Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Mon, Nov 25, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Mar 8, 2019@11:57AM | comments

UPDATE - 3/9@4:26PM: Here are the 12 songs Geddy chose to play during his guest DJ spot on Sirius XM's Beatles Channel yesterday afternoon (thanks Will C). Geddy also introduced each song with a personal anecdote about why the song resonated with him. The channel will be re-airing the show tomorrow at 11AM EST:

Twist & Shout
Taxman
I Feel Fine
Paperback Writer
Ticket to Ride
We Can Work It Out
Norwegian Wood
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
All You Need Is Love
A Day in the Life

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UPDATE - 3/8@10:25PM: Here's a snippet of Alex Lifeson jamming on Limelight from last weekend's Patrick Warburton charity golf outing jam session:

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A new book which chronicles Rush's entire decades-spanning touring history is slated for release this coming October and was made available for pre-order late last week. The book is titled Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth: The Official Touring History and is authored by Eric Hansen (of the Power Windows website) and Skip Daly. From the Amazon description:

Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and Neil Peart performed together for the first time to an audience of 11,000 people in 1974. Forty years later, their last tour sold over 442,000 tickets. This is the story of everything in between. This is the story of Rush. Fondly known as the Holy Triumvirate, Rush is one of the top bands to shine through rock-and-roll history. Wandering the Face of the Earth covers Rush's storied touring career, from their humble beginnings as a Toronto-area bar band playing middle school gymnasiums to their rise as one of the world's most sought-after live acts, selling out massive arenas around the globe. This book includes every setlist, every opening act, and every noteworthy moment meticulously researched and vetted by the band themselves. This is THE must-have tour compendium for Rush fans. Fondly known as the Holy Triumvirate, Rush is one of the top bands to shine through rock-and-roll history. Wandering the Face of the Earth covers Rush's storied touring career, from their humble beginnings as a Toronto-area bar band playing middle school gymnasiums to their rise as one of the world's most sought-after live acts, selling out massive arenas around the globe. Filled with painstaking detail, this book includes every set list, every opening act, and every noteworthy moment. This is THE must-have tour compendium for Rush fans.

The book includes a foreword from Primus frontman Les Claypool, and an afterword by Police drummer Stewart Copeland. The book is currently slated for release on October 15th and can be pre-ordered at this location.

This past week Premier Guitar Magazine posted a new interview with Geddy Lee where he discusses his Big Beautiful Book of Bass. There's very little in the interview that hasn't already been covered in the dozens of other interviews Geddy has done since the book's release, but here's what he had to say about his future plans:

... I'm afraid I don't really have a plan at this stage. I don't know where I'm headed musically. My attitude is that I've been part of an amazing collaboration with two guys that I have so much respect for and for so many years, and we were very purposeful in our time together. The book has been a very cool way for me to transition out of that scenario, and now I feel like I'm in a position to truly clear the deck and hit the reset button, and see what I have to say musically. I need to give myself time to experiment with that and see what comes out that I feel strong enough to be a worthy thing to do next. I have no idea where that's going to take me. When I mess around at home, I'm sort of all over the map. But that's also usually how a Rush album starts. I don't imagine that whatever I do next will be drastically different, but because I have more guitars now, I'm playing more guitar in the studio and getting ideas that way. Stylistically speaking, I never felt like I was missing anything in the context of Rush because anything goes in that group. When I jam, I jam all over the place, but whether or not I'm going to follow it any one specific direction in the future, I have no idea. I never had any musical frustrations in Rush. It was a totally fulfilling experience for me. ...

You can read the entire interview online at this location. This past weekend, Geddy signed books for fans at Barnes & Noble in Corte Madera, CA (outside San Francisco). This was the fifth book signing event that Geddy has hosted since releasing his book; he's also done signings at Book Soup in West Hollywood, IndigoSpirit in Toronto, Bookend Books in New Jersey, and at the Rock Hall in Cleveland. As part of Geddy's continuing promotion of the new book, Sirius XM's Beatles channel will air a pre-recorded guest DJ show with Geddy Lee later today at 5PM EST. Geddy will play some of his favorite Beatles tunes and likely talk a little about the book as well. You can find out more about Sirius XM's Beatles channel at the Sirius XM website here. Geddy's Big Beautiful Book of Bass released back in December and is currently available for purchase via Amazon and other retailers.

Speaking of Geddy, hard rock band Disturbed played a show at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto earlier this week and Geddy Lee took some time out to visit with the band backstage during soundcheck as seen in this photo:

This past weekend Alex Lifeson participated in the 2019 Patrick Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert, CA. Judging by the huge batch of photos posted to the Warburton Golf Facebook page, it looks like Alex didn't participate in the golf tournament itself (he's not shown in any of the golfing photos), but did perform at the celebrity jam session on Friday night. Alex Lifeson along with Alice Cooper, Steve Augeri (Journey), Jason Scheff (Chicago), Skunk Baxter (Steely Dan/The Doobie Brothers), Gretchen Wilson and many more also participated in the jam session, and you can see photos from the event - including several of Alex - in this Facebook photo gallery. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much in the way of video from the event posted online yet, so if anyone comes across any, let us know.

Speaking of Alex, British prog-rock supergroup The Mute Gods will be releasing their third studio album Atheists And Believers on March 22nd via Inside Out Music. In addition to the core lineup of Nick Beggs, Roger King and Marco Minnemann, the album will feature guest appearances from Alex Lifeson, Craig Blundell, Rob Townsend and Beggs' daughter Lula on vocals. Lifeson appears on the track One Day, which is now available for listening online via YouTube and other streaming services. Back in the summer of 2017 Lifeson made a guest appearance on Minnemann's album BORREGO, playing on 3 tracks, including one which he co-wrote with Minnemann - On That Note. You can learn more about the album and The Mute Gods via their website or on Facebook and Twitter, and pre-order the album via Amazon at this location. In the wake of Rush's retirement, Lifeson has been keeping himself very busy with musical side projects; he appeared on John Mayall's recently-released Nobody Told Me album, and also has a guest spot on Don Felder's upcoming American Rock 'N' Roll album which is due out next month.

The 4-LP vinyl box set edition of Rush's 2003 live album Rush in Rio released back in January and is now available for purchase. The set is produced on 180 gram vinyl with a newly designed heavyweight gatefold jacket, and includes a download card containing all of the tracks. The set also includes some exclusive new liner notes written by Ray Wawrzyniak (who was profiled in the Rush: Time Stand Still documentary). Eric at Power Windows has transcribed these liner notes and made them available online at this location. The set was recently reviewed for the UK's Daily Express and given four out of five stars:

Playing to some of the biggest crowds of their career, you can almost hear all 40,000 people on this recording from the Vapor Trails tour final stop in Rio de Janeiro. Mixed up to the fore, the noise from the crowd matches the energy from the band especially on classics 2112, Closer To The Heart, Freewill and Limelight. Finally released on vinyl, including a digital download code, bonus tracks Between Moon & Sun and Vital Signs add spice to this definitive live release by these princes of prog.

The set is now available for purchase via Amazon and other retailers. The live album/film was originally released as a 3-CD/2-DVD set on October 21, 2003.

Earlier this week the Pan Rocks steel drum orchestra released their video for YYZ - the first official video from their Pan Rocks Rush steel drum tribute project featuring Mike Portnoy. The video was recorded from the Pan Rocks Rush sessions at Eldorado Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and you can watch it below or on YouTube at this location. Pan Rocks is a 50 piece steel drum orchestra founded by drummer Tracy Thornton. The Rush project is a follow-up to 2017's Pan Rocks Project LA which featured the music of Led Zeppelin, KISS and Jane's Addiction performed by 30 steel pan drummers and a band consisting of Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, Sons Of Apollo), Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction, Porno For Pyros), Tracii Guns (LA Guns) and Bruce Kulick (KISS, Grand Funk Railroad). In addition to Mike Portnoy, the Pan Rocks Rush project includes Pete Thorn on guitar, Philip Bynoe on bass and producer Matt Starr. You can secure yourself a copy of the tribute EP and grab some cool Pan Rocks Rush swag at the Pan Rocks Pledge Music page.

Fans who attended any of Rush's shows on their R40 Live tour a few years ago will no doubt recall the custom R40 stage t-shirts that Neil Peart wore during the shows. The Rush Backstage Club has finally made the shirts available to the general public, and have added five different variations to their online store here. That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!

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