Graham Reid | | 2 min read
It was the very late Eighties and the young man was carrying a skateboard and hitchhiking on Onewa Rd in Northcote, heading into central Auckland.
When he got in the car and we started talking I asked him what he was going to be, or some dumb question like that.
He said without hesitation, “a rock star” . . . and he already looked the part.
He was into Guns N'Roses and all that LA hard rock scene and he dressed the part. The fact he didn't sing or even have an instrument wasn't going to stop him.
And it didn't.
That young man became known to us as Silver, guitarist in the rock band Push Push who stormed the charts with their classic single Trippin', it's expansive follow-up Song 27 and their '92 album A Trillion Shade Shades of Happy . . . on which he thanked all those groups they played alongside at all those “Five Bands for Five Bucks” nights at the Powerstation, Baba Ram Das and closed with “Om Mani Padme Hum”.
Push Push – who won the best group award in '92 – didn't quite have the career trajectory after that album we might have wanted or expected, but they have re-formed, recorded a new EP for release soon and are – appropriately – opening for Britain's Darkness for three dates in April, a band which shares a similar sense of humor and joyously uninhibited rock.
So it is timely to flick a Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire to Silver . . . who clearly hasn't changed much on the inside from those days long ago (as pictured!) when we first met . . .
The first piece of music which really affected you was . . .
Screaming Meemees ‘See Me Go’, I knew I wanted a number one single after that.
Your first (possibly embarrassing) role models in music were . . .
Duran Duran
Lennon or Jagger, Ramones or Nirvana, Madonna or Gaga, Jacko or Jay-Z?
Lennon, Ramones, Madonna, Jacko
If music was denied you, your other career choice would be . . .
Buddhist Monk
The three songs (yours, or by others) you would love everyone to hear are . . .
“Soft Focus” - Jay Clarkson (NZ)
“Thunder” - Andy Taylor
“Desert Road” - Push Push
Any interesting, valuable or just plain strange musical memorabilia at home...
My gold & platinum records!
The best book on music or musicians you have read is . . .
David Lee Roth/Crazy from the Heat
If you could get on stage with anyone it would be?
George Harrison
The three films you'd insist anybody watch because they might understand you better are . . .
Enter the Dragon
Almost Famous
The Spy who Loved Me
The last CD or vinyl album you bought was . . . (And your most recent downloads include...)
Talk Dirty To Me/Poison (it was a music history lesson for the kids!)
One song, royalties for life, never have to work again. The song by anyone, yourself included, which wouldn't embarrass you in that case would be . . .
The Pina Colada song(Escape) by Rupert Holmes
The poster, album cover or piece of art could you live with on your bedroom forever would be . . .
The Cult's Love album
You are allowed just one tattoo, and it is of . . .
OM symbol
David Bowie sang, “Five years, that's all we've got . . .” You would spend them where and doing what?
On the islands of Samoa, hanging out with my wife & kids
And finally, in the nature of press conferences in Japan, “Can you tell me please why this is your best album ever?”
It’s the mature second album nobody got to hear, when we had finally developed our own kiwi rock sound
post a comment