Manchester Band ‘The Last Party’ are donating profits from sales of their single “A Thousand Smiles” to the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and local community causes.
The Last Party are a 4 piece rock and roll band from Manchester established by songwriting duo Liam Manton and Greg Williams. Since forming just over 4 years ago the band have self-released two singles and their unique blend of summery anthems, full throttle rock & roll and mind invading melodies have be recognised by XFM, NME, Soccer AM, Manchester Evening News and BBC North West Tonight. In 2012, Manchester City Council chose them as the first ever unsigned artist to perform at the annual Christmas Lights Switch on, in front of 20,000 people in Albert Square.
Last year the band was spotted by actor Idris Elba, after appearing at London rock & roll night and celeb haunt This Feeling. Idris Elba is best known for his performances in The Wire, Luther and his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Elba subsequently offered to direct the band’s next video expressing his love of the band’s energy and sound. He located to Manchester during one of his only weeks off of 2013 and brought in local production company Northern Lads Productions to help with the project. The video features appearances from This is England actors George Newton and Andrew Shimm, and over 200 people from Manchester.
The band’s frontman/songwriter Liam Manton said “We didn’t even have the song recorded when Idris met us at This Feeling, and to be honest, we couldn’t have done it without our mates Northern Lads Productions and a few others from Manchester. An accountant mate of ours got the council to let us use the Town Hall, Blackdog Bowl let us have the run of the place, and we ended up with Pretty Green (Liam Gallagher’s clothing company) rigging us out - a decent week. As our way of saying thanks to the city that’s helped us make this thing possible, we’re donating a chunk of the profits to Forever Manchester to help them support community projects across Greater Manchester and also to CALM, (Campaign Against Living Miserably), in memory of my mate Geno who we lost to depression just after Christmas a few years ago.”
In an interview earlier this year, Idris Elba said of The Last Party “I just love their energy. The lead singer, Liam, is so charismatic and weird, and I just wanted to shoot that.” To see the full interview on BBC North West Tonight click here.
