Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Feb 20, 2009@10:11AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 2/22@10:50AM: Donna Halper gave us a report in the comments yesterday detailing her experience being interviewed for the Rush Documentary in New York a few days ago:

... Just got back from New York City and was honoured to participate in the up-coming Rush documentary. It was great to meet Sam and his crew, and we chatted (and them filmed) for nearly 2 hours. Knowing TV and video the way I do, that will be edited down to about five minutes!!!

Mostly, the questions were about my experiences in those early days, as well as what Alex & Geddy & Neil were like back then, why Rush has lasted and gained new fans over these many years, and of course, why I think Rush are not in the R&RHOF-- oh did I get off on a rant about that!!! And as I have said before, when asked to name which Rush album I felt was important, I simply deflected the question because each LP/CD was unique in its own way.

I am much more comfortable doing radio than I am doing video, so I hope I didn't come across like a looney tune. It was great to reminisce about those early years-- I even brought the original Moon LP, the one I first played when I was auditioning it for WMMS, the one that I dropped the needle on "Working Man." The crew wanted to take pictures of me with that historic album, so we did.

There are gonna be some very interesting people talking about why they love Rush, including members of Smashing Pumpkins and tennis star John McEnroe, among others. Sam is hoping it will be ready for release later this year. ...

... The documentary is being done by professionals, and these are also people who personally love Rush's music, so it ought to be a very fair and respectful portrayal of the band's career. It was a privilege to be a part of the project, and I am eager to see it when it comes out. It will also be available on DVD for purchase.

----- snip -----

It was certainly a busy week for Rush news, especially considering that the band is currently on a break. Over the weekend we learned that Rush was inducted into the Playboy Music Hall of Fame. We were treated to 2 new interviews from Alex Lifeson this past week; one from Guitar Player magazine, and another from MusicRadar.com where Alex spoke a good bit about the plans for Rush's next studio effort. We also were fed some more Rush audio coolness from MitA, got to see the original handwritten lyrics sheets from Fly By Night, dug up an old EQ magazine article on the making of Snakes & Arrows, and were able to see a preview of the 2010 Rush wall calendar. On top of all that we got all the juicy details regarding the upcoming East Coast Rush gathering, RatCon 2009.

Speaking of Rush gatherings, the dates for the 9th annual RushCon were announced this past Sunday. The event will take place the weekend of July 24th in Toronto, ON. I'll post the details as soon as they are available. Thanks to LVS_R for the heads up.

PuppetKing2112 over at Counterparts reports that Rolling Stone has reviewed Rush's upcoming Retrospective 3 greatest hits package. True to form, the review is not very flattering:

Prog-y arena giants hit the Nineties, with mixed results

By the Nineties, Rush had all but abandoned their synthesizers for the Zeppelin-style riffs and prog-pop melodies of their Seventies albums. This one-CD (plus bonus DVD) anthology tracks the band as it drifts from the summery, grunge-flavored anthem "Earthshine" to the acoustic-based "Nobody's Hero," a sweet, if clumsy, ode to a dead gay man and an abused woman - with occasional departures like the New Wave-ish "Roll the Bones." One thing Rush never lost: the comic-book profundity of lyrics such as "They travel in the time of the prophets" ("Dreamline"). Unless you're a Rush loyalist or a member of Coheed and Cambria, you can safely skip Retrospective III. MARK KEMP

Retrospective 3 will be released a week from next Tuesday on March 3rd.

Development of the much anticipated Rush Documentary from Sam Dunn and Scott McFadyen seems to be progressing nicely. Rush discoverer Donna Halper posted in the comments on the Alex Lifeson Guitar Player interview thread that she'd be in New York City this week to be interviewed for the film. She's bringing some rare memorabilia and some memories of those early days. I'm sure Donna has a lot of great stuff to contribute. The documentary is due to release sometime later this year.

If you're a Rush fan it's very likely you are also a Yes fan. So most of you probably already know that Yes hired a tribute band singer to fill the shoes of ill-stricken member Jon Anderson on the band's current tour. You may also have heard the unfortunate news announced just yesterday that the band was canceling the remaining dates of the tour due to bassist Chris Squire's recent surgery. The replacement singer is Canadian Benoit David and back in November he was featured in an interview in issue #309 of the Yes fanzine Notes From the Edge. He mentions Rush at one point in the interview when asked about other music he likes:

... BD: I'm not much into the newer stuff; I'm not too aware of the newer talents. I listen to a lot of Yes music; I've listened to some Genesis, the older stuff. What do I listen to? I'm not a guy who carries 100 CDs in my car and listens to music all the time. I like to listen to the silence a lot. I pick up my good old records and listen to that; I like to listen to Queen, I like to listen to Rush, that sort of thing.

MOT: I was going to ask about Rush, your being a Canadian and liking progressive music.

BD: I mean, aren't they great? There was a song playing on the radio just a bit earlier today - wow.

MOT: You didn't see their SNAKES AND ARROWS tour, did you?

BD: I didn't.

MOT: Oh, it was phenomenal.

BD: Yeah, our son, he goes to all their shows. He's crazy about them. They're so talented. ...

Reader Spindrifter let me know that Geddy Lee is listed among the Top 5 Bass Players of All Time at CreativeLoafing.com. Geddy came in at #4. And Jodeo alerted me to the fact that Alex Lifeson made IGN Music's list of 10 Great Prog Rock Guitarists.

Amazon's latest release date for Neil Peart's upcoming book The Roadshow Illustrated Companion is now listed as June 20th. This thing has been pushed back so many times I've lost track. Let's hope we'll finally see it sometime this year. Thanks to DigitalMan745 for the news.

Reader Jeff Hamilton (aka RedSectorA from the Counterparts board) has contributed many Rush article scans to this site and others over the years (including the recent Alex Lifeson Guitar Player interview). Jeff also writes a bit himself and wanted me to share with everyone an article he wrote for a college newspaper back from the R30 tour titled Rush: celebrate the moment.

Last week I asked everyone to go over to the Saltyrockz t-shirts site and vote for Rush. They were running a poll to determine the theme of their next t-shirt; Rush or Metallica. Saltyrockz owner/operator Howard Johnson (a former rock journalist who used to write for a number of UK rock magazines) emailed me to let me know that because of RIAB readers, Metallica was crushed in the poll and that their next shirt will have a Rush theme. It'll be available for purchase at Saltyrockz.com this coming Tuesday, February 24th. Howard also mentioned that in addition to the launch of the t-shirt there will be a guest post at the Saltyrockz blog from a writer friend of his who knows Rush and had the honor of basting the chickens at the Birmingham show on the 2007 leg of the Snakes & Arrows tour. The site has some very cool t-shirts, I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with for the Rush design.

Rush was discussed in the commentary during a recent cricket match between the West Indies and England in Antigua. The Rush banter begins at about the 14:30 mark in the commentary which you can listen to at this link. Thanks to Distant Early Warning for the heads up.

And I'll leave you this week with this video of a high school string orchestra from New Jersey performing an arrangement of Rush's Vital Signs (thanks zenarcade2003):

Have a good weekend everybody!

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