Geddy Lee brought his My Effin' Life: In Conversation spoken word tour to Quebec this past weekend for a pair of special one-off shows at the Grand Théâtre de Québec as part of the Quebec City Summer Festival. The shows took place at 1PM and 4PM respectively in the 500-seat Salle Octave-Crémazie room with Canadian model and television host Genevieve Borne as the guest host, and Jason Rockman (thanks RushFanForever) running the fan Q&A portion. Blogger The Travel Addict attended the show and wrote this review which also includes several great photos.
Speaking of Geddy, earlier this week he auctioned off another portion of his extensive baseball collection at the 20th Annual Live Auction during this past week's MLB All-Star Week. He auctioned off the first part of his collection back in December. The live auction took place this past Tuesday July 16th at E-Sports Stadium within Capital One MLB All-Star Game Village in Arlington, TX. Geddy popped in to MLB High Heat earlier in the week to chat about the auction and some highlights from the collection. You can watch that interview below or at MLB.com.
Alex Lifeson's 1996 solo album Victor will be reissued on double vinyl this coming August 9th, nearly 30 years after the album's original January, 1996 release. The reissue will also be available on CD and include 4 bonus instrumental tracks. The 4 bonus tracks are instrumentals that have been available for listening on AlexLifeson.com since late 2021; Kroove, Banjo Bob and Serbs were released together as the Lerxst Demo Archives in August, 2021, and Cherry Lopez Lullaby was added later that year in October. This is the first vinyl edition of the album to be released, and the reissue features the original album, completely remixed by Alex personally, offering significantly enhanced audio quality specially prepared for this release. You can pre-order the album on Amazon at this location (or on CD here). Geddy Lee is also re-releasing the 2019 Record Store Day vinyl version of his 2000 solo album My Favorite Headache on August 9th. This version will mirror the RSD release, and will include the same 2 bonus instrumental tracks from that edition. You can pre-order it on Amazon here.
Neil Peart was tragically taken from us back on January 7, 2020 after a long battle with glioblastoma. For the past 4 years, on Neil's birthday, RUSHfest Scotland has sponsored the release of an album of Rush songs dedicated to the iconic drummer titled TRIBUTES - SONGS FOR NEIL, played by Rush tribute bands and musicians from around the world, with proceeds from the sales going to support Cancer charities. They are continuing the tradition this year with SONGS FOR NEIL VOL. 5, which will release this coming September 12th in celebration of what would have been Neil's 72nd birthday. This fifth volume will feature artwork from Hugh Syme and liner notes from Danny Peart, and some of the highlights will include a performance of Bravado by John Mitchell & Leoni Jane Kennedy, a solo arrangement of Different Strings by Jonathan Dinklage, and Witch Hunt by Solar Federation with Hugh Syme on keys and mixing by Terry Brown. Volume 5 will be available in double-vinyl, double-CD, and/or digital download, and you can pre-order now by emailing steve@broon.net - details in this Facebook post.
Neil Peart's original Slingerland drum kit, which he used from Fly By Night through 2112, was sold at auction back in 2012 for OVER $500K - much higher than the expected $100-160K. The kit was originally purchased by Neil Peart in the summer of 1974 from Long & McQuade in Toronto, just after he joined Rush. It was then placed in storage in 1977 and was one of three drum kits donated by Neil Peart for Modern Drummer Magazine's Neil Peart Drumset Giveaway in 1987. The set ended up being awarded to New York drummer Mark Feldman who held onto it until auctioning it off on eBay to Dean Bobisud in 2009. Bobisud refurbished the kit (affectionately dubbed Chromey) and spent the next several years displaying the kit and raising money for charity with the help and support of other Rush fans. So who was the lucky (and wealthy!) fan who purchased the kit? Earlier this month Danny de Hoyos at the Neil Peart Drums and Drumming Facebook group revealed that the new owners were Dallin and Elizabeth Anderson - who graciously let de Hoyos into their home to take a look at the kit and also snap some photos. From the Facebook post:
... When I got to Dallin's place, I found out that not only does Dallin have Chromey, but he also has two other epic drum kits! When you walk in the front door where in most homes you would see a grand piano, Dallin has a beautiful R30 replica set up! And if that weren't cool enough, right beside Chromey is a monster custom-built DW on a custom-made platform that is fully mic'ed with smoke, lights, and lasers! This "beast" was an absolute blast to play. I also included a sound sample video of Chromey with me just hitting some of the drums. This kit still sounds fantastic after all these years! Also, a couple of videos on "the beast" (now don't get all overly critical of the drumming on the videos, we are just screwing around and having fun - no one's a professional). Me, butchering Natural Science, while Dallin crushes Red Tide. The man is a great of a drummer as well as a hell of a cool guy. ...
The Runaways front-woman Cherie Currie was recently interviewed for The Metal Voice, and once again brought up the alleged incident the band had with Rush when they opened for them at Detroit's Cobo Hall on February 10, 1977:
... "We had been treated so well by Tom Petty who opened for us, and Cheap Trick who opened for us, but Rush sabotaged our set. We're at Detroit's Cobo Hall. It's a big venue. I saw them and they were throwing pieces of paper just like standard 8x10 paper onto the stage whipping it like you would a pizza. I was in 6inch platform boots and I had to jump off of Sandy West's drum riser. I hit one of those pieces of paper and I slid across that stage and there was an orchestra pit with all the photographers. I'll never forget seeing them reach up with fear that I was going to go over, and somehow I caught myself right at the last minute and did one of those, you know (rock star poses), to one of the photographers. I could have been paralyzed. I'm not exaggerating, I could have been very much injured had I gone off that stage. So that's why Joan (Jett) and I in particular don't care much for them because they weren't protecting us, they were sabotaging us that night and they would be sitting there behind Lita (Ford)'s amp (snickering)." ...
The incident first came to light when the 2010 Runaways biopic was released, and in one scene the band reacts against negative treatment from another band that was supposedly Rush, as Runaways producer Kim Fowley explained back in 2012:
.. Rush had pseudo-intellectual lyrics and very heady stuff that was all HP Lovecraft, and that doesn't always go over so well in Detroit. Add to that the complicated musical interludes and screaming vocals, and it's not hard to understand the appeal of the Runaways. They also weren't very nice to the girls. If you watch the movie there's an incident in which the girls rebel against an older bunch of guys they're on the bill with. That was Rush, and that actually happened, terribly, to them. ...
Geddy Lee addressed these claims in a 2013 Prog magazine interview:
... "The Runaways had a ginormous chip on their shoulders. I remember that show. We had trouble with our gear so our soundcheck got delayed and The Runaways never got one. But we were always good to whoever was opening for us. We had no bias against them because they were girls - none of that bullshit. I know they said that we were laughing at them when they played, but quite frankly they were too shitty to listen to. And 40 years later they have a story to tell about it. Who knew?" ...
Classic Rock magazine posted a feature this past week on the rise and fall of the other Canadian power trio - Triumph. The band was constantly compared to Rush, as frontman Rik Emmett explains (thanks RushFanForever):
... There was also the matter of that 'other' Canadian power trio. Triumph were endlessly compared to Rush, and Emmett understood why, but really, the two bands were very different animals.
"I think Triumph were reaching for the charts more," says Emmett. "We worried less about recreating what we did in the studio when we played live. Rush were also more tight as friends, I think. Geddy and Alex had known each other since school, and in Neil they found a guy who shared their artistic vision. Triumph were friends too, of course, but it was more of a business relationship.
"I suppose the slight irritation that remains for me is that Rush were so huge and so unique that you just couldn't compete with them," Emmett adds. "Also, Rush had a fourth guy: their manager, Ray Danniels, whereas we managed ourselves, and that was always going to lead to problems." ...
On this past week's episode of the Something for Nothing podcast (#183), hosts Steve and Gerry spoke with Mike Gormley, who worked as the director of publicity at Mercury Records during the early days of Rush. He talks about meeting the band, their early days on the road, and the difficulty selling the rock press on the band despite their growing popularity. You can listen to the show below or wherever you get your podcasts:
On the latest episode of Rush Roundtable (#236) on the Rushfans YouTube channel, the panel continues their discussion of Vapor Trails with Vapor Trail:
That's it for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!!
