PRELUDE TO ECSTASY (Island/Universal, 2024)
In 2022, a five-piece group called The Dinner Party were lauded by mainstream media as the new saviours of pop, a theatrical Queen-Kate Bush hybrid for Gens Z and Alpha. Signed to a major label, they’d supported The Rolling Stones but seemed to come from nowhere. In truth, they’d met as students in Brixton in 2019 and bonded at post-punk venue The Windmill, turning up in ballgowns as audience members before realising the stage should be their home. The pandemic halted social activities, but the band woodshedded for months on guitars, keyboards, flute and vocals – both lead and multipart harmonies – and invested in more outfits and bling. Later, their gigs would have suggested dress codes such as A Night At The Opera or Velvet Goldmine.
By mid-2023 – ‘Last’ now added to the name – Facebook groups such as Prog Readers and Prog London Gigs were twitching with interest over TLDP’s ambitious musical leanings, comments being positive, expectant of good things to come. And a good thing did come: the debut album PreludeTo Ecstasy, the title alone saying: ostentatious, indulgent, decadent. These descriptors were on a list made by frontwoman Abigail Morris and bassist Georgia Davis the night they conceived the band and ran around Brixton getting drunk, and adding a colour palette (“red, burgundy, emerald, white, cream”), visuals (“velvet, silk, lace”), and attributes (“gothic, seductive, deviant”). At a recent gig The Guardian called them “a costume department’s laundry basket upended on a 10-legged prog-pop band.”
Starting with an orchestral overture that takes from The Moody Blues’ Days Of Futur
