Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage was released to theaters across North America and Europe this past week with the bulk of the North American showings taking place last night. The turnout for these showings so far has been unprecedented and the reception overwhelmingly positive. Surprised theater managers have been forced to add second screenings and additional dates as showings quickly sold out. There have been so many news stories, interviews and reviews covering the documentary that it's hard to keep up with them all. You can check out the most recent of these in my post from Wednesday, and I'll keep adding more as I receive them. Several locations will be showing the film over the weekend and into next week because of high demand, so if you happened to miss it last night you may still be able to catch it. A list of US cities/theaters can be seen here, a list of Canadian cities/theaters are at this location, and international release information can be found here. If you are unable to catch it in the theater, it will be released on DVD/Blu-ray on June 29th (complete with an hour of bonus materials) and get its television premiere on VH1 and VH1 Classic on June 26th.
As I'd mentioned a few weeks ago, Neil Peart's original Slingerland drum kit (which he used from Fly By Night through 2112) will be making an appearance at RushCon in Toronto on July 17th. In addition to that appearance Chromey - as it has affectionately been dubbed - was at the Rush documentary showing at the Marcus Addison Cinema in Addison, IL last night and will also be there for tomorrow's showing. Reader Darren1973 snapped a few photos of the kit which you can check out above.
Less than two weeks ago Rush's new single Caravan along with its B-side BU2B were released for digital download via iTunes, Amazon and other online outlets. The songs are available for purchase separately or as a bundle which includes a PDF of the liner notes and lyrics. Earlier this week we learned that the Rush Backstage Club now has the CD version of the single available for pre-order at this link for $4.99. The website mentions that the CD will be released in late June. The artwork and packaging is identical to what is reflected in the PDF booklet that comes with the Caravan/BU2B digital download bundle. This is the same CD single that is included as part of the Rush VIP pre-sales ticket package. The Caravan single has been getting decent airplay on rock radio stations and is holding steady at #26 on the Mediabase Rock Chart. Caravan debuted at #44 and BU2B at #50 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart in its first week of release (thanks Scott G). Several great reviews of the songs have recently been posted at ProgArchives.com (thanks kevin).
Rush's Time Machine tour kicks off in less than 3 weeks on June 29th in Albuquerque, NM. The tour got a mention in a recent USA Today article which discusses the recent popularity of bands playing full albums in concert (thanks Jordan F). In case you've been living under a rock for the past few months, Rush will be playing their entire Moving Pictues album on the tour. According to Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton, the band will be heading to Los Angeles for production rehearsals next week (thanks rushfan211276). From Lorne's most recent MySpace status update:
One more week in YYZ, then on to LA for production rehearsals. See you all soon
Mood: accomplished
This makes sense since the guys will need to be in Los Angeles on June 25th for the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. We received official confirmation earlier this week that the ceremony will take place on Friday, June 25th at 11:30 AM at 6752 Hollywood Blvd, near McCadden Place. In an interesting coincidence, the star will be the 2412th one granted; not quite 2112 but close enough. :)
Earlier today I let you know that the weekend prior to the kickoff of the Rush Time Machine Tour, FMQB Productions and the Legends of Classic Rock will be presenting an hour-long radio special titled In Conversation with Rush where Q107's Jeff Woods will be interviewing Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. You can check out the details at the FMQB website.
KnuckleBonz is an online company that creates realistic hi-end sculptures of various rock musicians and album art. A couple of years ago they released a popular limited edition Rush Starman statue that you can check out at this link. Yesterday we learned that they have finally developed statues for each member of Rush and all three are available for pre-order at this link for $115. The Neil Peart statue will ship sometime this Fall with the Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson statues shipping at a later date.
Paul at The Canadian Music Scene let me know that Canadian environmentalist organization the David Suzuki Foundation will be celebrating their 20th anniversary by launching a project that will bring together Rush and several other Canadian songwriters and performers for a compilation album called Playlist for the Planet. They'll also be running a songwriting contest starting June 17th for environmentally-themed songs to include on the compilation. From the website:
... your band will have the opportunity to join Broken Social Scene, Joel Plaskett, K'naan, Rush, Randy Bachman, Bruce Cockburn and many more of Canada's favourite musicians to create a Playlist for the Planet.
The project will include an online songwriting contest, which will launch on June 17. We're inviting independent Canadian songwriters to contribute their own environmentally themed songs. After the launch, artists can upload songs to Playlist for the Planet on the CBC Radio 3 website. Fans can then vote for their favourite songs.
Songs with the most votes will have a chance of appearing on the Playlist for the Planet compilation album, along with music by some of Canada's top musicians. Other prizes will be awarded as well.
Imagine Canadian songwriters from every genre creating original music that depicts the rich diversity of Canadian thoughts, feelings and ideas about how we can connect with nature.
In October 2010, a major label will release the downloadable Playlist for the Planet album. We hope to emerge with an anthem that we can all sing along to!
The David Suzuki Foundation has already received generous commitments from some of Canada's finest musicians to write a song about Canada, nature and the environment or to donate a previously released track to the Playlist for the Planet.
We will present a shortlist of the songs with the most votes to the panel of artists appearing on the Playlist for the Planet. The panel will choose at least two winners to be included on the album. ...
Voting for DRUM! Magazine's 15th annual Drummies reader's poll is now closed. A record number of 6500 drummers posted 120,000 votes in the 40 categories that comprise the Drummies. The magazine will announce the winners in late June. Neil Peart has won Drummer of the Year for the past three years along with several other awards.
Reader Citizen of the World let me know that last Friday morning on TEAM 1040 radio (Vancouver, Canada all sports station) they interviewed TSN broadcaster Glen Suitor. He spoke about recently being in some meetings concerning the Grey Cup (Canada's professional football championship) which is being held in Vancouver in 2011. Suitor mentioned that there are discussions with four artists concerning performing at the 2011 Grey Cup halftime show. One of the artists mentioned was Rush. Rush seems to be on good terms with TSN judging by Neil Peart's recent collaboration with the network on the re-recording of The Hockey Theme, so it wouldn't be a surprise if Rush ended up performing.
Reader Robert let me know about a Rush reference on Saturday's episode of the Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place (season 3, episode 20 Max's Secret Girlfriend). The characters Alex and Harper find out that their friend Max has a girlfriend and to keep her a secret from his parents he told the girl that his name is Tom Sawyer. When Alex hears about the fake name she says, Tom Sawyer? That is such an obvious lie. It's the name from the Rush song. Harper then adds ... and the classic book!. Alex then says, Wow that song was good. I didn't know they made a book out of it! You can watch the video clip of the episode at this link (at about the 3-minute mark).
There also was a Rush reference during the premiere episode of MTV's new show The Hard Times of RJ Berger. After most of the players are ejected from the school's basketball game, RJ is forced to suit up and Tom Sawyer is played as background music. Thanks to YtseRob2112 and Power Windows for the heads up.
Reader Subdivincent let me know about a recent interview with guitarist John Kadlecik, formerly of Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra (he was Jerry). He refers to Rush and Alex Lifeson several times in the interview. You can check it out at this link.
I went to see the documentary last night and had the opportunity to meet few local RIABers including How f---ing cool is Geddy Lee who graciously bought me a beer. It was an incredible movie and well worth the wait. Kudos to the filmmakers for a job well done. Being the huge Rush fan that I am it was quite an emotional experience for me, and I found myself either laughing, cheering or on the verge of tears (of joy mostly) for 99% of the film. I sensed that most of the people in the theater had a similar experience. After the movie my wife said to me I'm officially a Rush fan now which is a good demonstration of how this movie appeals to Rush fans and non-fans alike. I'm now anxiously awaiting the DVD so I can check out all the extras. One song/topic that received a lot of attention in the film is Rush's instrumental masterpiece La Villa Strangiato off of Hemispheres. One of the features on the bonus disc is a live performance of the song at the Pinkpop Festival in Holland from 1979 - the first time it was captured live on video. This performance has been floating around YouTube for a few years now and it's pretty amazing. If you haven't seen it before you can check it out at this link.
That's all for this week. Have a good weekend!
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