"...it’s some kind of a story—with a bittersweet ending and renewed faith in humanity. A small dark blot in my past, with its fading nebula of pain and regret, has suddenly flared into a bright star of relief and gratitude. You can’t make that stuff up."You can check it out here.
New product alert! We're proud to introduce the new SE Alex Lifeson Thinline Acoustic Guitar. We worked closely with Alex to make this guitar a studio and stage workhorse at a great price.The suggested retail price is $799, but the guitar is already available at online retailers for less. For more info, check out the SE Alex Lifeson Thinline Acoustic Guitar at PRSguitars.com. - Thanks to Rosmakloma for the headsup!
Today's Hamilton Spectator included a lengthy follow on Saturday night's Juno Award's celebration:Rush singer Geddy Lee "gratefully" accepted the award on behalf of the band, but admitted he felt uncomfortable receiving "an award for doing something that you should do."
Rush began supporting the Toronto Food Bank during its earliest shows at Maple Leaf Gardens, urging fans to bring food for those in need. Rush has also performed benefit shows for the United Way and in support of AIDS research.
In 2008, Rush donated $100,000 from a Winnipeg concert to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. In the same year, the band also gave $100,000 from a New Orleans concert to Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation to help rebuild the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
As well, Rush has raised some $2 million for Doctors Without Borders and another $575,000 for Alberta Flood Relief.
"There are a lot of people who give and don't play in a rock band, they don't make a lot of money," Lee told reporters backstage during the Juno Awards gala attended by some 800 music industry insiders at the Hamilton Convention Centre.
"Giving is a healthy thing to pass on to other people. You don't have to shout about it, but it is important to do it, whether it's $5 to someone in the neighbourhood, it's a meal, there's a ton of ways to help. It's a part of everyone's obligation as a human being. We try to look at life like that."
When asked why the band has not publicized its many charitable acts, Lee replied: "We're nice Canadian boys and we try not to make a spectacle of ourselves. We focus on our work and get publicity for the work we do. What we do privately is private."
Lee's bandmates — guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart — were unable to make it to the Juno dinner, but each sent brief videotaped messages of thanks.
"It is both a gratifying and a humble thing to be recognized this way," said Peart, who is currently rehearsing in California for the band's upcoming tour. " ... I always say, if you do well, try to do good. Because I've done well, I try to do good."
Lee, 61, told reporters that the secret to the Toronto band's longevity was its sense of humour.
"It's really not as easy as it looks to stay together for 40 years," Lee said. "We are blessed with very equal temperament and we have a unique and shared sense of humour. We try not to take things too seriously other than the music we are working on ... We are friends, we like each other and we do like to hang out together and make each other laugh."
Also honoured at the Juno dinner was longtime Rush manager Ray Daniels, who founded the Anthem Records label after the band was rejected by every other label in Canada during the early '70s. Daniels was presented with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award for his contributions to the Canadian music industry.
"I've always said that I was at Rush's first shows and I plan on being at the last. That hasn't changed," Daniels told the audience.
"I've had the privilege of spending time with some of the most interesting people in the world; some are captains of industry, world leaders and elite athletes," Daniels said. "Some were just well-read limo drivers and others just music fans like myself. What a trip for a kid like me who never finished high school. When I started out with Rush, Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, Nixon was about to be impeached and the Leafs were only a few years past winning the Stanley Cup. That is a long time ago."
Other charitable organizations supported by Rush include the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Child Advocates, the Dominic Triano Foundation, Little Kids Rock, the Kidney Foundation, the Chilean Red Cross and Grapes for Humanity Canada.
"It's a way that you can do it as a unit, which Rush is, without making really a big deal about it. 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 charitable contributions, Rush has donated significantly to Toronto Food Bank, United Way, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the New Orleans-assisting Make it Right Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Alberta Flood Relief and Casey House. Click here for the full interview with Alex. - Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!
“I learned very early that it feels really good to help somebody else. A lot of times it feels better than getting help yourself and now that we’re in a position to do something and have been for awhile, it only makes sense. It’s a duty, really, that we all have to help the less fortunate.”
“It’s a wonderful thing to get this kind of recognition. We’ve been very lucky, particularly over the last many years that there’s been all this attention paid to us. And it’s lovely and it’s very much appreciated but it’s not the most important thing. But we happily accept these sorts of things but we don’t try to make a really big deal. You know, it’s a typical Canadian attitude, trying to stay under the radar, and do the thing that we do, and then complain as much as we can.”Of the tour, Alex said:
“We’re prepping for the tour; we’re at that stage where we’ve just started playing. You don’t want to hear us. We’re nuts. We rehearse for six weeks before the rehearsals. I’m serious. I’ve been rehearsing for three weeks now. I spend four hours, three times a week, and then the rest of the time I play for an hour to two hours. And that’s just to get ready for rehearsals.”You can read the full interview here.
"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...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 thinks it is that final or thinks that they won’t make music or do something. But I will tell you this. I am probably not going to be able to get a band full of 65 year olds out again on the road--which is what would happen next time with any potential tour--they all would be 65-ish. Neil is as much an athlete as he is a musician, but with these 2 1/2 and 3 hour length sets, I don’t know if it possible to keep up with that (physical) demand. And they each want to go out on top in every single way. From their status....well, that is more me—the status—than it is them; and still having the ability to be at their best. To play at the level that they have been able to play."You can check out the complete interview at CelebrityAccess.com. - Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!
"From Banger Films, the people that brought you the Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage documentary and the TV show Metal Evolutions, comes an all-new docu-series profiling the biggest icons in hard rock, heavy metal and classic rock. Rock Icons premieres Saturday February 21st at 10/9C, immediately following the That Metal Show‘s season 14 kick-off, and takes you backstage with in-depth, intimate portraits revealing who these rock stars really are. Each 30-minute episode is jam-packed with exclusive interviews and never-before-seen footage with featured artists and the key people who helped shape their careers. The series premiere goes beyond the limelight with Geddy Lee, lead singer and bassist extraordinaire of Canadian progressive hard rock legends Rush. Find out how his remarkable musical talent and drive was influenced by the early passing of his father and why he is determined to live every bit of his life to the fullest. Future episode will chronicle the lives of metal god Rob Halford of Judas Priest, former Guns N’ Roses guitar hero Slash, Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe and more. Between Rock Icons and That Metal Show, VH1 Classic is the place to be on Saturday nights for all things rock so don’t forget to tune in starting February 21st!" - VH1.com, January 28, 201
"We did a feature length film on Rush, right? And now we’re doing a half-hour feature on Geddy Lee. We sort of sat there and said, what else are we going to talk about, we’ve already covered so much. As we started to talk about it and do more research, what we started to embrace was not only the Geddy Lee that’s in Rush but who he is outside of Rush. What does that tell us about his personality? So even though I spent hours with Geddy and the other guys in the band making Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, going down with him into the “bass room” of his house where he’s got, literally, the history of the electric bass all on his walls, and to sit with him as he actually pulls basses off the wall and play them and talk about the history of the instrument – I still have these moments where I’m like, this is amazing. Because I started playing bass because of my love for bands like Rush and Iron Maiden. I mean, I wanted to be Geddy Lee and Steve Harris when I was 12. I still really get a big thrill out of spending time with these guys because they come to respect the work that we do and so it’s very comfortable. We can just sit down on a very one to one basis and talk about things in a fairly transparent and relaxed way. And I think… let’s just say I’ve had worse day jobs." - Sam Dunn of Banger Films, VH1.com, February 12, 2015
Five minutes into last night's AMC "Breaking Bad" spinoff, "Better Call Saul" (season 1, episode 4), Saul is in a room smoking a bong and hanging on the wall behind him is a Rush poster for the Aug 14, 1974 Pittsburgh show (first show with Neil Peart). [Webmaster's nitpicker's note: while this is an officially licensed poster created NMR Aquarius, it is a poorly researched - it's irksome that they used a Hemispheres
photo on a commemorative poster for a concert in 1974!] - Thanks to William Gordon for the headsup!
TORONTO - Rush frontman Geddy Lee's memory of attending his first show at Toronto's Massey Hall remains spring-water clear — and what stands out is the sound quality that was swamp-water muddled.
It was June 5, 1968, and a then 22-year-old Lee was desperate to see British rock royalty Cream, even though his friends weren't.
"I couldn't get anyone to go see Cream with me," Lee told The Canadian Press in one of Massey's spartan dressing rooms Monday.
"I said: 'Screw you all, I'm going by myself.' I sat in the balcony. And I don't think their PA system had arrived because they played onstage and Jack Bruce was singing through the Massey Hall crappy little announcement system.
"It was really strange," he added, laughing.
Such whimsical glitches may become less common as the venerable Massey Hall — a piece of Toronto iconography since it was built back in 1894 — undergoes a seven-year, $135-million revitalization.
"Phase one" of that operation began this week, with improvements including a first-ever loading dock, a modernized back of house, a backstage space for artists, and technical tweaks.
Massey Hall has been the site of several legendary live recordings, including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's "Jazz at Massey Hall," Neil Young's "Live at Massey Hall 1971" and Rush's own "All the World's a Stage."
Lee talked to The Canadian Press about the relationship between the historic venue and his beloved power-prog trio.
“It’s very hard to answer that question for a lot of reasons,” he said, during a special guest appearance on the season premiere of VH1′s That Metal Show. “First of all, you know, the three guys in this band have very different opinions on this point in our lives. Everybody’s in a very different space right now. We’ve done a lot of touring for the last 10 years, a lot of writing, a lot of working. (Drummer) Neil (Peart), for example, has a young child at home and he’s said publicly, numerous times, that it’s very hard for him to leave his daughter. She needs him. So, it’s clear that we are at a point in our career that we have to slow down — and slow down dramatically. So, I’m not a guy who’s in love with the farewell tour idea, but it’s clear that this is going to be the last big tour that we’re going to do for a while, anyway. I can say that.”Read More: Geddy Lee on Rush's Upcoming 'Last Big Tour': 'We Have to Slow Down Dramatically' | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/geddy-lee-final-rush-tour/?trackback=tsmclip
Don't miss ON TAP tonight because the ONE & ONLY Geddy Lee of RUSH will be calling in for an EXCLUSIVE interview! Geddy is going to tell us all about his upcoming appearances on VH1 Classic's That Metal Show & #RockIcons!- Thanks to John @ Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!
Here's where you can listen to ON TAP tonight:
http://on.vh1.com/OnTap
"Before the footage from The Big Story of Small Potatoes was lost to time, I thought it prudent to fill the commitment I made to myself in 2007 to make the Neil Peart documentary. Neil Peart's band mates and contemporary drummers are the true character of this film. I had a ton of fun researching and finding them, and thank them all for their participation. In any event, it may be more accurate to have the 'many' explain the 'one'..."You can check it the documentary below. - Thanks to Andy O for the headsup!
Some new drums arrived so Peart and Carey came over to lay heavy hands upon them. Scannell and I banged out any old riffs while Stone chimed the gongs. Couple days later four MORE drummers dropped by and took up the horns. The piano was an afterthought.
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