Island EMI Label Group president Louis Bloom has told Music Week that The Last Dinner Party have the potential to become all-time greats on the British music scene.
The group's acclaimed first album Prelude To Ecstasy shot straight to the UK summit in February with first-week sales of 32,846, according to the Official Charts Company – the biggest opening for a debut LP by a band since Communion by Years & Years in 2015.
The record, which came on the heels of their BRITs Rising Star win and BBC Sound Of 2024 victory, is now certified gold with to-date sales of 100,490. Prelude To Ecstasy is the biggest UK debut album released last year, finishing at No.83 in the year-end Top 100.
The band also secured a Top 20 single with their debut release Nothing Matters (426,011 sales), which peaked at No.16.
“The Last Dinner Party can be up there with the greatest acts that Britain has produced," said Bloom. "They’ve got a long way to go and there’s a lot more to prove, but they have that potential. They’re an act that I think could work in any era, in any decade, because they’re just so unique.”
Based on Music Week’s charts analysis by Alan Jones, Prelude To Ecstasy notched the highest first week sales for a debut album by any British act since Sam Fender’s Hypersonic Missiles opened at No.1 in September 2019, on consumption of 40,913 units.
It was also the fastest-selling vinyl debut LP of the 21st century for a group, surpassing the 12,872 copies on vinyl that Wet Leg’s eponymous first album sold in its opening week in April 2022.
The old-school way of doing things felt modern and refreshing
Louis Bloom
Speaking in the latest issue of Music Week, Bloom suggested The Last Dinner Party campaign's back to basics approach paid off.
“The old-school way of doing things felt modern and refreshing," he said. "The normal way at the moment is judging a song, looking at the data around it, then saying, ‘Oh, we may need to change it as the data isn’t right,’ which can lead to confusion.
"But we didn’t want anything that wasn’t authentic to the band, so we never followed the data. Instead, we followed what they wanted to do and how they wanted to talk to their audience. That’s always been our mindset, but we properly went there with this and it’s a test case for other campaigns.
“So, the plan was locked in from the start and we went on to do what we were always going to do; the rooms just got bigger than we anticipated – they did 200 gigs over 18 months and sold 150,000 tickets globally. The band have worked so hard; they’ve toured Europe, been in Japan, Australia, I saw them in LA and Paris. It’s the same reaction everywhere – the fans are fanatical."
They cancelled some shows due to burnout towards the end of the year and, for us, it’s so important to protect our artists
Louis Bloom
Other live highlights for the rock quintet's included their performance on Glastonbury's Other Stage in June, but the band called off their remaining European tour dates in October, citing burnout ("Pushing ourselves past breaking point is not a fair or wise decision for anyone," read a statement at the time). Bloom was fully supportive of the decision.
“They cancelled some shows due to burnout towards the end of the year and, for us, it’s so important to protect our artists," he said. "Their happiness and welfare is the most important thing, and we want them to have a long, successful career. That’s also for executives, we all have to protect ourselves. This is high-octane stuff and the energy the Island team has put into this campaign has been extraordinary, I couldn’t be prouder.
“The Last Dinner Party are leading the charge, changing the sound of what’s coming out in our A&R meetings and having a huge influence in what’s coming through."
Furthermore, Bloom said there was "an appetite for bands now more than ever".
“There have always been bands, but now the audience is going, ‘This feels different, exciting, I want to get out and see a live show,’" he said. "We’ve got to celebrate this because there’s magic in the air. We’ve got bands like Fontaines DC and Idles doing great things and we’ve had amazing British and Irish artists [before], but I’ve not felt a movement like this in a long time."
Subscribers can read the full interview with Louis Bloom in the latest edition of Music Week.
