Today is the 10th anniversary of the release of Rush's 4th live album, the 3-disc set titled Different Stages. Most of discs 1 and 2 were recorded at the New World Music Center in Chicago during the 1994 Counterparts tour and the 1997 Test for Echo tour. Disc 3 is from a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London during the 1978 A Farewell to Kings tour. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on December 2, 1998 and reached as high as #35 on the Billboard charts. It was compiled and released in the wake of the deaths of Neil Peart's daughter Selena and wife Jackie in 1997 and 1998 respectively. It was dedicated to their memories using the following line from Afterimage: suddenly...you were gone...from all the lives you left your mark upon. It was widely believed by fans to likely be their final album. Thankfully that was not the case! The liner notes contain the following from Geddy Lee:

Hello you,

This collection was recorded over a span of 20 years, primarily during 3 tours. Our desire was to record many shows hoping to capture some "magic" performances as naturally as possible. But, as Murphy's Law would dictate, with well over 60 shows to choose from, we found ourselves being drawn to a mere handful. We have tried not to "mess" with these tapes very much and to present something that we think represents a fairly definitive retrospective of our live work and changing sound over that period of time.

Of course, no band is an island, and so we thank our various crew members, management staff and drivers throughout the years who have been the unfailing support system that has kept us rolling, stage to stage, with great dedication and professionalism, and good humour.

But most significantly, we would like to thank our many fans around the world for their long-standing support which, to our continuing amazement, has enabled us to hang around for so damn long - despite the inherent weirdness of our music!

best wishes to all

Geddy

Thanks to Power Windows (who currently has a nifty Different Stages theme featured on his site) for the reminder.

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