The Last Dinner Party address viral controversy over ‘cost of living crisis’ comment

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Indie band The Last Dinner Party have responded to the controversy over their comments about the cost of living crisis, which they say were “removed of context, tone, and intention”. In an article published yesterday in The Times about the dearth of bands at this year’s Brit Awards, the paper’s chief rock critic Will Hodgkinson cited The Last Dinner Party as a rare success story and quoted their lead singer Abigail Morris as saying: “People don’t want to listen to postpunk and hear about the cost of living crisis any more.” Hodgkinson then observed: “Having attended the liberal boarding school Bedales, where fees can be £43,000 a year, the cost of living crisis probably isn’t a huge issue for Morris.” A screenshot of that section of the article swiftly went viral on social media. They don’t deserve it and I’m extremely sorry.” open image in gallery The Last Dinner Party celebrating their debut album topping the UK chart In a statement published on the band’s X/Twitter account, Davies wrote: “I can say with confidence that Abigail never said the quote that has been attributed to her in the article that’s going around. “Love Georgia and the rest of TLDP” In a five-star review of Prelude to Ecstacy, The Independent’s chief albums critic Helen Brown wrote: “Most musicians who came of age during the pandemic are hushed and introspective, but The Last Dinner Party came out calling for ‘an end of the world orgy’ – and Prelude to Ecstasy gleefully delivers.”