Jayler – British Airways ARC, Olympia, London – 12th July 2026

Jayler – British Airways ARC, Olympia, London – 12th July 2026

Review by Robert Corich

There are worse ways for a young British rock band to spend a Sunday evening than standing on the stage of London’s British Airways ARC, looking out at an audience waiting for Sammy Hagar to arrive.

Jayler were the opening act for what was ultimately going to be a night out on the tiles – and, given what followed, the Led Zeppelin reference seemed entirely appropriate.

The six-song set may have been short on duration but certainly wasn’t short on ambition.

And if Greta Van Fleet weren’t already looking over their shoulders, perhaps they ought to be.

Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way first.

Yes, Jayler sound like they have spent a considerable amount of time listening to Led Zeppelin.

But then again, so did an awful lot of us.

The difference is that these four young musicians have taken that influence and attempted to build something of their own around it. There are echoes of Zeppelin everywhere – the blues-based guitar, the swagger, the vocal phrasing, the dynamics and that unmistakable late-’60s/early-‘70s British hard-rock atmosphere – but Jayler aren’t standing on stage playing Zeppelin covers.

They’re writing their own songs.

And that matters.

The set opened with ‘Down Below’, followed by ‘No Woman’, ‘Riverboat Queen’, ‘Lovemaker’, ‘Over the Mountain’ and ‘The Rinsk’. Six original songs, delivered with the confidence of a band that already knows exactly what it wants to sound like.

For a band this young, there is an impressive degree of confidence in the writing.

‘Down Below’ gets proceedings moving with a big, blues-heavy riff, while ‘Riverboat Queen’ demonstrates that Jayler understand something which is sometimes forgotten by young guitar bands: a riff is only useful if it serves a song.

And there is plenty of riffing here.

Tyler Arrowsmith’s guitar work is the obvious focal point, but he isn’t simply attempting to recreate Jimmy Page. There is a rawness to the playing that suggests somebody still discovering just how far he can push the instrument – and that can be considerably more exciting than the technically perfect guitar playing that sometimes comes with experience.

James Bartholomew is another story altogether.

The voice is huge.

There are obvious Plant comparisons, and it would be pointless pretending otherwise, but there is also something rather refreshing about hearing a young singer prepared to sing with that much abandon. Bartholomew doesn’t appear frightened by the size of his own voice, and that is a pretty useful quality to possess when you’re fronting a hard-rock band.

The rhythm section of Ricky Hodgkiss and Ed Evans provides the necessary weight underneath it all, with Evans in particular attacking the drums with the sort of enthusiasm that suggests he has absolutely no intention of allowing the band to sound polite.

‘Lovemaker’ continued the blues-rock swagger before ‘Over the Mountain’ provided one of the strongest demonstrations of Jayler’s potential.

There is more going on here than simply vintage hard rock.

The song has atmosphere, movement and a sense that the band is beginning to understand how to stretch a composition beyond the basic verse-chorus-verse formula.

Then came ‘The Rinsk’.

It’s an ambitious way to finish a short support set and, at around thirty-five minutes, it gave Jayler the opportunity to leave the audience with something larger than the preceding songs.

And that may ultimately be Jayler’s greatest asset.

Ambition.

These aren’t four musicians who appear content simply to reproduce the records they grew up listening to.

They clearly love the greats – Led Zeppelin in particular – but the interesting question is what they do with those influences as they mature.

Because let’s be honest: there is nothing particularly new about a young band sounding like Zeppelin.

What is much more difficult is taking that influence and eventually making people say:

They sound like Jayler.

That’s the mountain they have to climb.

And judging by this performance, they have already started.

The comparisons with Greta Van Fleet are inevitable. That band demonstrated that there is an enormous audience waiting for young musicians prepared to embrace guitar, bass, drums, big vocals and songs rather than chasing whatever happens to be fashionable.

Jayler are clearly travelling down a similar road.

But there is a crucial difference between being influenced by the past and being trapped by it.

Jayler have time.

A lot of it.

They are young enough to absorb every influence they encounter, experiment, make mistakes, throw things away and eventually arrive somewhere that is entirely their own.

And that is why watching them open for Sammy Hagar felt rather appropriate.

Hagar himself came from a generation that took the lessons of British hard rock and blues, Americanised them and created something new with Montrose. Ronnie Montrose was a pioneer in that respect.

Perhaps Jayler are now standing at a similar crossroads.

The ingredients are already there.

The musicianship is there.

The confidence is there.

The songs are there.

What remains is the most difficult part – time.

Thirty-five minutes isn’t long enough to tell the whole story of a band.

But it is certainly long enough to make you want to hear the next chapter.

Jayler left the stage at the ARC having played six songs and, judging by the reaction, acquired rather more than a few new listeners in the process.

Then Sammy Hagar came along and turned the place upside down.

But for those of us who arrived early enough, the first discovery of the evening had already been made.

Remember the name.

And hopefully, as Jayler continue to develop, the songs won’t remain the same.

A final, tongue-in-cheek nod to Led Zeppelin, perhaps – but also rather the point. Jayler clearly know where they have come from. The exciting question is where they will take it next.

And Greta Van Fleet?

I’d keep that rear-view mirror polished.