Push Push-ing on: How multiple sclerosis battle won’t stop guitarist during hit-making Kiwi band’s reunion tour

There is no cure for MS; a debilitating condition whose symptoms include vision problems, numbness, fatigue, balance issues, and muscle weakness.

Push Push have reformed again and will play four reunion gigs in February. Photo / Supplied

Instead, sufferers rely on treatments and lifestyle changes to try to manage the condition by reducing relapses.

Kane and his bandmates defied their critics in the New Zealand music scene to top the charts in the early 1990s.

Before their reunion, Kane talked to the Herald about how he had followed through with that self-determination in his approach to life with MS.

“If there’s one thing most people would agree on about me is I’m a fairly driven individual,” Kane said from his home in Bondi.

“So, this was just another thing to attack. And I have.”

Kane said it was “obviously alarming in one respect” when he first learned he had MS.

Push Push guitarist Andy Kane has talked about how he manages life with MS ahead of Push Push’s reunion tour. Photo / Supplied

But it wasn’t the first serious medical condition he had been diagnosed with. He was born with haemophilia, a congenital disorder where blood doesn’t clot properly.

From the age of 10, he had been involved in injecting himself with blood factors to help stop spontaneous bleeds.

“I’ve spent my life taking care of myself,” Kane said.

“Although getting the MS diagnosis was obviously alarming in one respect, I just did what I normally do, which is take care of myself and got on top of it as quickly as I could.”

Kane said there “it was a bit hairy for a couple of years” after he was diagnosed.

That included battling sensory issues, including numbness in his fingers.

Andy Kane says MS symptoms, including finger numbness, had caused him plenty of concerns. Photo / Supplied

“The way to describe it is if you dip your hands in ice water … then you take them out and kind of can’t feel things for a bit,” he said.

“It was a bit like that for me … oh, s***.”

He made “radical changes” to his life in a bid to give himself the best chance of avoiding MS relapses.

That included dietary changes – he no longer eats meat or dairy – trying to get a good intake of vitamin D via being in the sunlight and also attempting to lower his stress levels; the latter being “easier said than done”, he said with a laugh.

He also injects himself several times a week with medication that is aimed to prevent new damage to the central nervous system, slow disease progression and reduce the frequency or severity of relapses.

The initial problems he had in his fingers was not a good situation for a guitarist, Kane said.

“That certainly affected me. But I’ve been able to keep it at bay such that it hasn’t got any worse than it was in the first few years.”

The transtasman effort to get the band back together

Push Push will perform four gigs – in Hamilton, Auckland, Mount Maunganui and Whangaparāoa – between February 19-22 to celebrate 35 years since Trippin’ dominated the Kiwi music charts.

Late last year they released their first single in eight years, E.P.B (Clutching at the Sky).

The song is a reworking of Euphoric Plunder & Bliss, which featured on their 1992 album, Trillion Shades of Happy.

Push Push put out a new single late last year, with a five-song EP released around their upcoming tour. Photo / Supplied

With Kane and Silver both living in Sydney, preparing for the quartet of shows – including nailing down previously unreleased songs that feature on their new EP – has been challenging logistically.

In his home studio, Kane has muted the guitar parts of song recordings for him and Silver to jam over.

Back in Auckland, Havoc, drummer Scott Cortese and bassist Steve Abplanalp have been jamming with acclaimed metal guitarist Sharne Scarborough – laying down a “hybrid version of what Silver and I might do” – in the absence of Push Push’s guitarists.

“So, it’s going to be interesting when we all five of us get in a room together,” Kane said.

The group will spend two weeks rehearsing together in Auckland before the first of the reunion concerts to be played in Hamilton on February 19.

“I will be flying by the seat of my pants on night one, that’s for sure,” Kane joked.

Trippin’ was a runaway hit for Push Push when it was released in mid-1991. Photo / Supplied

Despite the distance between Kane and Silver and the rest of the band, Kane said the group were “very close”.

“Whenever we’re back in a room together, we just pick up where we leave off.”

Revealed: The truth behind Push Push’s split

After a string of hit singles and the album A Trillion Shades of Happy, Push Push decided to relocate to Australia in mid-1993.

They had enjoyed chart success with Trippin’ there, and had toured Australia twice and gained TV exposure, including performing an energetic version of the hit song on popular Aussie show Hey, Hey It’s Saturday.

Kane said part of the motivation was so the band could “develop and evolve”.

Push Push went their separate ways in mid-1993 after a planned shift to Australia fell apart. Photo / Supplied

“Australia seemed like the logical thing,” he said. “In a lot of respects, it was restarting.”

Kane, Silver, Abplanalp and Cortese arrived in Australia first, with Havoc set to follow.

The band’s departure came at a time when things had become “tense” within Push Push.

That included Kane and Havoc not “seeing eye to eye”.

“At the time we were the main drivers of the band,” Kane recalled. “There was stuff that we needed to sort out and we hadn’t. We were looking at life in a different way.

“Neither him or I were mature enough to handle with that situation at all. Despite being as close as we were as friends, as deeply connected as we were, we just didn’t have the capacity to deal with it. We were just 22 years old.”

Chart-topping Kiwi band from the early 1990s Push Push are set to roll back the years and rock out in four reunion gigs in February. Photo / Supplied

Kane said a comment Havoc made when farewelling him and Silver at Auckland International Airport summed up the state of their relationship.

“He said, ‘Is it worth me coming?’. We’re at the airport and I said, ‘Well, only you can answer that question’.”

Havoc was meant to follow two weeks later.

He never did, contacting Kane saying: “I’m not coming”.

“And it was like, ‘okay, f***. Now what?’”

Looking back, Kane said it was a “tough time”.

“There was a lot of desire to continue from most of us. But you need everyone on board to do that.”

The four band members in Australia initially tried to keep the band going, but eventually Silver, Cortese and Abplanalp decided to return to New Zealand.

Kane – who had travelled to Australia with a “guitar, an amp and a thousand bucks” – decided to stick it out across the Tasman.

Four Push Push members made it to Australia in 1993, but singer Mikey Havoc stayed behind in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

“I needed greener pastures,” he said.

“It was like starting again.”

Employment for him included picking up gig work and being a freelance sound engineer.

He later built a small recording studio in his Sydney home, where he had recorded “some pretty amazing things”.

Years later he ran into Silver during a trip home for Christmas and said: “Dude, I’m going to do this one more time. Do you want to come with me?”

He said Silver responded: “I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”

Push Push members Silver (second from left) and Kane (centre) reunited in Sydney with GTO. Photo / Supplied

Back in Sydney, they became members of GTO – Kane juggling lead vocal duties alongside guitar playing – who had a hit with Superstars of Modern Love.

Sydney remains home for the duo, with the Kane a proud father of three boys now in their 20s.

Like their dad, they all love to play guitar.

“All of them have played music, but I’ve been very wary about being a stage dad,” Kane said.

“They’ve all played music in bands together, just for fun, which is great. Music is a joy for us.”

A ‘bright, searing flash’: From high school hopefuls to chart-toppers

A look at Push Push’s official Facebook page almost doubles as a time capsule when you look back at just how big the band were in New Zealand in the 1990s.

It features videos of the band performing live on TV shows on both sides of the Tasman, clippings from newspaper articles and the weekly drop of “Fan Mail Friday”, the publishing of some of the mountain of letters the band received from their devoted supporters.

Fan Mail Friday is also poignant for Kane.

Fan Mail Friday always provides an entertaining read on Push Push’s official Facebook page. Photo / Supplied

The contents were found in a box of fan mail Kane found in his late mother’s house after her death about a year ago.

“It was awesome to see the excitement from people, that they were so enthused by the music, that they wanted to write to the people making it,” he said.

The Push Push story had its beginnings at Rangitoto College in the mid-1980s.

Kane, Havoc and Abplanalp featured in the original line-up, with Silver and Cortese replacing other foundation members.

“What we were was relentless,” Kane recalled. “Like we never, ever gave up.

“We practised three times a week, every week from the age of 14. If you couldn’t handle it, you couldn’t stay in the band.”

That dedication helped the hype around them grow around Auckland, including Push Push being star attractions at The Powerstation’s five bands for five bucks gig nights.

Legendary Auckland music venue The Powerstation was where Push Push introduced many music fans to their future hit songs. Photo / Google Maps

Their gigs would attract crowds of up to 1000 at the legendary Auckland live venue.

But still, vast sections of the New Zealand music industry scoffed at the idea of Push Push as potential hit-makers.

“Certainly, the music industry had no time for us … all,” Kane said.

“We would do these shows at The Powerstation … and we were being ignored.”

Push Push released one album, A Trillion Shades of Happy, before they split. Photo / Supplied

Despite the haters, the band were “relentless” in their quest to hit the big time.

“We did think we were destined for something … we were pushing towards something big,” Kane said.

“We loved performing, we loved writing music.”

The band were eventually signed by Tall Poppy Music – who had a distribution deal with Festival Records – with Trippin’ going on to reach the top of the charts.

Push Push’s setlist from when they supported Skid Row in 1990. Photo / Supplied

When it reached No 1 in mid-1991, the song would be the first distributed by Festival Records to reach the top of the Kiwi charts since Blondie’s 1979 hit Heart of Glass.

Follow-up singles Song 27 and What My Baby Likes, and the album A Trillion Shades of Happy were also chart hits.

Push Push worked hard for their success, including extensive New Zealand tours playing in some towns where top bands normally didn’t visit.

They also supported the likes of global superstars AC/DC, Poison, Skid Row and Def Leppard.

A newspaper ad congratulating Push Push on topping the NZ music charts. Photo / Supplied

“In some respects, it seems like a flash, like a bright, searing flash because we only got through one album,” Kane said.

“But the reality is we’d been making music together, especially Steve, Mike, and I, since we were 14 years old.”

‘Unfinished business’: The importance of Push Push’s new songs

Don’t be surprised if you see Push Push back in the New Zealand music charts over the coming months.

As well as the four gigs, the band are releasing a six-track EP.

It follows the 2017 release of the Talk 2 Me EP, the band’s first release in 25 years.

Andy Kane (centre) says Push Push’s new releases and reunion tour are a matter of unfinished business. Photo / Supplied

“It was fantastic,” Kane said of their comeback release. “It felt like … we’re okay, we can do this again.

“And again, it does feel like unfinished business.”

The new EP features E.P.B (Clutching at the Sky), new songs Skin, The Truth and Under the Eye, and the live favourite but previously unrecorded Sleep in the Morning.

All five songs mean a lot to the band.

Kane said Skin was arguably the most personal song the band had written.

The song initially started out as a soundcheck jam during the early 1990s, but was completed with lyrics by Havoc last year.

“It’s taken 34 years to finish,” Kane said.

“For us as a band, it’s a very meaningful song. Silver and I have been playing it a lot lately and we’re often red-eyed at the end of it. It really gets us in the guts.

“You know, I’m getting teary now.

“It feels really important to be able to make these musical statements for each other. We still care about each other, and we do this for the five of us as much as we do it for any other reason.”

Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.