Henderson Brewing Company in Toronto hosted their 2nd annual Rush Day event 2 Sundays ago at the brewery's Toronto location, and from all reports the event was a huge success. As part of the celebration, the Brewery partnered with Anansi Press to sponsor the release of a new book titled Toronto In 100 Beers featuring a foreword from Rush's Alex Lifeson. The book is now available to purchase via the Indigo website or at Amazon.com and other retailers. They also used the event to debut a new light and crushable version of their Golden Ale called Rush Canadian Light Lager, now available at their Toronto Taproom & Bottle Shop. The Rushfans YouTube channel crew attended the event and posted their video coverage of the day's festivities this past week, along with footage from their coverage of the Peart Family Memorial golf tournament. You can check out that video below or on YouTube.
Geddy Lee took some time yesterday to give a birthday shout-out to his friend, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, who turned 64 this past Wednesday:
Happy Birthday to one of the most talented, thoughtful and lovely musicians I've ever had the pleasure to spend time with. Kim, dude ! You rule!
Back in 2022, Rush partnered with Stern Pinball to produce a line of Rush-themed pinball machines. The machines were a huge hit, garnering accolades from both Rush fans and pinball aficionados, even winning Game of the Year at the 2022 TWIPY Pinball Awards, and the machines can now be found in game rooms across the country. But if you want to purchase one of these new, the original production run has long since sold out. However, it looks like Stern will be producing another run of the machines according to this report from Knapp Arcade (thanks Will C):
I have a quick Stern Pinball production update for everyone. Based on information that was just sent out to distributors, Stern has been making Mandalorian Pro and Premium models this week. They are set to ship out tomorrow and Friday. After that, the Stern production schedule has a whole lot of nothing listed until "Late September" when it is scheduled to do a run of Rush Pro and Premium models. ...
A new 6-disc special edition of Porcupine Tree's 2007 album Fear Of A Blank Planet is due for release this coming October. The album includes a guest appearance from Rush's Alex Lifeson on the epic, 17-minute track Anesthetize. From Prog magazine (thanks RushFanForever):
... The new deluxe edition features five CDs and one Blu-ray, as well as a 112-page hardback book and is probably the most complete collection of the album and related material to date, featuring remasters of Fear Of A Blank Planet and the Nil Recurring mini album, approximately 55 minutes of previously unreleased demos, an early live performance of a still work-in-progress version of the album, as well as BBC and instore session recordings. ...
Reader Ken C attended Jeff Lynne's ELO Over and Out Tour last week in Vancouver, BC. About half way through the set, Lynne introduced all the other band members, including bassist Lee Pomeroy. Each member did their own special salute to the crowd when introduced, and Pomeroy was no exception. After his introduction he did his best Superman impression, pulling back his jacket lapels to reveal a Rush Power Windows t-shirt as seen in this photo.
The month of September is now upon us, and fall is right around the corner. September was a HUGE month for Rush releases over the years so there are several recent and upcoming anniversaries to mention. Caress of Steel (September, 1975), A Farewell to Kings (September, 1977), Roll the Bones (September 3, 1991), Hold Your Fire (September 8, 1987), Signals (September 9, 1982), Test for Echo (September 10, 1996) and All the World's a Stage (September 29, 1976) all celebrate anniversaries this month. In addition to all those anniversaries, the late Neil Peart would have celebrated his 72nd birthday this coming Thursday, September 12. Happy early birthday to the Professor! That's all for this week. Have a great weekend everybody!!
