The February edition of the UK's Classic Rock magazine includes a cover feature and new interview celebrating Rush's 50th anniversary. The 12-page feature mentions the band's upcoming 50th anniversary box set, which we first learned about earlier this month when a pre-release listing for a Rush 50th anniversary Super Deluxe compilation set appeared on Apple Music with an expected release date of February 7, 2025. From the article (thanks Geoff C):
... We're here ostensibly to talk about Rush's forthcoming R50 set, the latest collection of the band's live archive housed in a lavish box with new essays. (Full disclosure: I wrote about the band from Vapor Trails through to the final show in LA and everything in between for it.) R50 also features some unreleased and hard-to-find audio from the band's very early club and high school days as well as the final song they played together as a band at the LA Forum show on the R40 tour. It's not only a thing of beauty, but also a bittersweet reminder of just how great Rush were as a live band, regardless of the decade they found themselves in. But, of course, that kind of live legacy only comes from the doing, and with Rush it was years and years of playing every unlit corner of Canada until the rest of the world began to take notice. ...
The article includes an extensive new interview with both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson where the pair reminisce about their storied 50 year career and also what the future may hold:
The future is unwritten (and questions to Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee about any plans for Rush are gently and politely batted back at me), although the past is littered with signposts, and unlikely trigger points, especially for two men who grew up playing and performing together for most of their adult lives. Thousands of miles - Lifeson at home in Toronto, Lee in London - and a few days apart, the bond between the two Rush members is as tangible as when they were two young men traveling in the back of a van, going from gig to gig across the Canadian wilds. They both look and sound great, vibrant and healthy, belying the fact they've both somehow reached 71. Which seems to come as something of a surprise to both of them, that they're now in what could be described as their third act. ...
Alex: "It's good to jam with friends as you get older. I need to play. Once a week I go to Ged's - it's in the calendar - keep my fingers moving, play Rush stuff, new jams. We do record it, but I couldn't even begin to tell you where it'll go.
Geddy: "Al and I are lifelong friends. We jam together once in a while, it's true. That's all I want to say about that right now." ... "I've been spending the summer getting my fingers in shape because all these other day jobs I've taken -TV, writing and all that - have taken me away from my playing. And so, this was a summer that I dedicated to being at home for my family and also to be able to get my fingers back in shape and to get my head around writing different things, writing poetry and prose. And I don't know if that will end in those things becoming songs, if they'll surface in music or be left as prose. I don't know. But I needed this time to touch base with all those things that made me a musician and all those things that I had been ignoring to do these other projects. And that's where I am. I'm sort of at
a crossroads where I don't know which way that will go. But I feel better prepared if I do decide to step into the breach and make music again."
As far as the box set itself, there are few additional details beyond what was in the Apple Music listing. The listing indicates that the set will include a combination of fifty studio and live tracks with some early rarities thrown in, spanning 4 discs. It's solely for the digital version, so it's unclear what might appear on the physical box set and whether a vinyl version will be available, or what additional extras it might contain. Although the website lists a release date of November 15th (indicating that they had likely planned to release it this year), it seems that they were forced to delay until February (when opened in the Apple Music app itself, it says expected Feb 7, 2025). Here's the full track listing:
Disc 1
Not Fade Away
Can't Fight It
Working Man (Vault Edition)
Need Some Love (Live Laura Secord Secondary School)
Before and After (Live Laura Secord Secondary School)
Bad Boy (Live Agora Ballroom)
Garden Road (Live Agora Ballroom)
Anthem (Live Electric Lady Studios)
Fly by Night
Bastille Day
2112 Overture / Temples
By-Tor and the Snow Dog (Live - presumably from ATWAS)
Something for Nothing (Live - presumably from ATWAS)Disc 2
Closer to the Heart
Xanadu (Live - AFTK Deluxe)
Drum Solo (Live - AFTK Deluxe)
The Trees (Vault)
La Villa Strangiato (Live - Pinkpop Hemispheres Deluxe)
In the Mood (Live - Pinkpop Hemispheres Deluxe)
The Spirit of Radio
Natural Science (Live - PW Deluxe)
A Passage to Bangkok (Live - PW Deluxe)
Tom Sawyer
Limelight (Live MP Deluxe)
Vital Signs (Live MP Deluxe)Disc 3
YYZ (Live ESL)
Subdivisions
Red Sector A
Witch Hunt (Live GUP)
New World Man (Live GUP)
The Big Money
Time Stand Still
Distant Early Warning (Live ASoH)
Superconductor
Dreamline
Stick It Out
Test for Echo
The Rhythm Method (Live Different Stages)Disc 4
One Little Victory (Remixed)
Cygnus X-1 (Live Rush in Rio)
The Seeker
Between the Wheels (Live R30)
The Main Monkey Business
Workin' them Angels (Live S&A Live)
Freewill (Live - Time Machine)
Red Barchetta (Live - Time Machine)
Headlong Flight
Manhattan Project (Live Clockwork Angels Tour)
Jacob's Ladder (R40)
What You're Doing / Working Man / Garden Road (Live - Last Show)
