The heavyweight team behind The Last Dinner Party have opened up on their goal to establish the group as “one of the most important bands of their generation”.
TLDP, who cover the November edition of Music Week, released their second album From The Pyre via Island on Friday (October 17).
The BRIT Award-winning group’s gold-selling first album Prelude To Ecstasy (123,066 sales) shot straight to the UK summit in February 2024. They are now targeting a second No.1 album.
Island EMI Label Group president Louis Bloom said that if The Last Dinner Party’s first record was about “introduction and impact”, the follow-up is about “expansion and depth”.
“We want to make their world even more immersive, with bigger live moments, more daring visuals and a campaign that invites people into their universe,” he said. “For existing fans, it’s about rewarding that loyalty with evolution, not repetition. For new fans, it’s about showing that this band aren’t just a moment, but have an incredible career ahead of them.”
Bloom contended that From The Pyre “is more mature, and, in places, darker; there’s a depth and an intensity that shows just how much they’ve grown”.
“The ambition is to take that and translate it into an even bigger cultural moment,” he added. “That means continued live growth in the UK and Europe, breaking through further in America and solidifying their place as one of the most important bands of their generation.”
When I first saw them play it was clear to me that Abigail Morris is a major superstar
Peter Mensch
Having signed TLDP before they had released any music, Bloom said the label was “amazed with how fully formed they were from the get-go”.
“I knew they had something special, but watching them go from those early gigs to becoming one of the most talked about new bands globally has been extraordinary,” he said.
Peter Mensch, co-founder of Q Prime Management, was equally convinced the band were the real deal from the start.
“When I first saw them play it was clear to me that Abigail Morris is a major superstar,” said Mensch. “In a nutshell, I looked at them and said, ‘Holy shit!’”
Nevertheless, the band have still put in the hard yards on the touring circuit.
“They played every pub toilet in England, Wales and Scotland when they started off,” said Mensch. “That’s how you develop, you become a better live band, your material gets honed… For a rock band, you are trying to make the best 10-song album, the best 40 minutes of music and your hope is that you just keep pounding away.”
The new music continues to blaze a trail, they don’t follow fashion and are completely authentic to themselves
Emma Banks
The Last Dinner Party are guided on the live scene by CAA’s Emma Banks, co-head of CAA’s London office/co-head of global touring, and will begin a 35-date headline tour of Europe and Australia in November, including two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. They played a launch party for fans at Hoxton Hall last week.
“From the first time I saw the band play and then the first time I met them, it was clear that this was a group that had a true vision and a strong sense of self,” said Banks. “Each member contributes to the whole in a way that you rarely see; it’s a group of women with strong opinions, high ethical standards and a will to win. They have worked hard to produce a sound and image that is very strongly their own and their fans have bought into the entire package, which bodes so well for the future.
“The new music continues to blaze a trail, they don’t follow fashion and are completely authentic to themselves, which is why I am sure that they are going to be around for a long time,”
What they proved is that if you combine musicianship with ambition, theatricality and real songs, audiences will connect
Louis Bloom
Furthermore, Bloom noted that the success of the “fan data and CRM [customer relationship management] strategy” Island and Q Prime built the first time around allowed them to go into album two with confidence.
“Galvanising superfans is absolutely central to breaking and having impact with an artist,” he adds. “In the past few years, The Last Dinner Party have proved they are best in class at this, so all credit to the band themselves, their stunning music, and the world-class creative from the best team implementing a truly great strategy.“
Bloom also hailed the group’s influence on the wider music scene.
“They have been at the vanguard of a resurgence of guitar-driven artistry,” he concluded. “What they proved is that if you combine musicianship with ambition, theatricality and real songs, audiences will connect. They’ve opened the door for other bands, and you can feel that ripple effect. The guitar music landscape is healthier now than when they first emerged, but they still stand apart because of their vision and uniqueness.”
Subscribers can read the full The Last Dinner Party cover story in the latest issue of Music Week.
PHOTO: Laura Marie Cieplik
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicweek.com ’
