Hello

Formed in north London during 1971 by teenagers Bob Bradbury on vocals, Keith Marshall on guitar, Vic Faulkner on bass, and drummer Jeff Allen—who happens to be the brother of Ultravox bassist Chris Cross—the quartet initially performed covers around local youth-club venues under the name the Age. Argent songwriter Russ Ballard and David Blaylock, formerly the Zombies’ road manager and then a Chappell Music plugger, spotted the group in that incarnation and decided to channel Ballard’s non-Argent material through them. Their very first session produced “Can’t Let You Go,” a Ballard number that later supplied Barry Ryan with his opening hit of the seventies. Shortly afterward they cut the Ballard rocker “You Move Me,” which Bell Records (U.K.) issued as their debut single in early 1972. When that release and its follow-up, another Ballard composition titled “C’mon,” both failed to chart, Blaylock—now acting as manager—sought outside songs.

Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, then enjoying success with the Sweet and New World, supplied “Dyna-Mite,” which Hello recorded in a dramatic arrangement; producer Mike Leander nevertheless shelved the track in favor of the band’s own “Another School Day.” Chinn and Chapman promptly gave the song to Mud, who scored a major hit, while “Another School Day” itself sank without trace, removing Hello from the recording scene for roughly three years. The musicians kept touring, however, and by early 1975 had earned seventh place in the New Musical Express readers’ poll for Best New Band. Capitalizing on that unexpected momentum, they released a glam-rock version of the Exciters’ early-sixties hit “Tell Him,” which climbed to number six despite the song already appearing on the Glitter Band’s Hey album, itself an earlier Mike Leander production.

The group next raided the Glitter Band catalog for “Game’s Up,” a Top 30 success in Germany that nevertheless stalled at home. A similar lack of British interest greeted their reading of Amen Corner’s 1968 U.K. chart-topper “Bend Me Shape Me.” Reunion with Russ Ballard finally lifted the band from its slump: his “New York Groove” propelled Hello into the British and German Top Tens and ushered in a phase of heightened visibility. The quartet appeared in Australian comedian Barry Humphries’ film Side by Side alongside Mud, the Rubettes, and Stephanie De Sykes; the accompanying soundtrack includes reprises of “Game’s Up” and “Bend Me Shape Me” together with contributions from Fox, Disco Tex, Billy Ocean, and Gary Glitter. Their debut album, Keeps Us Off the Streets, arrived wrapped in a mock-denim sleeve, and the follow-up single, Ballard’s “Star Studded Sham,” delivered another German Top 20 placing after a sold-out tour supporting Smokie.

The single nonetheless failed to register in Britain, and by the close of 1976 Hello had effectively relocated to Germany. Their final U.K. release was “Love Stealer”; thereafter records appeared only in Germany and Japan, where the band played a series of sell-out dates in 1977. “Dean,” “Shine on Silver Light,” and energetic covers of “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and the Turtles’ “Eleanor” all charted over the ensuing three years before the group disbanded in 1979. Guitarist Keith Marshall later scored a worldwide solo success with “Only Crying,” while Bob Bradbury mounted a late-eighties return via the track “Crazy About Dyna.” During the same period, manager Blaylock’s Biff! label issued a career-spanning retrospective of Hello’s catalog, and an 18-track survey of their British singles and key demos appeared under the title The Early Years.