Timeless Concert Images Book Features Rush From the 80's

For over four decades, rock music photographer Bill O'Leary has snapped off more than 25,000 concert photos from bands such as Queen, AC/DC, Van Halen, Foreigner, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, and of course RUSH. Over the years, Bill's photos have appeared in virtually every music publication including Guitar Player, Rolling Stone, People, Guitar World, PIT, Circus, Hit Parader and Creem.

To celebrate and share his photographic work with the masses, Bill has released his first book - Timeless Concert Images: And 40 Years of Rock Concert Experiences. This nearly 200-page coffee table book offers stories and recollections behind concerts he shot over the years, and is filled with over 175 full color, live concert images photographed from the 1990's. One chapter in the book is dedicated to Rush and which includes photos taken from the Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures tours.

Bill was kind enough to share an excerpt of his write-up for Rush, as well as numerous high-quality images from his book with us:
"I photographed one of my favorite bands, RUSH, 3 of the 4 nights they played the Palladium Theater in New York City in early May of 1980. This was their “Permanent Waves” tour and the New York City shows were very important, proving to the record industry people that RUSH had arrived at the top of their game. The final show of the American leg of this tour was a couple of weeks later at Nassau Coliseum, Long Island NY, some shots from that show also shown here. The single from the album, “The Spirit of Radio” was a huge hit on radio and the band was on a roll.

Over the many years of my concert photography career, I really enjoyed shooting band’s that I was a huge fan of musically. I found that “knowing” every song, every note, every solo, etc. further put me into the “zone” as I was looking through the viewfinder. Many people from magazine editors to professional musicians to fans and even some concert promoters have told me that I had a natural knack for knowing when to get THE shot. I attribute that to passionately knowing the music definitely helps and makes it more enjoyable in my opinion."
You can see four galleries of his aforementioned Rush photos at the following links:

  • Hemispheres Tour - March 28th, 1979 - Auditorium Arena - Denver, Colorado (Not included in the book)
  • Permanent Waves Tour - May 8th, 1980 - The Palladium - New York, New York
  • Permanent Waves Tour - May 10th, 1980 - The Palladium - New York, New York
  • Permanent Waves Tour - May 11th, 1980 - The Palladium - New York, New York
  • Permanent Waves Tour - May 23rd, 1980 - Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Uniondale, New York
  • Moving Pictures Tour - May 18th, 1981 - Madison Square Garden - New York, New York
  • Complete information and ordering links for Bill's book are available at Amazon. Bill also recently published two follow-ups to his book - Timeless Concert Images II and Timeless Concert Images III: Colorado Rocks!!! which includes images exclusively of Colorado bands.

    To learn more about Bill O'Leary, visit some of the websites below:
    www.timelessconcertimages.com
    chasingthelightart.com
    Bill O'Leary @ the IMDB
    concert-photography-bill-oleary.business.site
    www.instagram.com/timelessconcertimages

    Many thanks to Bill O'Leary for graciously allowing us to share his wonderful pictures!

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