The Operation

Bath may have cemented its name in the artefacts of British history by becoming the first official spa town sometime in the seventeenth century, but since then it's hardly set the world alight.

As far as music is concerned, Bristol has been flying the flag upon the estuaries of the Avon for many a year, whether that be the passionate DIY template of Sarah Records or the looped beats of Portishead and Massive Attack.

Something tells me all that may be about to change...

The Operation are three teenagers who look they should be keeping in touch with UCAS on a daily basis in locating their next tri-annual city of habitat. With an average age that makes Busted seem like Falklands veterans in comparison and little more than 20 gigs under their belt, tonight was going to be the behemoth of tests.

Playing to a room of 800+ middle aged goths waiting for The Mission to deliver their annual resurgence into their youthful days of yore, only the most optimistic of fools - and the band themselves maybe - could possibly have expected them to emerge unscathed.

If that wasn't daunting enough, tonight was only the second live show new bassist Nick Wilson had played in his entire life. The stakes were high. The onus was on them. And boy did they deliver...

If ever a band defied genre classification then it has to be The Operation, as no two middle eights generally sound the same. In the same song. Pretty much in a parallel fashion. Take 'Spin The World' for example, a song that was written in drummer Greg Freeman's kitchen only last week. If the opening segment sounds like a revitalised Soulwax then the chorus offers a reminder of when Feeder were writing untouchable anthems such as 'Insomnia', with singer Alex Veale insisting "just give me the rest, I'll give you the rest, oh what more could I take?" Likewise the brooding 'Patterns, Guidelines', which sounds like the Smashing Pumpkins crawling out of a bloody wreckage involving the guys from McFly and the McCormack brothers.

'The Moment' and 'Out On The Town' are punk-pop classics just waiting to be heard in a similar vein to The Wildhearts' 'Caffeine Bomb' and the Hives' 'Hate To Say I Told You So', while the opening guitar segment of 'Its On' mimics Lenny Kravitz's 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' before turning into the bombastic love child of 'Hells Bells' and 'River Deep Mountain High'. In seconds.

To cap it all off, they finish their set with a rousing version of The Mission's 'Hands Across The Ocean', which sends the bedazzled crux of black clad devotees to the temple of Hussey enthralled so much that their simple Simon says/ooh its a tree! "dance" takes on a whole new meaning.

In a week that has seen The Departure score a chart hit against all the odds with their debut single after barely reaching double figures in gigs played, The Operation clearly have what it takes to make an impact in the most unlikely of surroundings.

Having triumphed in this most incongruous of lions dens, Top Of The Pops should be a piece of cake.