Earlier this week Neil Peart updated the news page on his website with the fourth installment in his BubbaGram series, and also revealed the title and release date of his next book. If you recall from his first BubbaGram update back in September, Neil indicated that he'd be working on a book to chronicle the R40 Live tour. So in lieu of his regular news updates over the next year or so he is instead periodically publishing a BubbaGram which includes a couple photos from his travels along with a few paragraphs describing them. In this latest Bubbagram, Neil details an overnight stay at the Historic Route 66 Motel in Seligman between shows on the R40 Live tour where he, Michael and Sebastian from the road crew (controller of the moving trusses in the concert lightshow, and also a longtime drone pilot) would makes some drone videos of the bikes:

... When Sebastien got the drone airborne, Michael and I did a few "formation" rides in each direction on the gravel, with long dust trails behind us, then on 66. By the next day Miller had put together a surprisingly impressive edit of the "making of" footage, tastefully shown over the music of the hauntingly original Icelandic band Sigur Rós. After a day off to work on his drone footage, Sebastien presented us with a cut of the aerial shots, and it was magnificent. At the time of planning the shoot I didn't know what I would use the film for, but felt it was worth making that opportunity, at least. Later I thought it would make the basis for a great "book trailer," with music from our own "catalog" and me reading from Far and Wide: Bring That Horizon to Me! (Publishing September 2016, inshallah-with due regard for my favorite church sign: "Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans.") Such a combination of images, sound textures, and words can create powerful alchemy. ...

The book Neil refers to is actually already available for pre-order and due to release on September 13th via ECW Press. Neil also refers to a Japanese cyclist named Mine that he and Michael met at the motel:

... All the while I had been introduced to Mine only as "Bubba," and when he asked us what we did, I told him we traveled around writing and photographing motorcycle stories. (True enough!) After dinner, outside the restaurant - dark now, with colorful neon lighting up the few businesses along Old 66 in Seligman - Mine held up his camera toward me and said, "Photograph of Bubba?" I smiled and posed for him, and now I hope Mine posts that photo on his social media and someone recognizes me. Just fine if nobody does, of course - certainly not why I wanted to help him out - but a little sweeter twist if someday Mine knows the background to the story of our encounter. And he will also learn that he is the only stranger whose camera I have willingly posed for-in about forty years!

Mine has a travel photo blog, and did indeed post the photo Neil refers to on this page at this link along with this photo of Michael. You can check out the complete update here, and pre-order the book here.

Rush will be featured in the March, 2016 issue of Guitar World magazine. The cover tagline reads, Rush Prime Cuts with Alex + Geddy and the feature is described as follows:

... It's possible that Rush have parked their tour bus for the last time, leaving 40 years of epic gigging and an unparalled body of work in their wake. To help celebrate the release of R40 Live, Guitar World catches up with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee to talk about some of the choice cuts that found their way into the bands career-spanning 2015 set list. ...

Rush's 1981 classic Moving Pictures will be the subject of an hour-long In The Studio with Redbeard rockumentary radio show which will be airing in the first week of February to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the February 12, 1981 release of the album. These programs are usually an hour long and typically consist of past In the Studio interviews with the band where they discuss and play tracks from the album(s). It's possible but unlikely that there will be some new or unreleased interviews included. The interview portion of the special should be available for streaming online on or around February 1st. For a list of stations and air times go here.

The Rushcast podcast kicked off it's 2016 Album Series earlier this month with an entire episode dedicated to Rush's debut album, with special guest Donna Halper. The following week host Jay Mantis chatted about Fly By Night with Jeff Hobrath, and Caress of Steel was the subject of discussion the following week. This past week I had the honor of appearing on the podcast to talk with Jay about my favorite album - 2112. You can listen to that discussion at this location. Rushcast will be featuring a different Rush album every week over the coming weeks/months, with A Farewell to Kings up next. To find out more and listen to past episodes, visit the Rushcast website and follow them on Twitter.

Last week the Toronto Star caught up with the model who portrayed the boy on Rush's iconic cover for 1985's Power Windows album for an interview. His name is Neill Cunningham and he is the current owner of Pandemonium Records in Toronto where he now sells reissues of the album on which he appears (the Power Windows reissue released earlier this month). The interview garnered a lot of attention for Cunningham, including a follow-up interview with Noisey which you can check out here. The Noisey interview goes into a lot more detail about how he got the gig and the Big Money video shoot, which he was also a part of.

Prog magazine posted an article earlier this week where they asked Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Paul O'Neill to list off the 10 best prog bands and Rush made the cut (thanks Cheryl T):

"What a band. They're out of Canada of all places, and they're also a power-trio, both of those things are maybe a little surprising. But you know what to expect from Rush - a constant stream of innovation. I've seen them multiple times onstage, and they never let you down. Had I been involved with them I'd have pushed for the addition of a few more members. I'm a firm believer that you should utilise every weapon that's available in your quest to entice the human ear."

Reader Eric B let me know of a dinner that took place Wednesday night in Rockford, IL (home of Cheap Trick) of some of the better area drummers. In attendance was Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, who was sporting a Rush sweatshirt. Cheap Trick opened for Rush several times in 1976-77, and Carlos spoke about the experience in an interview for the Legendary Rock Interviews website a few years ago:

... You know, we didn't actually do a tour with RUSH, we did a half dozen dates with them in about a period of a year. The first one was in Rockford down at the Armory at the end of 1976 and they gave us about 5 feet of stage (laughs) and uhh... no sound check and they wouldn't speak to us of course. Back then they were just a guitar, bass and a double kick set of drums. They didn't have a lot of gear to start but it seemed like each date we played they added stuff! One day Alex would add an acoustic guitar.. the next date they would have 2 acoustic guitars on stands... the next they would have some synth stuff and Neil would add bells or chimes and extra stands! So we didn't have much room! (Laughs) So after about the fourth show they had begun to warm up to us a bit I suppose. One day before a show one of their roadies came down to our dressing room with a hand full of joints and said Geddy sent these and wants you guys to come up and say hello! They ended up being the nicest guys in the world after they realized that we weren't competing with them or anything.

Rush's year-long, vinyl re-issue campaign concluded back on January 15th with the release of the last three albums to get the re-issue treatment; Hold Your Fire, Feedback and Snakes & Arrows. It turns out that there was an issue with the Hold Your Fire release as it did not include the lyric sheet as detailed in this Facebook post from Rush:

Thank you to all the fans that bought the latest re-issue of HOLD YOUR FIRE on vinyl. Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that the lyric sheet was not included with the vinyl that shipped in the U.S and Canada as planned. The kind folks who assemble these apologize for the oversight.

To rectify this for those fans affected, if you wish to receive the lyric sheet please email your full name and mailing address to qc@qualityrecordpressings.com and one will be sent to you, free of charge. ...

Rush has made their entire back catalog available on vinyl over the past year. All the titles are high-quality vinyl with a 320kbps MP4 Digital Audio download code, and you can get the links to order all the various Mercury-era and Atlantic-era reissues back in this post.

Speaking of Hold Your Fire, 28 years ago this past Wednesday, back on January 27, 1988, Rush played a show at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans on the Hold Your Fire tour where Turn The Page was recorded and later released on A Show Of Hands. You can check out the full setlist from that show here and watch the video below.

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!