A hell of a band
How Push came together.
Push started to form in the autumn of '96 when Marc and Gavin decided to recruit two full-time members to the band. They tried various people, but none had the right personality and individual writing experience needed to complement their set-up.
Things began to take shape as they head-hunted John from the various bands he was sessioning with at the time. Paul had just finished university and was gladly welcomed in as bass player. All agreed to try things out for a year and see what happened — it turned out to be a hell of a band.
Push played with numerous bands — Shed Seven (who were their support band at the Scottish gigs!), Puressence, Gene (just before their album Drawn to the Deep End, where their tour manager told them they'd just been blown off stage by a local Scottish band, haha!), Belle and Sebastian, Baby Chaos, Bullyrag and the highly acclaimed Ballroom and The Karelia (soon to be Franz Ferdinand!) — among many others — as well as their own headline gigs at King Tut's, The Cathouse and venues up and down the UK.
Rapidly gaining momentum and ever-expanding audiences, Push earned festival slots, a UK tour that ended at the Edinburgh Fringe Club, and a prime-time TV slot on Sky's show hosted by none other than 'Ali G' himself, Sacha Baron Cohen!
They were then locked into a support tour slot with Radiohead, starting at the Plaza venue in Glasgow — but it was sadly cancelled after Radiohead had all their tour gear stolen on the way back from the States. Timing wasn't kind: after Radiohead's huge US hit with 'Creep', Push were dropped from the re-scheduled slots.
They were then signed to Beatroot Records — after a disastrous near-signing with Virgin's V2 Records, where a previous member decided they weren't leaving their job or Glasgow and the contract was immediately withdrawn (that adventure came about via the wonderful Ronnie Gurr, A&R guru for V2). They kept touring and releasing singles and EPs until the end of 1998, when they took time to pursue other things… ;-)
