Push The Button is the glorious monthly pop fest at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern that’s like no other party in town. Complete with its Spice Girls, Europop, and 90’s/early 21st century bangers fixations (and those are just a few) crazy performances and much more, it’s quite frankly bonkers. Dave Cross had a catch up with Rob Holley to talk all thing PTB and specifically this Friday’s Max Martin themed party.
Hi Rob, how would you sum up what Push The Button is, for those poor unfortunate souls who have never been?
Poor unfortunate souls, indeed! We’re here to save them in the name of the father, son and the Holy Spearit. We’re a non-stop pop party that platforms performance and our favourite bangerz from 1990 onwards. We started Push The Button in 2010 as a place where people could indulge in pop music without it being labelled as “trashy” or “cheesy” – we wanted to treat pop with the respect it deserved. We felt that Dannii Minogue, George Michael, Eurovision or Rachel Steven’s contributions to pop and culture were just as important to some of our friends than say Morrissey, Bowie or Depeche Mode’s input.
How did it come about and who are the team behind the crazy?
At the time, absolutely everywhere on the scene was obsessed with ‘80s electro – you just couldn’t get away from it. Hazell Dean is to blame. She was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Summer 2010, and Darren (PTB co-founder) and I were at yet-another-80s-electro-disco.com and Hazell Dean was doing a midnight turn. After literally her 18th number we started shouting at the DJ, begging him to just “PLAY THE HITS!” That’s when we reached breaking point with the ‘80s schtick and set up Push The Button with a strict 1990 onwards music policy so we could treat those singles from the ‘90s with as much reverence as all those great tracks from the ‘80s were getting.
But Nineties nights are much more common now…
Of course, nearly ten years later, there are a lot more club nights obsessed with the ‘90s… so maybe 2020 will be the year we go back and start a night dedicated to Hazell Dean (who we actually rather love!). At the moment there’s a core team of me, Alice, James, Maddie, Cola, Liam, Darren and Astrid, but Push The Button is an ever-changing party of people who we pick up along the way.
What about the DJs?
We have an open policy in terms of DJs, hosts and performers – if any regular punter wants a go, we encourage them to take to the Tavern’s stage or decks. That’s the precious thing about the Royal Vauxhall Tavern that we should never lose sight of – its gift to the community is to be about to give anybody a literal platform. Very few places can boast that.
We know you always have a theme, but what acts are we always likely to hear from the DJs at a ‘typical’ PTB?
We play everything from Ariana and Gaga to Aqua and Schlager; it’s a celebration of the last three decades of POP! We’ll be playing ALL THE HITS: synths, guitars, keytars, drum-machines, Eurovision, girl bands, boy bands, impossible princesses – it’s a glamophonic, electronic, d-d-disco baby!
This Friday the theme is Max Martin, can you explain exactly who Max is?
Max Martin is everything – he’s written some of the biggest pop hits of the last 20 or so years, working with everyone: Ariana, Celine, Britney, Backstreet Boys, Kelly Clarkson, 5ive, Bon Jovi! And the reason we’re celebrating him now is because there’s about to be a new West End musical based on his back catalogue called & Juliet at Shaftesbury Theatre and quite frankly it looks epic.
Give us your favourite songs he’s written?
Too many! Lucky / Tearin’ Up My Heart / Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) / …Baby One More Time / Larger Than Life / That’s The Way It Is / It’s Gonna Be Me / Since U Been Gone / I Kissed A Girl / Show Me Love / So What / California Gurls / We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together / Problem / Shake It Off / Can’t Feel My Face / (You Drive Me) Crazy! / Can’t Stop The Feeling… to name like a few. This guy has HITS coming out of his wazooo.
What else can we expect on the night?
There’ll be our legendary sing-a-long, ice pops, performance from Cola and Astrid AND we’ll be giving away a pair of tickets to & Juliet at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
What else is coming up for Push The Button in 2019?
Well we’re hoping Emily Thornberry might host our annual Minogue vs Minogue referendum again, but she might be Prime Minister by then, so who knows? We’ll definitely be doing the Spice Buses in August and playing at Mighty Hoopla but beyond that… you’ll have to watch this space.
Advance tickets are £8 from vauxhalltavern.com
Push The Button at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 372 Kennington Lane, Vauxhall SE11.
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