Back in late 2023, Geddy Lee wrote a book of baseball stories titled 72 Stories from the Collection of Geddy Lee that he included as part of a package given to the winning bidders in a baseball auction that included much of Ged's extensive collection. He then announced via Instagram back in October of last year that he would be releasing the book for wide distribution sometime in 2025. A special, limited-edition version of the book was briefly made available around Christmas at the Rush Backstage Club. That edition is autographed, and comes encased in a red cloth-bound slipcase which includes an exclusive, custom-made Geddy Lee baseball, created specifically for this project. The standard version of the book will be available in the fall, with a slated release date of September 30th and pre-orders available here. And if you missed out on the special edition last year, they will be making it available again, and are now taking pre-orders with an expected ship date of July 16. John at Cygnus-X1.net has posted an excerpt from the book's Introduction and made it available online here.
The inaugural RUSHfest Canada event will be taking place in 3 weeks on August 1-2 in Toronto in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of Rush's final show. The Friday night showcase event takes place at Massey Hall, the legendary venue where Rush recorded their first live album All The World's A Stage in 1975. Special guests include former Rush producer Terry Brown and album artist Hugh Syme, along with Jonathan Dinklage, Jacob Moon, Nina DiGregorio & Brody Dolynuik (from Femmes of Rock, endorsed by Alex Lifeson himself), Chris Herin (Tiles), David Barrett, Adi Berk, Moving Pictures (UK tribute band), and author Kevin J. Anderson. The Saturday event takes place at TD Music Hall and will include performances from Rush tribute bands 2112 and Permanent Waves, along with The RUSHfest Canada Allstars Band (international lineup of handpicked musicians), Jacob Moon, David Barrett, and DiGregorio & Dolynuik. You can all the details in this article.
Black Sabbath's marathon, star-studded Back to the Beginning concert took place this past weekend at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, England, very near where the band was formed in 1968. Tom Morello was the event's music director, and - in addition to Black Sabbath - some of the acts that performed were Metallica, Tool, Pantera and many more. Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were originally asked to participate, and agreed to do so, but had to back out as Alex explains here:
... "I don't know if I was really a fan of Black Sabbath, but I did get a couple of records back then and I enjoyed listening to them. I respected Tony [Iommi's] guitar playing ...There was an interesting parallel for their beginnings and our beginnings." As Lifeson shared this, he quickly pivoted to discussing Back to the Beginning, the concert that will capture Ozzy Osbourne's final show as a solo artist and the final show of the original Black Sabbath lineup. "We were asked to be part of it and we'd agreed to do it, but other things came up and sadly, we had to back out of it," Lifeson said. "It would have been a lot of fun. We enjoy playing with other people and it gets Geddy [Lee] and me together to do stuff." ...
The Rush Backstage Club is now offering a new R50 Peace t-shirt, which has an R50 logo depicting a peace sign in place of the zero. They are also offering an R50 Peace Tee bundle that includes the t-shirt plus and R50 Backstage Exclusive Super Deluxe Edition.
Envy of None vocalist Maiah Wynne was the latest guest on the Something for Nothing podcast where she gives an in-depth examination of the band's sophomore album Stygian Wavz. This first episode focuses on the album's first 5 songs: Not Dead Yet, The Story, Under the Stars, Thrill of the Chase, and Handle With Care. Part 2 will cover the rest of the album. You can listen to the discussion below or wherever you get your podcasts:
15 years ago today, on July 11, 2010, Rush played a rare festival show at the Ottawa Bluesfest in Ottawa, ON on their Time Machine tour. Here's a news video with a behind-the-scenes look at the stage setup, where they chat with Howard Ungerleider, "Skully" and other Rush road crew members:
That's all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and stay cool everybody!!