8th Annual White Ribbon Concert

Alex Lifeson teamed up with Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy and All Systems Go/ex-Doughboy guitarist/vocalist John Kastner to perform two covers, The Beatles' "Rain" and Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears", at the White Ribbon benefit concert against violence against women held at The Phoenix in Toronto. Lifeson previously worked with Kastner remixing the All System Go track "Fascination Unknown" which appeared as a single in 2003.

Rock 'N' Roll Never Forgets Holocaust's Horror

"...Perhaps the most well-known of Holocaust-influenced rock songs as it first appeared on the band's hit 1984 album Grace Under Pressure, and has been a staple of the band's live shows ever since. The seeds for this harrowing rocker were planted 60 years ago in April of 1945 when British soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Rush lead singer Geddy Lee's mother, Mary Rubenstein, was among the survivors. 'I once asked my mother her first thoughts upon being liberated,' Lee said. 'She didn't believe (liberation) was possible. She didn't believe that if there was a society outside the camp how they could allow this to exist... ' Lee related the story to band drummer and lyricist Neil Peart and also wrote the music. Peart came up with lines such as: 'Are we the last ones left alive?/ Are we the only human beings to survive?' 'The whole album,' Lee said, 'is about being on the brink and having the courage and strength to survive.'" - Palm Beach Post, May 6, 2005

Carrie Nuttal's "Rhythm And Light"

The photographic art book by Carrie Nuttall, Rhythm And Light, showcasing photos of husband Neil Peart, was published in January.

"This photo book features intimate portraits of legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart at work in a Toronto recording studio, as captured by photographer Carrie Nuttall. A must have for Rush’s extensive fan base, as well as enthusiasts of both drumming and photography. Carrie Nuttall is a professional photographer who has worked extensively in both the music and fashion industries. She lives in Los Angeles, CA. $60.00 hardcover" - RounderBooks.com

Hughes & Kettner Introduces Alex Lifeson Signature TriAmp

"For decades, the powerhouse trio Rush has been the standard bearer of progressive rock. And the legendary threesome's virtuoso axe-man Alex Lifeson, with his jawdropping arsenal of distinctive sounds, is the driving force behind Rush's eclectic blend of genre-defying classic rock with a cutting-edge attitude. Hughes & Kettner zenTeras and TriAmps have been Alex's first-choice amps for years. Now he has tricked out a TriAmp to design the amp of his dreams. Opting for his fave tolex and groovy purple backlighting to illuminate the plexi front panel, he kitted out a new line of amps featuring precisely the specs of the TriAmps he played on Rush's world tour. Every Alex Lifeson Signature Amp ships with the Rush Tour book, an original Alex Lifeson pick, a special release Rush CD, and a certificate signed by Alex. Alex is known for his commitment to children's health, well-being and education, particularly of impoverished kids in the third world. To support this cause, UNICEF will receive a donation in the amount of $50 for every Alex Lifeson Signature TriAmp sold. The Alex Lifeson Signature Amp hits US stores in April 2005. Manufacturer's suggested RP is $2,799. For more information, visit their web site at www.hughes-and-kettner.com." - namm.harmony-central.com, January 23, 2005

"We have developed a Triamp signature model for Alex, and he has asked that all proceeds due to him for this amp should be given to Unicef. So, we will donate 50 Euros from the sale of each Alex Lifeson Signature Triamp to Unicef on his behalf. Thank you Alex." - hughes-and-kettner.com

Geddy Lee interviewed in "Ringers: Lord Of The Fans"

Ringers: Lord Of The Fans, a documentary celebrating fans of Lord Of The Rings, is now available. Having demonstrated he is a Ringer in the song "Rivendell", the documentary includes an interview with Geddy Lee and a brief glimpse of Geddy live on stage is seen during the trailer.

"Geddy Lee, bassist and lead singer for the seminal rock group Rush, has granted an exclusive interview to the producers of the feature documentary, Ringers: Lord Of The Fans. His heartfelt comments on the power of J.R.R. Tolkien's stories make it easy to understand how the world of Rock & Roll was forever changed by The Lord of the Rings. The fine connections between these two art forms is sharply drawn by Mr. Lee, as he explains the wonderful influence of Middle-earth on his early songwriting..." - TheOneRing.net - Sep. 29, 2004

"As the scope of the film broadened to include the worlds of music and fantasy literature, efforts to secure interviews with the best and brightest of those worlds were met with 'Yes, I'd love to!' from all quarters...Rock legends Geddy Lee (RUSH) and Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead) quickly came on board, explaining first-hand how the Rock scene shifted under the weight of Tolkien's high-fantasy influence....The heartbeat of RINGERS is in its Rock soundtrack, and the director wanted nothing less than wall-to-wall music. [Editor Arnaud Gerardy] carefully edited to the rhythm of Led Zeppelin's 'Ramble On' and RUSH's 'Rivendell'..." - TheOneRing.net, Jan. 10, 2005

Canada for Asia

All three members of Rush, along with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies and Mike Smith of the Trailer Park Boys, performed "Closer To The Heart" for the charity television telethon "Canada For Asia". Airing Janurary 13th, 2005, the event raised money for the Dec. 26th, 2004 Tsunami Disaster Fund. "The Rush performance on the CBC Tsunami benefit will be posted on Rush.com on Feb 1st 2005. This is an exclusive to Rush.com and will only be available for viewing until March 2nd 2005...The performance will not be available for download." Click here for more information.

P.E.A.R.T., the Robotic Drum Machine

"P.E.A.R.T., which stands for Pneumatic and Electronic Actuated RoboT, is a robot that is made to be set up in front of any drum set and play the drums with any MIDI file as the input. It is capable of running 16 separate drum channels, with each drum capable of being hit up to 19 times per second...P.E.A.R.T. was a senior design project at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. For more information click here.

Chamber Made: Baroque Tribute to Rush

Chamber Made: The Baroque Tribute to Rush is now available.

"Rush’s music is a mixture of hard rock and melodic rhythms and is bound together by themes of science fiction and fantasy. It is only fitting that Rush’s grand, opus-like concept pieces be recreated in the baroque fashion. The Baroque Tribute to Rush revives the strength and unity that was produced in some of the Bands best work such as 'Madrigal' and 'Time Stands Still'. The enigmatic atmosphere of this album will haunt listeners in the true Rush fashion." - Chamber Made linernotes

Neil Peart's "Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times"

Travelling Music: Neil Peart's third publicly published book, Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times, is now available in both paperback and hardback editions.

Neil Peart decided to drive his BMW Z-8 automobile from L.A. to Big Bend National Park, in Southwest Texas. As he sped along "between the gas-gulping SUVs and asthmatic Japanese compacts clumping in the left lane, and the roaring, straining semis in the right," he acted as his own DJ, lining up the CDs chronologically and according to his possible moods.

"Not only did the music I listened to accompany my journey, but it also took me on sidetrips, through memory and fractals of associations, threads reaching back through my whole life in ways I had forgotten, or had never suspected...Sifting through those decades and those memories, I realized that I wasn’t interested in recounting the facts of my life in purely autobiographical terms, but rather...in trying to unweave the fabric of my life and times. As one who was never much interested in looking back, because always too busy moving forward, I found that once I opened those doors to the past, I became fascinated with the times and their effect on me. The songs and the stories I had taken for granted suddenly had a resonance that had clearly echoed down the corridors of my entire life, and I felt a thrill of recognition, and the sense of a kind of adventure. A travel story, but not so much about places, but about music and memories."

Contents Under Pressure

Contents Under Pressure, the new retrospective book covering the complete 30 year history of RUSH is now available.  Written by Martin Popoff, the 236 page book is full color with 270 photos. - Aug. 9th, 2004

"Contents Under Pressure celebrates the 30th anniversary of Canada's beloved Rush, the hard-hitting, progressive rock band known for such classics as "Working Man," "Closer to the Heart," "The Spirit of Radio," "Tom Sawyer," "New World Man," "Roll the Bones" and "Ghost Rider." In original interviews with Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, author Martin Popoff considers each of Rush's albums and tours. He elicits fresh insights on the writing and recording process, as well as musings on the grinds and glories of touring. Along the way, Popoff examines, with the band, nearly every song in the band's vast catalogue. This book also features 270 photos by official band photographer Andrew MacNaughtan and others - candid, rare, and of utmost quality, they help make Contents Under Pressure an essential piece of Rush history."

Feedback

Feedback, Rush's EP containing eight cover songs from the 60's, was released June 29th. For additional information including comments from the band regarding the release, click here.

"We always talked about throwing a cover or two into the encore just for fun. When we put this 30th anniversary tour together, we realized that we didn't have enough time to do a proper studio album. A friend of mine suggested, 'Well, maybe you guys should dip into your past. Play some songs you used to play when you were in your formative years. Just record them quickly for fun, not overthink it, and just put out a little EP to celebrate where you were as opposed to where you are.' We thought it might be a way to juice us before the tour, so that's what we did. We tried not to get too trendy with it and really go back and play songs that we really did play in early versions of our band. We recorded about eight of them and did them live off the floor in a very short period of time for us - three weeks. It was really a lot of fun." - Geddy Lee, The Columbus Dispatch, June 2, 2004

"We talked about maybe doing a couple cover songs making them available on our website but once we got into it, we fell in love with the idea. We were having so much fun that we expanded it to 8 songs and if we'd had the time, we could easily have done 12 or 13 songs and made a full album." - Alex Lifeson, Epiphone.com, July 29, 2004

Toronto Rocks DVD

Rush performed for approximately 450,000 people as part of the "Molson Canadian Rocks For Toronto" concert, a benefit for Toronto's SARS-depressed economy held on July 30th, 2003, in Toronto's Downsview Park. Three songs from Rush's set are included on the Toronto Rocks DVD, released June 29th, 2004. The all day concert was cut to 2:40 for DVD which contains six songs by the Stones, and between one to three songs from the remaining performers. Each performer was sent a tape of their performance, and allowed to choose their favorites: Rush chose "Limelight", "Freewill" and "The Spirit of Radio" (with an instrumental intro of The Stones' "Paint It, Black"). Included in the bonus footage is Peart's meeting the Stones' Charlie Watts and discussing drums. A two disk set in Canada, the DVD will be released as a single disk elsewhere by cutting out some of the lesser known Canadian talent. All artists agreed to dontate all DVD sales revenue to several charities, especially those related to the SARS outbreak (benefitting hospitality and health workers). For additional information click here. - June 29, 2004

Power Windows website mentioned on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim!

Sunday night, May 23rd, Adult Swim ran a rerun of the "Blackwatch Plaid" episode of Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law which contains references to Moving Pictures. The timing of this repeat episode was likely planned to coincide with the launching of the 30th Anniversary tour, much as they aired the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force the week Rush In Rio was released! Before the episode, Adult Swim reportedly applauded the completeness of this website's listings of their Rush References in Pop Culture, and how it even includes the "(Caress of Swim)" comment which aired after the "Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary" episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force last October. [NOTE: If anyone captured this on tape, please, let us know!]

Rush In Rio, Music DVD of the Year

Recognizing the artist, director and producer, Rush In Rio, Rush's first live DVD, is the inaugural winner of the Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year. Submissions were judged by a panel of industry experts and voted on by the CARAS membership. Other nominees included: Avril Lavigne ("My World"), Alanis Morissette ("Feast On Scraps"), Our Lady Peace ("Our Lady Peace Live") and Simple Plan ("A Big Package For You 1999-2003").

Released Oct. 21st, 2003, the DVD was recorded and filmed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the final night of the Vapor Trails tour. This is the first Rush DVD to be released on both DVD as well as a 3CD live album. For more information visit the Rush In Rio news archive.

Alex Lifeson remembers "The Worst Gig"

In a recent article which compiles many artists' remembrances of their "worst gig", Alex Lifeson remembers:

"It was a long time ago, the first tour in fact in 1974. We were playing at a university in Baltimore. It was just before the show and we came out to sort of peak around to look at the audience before the doors opened and they came in. And we saw that the girls were dressed in little white socks and long skirts and all the guys had greaser hairdos. It turned out to be one of these '50s sock hop things. We went on and were wearing satin pants and big high boots. And we started with 'Finding My Way' from the first record. They just sort of stood there and stared at us. Then by the second song they started to rumble. By the fourth song it was 'BOOOOO.' Get out of here! Get off!' So of course we turned everything up a little bit and continued to play. Then finally the promoter said, 'Thanks guys. You're done.' But they were nasty. They were really pissed off. I'm sure if we would have kept going they would have thrown their greasy combs at us." - Alex Lifeson, Lawrence.com, February 13, 2004

"Rush rock on for a fine drop of Macallan"

"Whisky on the rocks all round this Christmas for the employees of the Edrington group, quite literally as in go 'heavy on the rocks'. Heavy rocker Neil Peart, writer/lyricist and drummer for Rush, the Canadian rock band, sent them stocking-filling goodies as a sign of appreciation for his visit to Glasgow earlier this year. The band played a sell-out concert in Glasgow a few months ago and Edrington presented a bottle of The Macallan Fine Oak 15-year-old single malt to Neil to celebrate his birthday. Neil, or 'the Professor' as he is referred to, is a fan of The Macallan and makes regular references to it in his book Ghost Rider and the more recently-released Travelling Music and thousands of RUSH fans have become devotees of the brand. The Professor was much taken with the warm gesture in Glasgow and, on his return to North America, sent a package of 'goodies' to the company, including signed CDs, pictures and other memorabilia. These have now been distributed amongst RUSH fans who work for the distiller. Whether they will now play Rush over the Tannoy in the bottling plant remains to be seen." - "Rush rock on for a fine drop of Macallan", Scotsman.com, December 27, 2004

Sabian Signature Neil Peart Paragon Cymbals

"Sabian is pleased to announce the addition of Neil Peart to its family of drummers. In association with this, Sabian is very proud to introduce Paragon, a new range of signature cymbals created in collaboration with Neil Peart, drummer with legendary rockers Rush." - Sabian.com, Jan. 1, 2004

Written for Sabian's Newsbeat Magazine (2004/2005 issue, published Jan. 2004) by Neil Peart, "A Motorbike Trip to Meductic" sees Neil Peart, the legendary drummer from Rush detail his visit to the SABIAN 'Vault' and the creation of his new Signature Neil Peart Paragon cymbals." - Sabian.com, January 20, 2004

"The Stickmen: With Guest Alex Lifeson

As previously announced, Alex Lifeson appears with Toronto band "The Stickmen" on their new release, Side Two. Formed in January of 2002, The Stickmen features founder Bernie LeBarge of The Dexters, and is the regular band at the Orbit Room on Friday nights. Alex Lifeson, co-owner of The Orbit Room, performs on one track, "Hey Bop A-Rebop". Released December 12, the cd is now available at Iridescent Music. For more information visit The Stickmen or The Orbit Room.

Rush on Rolling Stones' "Four Flicks"

The first documentary disk of the new Rolling Stones DVD Four Flicks, which covers their "Licks Tour", includes a section on the SARS benefit concert with excerpts of Geddy at the press conference, partial interviews with Alex, plus clips of Alex meeting Burton Cummings of The Guess Who and Neil being greeted by Stones drummer Charlie Watts as Geddy and Alex look on.

Released November 11th, according to RollingStones.com, "to avoid traditional distribution costs, the band granted exclusive selling rights to the Best Buy chain, where Flicks is $29.99. The European version, sold through conventional channels, costs roughly $70.

Univeral SACD Releases Cancelled

Last week High Fidelity Review.com announced plans by Universal/Mercury to release the first five Rush albums (RUSH through All The World's A Stage) on SACD (Super Audio Compact Disk offering high resolution format with superior sound).  However, these reports were apparently false. A source with Anthem records has confirmed that any such plans are way on the back burner, as Universal is no longer supporting the SACD format.