UPDATE - 6/26@8:27PM: John has uploaded a few more rehearsal photos to his website.
UPDATE - 6/26@1:47PM: RatCon photos here, here and here. They look like they are having a blast.
UPDATE - 6/25@2:08PM: Unfortunately it looks like VH1 Classic has now removed the Rush Classic Albums special from its schedule. It also no longer appears on the listings for all the major cable/satellite providers. My guess is that someone at VH1 Classic screwed up. :(
Today's Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony for Rush will kick off a huge week for our favorite Canadian power trio. Tomorrow the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage will get its television premiere along with the TV premiere of the 2112/Moving Pictures Classic Albums documentary on VH1 Classic. Then this coming Tuesday, June 29th Rush embarks on the Time Machine Tour at the Hard Rock Pavilion in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Rush documentary gets released on DVD/Blu-ray. In addition to all that, the east coast Rush fan gathering RatCon 2010 takes place this weekend in Baltimore, MD. It's a particularly good time to be a Rush fan.
In just a few hours at 11:30AM PST (2:30PM EST) the ceremony granting Rush the 2,412th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame will take place at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Musician's Institute. Donna Halper along with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan will be on hand at the ceremony to introduce the band. I'll be posting an open thread in celebration of the ceremony shortly, where I'll be sharing any pictures and videos that I can gather.
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage finished up its theatrical run this past week and will get its television premiere tomorrow evening at 9PM on VH1, VH1 Classic and Palladia. As an added bonus, the Rush 2112/Moving Pictures Classic Albums special will air on VH1 Classic at 8PM just before the documentary. The film will also be released on DVD/Blu-ray on June 29th complete with over an hour of bonus materials. Earlier this week we learned that moviepostershop.com had made available the movie poster from the film in 2 sizes; 27"x40" for $24.99 and 11"x17" for $14.99. Due to overwhelming interest from Rush fans coming from rushisaband.com, Wednesday moviepostershop.com began offering an exclusive 25% discount for RIAB readers. Just enter the coupon code rushband when ordering your poster. The coupon code is good through July 7th. Reader phreakboy also let me know that NMR/Aquarius will be making a 24"x36" version of the poster available in the near future. The Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage official YouTube channel continues to add exclusive preview clips on a regular basis. They now have a total of 12 videos posted.
As I'd mentioned above, the Rush 2112/Moving Pictures Classic Albums special will air on VH1 Classic tomorrow at 8PM before the television premiere of the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. The special will also be released to DVD/Blu-ray this Fall on September 28th. According to Altsounds.com, the DVD/Blu-ray will contain 50 minutes of bonus footage (thanks RushFanForever).
The Rush Time Machine Tour kicks off this coming Tuesday, June 29th at the Hard Rock Pavilion in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton's MySpace page, the band has finished up production rehearsals in Los Angeles and are ready to head on to Albuquerque to get ready for opening night. Over the past couple of days the official Sabian Cymbals Facebook page has posted a couple of teaser photos showing the symbals from Neil Peart's new Time Machine Tour kit. You can check out the pics by clicking on the thumbnails above. Rush tour photographer and pyrotechnician John Arrowsmith now has 4 pages of production rehearsal teaser images posted to his website. If you haven't seen them yet you can check them out at this link (possible *SPOILERS*). John also tells me that from here on out he'll be posting photos to the Rush.com Multimedia: Rush on the Road section. Speaking of the tour, reader Thomas P pointed out that Live Nation is now promoting some limited no service fee tickets through the month of June, including Rush tickets.
This weekend, FMQB Productions and the Legends of Classic Rock are presenting an hour-long radio special titled In Conversation with Rush where Q107's Jeff Woods interviews Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. They cover a number of subjects including the Time Machine tour, the Moving Pictures album, the Rush documentary, and the band's upcoming 2011 album Clockwork Angels. The interview will air on radio stations across the country this weekend and throughout the summer. John at Cygnus-X1.net has also made the interview available for download in 4 segments at this link. You can also listen using the player below.
On Monday Billboard.com posted a new interview with Alex Lifeson where Alex talks about the upcoming album and tour. He reveals that Rush actually has a total of 6 songs recorded including the recently-released tracks Caravan and BU2B. The Caravan single has been getting decent airplay on rock radio stations and has broken into the top 20 on the Mediabase Rock Chart. At the time of this posting it's #14.
Speaking of Lerxst, earlier this week we learned that Alex now endorses the Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody 12. You can check out all the details in this post.
RatCon 2010 - billed as The Astral Door to the Time Machine Tour - will take place this weekend at Club Xanadu (The Shred's House) in beautiful Severna Park, MD (outside Baltimore). Events will include an ON-SITE 3-hour concert from Rush tribute band Cygnals tonight, an outdoor big-screen viewing of the Classic Albums Rush special and the television premiere of Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage tomorrow night and - interspersed throughout - a lot of great Rush-themed food, beverage, games, prizes, conversation and loads of Rush music! You can check out all the details and learn about the origin of the Rush Rat and RatCon at the website here. You can also follow RatCon on Facebook. And to see how much fun we all had at RatCon 2009 last year go to the RatCon 2009 tab on the RatCon site and check out all the pictures.
Reader Jamie C let me know that the June/July issue of Chill Magazine has Rush on the cover and a feature story titled The Summer of Rush - Our Biggest Musical Export. The feature includes a 2-page interview with Alex Lifeson which you can check out online at this link (pages 20-21).
The Quill & Quire reported yesterday the following news regarding Geddy Lee and his friend Dave Bidini's book Baseballissimo:
Geddy Lee, lead singer of Rush, has optioned the film and TV rights to Dave Bidini's Baseballissimo. Published in 2005 by McClelland & Stewart, Baseballissimo is the writer's story of his travels to the small town of Nettuno, the baseball capital of Italy since 1944. The deal was arranged by Sarah Cooper of The Saint Agency on behalf of Samantha Haywood of the Transatlantic Literary Agency.
There's also this CBC article which adds the following:
... Aside from being a Rush fan, Bidini also delivered the induction speech as the veteran Toronto rockers were ushered into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in March.
"Ged was one of the first people to really get behind the book, which was a thrill for me, obviously," Bidini wrote in an email on Thursday.
"It's early days yet, but I think he's a natural producer. And really, once you've helped run one of the greatest and most respected rock and roll bands of all time, the film biz has got nothing on you, I figure."
It's not yet clear what Geddy's plans are regarding the film and TV rights.
Last week I'd mentioned how ex-Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable passed away June 7th at the age of 40. Cable was a huge Rush fan and at his funeral earlier this week Rush was played as his coffin was carried into the church:
The unusual tone was set right from the off as the late wildman's black coffin, heaped with crimson carnations and emblazoned with AC/DC's lightning flash logo, was carried into the church to the strains of Canadian rock band Rush - whose percussionist Neil Peart Stuart idolised - blaring over the PA.
Reader Sandy Foster (aka mommy_of_zuzu) and her husband were recently the subject of a New York Times article titled In the Catskills, Comfort in a Gingerbread House. The article profiles the couple's 14-acre getaway in the Catskills complete with a Victorian cottage, a man-cave and a trailer. Sandy mentions how listening to Rush helped get her through some tough times. She describes how ecstatic she was when she finished building her Victorian cottage:
... "I was [ecstatic]. I remember the night I finished as clear as a bell: November 1. I was listening to Rush at very high volume over and over, it was freezing cold, I was starting to paint, but the moon was out. I looked up at the moon, twirling, with my arms out. I was ready to cry." ...
Sandy tells me that the song in question was High Water.
Reader, Rush fan, author and economics professor Steven Horwitz recently wrote an article for the Freeman online called Making a Calling Succeed - We can learn from the band Rush, where he uses Rush as an example of 3 guys who succeeded at their own calling.
Here's a cryptic video (possible *SPOILER*) that was posted to YouTube a few days ago. The file name is rushcarvanvidstagetoreh3.mp4 and the caption reads only Scr. test Rush LA TMT Caravan. So it looks to be a screen test for the stage video for Caravan from production rehearsals. Some of the images match up with those posted by John Arrowsmith so this could certainly be legit.
That's it for this week! I'll be posting an open thread for the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony shortly. Rush on!
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