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, Jan 2, 2009@12:58PM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 1/3@2:00PM: Here's one more quick update. All this past week VH1 ran a nightly special where they counted down the Top 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. Each night they featured 20 songs and finished off with last night's episode where they counted down the top 20. Rush's Tom Sawyer made the list at #19. Thanks to bruckler2112 for the heads up.

Happy New Year everyone! 2008 certainly was a busy year for Rush and their fans. The biggest event was of course the second leg of the highly successful Snakes & Arrows tour which ran from April through July. Some other notable events were the Grammy nomination of Rush's Malignant Narcissism back in February; Geddy and Alex's guest appearance playing YYZ at a Foo Fighters show in Toronto last March; the release of the Snakes & Arrows Live CD in April; Rush's June feature in Rolling Stone magazine; the announcement that Rush would be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009; the band's July live performance on The Colbert Report; VH1 Classic's Rush Hashanah special in September; the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert in October; and the release of the Snakes & Arrows Live DVD in November. On a sadder note, 2008 also saw the deaths of Shelly Nott - Rush's longtime publicist - and Rush founding member John Rutsey. Rush also continued their tradition of generosity by their numerous donations of time and money to charitable organizations throughout the year including the Make It Right Foundation, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, A Brush of Hope, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Little Kids Rock to name a few.

2009 should be another good year for the band and its fans, if not quite as busy as 2008. In February the 51st Grammy Awards take place and Rush is up for their 6th nomination in the Best Rock Instrumental category for their song Hope: Live for the Art of Peace off of Songs For Tibet: The Art of Peace album. Sometime this Spring should see the release of Rush's Retrospective 3 Atlantic-era greatest hits package. Sometime this year Rush will be receiving their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hopefully by year's end we'll see the release of Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn's Rush Documentary. Rush will be making a cameo in the film I Love You Man from John Hamburg starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel which releases on March 20th. We might finally see the release of Neil Peart's next book The Roadshow Illustrated Companion, which now has a release date of June 2009 listed at most online retailers. If the rumors are true, Rush might be doing a mini-tour of South America later this year. And hopefully Rush has some other unforeseen surprises on tap for us all in 2009. We'll see. For my next poll I thought I'd ask you which of the events I just outlined are you most looking forward to in 2009. Take the Poll and let us know.

In my last poll I asked you what your favorite Rush DVD/video is. I posed this same question back in October of 2007 and at that time Rush in Rio was the overwhelming favorite with 50% of the vote. But now it seems that the Snakes & Arrows DVD has taken over the top spot. It won with 44% of the vote and Rush in Rio came in second with 24%. The complete results can be seen here.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were guests on last Saturday's episode of That Metal Show on VH1 Classic. The show is a hard rock and heavy metal themed talk show hosted by DJ Eddie Trunk. Geddy and Alex appeared on the 7th and final episode of the show's inaugural season (outside of a best of show tomorrow night). The entire show is now posted up on the VH1 Classic website.

The first set of last October's Buddy Rich Memorial Concert is now available as an on-demand purchase up on the Drum Channel website. Set one features Neil Peart's performance of Time Will Tell. It costs $9.95 to view and sets 2 and 3 will be available on January 6th and 13th respectively.

Snakes & Arrows Live tied for 88th place on ProgArchives.com's annual list of the 100 best new progressive rock albums. Thanks to Stephen for the heads up.

Chop Shop Radio has compiled a list of the Top 100 Most Complete Guitarists Of All-Time. Alex Lifeson made the list at a respectable #29. Thanks to sndtatro for the news.

Reader Jov V let me know that Rush's July 4th show at the Marc Etess Arena in Atlantic City made pressofatlanticcity.com's list of 2008's 12 most memorable Atlantic City shows.

Eric over at the Power Windows site recently discovered that in the 2002 video game Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 there is a Launched Freefall ride named Escape Hatch which costs exactly $2,112.

Also from Power Windows, on the 2005 album Bass Invader Martin Motnik, Gregg Bissonette and Mattias Ia Eklundh perform a cover of YYZ. And the late rapper Proof sampled Rush's Xanadu on the track Cali Trip on his Mayor of Detroit mixtape album released online in 2008.

Back in September I let you know that Hamilton, Ontario (the birthplace of Neil Peart) rock radio station Y108 had started a petition to have a stretch of Red Hill Expressway in Hamilton renamed to Neil Peart Way. Y108 Promotions Coordinator Monica wanted me to give everyone a reminder about the petition which you can sign here if you haven't already.

Speaking of Hamilton, reader Andy S alerted me to this great cover of Subdivisions by Hamilton-based Canadian folk singer/songwriter and guitarist Jacob Moon. You can check out a video of the cover at this link.

Reader Stephen let me know about a very cool Rush collage from artist Abel Adames that you can check out and purchase as a poster at this link.

Reader Dino L got a very cool Rush quilt from his Mom for Christmas. You can check it out here.

Several folks sent me this video of 13-year-old drumming prodigy Sara playing YYZ. She's pretty impressive. You can check out all of her vids at this link.

Have a wonderful weekend and a great 2009 everybody!

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