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Showing posts from March, 2015

Neil Peart News, Weather, and Sports Update - March 2015 - Miracle in Colorado

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Neil Peart has just posted a new entry to his "News, Weather, and Sports" blog entry on his website . This entry is aptly titled the Miracle in Colorado . Readers of Peart's novel Roadshow: Landscape with Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle know of the tale of Neil's lost side luggage case as he was traveling through Colorado by motorcycle back in 2004. As it turns out, he was actually headed to Kevin J Anderson's home for a visit. Despite a frantic search for the missing luggage case, which included some incredibly sentimental - and quite irreplaceable - items, Neil was unable to locate it. Even an attempt at posting a "missing" advertisement with a "significant reward" netted no returns. As time went by, as years went by, the memory of his lost luggage slowly faded. Until February of this year when he received the most unlikely call: One morning in February 2015 I received a call from an old friend, Rob Wallis. For close to twenty

Art of Rush: Hugh Syme, Serving A Life Sentence Coffee Table Book Coming Soon

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UPDATE: Both the Deluxe and Special editions have already sold out - in under 2 hours. If you are planning on ordering the Classic edition, you may want to do so sooner rather than later. Rush have just announced the pending release of a new coffee table book that features the band's album artwork. Art of Rush: Hugh Syme, Serving A Life Sentence will be available in three different formats and pre-orders begin this Friday. From the announcement: The Art of Rush is a 272 page coffee table book that delves into the 40 year relationship with Rush and their longtime artist and illustrator Hugh Syme. The stunning book begins with a foreword penned by Neil Peart, and contains original illustrations, paintings, photography, and the incredible stories behind each album that he has designed with the band since 1975. The book's narration was written by music journalist Stephen Humphries and includes in-depth interviews with each Rush band member, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Pear

SE Alex Lifeson Thinline Acoustic Guitar Announced from PRS Guitars

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PRS Guitars has just announced the release of the SE Alex Lifeson Thinline Acoustic Guitar , "...a road-worthy guitar for players in need of a stage and studio-ready instrument..." Alex Lifeson commented on the new offering: "I was very pleased when PRS presented me with my SE Angelus acoustic, a beautiful guitar of stunning quality. It was in response to the challenge of building a guitar that shared the integrity and attention to detail that the Alex Lifeson Private Stock Angelus possesses in a package more broadly accessible. The SE Alex Lifeson Thinline is that model. Carefully selected materials, expert craftsmanship and a smart approach to concept resulted in a guitar that is beautiful to look at and rewarding to play." From PRS: Carrying over unique appointments from the Private Stock Alex Lifeson acoustic, the SE features a thinner body depth than PRS’s standard Angelus model. A “Birds in Flight” inlay adorns the rosewood fretboard and pairs nicely with

Rush Receive Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at the 2015 Juno Awards Ceremony

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Update (03/18/2015): The JUNO YouTube channel has just posted Rush's induction video for the 2015 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award. Click HERE to view it. Last night, both Rush and their long-time manager Ray Danniels were the recipients of two very special awards at the 2015 Juno Gala Dinner & Awards ceremony. With Geddy Lee on hand, Rush's front-man accepted the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award on behalf of the band. This award recognizes outstanding Canadian artists whose contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada. Manager Ray Danniels was bestowed with the 2015 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award which recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on the Canadian music industry. A Twitter Feed included numerous pictures and video clips from the event: . @RushTheBand 's Geddy Lee on musicians and charity: "By nature, I think musicians are very altruistic" #JUNOS #Rush pic.twitter.com/zeEjyNsE5P — ET Canada (@ET

Attention Rush Fans! Rush Wants Your Photos for Their R40 Live Tour

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Rush.Com has just posted an announcement stating that the band is looking for fan photos to help celebrate Rush's 40th anniversary. From the announcement: ATTENTION RUSH FANS: WE NEED YOUR PHOTOS! FOR RUSH’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY, WE’D LIKE YOU TO SUBMIT PHOTOS OF YOUR FAVOURITE RUSH MOMENTS. Ideally, we’re looking for one to three photos that succinctly chronicle your history as a RUSH fan. These could be: Your first show A memorable moment Taking your child to see their first RUSH concert You, with a banner or sign you made A photo of you rocking your favorite RUSH paraphernalia You get the picture. We want to see photos of you, through the years, showing your support for the band. These submissions may be used as part of our R40 campaign, so please know that once you submit these, you are giving your approval for their use. You’ll be asked to accept our terms of use at the end of the form. We can’t wait to see what goodies you have for us! The submission link to upl

Is Neil Peart Planning on Using Two Drum Kits During the R40 Tour?

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When Neil Peart's R40 drum kit was revealed at the 2015 NAMM Show in January, there was a lot of talk about how the kit would not fully encircle Peart as his most recent kits had done in the past. Neil's drum tech Lorne Wheaton indicated the following regarding the change: "For this next tour we're not going to be using the full [Roland] V-Drum kit on the back. We are not going to be spinning. It's going to be full-tilt Rush songs and there will probably be a whole lot of old stuff..." DW Drum's John Good was also interviewed at NAMM where he spoke in more detail about Neil's R40 kit and shared some very interesting news about a second kit that would used during the tour: ... At the beginning of the show [Neil]'s going to be playing [the R40] kit. Then this one moves away at half-time. The idea was to have it fly out of the ceiling but that probably won't happen because of budgets. But there's another kit that's gonna show up - a r

Rush Manager Ray Danniels Talks About Managing the Band and Their Future

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CelebrityAccess has just posted a new interview with long-time Rush manager Ray Danniels. In the In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc segment, Danniels discusses managing the band over the past four decades and what the possible future holds: With all of this activity, there’s a sense of finality in the air. Will this be the final Rush tour? Both Geddy Lee, and Alex Lifeson have talked about the tour somewhat in those terms. So final tour or not? Somewhere between possible and probable. There are some of us who would keep going forever, and there are some of us who wouldn’t. So it’s a process of working that out. And what somebody thinks today may not be what they think in a month. Once the band return to performing, they might think, “We can’t give this up.” Yeah, that is possible. I am focused on making this as good as it can be, and then seeing where we are. I did not want to do a farewell tour. There was no one in the band who wanted to do that because there is nobody who th

New Alex Lifeson Interview Discusses Rush's Long History and Charity Work

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Earlier this year we first reported the Rush would be the recipients of the 2015 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award which will be awarded to the band this Saturday at the 2015 JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards ceremony. Ahead of the awards ceremony, Alex Lifeson was recently interviewed by The Canadian Press on topics ranging from the award, which recognizes outstanding Canadian artists whose contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada, to the band's longevity and their plans for the upcoming R40 tour: If Rush's generosity was a bit of a secret, they wouldn't have minded if it stayed that way. "It's a way that you can do it as a unit, which Rush is, without making really a big deal about it," guitarist Alex Lifeson said recently from Toronto. "This is really great to get this award — it's always very humbling — but this is just something that you're supposed to do. We don't make a big deal out of it." Among their

"Get Everyone to R40" Online Funding Event Now Underway

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With the possibility that Rush's upcoming 40th Anniversary tour may be the band's last for the foreseeable future, a group of dedicated fans headed by Mark Lesko have initiated an online funding drive to provide the means for less fortunate Rush fans to attend one of the upcoming shows. From the event page's description: The Rush family. We don't know if this will be the last big tour, so EVERYONE needs to go. Many people can't go because of health, lack of funds, distance, or other reasons beyond their control. Not ok. They all need to go. Help me get everyone there. We are trying to raise money to get the less fortunate to the shows - as many as we can. R40! Epic!!!!! Lets do something no one has ever done... Unquestionably, this is a worthy cause especially for those who truly want to attend one of the R40 shows but simply do not have the financial means. Making a donation to the cause or requesting to be considered for receipt of a concert ticket is

Cover Art for Clockwork Lives Novel by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart Revealed

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Author Kevin J. Anderson has finally revealed the stunning cover art for Clockwork Lives , the follow-up novel from his novelization of Clockwork Angels whom he co-wrote with Neil Peart. Anderson revealed the cover art via his blog : This book is going to be as beautiful as CLOCKWORK ANGELS! A new novel in the fantastic Clockwork universe, with all-new adventures of pirates and airships, the Watchmaker, the Anarchist, lost cities, sea monsters, and a woman’s quest to collect a book full of lives before she can have her own life back. ClockworkLives The cover art was created by Nick Robles, with design input from Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart, and hearkens back to an age of beautiful book making: each copy of the trade hardcover will have an oxblood leatherette cover with embossed gold stamping of gears and alchemy symbols. Nick Robles also created striking new line drawings to illustrate the featured “tales” in the book, so that this will be a remarkable and innovative volume

Rush: A Brief History of Time - Part 12 Now Online

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The twelfth installment of the ongoing series Rush: A Brief History of Time , an ever-increasing archive of articles, interviews, reviews, and advertisements about Rush that span every decade from the 70's onward, and collected from the world over, is now online. In this twelfth installment, over 200 new articles and advertisements have been added; 29 from the 1970's, 159 from the 1980's, 3 from the 1990's, 1 from the 2000's and 11 from the current 2010 decade. The majority of the articles in the 1980's fall into the three-year period of 1987 - 1989 where the emphasis of the collection focuses on the releases of Hold Your Fire, A Show of Hands and Presto . There are also some great, early articles and reviews from the 1970's that focus on 2112 and A Farewell to Kings and, as a special treat, also included is a 1970 review of Neil Peart's then-band J.R. Flood . Once again, I'd like to thank Heiko Klages of Germany who contributed the bul

Yet Another Rush-Themed Mural Appears on FX's Archer

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FX's long-running animated series Archer has had a history of Rush sightings throughout its run. Most have taken place in the form of a Rush album-themed mural appearing on the side of Krieger's van (one of the main characters in the show). On the episode titled "The Kanes" (season 6, episode 8), which aired last week, Krieger's van received the debut album treatment with "Rush" replaced simply by the word "Van". This marks the fifth such van mural that has appeared on the show, dating all the way back to 2011. The four previous van motifs included: "Double Trouble" (season 2, episode 13, aired April 21, 2011): "Exit...Van Left" "The Man From Jupiter" (season 3, episode 1, aired January 19, 2012): "Krieger Vanispheres" "Space Race: Part 2" (season 3, episode 10, aired March 22, 2012): "Caress of Krieger" "The Wind Cries Mary" (season 4, episode 2, aired January 2

Rush The Lady Gone Electric Live 1974 Radio Broadcast Coming in April

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In the same vein as the 2011 release of RUSH ABC 1974: The First American Broadcast and the 2014 release of SPIRIT OF THE AIRWAVES: Live 1980 Radio Broadcast , another early Rush radio broadcast is set to be released as an 'unofficial' CD this April. Rush The Lady Gone Electric is a live radio broadcast recording from a December 1974 appearance at the Electric Lady Studios in New York City. From the Amazon.Co.Uk listing: Recorded at the Electric Ladyland [sic] Studios in New York City, in December 1974 in preparation for their first US tour, this sublime Rush performance was given in front of an audience of 8-12 people in the small studio, and thus provides a fine example of this remarkable band s early live sound. This was also the earliest recording made with Neil Peart on drums, Peart having replaced their former skins-man John Rutsy, a few months before this show. They perform material from their first album and new songs from the soon to be released Fly by Night LP.

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