Whilst garish northern hens and loudmouth stags infiltrate the pubs and clubs of York in swarms, local lads and potential hometown heroes Hello Operator take to the stage at The Spread Eagle. What they're offering is also loud but very, very different. This pub-cum-music venue is today the home of the Oxjam music festival and whilst admittedly small, the crowd is in a festive and excitable mood. One punter leans over and tells me that this band are being sent to Reading and Leeds by BBC York and are reportedly being looked at by CBS after a very buzzy EP came out earlier this year. This would explain the knowing anticipation that was beginning to fill the room.
They played a classic desert rock, sleek-yet-heavy power set, shaking the veins of the crowd. The band utilised all of their biggest riffs (which are very big indeed), swaggering through around half an hour leaning on their EP
Blood Stained Bill. Whilst starting slightly quiet and almost nervous looking, frontman Max Dalton gradually began to find his voice as the set went on, beginning to really ooze cool by the end. Musically, Hello Operator are a standard Josh Homme-influenced desert rock quartet. If you think
Humbug is the best Arctic Monkeys album or you think Royal Blood are the best band around today, you may enjoy these guys.
This was by all means a very warmly received hometown gig, playing to friendly ears. Halfway through one number, Dalton paused a song to rouse the pub to sing happy birthday for his friend before returning to playing an earth-shattering riff. This gesture was a high point in a set otherwise filled with huge guitar lines and and excellent rhythm section. Despite appearing to be an unassuming lanky white guy with as much rhythm as a coffee table, Robin Elliot is an extremely promising bass player and is one of the group's greatest assets.
The set highlight had to be their rendition of
Wiser Than a Fool from the aforementioned EP. The "oosh...sha-la-la-la" had Kasabian-esque swagger and it's not had to imagine a tune this big occupying a much bigger stage in the near future. I definitely have hopes of one day being able to proudly brag that "I was there in 2014 at The Spread Eagle". With the likes of Royal Blood getting a lot of attention these days, Hello Operator may find things moving quite fast for them if their BBC Introducing stage set goes down well.
