Rush Inducted Into Canadian Music Hall of Fame

Rush was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Feb. 27th, 2003. Only the second band to be inducted, the award acknowledges Rush's contributions to the growth of the Canadian Music Industry.

"Rockers Rush and artist manager Bernie Finkelstein will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame next February, Canadian Music Week organizers announced Wednesday. While inductees are traditionally chosen from the business and executive ranks, officials thought the contributions of Rush and Finkelstein to the growth of the industry needed acknowledgment." Jam! Showbiz, October 2, 2002

The Spirit of Radio - Greatest Hits (1974-1987)

Mercury/Universal has issued another compilation album to cash in on the success of Vapor Trails. Like its predecessors, Chronicles and Retrospective I & II, The Spirit of Radio - Greatest Hits (1974-1987) is the third compilation to cover material from the first 12 studio albums.

With a tracklist similar to Chronicles (all songs on this "Greatest Hits" are also on Chronicles), where Chronicles was a 2 disk compilation showcasing at least two songs per album, this single disk compilation has room for an average of only one song per album (making this sort of a "Chronicles Highlights" disk). Unfortunately, although three songs were included from Moving Pictures, and two each from Permanent Waves, Signals and Hold Your Fire, there are no songs from Caress of Steel begging the question, "where's 'Bastille Day'"?

The Japanese release also includes a bonus cd containing two bonus tracks, "A Passage To Bangkok" from Exit Stage Left and "What You're Doing" from All The Worlds A Stage, two live tracks which were omitted from the original cd releases of those albums, also previously included on Chronicles. In this age of Internet downloading, to entice fans to purchase the cd, the first 100,000 produced include a bonus DVD sampler of the Chronicles DVD collection, containing videos of "Tom Sawyer", "Closer to the Heart", "Subdivisions", "Big Money" and "Mystic Rhythms", plus lyrics to all the songs on the album. - Feb. 11, 2003

"...part of a contractual thing with Paul Egram with Mercury Records from our previous deal with them, which expired in 1990. So they have the rights to do a number of greatest hits or packaged records." - Alex Lifeson (AT&T Celebrity Chat, Feb. 10, 2003 [besides the new cd, Alex discusses the Vapor Trails tour, his son's album(!?) Contact, and more]).

"We did not have a lot of input in this. This was mostly a record company project. Our opinions were made known and they were very cooperative about doing good packaging for us." - Geddy Lee (USAToday.com chat, Feb 5, 2003 [Geddy also discusses the upcoming Rio DVD, and the next studio album]).

Rush Drummer Finalist For Literary Award

"Rush drummer Neil Peart was nominated for a Canadian literary award Tuesday for his book on his emotional recovery after the deaths of his wife and daughter. Peart's book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road is one of the nominees in the biography prize category of the second annual Great Literary Awards sponsored by the Writers' Trust of Canada. The awards will be presented March 6 at Toronto's Arts and Letters Club." - CBC Arts News, Feb. 11, 2003