“I spent an entire summer solidly trying to get inside Brian’s playing, hearing all the little details”: The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts on how a Brian May tribute gig radically changed her guitar playing

The Last Dinner Party's lead guitarist Emily Roberts has recently revealed how a spot as Brian May in a Queen Tribute band was key to developing her sound, and in turn, the guitar parts on the band's celebrated debut record Prelude to Ecstasy. 

“I was around 21 or 22 years old when someone messaged me on Facebook about being Brian May in that band,” she explains in the new issue of Total Guitar. “I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’ 

“I loved Queen and knew it would be fun to learn all the solos and parts. Then the pandemic happened. We only did one gig in the end, at a Queen convention near Hull. It went great. 

“That probably ended up influencing my rock playing more than anything else, because I spent an entire summer solidly trying to get inside Brian’s playing, hearing all the little details.”

The Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters (Later... with Jools Holland) - YouTube

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Naturally, the set list included some of Queen's greatest hits.  “My favorite song to play was Hammer To Fall. That was always fun! Don’t Stop Me Now has a really great solo. Then there’s We Will Rock You, The Show Must Go On… there are so many. A Kind Of Magic was great, especially for those fast, staccato licks. I loved it all, to be honest.”

May’s influence can be heard all over the band's debut, with single-note riff ideas replacing the chordal approach generally favored by rock bands. 

“The single-note thing has massively influenced the way I write parts in The Last Dinner Party,” she continues. “Listen to what I play on Portrait Of A Dead Girl or Sinner – it’s all single-note ideas, which comes from Brian.” 

Roberts also took another page from May’s book. “I found out he used a sixpence, and my Dad has a collection of old coins,” she divulges. “So I asked him for the right one with the serrated edge. I ended up using that for while, which was a bit of a challenge!”

The Last Dinner Party - “Portrait of a Dead Girl” - Live @ The Roundhouse, Camden, 1 February 2024 - YouTube

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The Last Dinner Party will embark on an extensive festival season, followed by a UK, European, and North American tour this Fall in support of Prelude to Ecstasy. 

For more Emily Roberts, plus new interviews with Joe Perry, IDLES and Mdou Moctar, pick up issue 385 of Total Guitar at Magazines Direct.