The Last Dinner Party have cancelled four more tour dates due to “unforeseen illness”.
The ‘Nothing Matters’ hitmakers had to axe shows in Lincoln and Cardiff last weekend “due to a sudden illness within the band”, and the group have now been left “devastated” after they had to cancel four more gigs in Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol, and Southampton, which were due to take place on October 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th respectively this week.
A post on the band’s official X page read: “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the difficult decision to cancel our upcoming headline tour dates in Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol, and Southampton.
This is due to an unforeseen illness in the band and, following medical advice, we have to prioritise our health at this time.
“We are devastated not to be sharing these nights with you, and to have missed the shows in Lincoln and Cardiff. You should all know you’ve made this the most wonderful year of our lives and we can’t thank you enough for your love and support. Truly.”
The Last Dinner Party revealed fans will be issued refunds “usually within 15 days”.
They added: “TLDP is here today because of you and we want to keep touring and sharing our music with you for a long long time – but in order to do that we have to make serious decisions like these now so that our long term health doesn’t suffer.
Refunds will be issued by your point of purchase to the original method of payment – usually within 15 days.
Thank you for understanding xxxxx (sic)”
The group’s Lincoln show was cancelled late on, when some fans had already entered The Engine Shed venue.
However, some male supporters took to social media to claim they had screened discriminately upon entry.
In response, The Last Dinner Party said in a statement: “We’ve been made aware of some security policies implemented at our show in Lincoln on Saturday, that have understandably left many of our fans feeling uncomfortable and disrespected.
“We want to make it very clear that those policies were created and enforced by the venue at their own discretion, and were not made in consultation with us. They do not reflect our beliefs and would not have been implemented had we been made aware of them in advance. We understand the venue is currently conducting an urgent investigation into the reports surrounding the conditions of entry. Our shows are intended to be safe, welcoming spaces for everyone, which is something we deeply care about. Seeing inclusivity embraced by our fanbase is one of the best parts of performing live. The venue has since apologised, and assured us that measures are being taken to prevent this from happening again at future shows.
“Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend our shows. We are appalled and disappointed that anyone was made to feel otherwise. We welcome The Engine Shed’s investigation and further staff training to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. The cancellation of our show in Lincoln was due to a sudden illness within the band that we had obviously not foreseen, we apologise to all of you that were in attendance.
“Thanks again for all your support. It means more than you’ll ever know.”
The Engine Shed said in a statement: “We pride ourselves on and are committed to operating a safe, secure, inclusive, and welcoming venue for all our guests. We are aware of reports on social media that the entry procedure utilised at The Last Dinner Party on September 28th fell far short of our venue entry policy, which requires all attendees to be treated equally and be subject to the same entry requirements.
“We have urgently carried out a preliminary investigation today, which indicates that after information was provided to our security team about incidents at a previous The Last Dinner Party gig, the venue management team made an ad-hoc change to our policy. Although the policy was changed with the right intentions, this change resulted in the unacceptable treatment of some guests, and The Engine Shed would like to fully apologise to anyone affected. We have instigated an independent investigation that will review all of the reports and will make recommendations on actions to be taken. These recommendations will be implemented by our Directors. As an urgent measure, we will also be implementing further staff training on our door entry policy to ensure that this cannot happen again.”