The National Post has added a new interview with Neil Peart regarding his new book, Far and Away: A Prize Every Time:It's a wet, white blizzard in downtown Toronto and the waterfront is as deserted as it's ever been. But just around the corner sits arguably the most skilled drummer in the history of rock (at one point, at least). Rush's Neil Peart sits casually in front of an elaborate copper-plated drum kit, respectfully examining each drum head. "Everything's been custom-made," he says, tracing his fingers over African drums, Indian drums, valves and electronic pads. "I was a part of the whole concept process. … I went over 200 different samples [before] choosing these ones for my solo."
Peart looks older than most Fly by Night fans would remember, but he's aged well, built as solid as his drums, with a baritone voice to match. As the prolific drummer of Rush, one of the most successful rock bands to come out of Canada, Peart could easily just coast on his musical legacy. But rock is only one of his passions. In May, after the release of Far and Away: A Prize Every Time, Peart will have authored five books.
"BU2B/Caravan will be released as a limited edition 7" vinyl for Record Store Day in the US & Canada. Limited to only 3,000 copies, the 7" will be on colour vinyl - with either red or white along with a lyric insert." - Rush.com , March 11, 2011
After Donna Halper gave 'Working Man' a spin on WMMS, Rush's career took off: "'As soon as I dropped the needle on 'Working Man,' I knew this was a perfect record for Cleveland,' she said. 'It was a working-class town...I remember a city where Republic Steel would literally light the sky on fire at night with pollution.' Phones at the radio station were lighting up, too, with requests for Rush. The buzz soon led to a record deal for the band, which singled out Halper for special thanks in the liner notes of its self-titled debut album...Halper, 64, left Cleveland in 1975 to become director of artists and repertoire at Mercury Records in New York City. She hasn't returned here since then - until now. With a special invitation from Rush, Halper is planning to catch tonight's show at The Q." - Cleveland.com, April 15, 2011
The Girl Who Loved Rush: Donna Halper: "On the occasion of the band's show at The Q—which will be filmed for later DVD release—The Cleveland Sound chatted with a longtime Rush confidante who has North Coast connections that go way back...'Moon Records, yes. Oh, God—the ugliest cover [laughs]. Oye, oye. It was red. I still have the thing—I never parted with it. People ask me all the time, 'Would you sell it?' I'm like, no! Absolutely not. If you look online there's a few pictures of me holding that cover. If you friend me on Facebook you can see it. You'll see me with a couple other fans, and I'm holding the original Rush cover. So yeah, it came in your basic plain brown envelope from a friend of mine—Bob Roper. The bottom line is, I was never expecting to receive it. I didn't know who the band was. And Roper—who I'm still in touch with now and then—was the record promoter of A&M in Canada. That's the label that was co-owned by Herb Alpert, who has had many hits for many years. And they passed on it. But Roper heard something and thought it was a good record, and I had a reputation for both playing new artists as music director, and also for playing Canadian artists. I'd played a number of Canadian artists over the years; I could give you names but I don't know if they'd mean anything to your audience. But he figured I'd be receptive to hearing another Canadian band. It wasn't just out of the blue he sent this record. He figured I would be a good person to send it to. Not like, wow, I'm so marvelous, but I'd already made a lot of friends with people in the Canadian music history. So I got it, and I listened, and I was like, 'My God—you're right!' And the rest, as they say, is history." - TheClevelandSound.com, April 6, 2011
The Rush Fan Film Project Interviews Donna Halper: "Late in 2010, Donna took some time from writing her most recent book on the history of Boston radio (which has since been released) as well as her dissertation and graciously invited us to her home outside of Boston to discuss that little Canadian band. She’s an amazing storyteller and I would highly recommend going to see her speak if she’s ever in your town. We trimmed our discussion down to under 20 minutes, though it easily could have been over an hour." - RushFanFilm.com, April 6, 2011
"We were there! It wasn't easy, but we made it! We had a long-standing invitation to the first launch, and always swore that we would be there no matter what. Little did we know!
"On April 9th we flew into Orlando on a day off, checked into a hotel, and slept until about four A.M., when we had to leave for our rendezvous at the Air Force Base near the Cape.
Rush: The Fountain of Surround: "Chronicling Rush’s decade-long journey toward embracing the 5.1 format—even for catalog studio material. In anticipation of the 30th anniversary reissue of Rush's truly seminal Moving Pictures as both CD+DVD (April 5) and CD+BD (May 3) deluxe editions, with PCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround-sound mixes by Richard Chycki, I'm dipping into my personal Rush interview archive to present a truly exclusive, incremental look at how the band’s attitude toward bringing its vaunted studio material into the surround-sound arena has literally changed from 'no' to 'go' over the last decade." - SoundAndVisionMag.com, April 5, 2011
Rush’s Fountain of Surround, Part 2: Moving Predictions: "'It's a timeless record with so much detail,' says surround-sound remix guru Richard Chycki about Rush's 1981 masterpiece, Moving Pictures. 'I’m glad you’ve clued into all of the nuances.' Chycki is referring to what I said to him last week about the PCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes he did for MP’s 30th anniversary reissue...I’ve unearthed this related 5.1 treat. Back in February 2009, Chycki and I talked exclusively about his surround work for both the audio and live video releases for Rush's 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. That interview was initially intended to be a companion piece for my interview with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, but for various reasons not worth getting into, it remained on the virtual shelf — until now." - SoundAndVisionMag.com, April 5, 2011
Dominion, the third album by US metal band Benedictum, was released March 8th. Included as a bonus track is their cover of "2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx"; vocalist Veronica Freeman recently discussed how she was once a "closet" Rush fan:"I'm a huge Rush fan, I love 'em. I just don't talk about it much because everybody wants to talk to me about the Dio stuff. Rush has always resonated with me, but I knew so many people that didn't like them back in the day because they didn't sound evil enough (laughs), so I became a closet Rush fan. I had always wanted to sing 'Temples'. I remember back in the times before CDs, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had my wannabe souped-up Firebird blasting Rush on the cassette deck. The stereo was worth more than the car (laughs). I had the windows rolled up so nobody else could hear while I tried to hit those notes (laughs)." - Benedictum vocalist Veronica Freeman, CarlBegai.com, March 28, 2011 Thanks to RushIsABand for the headsup
"When I saw my first Rush concert, I spent the whole time watching Geddy's hands," Claypool told Bass Player Magazine. "There were so many things I didn't know; I didn't even know there were such things as roundwound strings. I'd had that Memphis a year and a half without changing the strings, and here I was trying to sound like Geddy Lee and Chris Squire." - Thanks to Matt Kelly for the headsup!
"Rush lead vocalist Geddy Lee is no stranger to Blue Jays fans. He’s been a longtime fan himself, and has attended hundreds of games through the good and not-so-good times. When asked about his fave game, the Toronto native knew right away: 'Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta,' Lee said this week, just as the band was leaving Toronto for Tampa to open a tour. 'Sitting with my brother Allan and beside Candy Maldonado's dentist from Puerto Rico and the wives of the Blue Jay coaches...an island of Jays fans in a sea of Braves T-shirts, cheering in the top of the 11th inning as Dave Winfield hit a double off of Charlie Liebrandt to drive in two runs, which would lead to the Blue Jays capturing the Holy Grail, a long-awaited World Series championship. 'Truly the greatest Blue Jay play for me...Even the 1993 championship and Joe Carter's jaw-dropping home run could not compare to that spectacular moment in Atlanta." - TorontoStar, March 31, 2011
"Every week RUSH BACKSTAGE will draw two winners to win a pair of Meet and Greet passes to meet RUSH during the Time Machine 2011 tour. The winners will meet members of the band, before the show. These lucky people will have the opportunity to say hello and have their picture taken with the guys! In order to qualify to win the prize, entrants MUST already have in their possession tickets to a Rush Time Machine concert during the Time Machine 2011 tour. Rush Backstage will not be providing concert tickets to the winners." - Click here to enter
Update: Last August 31st, Heart released their album Red Velvet Car. The album was produced and engineered by Ben Mink and David Leonard respectively, both of whom had the same credits on Geddy Lee's My Favorite Headache."...an inside joke between Ben Mink and Nancy Wilson...Nancy heard some hi pitched thing in 'Death Valley' and Ben said 'it's probably Geddy whistling'. They gave Geddy credit. That's the story." - David Leonard, September 2010.Nancy Wilson recently discussed this in more detail on New Mexico's KZZR radio:
"When Ben was mixing Red Velvet Car, Geddy Lee was around, and he got the voice of Geddy Lee hidden in the beginning of the "Death Valley" song. It's sort of a secret signal from Geddy." - Nancy Wilson, KZZR 94rock.com, March 24, 2011
RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage has won the 2011 Juno for Music DVD of the Year:"RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage, which offers a rare glimpse into the world of the Canadian rock stalwarts, has won Music DVD of the Year at this year's Juno gala dinner and award ceremony held tonight [March 26] in Toronto.The acclaimed documentary - which features the likes of Dave Grohl, Gene Simmons, and Billy Corgan speaking on the influence of the mighty rockers known as Rush - stands as the second consecutive win in this Juno category for filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (the duo of Banger Films walked away victorious last year thanks to 'Iron Maiden: Flight 666')." - Spinner.com, March 26, 2011
"Beating out the Broken Social Scene flick This Movie is Broken - arguably their biggest competitor - Dunn and McFadyen were in high spirits back stage at the press conference following their acceptance speech. 'Everyone kind of came out of the Rush closet,' Dunn said of making the doc. 'The musicians and fans have wanted something like this for a long time'." - Spinner.com, March 26, 2011
In addition, on Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were on hand to present the Album of the Year Juno to Arcade Fire for The Suburbs. Here is an audio clip of Geddy and Alex's presentation speech! - thanks to Shane Stevens for sending this recording!
Home
