Push Push Push PUSH!!

The first thing to do now was to get straight into the studio, not to record all the new ideas he and Marco had, but to get themselves free of the Do It deal. Adam was only contracted for one more single, when that was done he would be free to build everything up from the beginning again. Things had been getting a little fraught at Do It; there were many disputes, mainly about sales figures. The company and the artist no longer saw eye to eye. The trust had gone.
Kings Of The Wild Frontier would have to wait. They had to decide upon a number and chose Cartrouble from the Do It Dirk album, the pair of them would rework it. Less than three weeks after their meeting in the cake shop, Adam and Marco were in Rockfield Studios recording. It was a good start to their relationship, there is no substitute for having to get on and do something. They had two days to record Cartrouble and Kick, and Marco had never heard the songs before.
They needed a producer. Falcon Stewart had been producer as well as manager for X-Ray Spex, but in this instance he didn’t want to take up the controls. He was a busy man, looking after several acts, and anyway he thought it better that someone more involved with Adam should do it. Chris Hughes was ‘luckily’ around at the time, working with Do It. They asked him to produce, and in the course of recording Cartrouble he also became the drummer, now known as Merrick.
Adam was the first one into the studio when they began and he put down the bass line and a rhythm machine. Then Marco walked in and said, ‘It’s not good enough,’ and recorded the bass line again himself. Marco did all the guitars on the record while Adam sat in the gallery. It was a good sound. If you play the version on the album, then lift off the needle and play the single - you could hardly compare the two. The first begins with a standard thump thump thump in just the way a million and one other songs do, the type of technique which is totally unmusical and treats the listener as if he’s an idiot, having to tell him again and again what the rhythm is. The recording with Marco however is a whole different ball game. The guitars are strong, and Adam’s voice is that of someone who’s determined to win. It’s the first piece of the warrior voice of Adam Ant. When he sang ‘Push Push Push’ before, it was like an upward struggle with a wet fish.

James Maw chapter 19