like their show-stealing set at the 2023 Electric Picnic. Tickets for their two gigs at the 3Olympia Theatre this October are scarce. In December, following in the footsteps of Adele, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith they were named both the BRIT Rising Star and BBC Sound of 2024.
‘It was pretty overwhelming to receive those awards within a few weeks of each other,’ Georgia continues. ‘We felt a bit like, “Oh sh**, another thing”. I don’t think any of us realised what a big deal The BBC Sound of 2024 award was particularly until we were getting talked about on the news.’
When their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy went straight in at No.1 in the UK (No.2 in Ireland) last month it became the fastest selling debut album by a band in the UK since Communion by Years & Years in 2015.
The Last Dinner Party’s sound is a heady blend of hook-laden indie pop and pomp rock with frequent recourse to orchestral arrangements. Songs such as Nothing Matters, Sinner and My Lady Of Mercy bring to mind David Bowie, Kate Bush and Sparks.
‘We always look at each other in disbelief that anything like this is happening at all,’ Emily says.
‘We just hoped the album would get some good reviews and for it to reach people who would like it,’ Georgia continues. ‘We [weren’t] visualising a chart battle with the likes of Ariana Grande.’
The quintet, who are augmented onstage by session drummer Rebekah Rayner, have silenced doubters who touted them as music industry ‘plants’ dreamed up by unnamed moguls. That notion conveniently ignored the fact that a debut single by such a hypothetical manufactured band is unlikely to contain a chorus which ends with the line ‘I will f*** you like nothing matters’. They actually met at school, college and through friends of friends and played their first gigs in 2021. They developed a following quickly after performing in tiny venues around London. A couple of those gigs were captured on video and went viral, and soon they signed to Island Records. What was quickly evident was the level of musicianship of each of the members. Both Emily and keyboard player Aurora Nishevci have degrees in music and Emily, who also plays flute and mandolin, previously performed in West End musicals.
‘I only did a jazz guitar degree so that wasn’t really very useful,’ Emily laughs about the qualification she received from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where Aurora also studied. Georgia, who was born in Australia, moved to the UK with her family and met singer Abigail Morris while they were both studying English literature.
‘I played piano when I was a kid and always wanted to learn the bass guitar because I saw the bassist in Muse and thought that he was very cool. I had been in garage bands as a teenager. It was just a hobby I was very passionate about and somehow found myself in this situation.’
This ‘situation’, as Georgia calls it, is being a member of one of the most talked about bands in these islands in years – and the party has only really started.
Prelude to Ecstasy is out now. The Last Dinner Party play the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin on October 7 and 8.