UPDATE - 11/12@1:08PM: Here's some video coverage of the awards ceremony including a short interview with Geddy Lee (thanks RushFanForever).
----- snip -----
UPDATE - 11/12@12:47PM: I've been asked to take down the AT&T commercial video for the time being as it was a rough cut that was not supposed to be shared. They asked nicely, so I'm doing it. :)
Another week, another award for Rush. Wednesday night Rush received the Living Legend award at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards. Alice Cooper hosted the event at The Roundhouse in London, England and Geddy Lee was on hand to accept the award on the band's behalf. The Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage was nominated for DVD/Film of the Year but lost to Oil City Confidential. You can check out photos from the event at Getty Images and Zimbio.com. While Geddy was in town for the awards ceremony he made an appearance at a London screening of the Rush documentary Monday night and took part in a post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen. You can check out some photos and video from this event in this post. Geddy also gave a few interviews while he was in town for the ceremony including this one with the BBC and another with Planet Rock radio (about 126 minutes in). In both of these interviews along with the post-documentary screening Q&A Geddy was asked about the band's touring plans for next year. In the Planet Rock interview Geddy had the following to say:
... yeah, we're in discussions right now trying to firm up some dates so I think we're gonna try to come over here in the late spring. If all goes well - we're supposed to be going right back into the studio and finish the work that we started before the last tour but there's something about the way the Time Machine Tour came together that we'd like as many Rush fans as possible to experience it. So I think we're gonna try and bring that tour to Europe...
And in the BBC interview Geddy remarks:
... I'm not sure we're quite ready to put that tour away, ... Now we're thinking we might come back in spring and play some shows in Britain. ... For a while we steered away from big festivals, because you've got to be prepared to strip it all down for that kind of show, ... But we played some festivals this summer in Canada and in the US and they went really well. So it's got us thinking that maybe that's something we would do over here in the future. ...
So this essentially confirms the rumors we'd been hearing that Rush is planning a second leg of the Time Machine Tour and that Europe will likely be included on the tour itinerary, along with a possible festival or two. The band wouldn't be in discussions if they weren't already committed to touring, so this is a very positive sign. To me it sounds like a done deal; they are just working out all the details at this point. And although US/Canadian dates aren't mentioned since the focus in these interviews was on the UK/Europe, from everything I'm hearing North American dates will also be included.
In addition to the Classic Rock Living Legend award, Rush received the Legend of Live award at the 2010 Billboard Touring Awards last week and were the subject of a big feature in the latest edition of Billboard Magazine. The feature was posted online over the weekend and consists of an interview with Geddy Lee, a short article written by Neil Peart and an article feature titled Rush: Steady as they Go which contains interview snippets with Geddy Lee and manager Ray Danniels, including this quote which I had mentioned in an earlier Friday updates post:
... At press time, Rush had just wrapped four sellout shows in South American stadiums and found itself in the sweet spot of needing to decide whether to resume its Time Machine tour or finish work on its 20th studio album, "Clockwork Angels." "There's a lot of pressure to continue the tour because it's been so successful," says longtime manager Ray Danniels of SRO Entertainment. "But there's also that artistic drive to finish the record." ...
... More touring is inevitable, according to Danniels. He predicts that "Clockwork Angels" will arrive either at the end of 2011 or in first-quarter 2012. And as far as the long-term future is concerned, Rush is fit to keep logging plenty more career miles. "I think they will go for a long time," Danniels says when asked how long Rush
will remain active. "They talk about 10 years. I think as long as they remain healthy, I don't see them not doing this. They're enjoying it." ...
The November, 2010 issue of Modern Drummer magazine is a special collector's edition titled The Drummer: Classic Rock and features profiles on some of the greatest rock drummers of all time including Rush's Neil Peart:
An educated, entertaining, essential addition to every drummer's library-and to the history of modern drumming-The Drummer: Classic Rock Collector's Edition magazine builds on content from Modern Drummer's Top-selling The Drummer book with expanded coverage of drumming royalty from the golden age of rock 'n' roll.
Featuring: John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Alex Van Halen, Neil Peart, Carl Palmer, Keith Moon, Ian Paice, Mitch Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Bill Bruford, Charlie Watts, Jim Keltner, Phil Collins, Russ Kunkel, John Densmore, Liberty DeVitto, Carter Beauford, Don Brewer, Robert Wyatt, Neal Smith, Clive Bunker, Danny Seraphine, Barriemore Barlow, Carmine Appice, and many more.
Reader Marcelo N also let me know that Neil is featured on the cover of the latest edition of Modern Drummer Brazil along which will include an exclusive backstage interview with Neil.
The 6th installment in the Guitar Hero video game series - Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock - was released back in September. Rush's 2112 is one of the centerpieces of the game which includes a Quest Mode where heroes must play all 7 parts of the song. This portion of the game roughly follows the storyline of 2112 and is narrated by the members of Rush. You can check out all the details and watch a preview video in this post. Reader bookworm2112 let me know that earlier this week Guitar Hero released the Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock - Rock 1 Track Pack for the game which comes with 10 tracks including Rush's Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta and Limelight. The track pack along with the individual tracks are now available for purchase for the XBox, WII and Playstation.
Back on September 3rd Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado debuted her rendition of Rush's Time Stand Still at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, IL. You can check out a video of the performance including some behind-the-scenes footage at this link. The song is featured in the Canadian film Score: A Hockey Musical which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month and stars Furtado as an ardent hockey fan. A studio recording of the track was released to Furtado's YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago and you can listen to it at this link. Geddy Lee was asked about the cover in his recent BBC interview and whether Rush would reciprocate with a cover of I'm Like a Bird:
... "Interesting idea!" Lee chuckles. "She was part of a Canadian film called Score: A Hockey Musical. We got a call that she wanted to sing that song. "It's really sweet of her to do that. I don't know how she came about choosing that song, but she obviously responded to it." ...
Reader ishness let me know about another prominent musician who recently covered Time Stand Still. John Kadlecik (Furthur, Dark Star Orchestra) performed a live cover of the song at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, MD on October 8th. You can check out a video of it at this link.
This coming Sunday, November 14th is the 10th anniversary of the release of Geddy Lee's first and only solo album My Favorite Headache. The album peaked at #52 on the Billboard 200 and featured Geddy's friend Ben Mink and Soundgarden's Matt Cameron. You can check out a video of the album's electronic press kit at this link.
Alex Lifeson's Toronto night club - The Orbit Room - will hold their 16th anniversary party this evening. Big Al often shows up for this annual soiree so if you are in the area you might want to stop by.
The newspaper for Brock University in St. Catharines, ON recently ran a story on the 40th anniversary of a rock festival called Rock at Brock that took place on September 20, 1970 where The Guess Who headlined. One other band that took the stage that day was JR Flood, one of Neil Peart's early bands. One of the subjects of the article was former student John Culp who attended the concert and had this to say in the comments:
fellow technician Les Szabo reports that famed drummer Neil Peart of the band Rush was at this concert drumming for J.R. Flood
Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.
Bob McCown of Toronto sports radio station The Fan 590 recently saw the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage and was so impressed that he can't stop talking about it. On his show Primetime Sports this week he's been saying how he was never really a Rush fan but after seeing the documentary he wants to go out and buy all of their music. You can listen to Bob talk about Rush in this clip from Wednesday from the 31:09 mark to the 34:10 mark, and in this clip from Tuesday from the 29:54 mark to the 31:40 mark. Thanks to jupeguyowensound and Bigleaf for the heads up.
Speaking of the Rush documentary, reader RushFanForever pointed me to this article in the Middle School Journal which uses the documentary to illustrate the importance of early adolescence in shaping our adult lives:
One of the highlights of my summer was seeing the film Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary about a Canadian rock trio that happens to be one of my all-time favorite bands. One particular scene captured my interest as a middle grades educator. Early in the film, the camera pans Fisherville Junior High School in North York, Ontario, where two of the band members-Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson-first met.
What struck me about this part of the film was how it portrayed early adolescence as a critical turning point in the lives of these individuals. The lifelong friendship between Lee and Lifeson began, like so many other deep and enduring human relationships, during early adolescence. This was also a time in life when they discovered a love and talent for music-an avocation that eventually became their profession. ...
While Rush was in Chile last month, Geddy Lee managed to make the pages of Chilean celebrity tabloid Las Últimas Noticias. You can check out a scan of the article by clicking on the thumbnail. Here's a loose translation courtesy RushFanForever:
Rock star walked in Bellavista: Geddy Lee, Rush's voice, before his show tonight.
Dressed in a black jockey and a shirt the same color, Geddy Lee, lead singer of Rush, tried to pass as possible yesterday by the Barrio Bellavista. But even if you put glasses and walked in as anchor, he could not. Fans of rock and a keen photographer caught him right in the tour and he was just resigned.
Accompanied by a redhead, the multifaceted musician of 57 years (apart from singing, playing bass, and keyboard) had gone to lunch at the sector and took the pleasant summer Saturday to take a few laps.
The log ride remained mainly on the street where kindly Constitution, Gary Lee Weinrib (his real name) gave autographs and posed for fans circumstantial photographed. He also left empty-handed.
Armed with a camera, the big man widely portrayed her visit, took pictures of the bohemian neighborhood until they got tired.
After that, a range of production came to pick him and returned to the hotel and rest for the show will offer next to Rush tonight at the National Stadium.
Music journalist Ritchie Yorke recently conducted an interview with drummer Jason Bonham about his new project Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience. When discussing a recent show in Montreal, Bonham recounts the following:
... It was also the first night we added a non-LED ZEPPELIN song. I decided to tip my hat to Neil Peart, and at the end of "Whole Lotta Love" we went straight in to RUSH's "Tom Sawyer". Neil was the next guy I got into after Dad died. I bought "2112" on vinyl and everyone was saying, "this guy is the shit, you gotta listen to this guy play drums." And I think after Dad died he won every rock drummer poll and has done since, he really is a phenomenal player. Plays a totally different style than Dad and myself, but I admire anyone that comes along and is a master of his craft. He's had a lot of grief in his life and he pulled through it. Bad things happen to good people unfortunately - and my thoughts are with Neil and I feel he has a wonderful life with his new chosen way and I respect him very highly. ...
You can watch a video clip of their Tom Sawyer tribute at this link. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.
A new television commercial for AT&T high speed internet is slated to release in the next week or so which has a central theme/storyline revolving around a Rush t-shirt. In the 30-second commercial, a new father is riding around on a giant computer mouse (to simulate surfing the internet) while wearing a black Rush explosion t-shirt. He's traveling from store to store trying to decide what to purchase for his new baby daughter. He finally ends up going into a music store and happily buys his daughter a Rush onesie to match his t-shirt. You can watch the commercial below or at this link.
That's it for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!
NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.
