In Conversation

05 December 2008 04:20 BST

Operator Please - success is like a cyclone

Youthfulness often produces some of the most energetic and powerful music. With an average age of 18, Operator Please certainly fit into that category.

Keyboard player Sarah Gardiner tells InTheNews.co.uk's Richard Fox about doughnuts, comparisons with The Gossip and table tennis.

There's an old saying that is summarised by the phrase 'live the dream'. It's easy to say but not always as easy to carry out.

When it comes to living their dream, Operator Please are doing that right now. Formed to play in a Battle of the Bands competition at school in their native Australia, they played to a crowd of 15 and won a box of doughnuts.

Two years later, with more than a little help from MySpace, Operator Please are about to embark on their first full-scale UK tour after support slots with the Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs.

"It's a whole lot of fun", says Gardiner. "Most people say that they would love to travel the world in their lives. We are being given the opportunity to do it at 17 and 18 and it's great. We also get paid for it as well!

"Touring with the Kaisers and Arctic Monkeys was amazing. Just watching them from the side of the stage, it just melted my heart.

"On the last gig we did with the Kaisers, Ricky [Wilson, lead singer] wore our shirt on stage and it was a really big thing for us. We were playing to 12,000 people every night."

A stark contrast, therefore, to their days at Elanora State High School, on the Gold Coast of the sunshine state of Queensland, Australia. Lead singer Amandah Wilkinson founded the band for the competition and recruited Gardiner, drummer Tim Commandeaur, bassist Ashley McConnell and Stephanie Joske to play violin, who later left to be replaced by Taylor Henderson.

"We all met at school and studied music together, except for Ashley. Amandah wanted people who she knew for the competition so she suggested we start the band. The rest, I suppose, is history."

Indeed it is. After signing to Virgin/EMI Records after a showcase in New York, the band recorded two EPs, On The Prowl and Cement, Cement.

The former record has since spawned Operator Please's defining tune, Just a Song About Ping Pong. A number 12 placing in the Australian charts has been followed by widespread support in the UK, with Zane Lowe and the NME getting behind the record. Its raucous, off-beat nature and the use of the metaphor 'ping pong' for sex have led some to compare the band to the Gossip.

"Are we like the Gossip? I don't like to think about comparisons. We get compared to a lot of Australian bands back home and people make the assumption that if they don't like the Gossip, or whoever, they won't like us. We won't talk about our influences as we're not interested in being compared to anyone."

A hectic schedule lies ahead for the five-piece on their second trip to Britain. A show with the Kaiser Chiefs is followed up by an NME tour of universities with The Go! Team, along with at least ten further gigs. Gardiner, however, is keeping her feet firmly on the floor.

"It's a little bit like a cyclone I suppose. We are in the middle, in the eye of the storm. We just go along with it, while other people fuss around us. We don't really feel all the repercussions going on around us."

However, despite promises of innocence, the band has been supplied with their own table tennis tables on tour so they can play 'ping pong'.

Gardiner proudly announces, "We've never played ping pong before the single but I think now we are pretty much pro standard".

With the sporting excellence of their home nation behind them, Operator Please could well turn up at a future Olympic games. However, for now, with an imminent UK release for the single, the rags to riches tale is about to take on one more step.

Just a Song About Ping Pong is out on Brille Records now and the next single, Leave It Alone, is out on November 26th.

Richard Fox