THE LAST DINNER PARTY

The most exciting new band of 2023 discuss vision, evolution and their stunning debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy

-  Will Richards

The Last Dinner Party knew what they wanted to be from the very start. When I meet the band before the second of their two gigs at Hackney’s EartH venue, under their orders, a line of fans in distinctive fancy dress has already emerged out front. The five-piece, who have been a band for four years but playing gigs for only two of those, have a command over — and dialogue with — their audience of the kind that most artists never achieve in their entire careers. From a word-of-mouth success to becoming 2023’s most exciting new band — and winners of The Rising Star Award, supported by Moving Venue — they enter 2024 as a group with the world at their feet.

Before even having their first rehearsal together as a band, the five members — vocalist Abigail Morris, guitarists Lizzie Mayland and Emily Roberts, bassist Georgia Davies and keys player Aurora Nischevi — had already pinned down a defined aesthetic for the project, which they viewed as just as important as the music. For their first gig at The George Tavern in London in November 2021, they gave themselves a dress code (Princess Diana in an American Apparel advert) and emerged as a fully formed audiovisual experience.

“I wanted to start out strong by establishing what we’re about,” Morris tells me in the EartH dressing room ahead of the second show. “We’re going to dress up, we’re going to have themed shows — it’s going to be more than just people standing and playing, and we’re gonna act like we’re doing something on a much larger scale.”