Rush is a Band

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

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Dec 10, 2010@12:07PM | comments removed/disabled

Pre-sales for 10 of the 13 dates on the Eastern US/Canada portion of Rush's 2011 Time Machine Tour kicked off earlier this week and finished up over the last day or so. Regular ticket sales for Nashville, Madison Square Garden, and Hamilton began earlier this morning at 10AM. Regular ticket sales for Greensboro, Louisville, Toledo, Cleveland and Montreal will kick off tomorrow with Florida and Chicago starting on Monday. After that things will quiet down until after the New Year when Rush should be announcing specific dates and ticket sale information for the Southern/Western US/Canada leg of the tour which will kick off in June. All we know about this portion of the tour so far is what was mentioned in a Rush.com newsletter that went out a couple weeks ago:

... The tour also returns to North America in June with performances in select markets that will include cities such as New Orleans, Austin, Vancouver and a very special return play in Los Angeles - more information on these dates and more soon! ...

The other big piece of tour news was Rush's announcement last weekend that they'll be filming the April 15th show in Cleveland for a future DVD release. From Rush.com:

As a tribute to the US city that first played their music, Rush confirms that the Cleveland performance of their Time Machine show on April 15th at the Quicken Loans Arena will be filmed for full-length release. Cleveland is remarkable for being one of the very first US cities where the band performed, in addition to being the first city to provide American airplay. This will be a must-see event for Rush fans in Cleveland - and for everyone able to make the road trip as it is will also mark the first live full-length filming on US soil ...

Classic Rock Magazine's January 2011 issue is a special 156-page edition dedicated to last month's Classic Rock Awards where Rush was given the Living Legend Award. Geddy Lee along with John Paul Jones, Ronnie Wood and Imelda May grace the cover and there's a feature story on Rush where Geddy Lee is interviewed. Geddy talks about the Moving Pictures album, the band's upcoming UK tour and a range of other subjects. You can check out the article by clicking on the thumbnails above.

Speaking of Geddy, rock journalist/author Greg Prato recently released a new book titled MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video which features interview segments with Geddy Lee and several other famous rock musicians. Prato has interviewed Rush in the past including this recent Geddy Lee interview for Rolling Stone. Geddy's quotes appear throughout the book on a variety of MTV-related topics, including stories behind the videos for Tom Sawyer, Subdivisions, Distant Early Warning and The Big Money. The book is 427 pages long and priced at $24.99, but is currently on sale for $22.49. You can view samples from the book and order a copy at this link.

Music supervisor PJ Bloom of Fox's hit musical TV show Glee was recently interviewed for Vanity Fair magazine and had the following to say regarding who he dreams of featuring in a future episode:

... Personally, I'd also love to see the ’80s hair-band episode, the punk-rock episode and, of course, the Rush episode—but then who wouldn’t want to see the New Directions sing “Tom Sawyer”?! ...

Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

Canadian journalist and announcer Mark Dailey passed away this past Monday in Toronto at the age of 57 after a battle with kidney cancer. Daily had long been believed by many Rush fans as the spoken voice in the chorus of Rush's Subdivisions. However, Dailey himself dispelled this as an urban myth in this 2009 CityTV interview:

That's been an urban myth for years. It's not my voice on 'Subdivisions' by Rush but I continue to get credit. I've tried to dispel it but won't go away.

Neil Peart later confirmed this in a 2010 interview with JAM! Showbiz where he was discussing Jacob Moon's performance of Subdivisions at Rush's induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this year. Neil revealed that it was actually himself who provided the voiceover:

... "We all shared Jacob Moon's performance of Subdivisions quite a long time ago and sent it to each other, 'Hey have you seen this?' because it's such a beautiful cover. The imaginative way that he uses the little cassette player to get my voice in there. It's superb." ...

Thanks to Power Windows for the information and the links.

Canadian magazine Macleans recently posted an article to their website called Second Life: Newsmaker Comebacks where they highlight celebrities who have made a recent comeback, and Rush is featured on their list:

The rock group has been performing since 1968, but the 2010 documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (in which Gene Simmons calls them "crazy Canadians" for their clean-living style) introduced them to a broader audience. The film was a success on the festival circuit, inspiring the band's Time Machine Tour, where they mostly played hits from their long career.

Comeback? They never went away! Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the heads up.

Speaking of John over at Cygnus-X1.net, he's holding his 4th Annual Holiday Rush Contest in celebration of the holiday season and the amazing year that was 2010 for Rush fans the world over. As in years past, he'll be giving away a great prize package filled with Rush goodies including the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, the 2112 and Moving Pictures Classic Albums DVD, the Time Machine Tour tourbook, a 2011 Rush Wall Calendar, the Caravan/BU2B CD single, a custom Cygnus-X1.Net CX1 Logo Stein and one mystery gift. For more information and to enter the contest click here. The contest will end on or about December 24th with a winner being announced shortly thereafter. Thanks John!

Speaking of contests, there's a new contest at the Rush Backstage Club where you could win a Moving Pictures-themed 2011 Rush Wall Calendar. The contest runs through December 22nd and you can enter at this link. Thanks to hermy for the heads up.

VH1 will be airing a documentary special on rock groupies this coming Wednesday, December 15th called Let's Spend the Night Together. One of the groupies featured in the special is Connie Hamzy. Hamzy was on Howard Stern's radio show Wednesday promoting the documentary and mentioned the boys from Rush:

... Connie said there was one drummer who got away: “I haven’t had Neal Pert. That I regret.” She has, however, banged the other two guys in Rush. ...

Well... 2 out of 3 ain't bad I guess. Thanks to Doug B and Tony H for the heads up.

Author and Rush fan Kat Lively will soon be releasing a book titled Dead Barchetta, which is a work of fiction with several Rush tie-ins including a main character who is a musician nicknamed Lerxst. The book was part of a recent RushCon auction where the winning bidder was written in as a character in the book. Dead Barchetta will release on December 21st (International Rush Day) and you can find out more about the book and pre-order your copy at this link.

Rifftrax.com is a website produced by the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which creates downloadable audio commentaries to play over movies. During the Rifftrax for the recent film Twilight: Eclipse there's a part where Edward says There's no rush. and Kevin Murphy replies with, Yes there is. They toured this year!. Thanks to Mark Stench II for the heads up. Rush references are a regular occurrence with Rifftrax just like they were with Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Reader Jim P works for the Canadian National Railway and when he went into work recently he noticed a new locomotive that will be of particular interest to Rush fans. It's a red locomotive made by GE that has a big number 2112 on it. Cool!

Between Sun & Moon is an online handcrafted jewelry store with Rush-inspired merchandise owned and operated by Rush fan and rushisaband reader Katy. Each uniquely handcrafted piece is named for and inspired by the lyrics of Rush. Even if your recipient isn't a Rush fan, you can't go wrong with unique handmade jewelry and a personalized gift message. The Holidays are right around the corner and - as she has done several times in the past - Katy is offering Free US Priority Mail shipping with any $30 purchase to rushisaband readers; Just select Standard Mail and email Katy after you place your order using the code RUSHISABAND. Place your order by December 20th to ensure delivery by Christmas Day. But don’t delay ... all pieces are one of a kind!

Reader Dogman let me know that Geddy Lee made Music Radar's list of the 30 greatest lead singers of all time, coming in at #19. You can check out the entire list at this link.

Boy Genius Report recently reviewed the new Blackberry Playbook and used some Rush to demonstrate the music app (thanks Scott P). You can check out the video review at this link where the reviewer plays some Tom Sawyer from Rush in Rio at about the 45-second mark.

Inspired by watching the Grammy-nominated Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage on their tour bus, New Orleans based alt-rockers Better Than Ezra recently paid tribute to Rush at a live performance last Thursday night at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee, WI. The band took a couple of minutes out of their set to play snippets of a few Rush songs including Limelight, The Spirit of Radio, Freewill and Red Barchetta. They apparently did something similar at their recent Minneapolis and Chicago shows as well. You can watch some bootleg video of the tribute below or at this link.

That's it for this week. I wish everyone good luck in purchasing Rush tickets. Have a great weekend!

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.

Share