Rush had a very busy week, taking the Time Machine Tour to enthusiastic crowds in Hershey, New York City, Chicago and Toledo. Tonight they head back to Cleveland, OH where they got their big break back in 1974 to film their first live concert video shot entirely in the US. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a series of articles on Rush in today's edition including interviews with Geddy Lee and with Donna Halper. The Geddy Lee interview focuses on Rush and their history with the city of Cleveland and why they chose Cleveland to film the DVD:

... "[Cleveland] was enormous for us," singer-bassist Geddy Lee said of the early support. As a token of their undying appreciation, Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart are filming their concert tonight at The Q for a future DVD release. "It feels like full circle to me," Lee said, checking in by phone from a tour stop in Florida. "We realized after all these years that we've shot films in all these different locations. But we've never really shot an entire film in America. We thought, 'Well, that's just wrong.' So where do we want to shoot? And it dawned on me that it was appropriate to shoot in Cleveland, where our entire American adventure began." The band got its big break here in 1974, when Donna Halper, a disc jockey and music director at WMMMS FM/100.7, added the Rush song "Working Man" to the influential radio station's playlist. "I don't think we would've had a record deal if it hadn't been for Donna Halper at WMMS playing 'Working Man' and some other songs from our first album," said Lee, 57. ...

Donna Halper will be a special guest of the band for tonight's show. It will be Halper's first time back in Cleveland since she left WMMS back in 1975. Donna spoke with the Plain Dealer's John Soeder about how she helped discover Rush as the program director at WMMS back in 1974:

... When DJs needed a break, they would put on what was known as a "bathroom song," for obvious reasons. "As the music director, whether I had to go or not wasn't the issue," Halper said during a phone interview. "I had to think about my DJs. I was always looking for long songs that were also good songs, so they could do what they had to do." The Boston native moved here to join WMMS in 1973. The following year, a friend sent her an import record by a Canadian group that she'd never heard of. "As soon as I dropped the needle on 'Working Man,' I knew this was a perfect record for Cleveland," she said. "It was a working-class town. . . . I remember a city where Republic Steel would literally light the sky on fire at night with pollution." Phones at the radio station were lighting up, too, with requests for Rush. The buzz soon led to a record deal for the band, which singled out Halper for special thanks in the liner notes of its self-titled debut album. ...

Geddy also gives the Plain Dealer a track-by-track breakdown of Moving Pictures in this article. And the newspaper also has a feature titled Why isn't Rush in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? where they speak with fan and riab reader Todd Walterspaugh, who is organizing a protest of sorts in front of the Rock Hall today at 3PM:

... To make their displeasure known, some fans plan to gather at 3 p.m. today outside the Rock Hall. Don't expect picket signs or torches, though. This promises to be more of an edgy photo op than a full-blown protest rally. Organizer Todd Walterspaugh of Galesburg, Mich., used Facebook to spread the word about the show of support for Rush. He expects 100 fans to pose for a group photo with a large banner that depicts Rush's "starman" logo mooning the Rock Hall logo, with the hall itself as a backdrop. "Rush deserves to be inducted," Walterspaugh said. "For a lot of fans, it's past due." ...

And here's Geddy's take on the whole Rock Hall fiasco:

... "From a fan's point of view, I totally get it, because there's nothing like championing your team," he said. "When you feel that there's been some injustice, you take it personally. I get that. "But for me, being in the band, it just seems unseemly to get too involved in that whole discussion. It's something that we have no control over. If it happens one day, that would be great. And if it doesn't, my life is not going to stop. It's going to carry on just fine."

Alex Lifeson also had the following to say regarding the choice of Cleveland to film the DVD in a recent interview with the Youngstown Vindicator:

... We wanted to definitely do a documentary of this tour, and the fact we were playing all of “Moving Pictures” was really the important part. We wanted to do it in the States. We hadn’t done one in America yet of all the live DVDs we’ve done, and when Cleveland came up it was like a no-brainer. We said we have to do it in Cleveland. That’s where it all started. ...

Rush's 2011 Time Machine Tour has landed the #3 spot in this week's Billboard Hot Tours rankings. Billboard boxscore numbers for the first 6 shows on the tour are in (see the tour page for details) and Florida, Hershey and Madison Square Garden were all sellouts!

After tonight's show the band takes off to Detroit on Sunday. Then it's back to the homeland to play shows in Hamilton and Montreal on Tuesday and Wednesday before finishing off the first leg of the tour next Friday in Baltimore. Rush will then take an 11-day break before kicking off the European leg of the tour on May 4th in Helsinki, Finland.

Rush's concert in Montreal next Wednesday has caused game 4 of the NHL playoffs between the Montreal Canadians and the Boston Bruins to be rescheduled to Thursday. This ended up being one of the topics of discussion on ESPN Radio's Around the Horn earlier this week. Apparently there was a political debate that had been rescheduled due to the playoffs. So the show's host makes the statement Hockey: greater than politics, but less than Rush?. This sparked a heated but fun debate among the panelists which you can check out at this link at about the 20:30 mark (thanks Rick in Indiana).

Rush's sold out show at Madison Square Garden Sunday night attracted several celebrity Rush fans including DJ Eddie Trunk, former professional baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, legendary music industry veteran Cliff Burnstein (featured in the Rush documentary), and actor Paul Rudd (from I Love You Man). Rolling Stone magazine was also there and conducted a video interview with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee prior to the show. The interview focuses on the Moving Pictures album, runs about 7 minutes long and also contains a few snippets of live footage from the show. You can check it out at this link. And although there were no sightings reported, it looks like Charlie Sheen - who is currently on a tour of his own - may have also been in attendance according to this Rolling Stone article (thanks Brian):

The best part of Charlie Sheen's show last night? If not his whole life? When a fan wandered up to the stage and handed him a backstage laminate for the Rush concert. Charlie was psyched. "I fucking love Rush! Not Rush Limbaugh! Not the sex drug! Rush the band!" It made one wonder: what would Rush make of Charlie Sheen? Does he choose Free Will? Is he an oak or a maple? Is he a wild man standing tall against the CBS Priests of the Temple of Syrinx? Or does he really just want to return to the sitcom limelight, with all its glittering prizes and endless compromises? ...

And as I'd mentioned in last Friday's Rush updates post, Rush and the New York Knicks were the subject of a joke on the Late Show with David Letterman last Wednesday, April 6th. Dave mentioned how the Knicks made the playoffs and then showed a mock commercial where the announcer says:

The New York Knicks are NBA playoff bound. Since no one expected this, Madison Square Garden booked Rush (show brief video of Rush in concert) during the first round of the playoffs. So catch all the Knicks action at the Temple Beth Shalom rec center in Edison, NJ ...

You can watch the video at this link about 2 and a half minutes into Dave's monologue.

An article previewing this past Wednesday night's show in Toledo was published last week in the Toledo Free Press. The article contains several interview snippets with Alex Lifeson where he discusses the tour, Moving Pictures and the upcoming Clockwork Angels album:

... Lifeson said the band has nine songs in various stages of completion for the new CD. At this point, the CD is shaping up to be a musically varied work. "There is the epic song, 'Clockwork Angels,' which is really taking shape. It's a multiparted piece, very dynamic," the guitarist said. "Then there's some stuff that's very melodic and on the softer side, on acoustic, with a strong melody. So there’s great diversity there." ...

You can read the entire article/interview at this link.

And speaking of Lerxst, Premier Guitar magazine's Rebecca Dirks spoke with Alex Lifeson's guitar tech Scott Appleton on location at the United Center in Chicago Tuesday about the gear Lifeson is using on Rush's 2011 Time Machine tour. Appleton shows off all Lifeson's gear, including a couple of Gibson Les Paul Axcess Signature models, his white ES-355, a Fender reissue '52 Tele, two '90s PRS models, his Hughes & Kettner TriAmp MKII Alex Lifeson Signature heads, Steam Punk Statesman 2x12 Cabinets, and a Hughes & Kettner Coreblade. The 12-minute-plus video interview was posted online to the Premier Guitar website yesterday and you can check it out at this link.

Last month KLOS radio show DJ Jim Ladd interviewed Neil Peart to discuss the Moving Pictures 30th anniversary deluxe edition among other subjects. The interview aired last Thursday, April 7th on Jim Ladd's radio show and was made available online earlier this week at this link. Neil also recently conducted an extensive 55-minute video interview for the launch of the new interactive online drumming magazine iDrum where he is featured on the cover. You can check out iDrum and Neil's complete interview at this link. And we are still awaiting word on when Neil's recent interview for the CBC's Strombo (formerly The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos) will air. Neil's 5th full-length book Far and Away: A Prize Every Time was released earlier this month. Reader Jaybird posted his review of the book to his Jaybird's Jottings blog yesterday which you can check out at this link.

Speaking of Neil, the Bubba's Bar 'n' Grill cooking forum at NeilPeart.net is now open for business. Its goal is to be a place for Rush fans to discuss cooking, fine food and travel. It's not to be confused for a Rush forum, although Rush discussion as it relates to travel, food, meeting new people and sharing common interests is allowed. You can check it out and sign up for an account at this link.

The Moving Pictures 5.1 surround sound 30th anniversary deluxe edition hit stores a couple of weeks ago and shot its way back into the Billboard 200 at #137 for the week of April 9th before dropping off the charts for the following week of April 16th. But now it's back! Billboard released their chart for the week of April 23rd yesterday and Moving Pictures is back once again - this time it has moved all the way up to #51! Quite an amazing feat for an album that released over 30 years ago. Initial reviews of the remix have been very positive; Big Picture, Big Sound gave it their highest rating of 4 stars: Outstanding. You can read all the details and find out about some other reviews in this post. The CD+DVD version of the Moving Pictures remix is available via multiple retailers but the CD+Blu-ray is only being sold exclusively through Best Buy for the first 30 days; other retailers will have the Blu-ray version on May 3rd. In addition to the 5.1 remix, the deluxe edition contains an extensive gallery with previously unreleased photos from the original recording sessions, new liner notes by music journalist David Fricke and 30th anniversary artwork by original album designer Hugh Syme. You can get more details regarding the Moving Pictures deluxe edition in this post and order your copy at Amazon (CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray).

Record Store Day takes place tomorrow in the US/Canada/UK. A 7-inch limited edition vinyl release of Rush's Caravan/BU2B will be available at participating stores in the US and Canada, and a 7-inch limited edition vinyl release of BU2B will be available at participating stores in the UK.

The Rush Facebook page announced the following message on Wednesday:

RUSH is now on Ping! Follow RUSH on Ping through your iTunes account and get access to exclusive photos, videos & contests.

Ping is a software-based, music-oriented social networking and recommender system service developed and operated by Apple. Speaking of the Rush Facebook page, it quietly surpassed 1 million followers this past week (thanks Lifeson_Times). The rushisaband Facebook group isn't anywhere close to 1 million members, but it is closing in on 3000. If you are on Facebook and haven't joined the group yet, please check it out at this link. And rushisaband is on Twitter too!

John at Cygnus-X1.net recently posted the seventh installment of his Rush: A Brief History of Time series where he compiles scans and transcriptions of old Rush articles. You can check this latest batch out at this link. Also be sure to check out his chronological listing of all the collected articles from the series at the bottom of the page. This batch contains 35 new articles and advertisements from years past, including seven entries from the 1970's and twenty-one entries from the 1980's which are primarily focused around the release of Permanent Waves. A single entry from the 1990's along with four from the 2000's and two from 2010 round out this edition. I've featured a few of the articles on this site, but the vast majority are new and definitely worth checking out. Thanks John!

Reader Mike S let me know that The Recording Academy, the presenter of the annual Grammy Awards, has announced that they have eliminated or merged 31 categories for next year's 54th edition including the Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Rush has been nominated six times in this category over the years and lost every time.

Back in January I'd mentioned that Lerxst had lent his studio and production expertise to the Toronto-based David Barrett Trio. Late last year after the Time Machine tour the Trio went into Alex's home studio and recorded three tunes: Hollowbody, Sonar, and Disappearance with Alex producing and Rich Chycki handling the engineering duties. Hollowbody was made available as an MP3 download via Amazon.com and iTunes last month and the second track Sonar will be available in May. Here's a promotional video for Sonar and you can watch a video of the band playing Hollowbody at this link. The Trio will be playing in Hamilton after the Rush show April 19th at This Ain't Hollywood, 345 James St. N., Hamilton, ON. They'll also be recording some more tunes after the 2011 leg of the Time Machine tour. David talks about the songs and his collaboration with Lifeson came about in this January post on his blog.

Enter Music Publishing are publishers of drum and percussion magazines worldwide including DRUM! Magazine Their annual Drummies readers poll has been gaining in popularity year after year and in 2010 had over 6500 ballots cast. Voting for this year's Drummies opened last month and you can place your vote until May 1st at this link. Voting has been strong so far with over 4600 ballots cast. Neil Peart has won Drummer of the Year multiple times including the last four years running along with many other awards. This year Enter Music Publishing is having its 20th anniversary and in celebration launched a Drummies Hall Of Fame where Neil Peart along with 10 other famous drummers who have won 5 or more total Drummie awards were inducted. Hall of Fame members are no longer eligible to win in the category for which they were inducted, so Neil Peart can no longer win in the Drummer of the Year category. He can still win in any of the other categories though, so go vote for Neil!

Rocker Sammy Hagar was recently interviewed for the A.V. Club (thanks Will C) to discuss his new book Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock and at one point mentioned a hypothetical band involving him, Sting and Neil Peart to help illustrate a point.

... I’m a songwriter. I’ve got ideas in the closet that just didn’t work out with my band, that I think, “This is a great idea, it’s just the wrong guys.” Like if I were playing with Sting and Neil Peart, this song would be great, you know what I mean? ...

Could this be the next supergroup? ;) In chapter 11 of Red (titled Father's Day) Hagar talks a bit about Rush and manager Ray Danniels. Ray was once married to Alex Van Halen's sister-in-law and Sammy partially blames Ray for Van Halen's breakup as outlined in this Guitars 101 forum post.

Anthony Paterra of Pittsburgh-based, prog-rock duo Zombi was recently interviewed by Greg Prato for Ugo.com and had the following to say when asked if Moving Pictures was Rush's best album:

As far as the band fully realizing their sound, and crafting excellent songs, yes. But I am one of those hardcore fans that can argue Hemispheres or even Power Windows as better in many ways.

The Foo Fighters just released a new documentary called Foo Fighters Back and Forth. Towards the end of the movie Dave Grohl is describing the different sounds and techniques each guitarist brings to the Foo Fighters. When Dave mentions Chris Shiflett it cuts to him playing the guitar riff from Rush's The Spirit Of Radio (thanks Nicholas G). The new Foo Fighters single Rope has been garnering many comparisons to Rush since even before its release back on March 1st. In a recent Foo Fighters interview with MTV debuting the video for Rope drummer Taylor Hawkins joked about the drum pattern in the chorus of the song saying he had thrown a Neil Peart lick in and then went on to say:

I owe Neil Peart a lot of money for the chorus of Rope. I'm splitting my royalties on that song with Neil Peart.

You can watch the video from this portion of the interview at this link.

Big Picture, Big Sound had fun with their recent review of Denon's 2112 (AVR-2112CI) home theater receiver, making several Rush comments and references due to the 2112 model number. Their review is titled Denon's 2112 (AVR-2112CI): Rush Fans, Your Home Theater Receiver Has Arrived and begins as follows:

A high-powered metallic beast screams with excitement and fury while deftly plucking digital images and music from the ether, immersing you in a wash of crystal clear sound. No, I'm not talking about a red Barchetta, or a gleaming alloy air car, or even an antique electric guitar found deep inside a cave. I'm talking about Denon's new 2112 receiver, unveiled to the world at a press event yesterday. ...

A recent Huffington Post article by Jeffrey Smalls on the subject of religion and conformity uses Rush's Subdivisions to help illustrate a point:

... A few months ago I attended a concert of my favorite band from high school, who I last saw sometime in the mid-1980s: the progressive rock group Rush. As I was singing along (with a bunch of other middle-age white guys) to the song "Subdivisions," I was struck by the following lyrics: "Nowhere is the dreamer or misfit so alone. Subdivisions -- in the high school halls, in the shopping malls. Conform or be cast out. Subdivisions -- in the basement bars, in the backs of cars. Be cool or be cast out." The song is about the pressures we experience in our society to conform, from the peer pressure we face in school to the suburbs we live in as adults. ...

Thanks to anim8nate for the heads up.

This past Tuesday, April 12th marked the 30th anniversary of the historic first launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia. This was a special day in Rush history as the band had the honor of witnessing this spectacular event. This excerpt from the Jon Collins Rush biography, Chemistry discusses the experience:

... On April 10, a day off, the band took a jaunt to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, invited by NASA director Gerry Griffin. Due to computer problems the launch had to be postponed until two days later, when the band was playing Fort Worth in Texas, but nothing was going to prevent the threesome from attending. "It was an amazing thing, an amazing sight to witness," said Alex, who watched with the others from the viewing area called Red Sector A. "I've never heard anything so loud in my life. Your pants are flapping, you could feel the ground vibrating and this was three miles away. That's the closest you could get." "Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Neil. As a token of their appreciation, the band planned on the spot to write a song about the experience. They made it to the Texas gig - just!

The song ended up being titled Countdown and was the last track on the album Signals. The dedication for the song reads: Dedicated with thanks to astronauts Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation. They also made a video for the song which includes footage of the launch. You can watch it below or at this link.

Speaking of Countdown... T minus 8 hours until the Time Machine Tour gets captured on video for Rush's next live DVD. Have a great weekend!

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