The 20th annual Andy Kim Christmas show in support of CAMH Gifts Of Light will take place on December 4th at Massey Hall in Toronto, and Rush's Alex Lifeson will once again be one of the many artists to participate. Other guest performers will include Broken Social Scene, Billy Talent, Barenaked Ladies, William Prince, Dan Hill, and Molly Johnson, with more yet to be announced. From the announcement:

Andy Kim's annual Christmas show is returning to Toronto's Massey Hall, and the veteran musician has announced the guests who will be joining him for the show on December 4.

For the 20th annual Andy Kim Christmas, the bill includes Broken Social Scene, Alex Lifeson, Billy Talent, Barenaked Ladies, William Prince, Dan Hill, Molly Johnson and more guests to be announced in the coming weeks.

"There is something fascinating about a 20th anniversary celebration. With all the excitement of putting this year's 20th AK Christmas, I'm reminded of the first one," Kim said in a statement. "Filled with the honest belief that our musical community will help me ease into the Christmas holiday spirit."

All proceeds from the event will be donated to CAMH's Gifts of Light. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

You can get more information and purchase tickets at this location. Alex has participated in the Andy Kim Christmas Show several times in the past, most recently last year where he performed the Andy Kim classic Sugar Sugar with Kim, and also sat in on the all-star jam of the FREE classic All Right Now. You can get full coverage from last year's event here.

Guitarist Chris Herin of Detroit-based prog rockers Tiles will be releasing his debut solo album Hiding In Plain Sight next month via The Laser's Edge, and one of the guest musicians on the album is Rush's Alex Lifeson, as first mentioned in this post from last summer. Alex plays on a track titled Second Ending which also features vocalist Matthew Parmenter of Detroit-based band Discipline. Some other notable guests on the album are Doane Perry, Michael Sadler, Peter Frampton, Kim Mitchell, and Crown Lands. Tiles has several connections with Rush, most notably their producer - former Rush producer Terry Brown - who also produced Hiding In Plain Sight. Brown introduced Lifeson to the band's work back in the 2000s and Lifeson ended up guesting on their 2008 Fly Paper album, adding guitar tracks to the song Sacred and Mundane. Rush album artist Hugh Syme also did the album's cover, as he did for most of Tiles' previous albums. The album's second track The Darkest Hour serves as the lead single for the album, and features Jethro Tull alums guitarist Martin Barre and drummer Doane Perry, along with vocals by Mark Mikel, who has also played with Jethro Tull as well as Alan Parsons and more. You can watch a video of The Darkest Hour online here. Herin has also released videos for the tracks Warning Signs (feat. Michael Sadler) and The Heart of You (feat. Peter Frampton). Herin was also a recent guest on the Gas Masks & Hand Grenades podcast to discuss the album, and that interview is available online here. The album will be released on digipack CD and streaming on November 1st with pre-orders available here.

A new book from author Daniel Bukszpan celebrating Rush's 50 year career officially released back on October 8th and is now available for purchase. Rush at 50 comes in at 192 pages and examines the history of Rush through the lens of 50 milestone events and an illustrated gatefold timeline. The book is currently available to order via Amazon at this location.

Vertical Horizon frontman Matt Scannell was recently interviewed for the Music Buzzz podcast (with Dane Clark, Hugh Syme & Andy Wilson), and reminisced with Hugh a good bit about Rush and Neil Peart starting around the 20-minute mark. You can listen in to the podcast at this location or wherever you get your podcasts (thanks RushFanForever).

Reader Dave let me know of a possible Rush 2112 reference in the new movie Alien Romulus.
Just after the hour mark in the film, there's a shot of the alien-infected spaceship which shows the names ROMULUS and REMUS with numbers underneath. The numbers underneath REMUS are 2112 as seen in this screenshot.

Reader David S let me know that progressive metal band Opeth made a tour stop in Toronto this past Monday, and played some snippets of Tom Sawyer during the band's encore.

Canadian comic and late-night talk show host Mike Bullard passed away earlier this week at the age of 67. Bullard was the host of two popular Canadian TV talk shows, Open Mike with Mike Bullard which ran between 1997 and 2003 on CTV and The Mike Bullard Show which ran briefly on Global between 2003 and 2004. One of the many guests to appear on Open Mike was Rush's Geddy Lee, who appeared on the show to promote his My Favorite Headache album back in 2000 as seen in this video (thanks RushFanForever).

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!!