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Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Former Judas Priest drummer Les Binks recalls opening for Rush in new interview

Thu, Jun 3, 2021@12:13PM | comments

Les-2016-3NFormer Judas Priest drummer Les Binks was recently interviewed for The Metal Voice podcast and spoke a little about opening for Rush back in 1978. Binks was a member of the band in the late 70s and performed on 1978's Stained Class and Killing Machine. Priest opened for Rush at a couple of shows back in 1978 on the A Farewell to Kings tour, and Binks recalls the following about the experience:

... Well, you know, I wasn't familiar with Rush's material at that time. It was an earlier part of their career. We had been on first, I was standing at the side of the stage watching a show, and I only caught a short portion of the show. I noticed all these big banks of Marshall stacks that they had on stage, which looked very impressive, but when I stood at the side of the stage, I could see that behind the Marshall stacks there was a Fender Twin Reverb miked up. That's what the guitar player [Alex Lifeson] - so, the guitar player was actually playing through a Fender Twin Reverb, but all the Marshall stacks were there just for show. ....

Binks was also asked about Neil Peart:

... I was so sad to hear the news of him passing away, but he was a fantastic drummer, very well respected. What can I say? One of the best....

You can listen to the interview below or at this location with the Rush bit coming in at around the 24:15 mark. Thanks to Ultimate-Guitar.com for the heads up and transcript.

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