UPDATE - 1/15@11:54AM: Even more photos in this TSN photo gallery.
UPDATE - 1/15@11:25AM: In this interview with The Globe and Mail (thanks Jaybird) Neil gives some background on his involvement with recording the new Theme:
... "I tell Americans there is no analog for this song in the U.S. People hum it. They have it as a [cellphone] ring tone," ... "I gave a little speech in the studio before we started [recording] saying: 'Every mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, child, moose and beaver will see and hear this.' "I’ll be very curious to know how Canadians respond to this." ... "The year before last, [TSN] first approached me about doing something and we'd just finished a Rush tour. ... This year was just perfect. I had time off and I was reinvigorated," he said. "I knew the [Hockey Theme] arranger because he was at the Buddy Rich tribute show. We needed a whole orchestra [17 musicians in all] but I knew people who could arrange that. It all came together." ... "We played the song a few hundred times. We filmed every step of the way as a documentary [for the Drum Channel website]. I'd go home and listen to it and we only had a minute for the song but I'd say: 'There's room for more drums in there.' I put everything I knew into that one minute," Peart said. "I start off with some Latin patterns I'd just been working on. There are three different rhythmic steps. There's a faster one at the start, then some slower rhythms, then the climax with the full Buddy Rich snare drum roll. As a band, we wanted to be true to the melody of the song. At the same time, I’m not going to play those parade drums." ... "I'm not co-ordinated; I say I'm dis-co-ordinated because I can get my four limbs to work independently," he said. "I was hopeless as a sports player as a kid. But drumming gave me the endurance so if I couldn't do things well I could at least do them for a long time [hence the cycling, swimming and cross-country skiing]." ...
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UPDATE - 1/15@10:30AM: Here's the video with just Neil playing (thanks Asif):
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As was announced yesterday, Neil Peart's new percussive-centric version of The Hockey Theme debuted this evening during the Philadelphia Flyers at Toronto Maple Leafs game on The Sports Network (TSN). The video of the song has been posted to the TSN website and has also shown up on YouTube. The video runs about 1-minute long and features Neil pounding away on his custom NHL kit along with hockey video highlights interspersed throughout. Here's the video:
You can check out Neil's custom NHL kit at the 2010 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA this week (thanks rosmakloma).
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