“Such an icon”: How Courtney Love helped to shape The Last Dinner Party
Even before the band unveiled their debut single, The Last Dinner Party was a name on everyone’s lips. Like many London bands who spawn out of the Windmill scene, the five-piece quickly gained a cult following for their live presence, honing a grand art-rock sound and a look more suited to a regency ball than a dingy DIY venue.
Still with no studio-recorded music readily available online, they landed a slot on a bill with The Rolling Stones and industry plant rumours began to circulate. Whether there was any truth to them or not, it was undeniable that The Last Dinner Party were making spell-binding music. Their sound brought together huge riffs with theatrical lyricism and orchestral swells in a gorgeous new take on art-rock, but it couldn’t have existed without those who came before.
Despite the idiosyncrasy of their ornate sound, there are a myriad of influences to be found amid the riffs and ruffles of The Last Dinner Party’s artistry. The band have credited St. Vincent as an influence, who can easily be found in their guitar-playing mastery. Kate Bush certainly seems to be an inspiration too, as the undisputed queen of art pop.
But beyond those artists who worked within the same realm as them, The Last Dinner Party have been inspired by grunge icon, Courtney Love. As the frontwoman of Hole, Love earned her place as a pioneering figure in the alternative rock scene of the 1990s, penning grotesque lyrics filled to the brim with feeling.
Though it’s been three decades since the heyday of Hole, Love maintains an influence on the alt-rock girls of the modern day, including The Last Dinner Party, who share a similar interest in image and intensity. During a chat with Dead Good Music, bassist Georgia Davies acknowledged that Love was, at the time, the most culturally influential artist they had met.
“Her influence and her as a character in the grand scene is so iconic with Hole being an all-female band of the ’90s,” she explained, “Her fashion and visual stuff is a huge influence on us. Such an icon.” The band went on to remember meeting Love in their dressing room, a dream-like experience for Davies, who had been listening to Hole since she was a teenager.
Although Love has clearly influenced how the band approach their look, the band once rejected her lyrical advice. The grunge icon suggested an option for the clean version of their debut single ‘Nothing Matters’, which contains the line, “And I will fuck you, like nothing matters.” According to lead singer Abigail Morris, Love suggested that she change the line to “punch you”.
Despite admiring Love’s work, they didn’t take her advice and changed the word to “have you” while on stage. Perhaps this was to preserve the sexual implications of the lyric rather than turning it into something angry. Still, few artists can say that Courtney Love has offered them lyrical advice, and even fewer can say that they chose to refute that advice.
As The Last Dinner Party take the teachings of Love forward, in their sound and in their style, they seem set to inspire a whole new generation of non-male musicians to pick up guitars and express themselves on-stage and on record.
