Meet The Last Dinner Party, the UK Band Serving Up a Full Course of Delectable Indie Rock


Just who is The Last Dinner Party? Originally, the formidable group was a name to watch in the indie scene as an elusive band that only exists live on stage, and the only way to find out more has been straightforward—go to one of their shows, and they'll show you exactly who they are. However, with new singles formally introducing us to The Last Dinner Party, let's dive further into the lore of this band.

The Brixton quintet's formation is as simple as any. Bassist Georgia Davies, who first met guitarist and backing vocalist Lizzie Mayland at their uni halls on a quest for beer, bumped into and befriended vocalist Abigail Morris at a New Cross bar called Marquis of Granby. Later, lead guitarist Emily Roberts and keyboardist Aurora Nischevi, who both come from more classical backgrounds and studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, completed the band's line-up. According to Davies in an interview with Under The Radar, the group "really began bonding after going to gigs in South London and seeing bands at the likes of the Brixton Windmill. It's such a vibrant scene, and we felt totally inspired by the music that was being made. We definitely wanted to be part of that in some way."

Within a few months, they began writing, practicing, and playing live under the name The Dinner Party. Their live performances started attracting buzz pretty immediately. As rumors spread about an exciting emerging new band, Lou Smith, aka the South London scene's unofficial videographer, caught wind of the hype. Smith's YouTube channel is a treasure trove of emerging bands from the area, and he was on hand to capture The Dinner Party's third-ever gig. It was this pivotal moment that changed the trajectory of the band's career forever. Davies shared with Under The Radar that it didn't take long to go viral after the video was posted online. "We were a new band without any representation. After that video went online, our email inbox started blowing up!," she said, "We were getting correspondence from labels, managers, PRs—all of them referencing this one video they'd seen on YouTube."

After a year of solidifying their identity, winning over audiences with the excitement of their genre-bending sets alone, which fuse elements of glam-rock, new wave, and heavy synth breakdowns, playing across the UK, recently selling out London's Camden Assembly, and pushing back against unfounded industry plant rumors, the band remains confident and courageous, a sentiment that can be heard loud and clear in their debut single "Nothing Matters."


"Nothing Matters" is a seductively primal and unashamedly vulnerable love song produced by Last Shadow Puppets' James Ford, who has previously collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine. Equal parts dramatic and riveting, there's pure heartbreak poetry embedded in the lyrics of "Nothing Matters." Crushing lines like, "And you can hold me, like he held her / And I will fuck you, like nothing matters," are delivered with seductive smarts, decisive distance, and a hypnotic tone. 

In the captivating accompanying music video, directed by Saorla Houston and the band themselves, they invite us into their world of high gothic drama, complete with masterfully placed references to Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and Mulholland Drive. The cinematic video opens with a shot of a Victorian-era-inspired funeral before the drama unfolds. Scenes of the band hosting a lavish dinner party are intercut with a montage of the girls spending their days in an empty glass house and running for their freedom in endlessly lush grass fields, creating a visual that's a theatrical peek into the chasms of the feminine mind.

The palpable excitement of the debut single was soon matched by the release of the band's sophomore effort, "Sinner," an equally enthralling sonic effort that further speaks to the promise of The Last Dinner Party as a world-class act. With guitarist Mayland describing "Sinner" as "a story of self-acceptance, and the longing for the past and present self to become one,” there is a swirling sense of catharsis to be found in the staccato delivery and mounting pressure of the band's anticipated follow-up.  

With only two singles out, The Last Dinner Party has already captivated the ears of thousands of adoring fans. When introducing their first single on Instagram, the band wrote, "Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey so far, and to anyone who is new, welcome, take a seat at the dinner party. The feast is finally served." Now with bated breath, listeners are making their way to the table to wait and see what this band has in store for the courses to come. 


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