https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R56qgreCRhQ" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R56qgreCRhQ

Saw them in 78-79 first time......College, marriage, kids, caused a break in live shows thru late 80s early 90s, only saw the Presto tour with my wife (marrying me she became a Rush fan, and a huge Peart fan). We saw every tour in the 2000s to the last one, R40 Tour. Saw Time Machine tour twice in Seattle and San Francisco in 1 week span.

Our kids saw the last 3-4 shows in Seattle so it became a family affair to see a Rush show.

According to my Discogs collection account I have 43 Rush entries of LPs, CDs, VHS, DVDs.....And I have not loaded all my cassettes and some 8-tracks I have also. Plus I have books, tour programs and numerous tour shirts. Clearly Rush has been a massive part of my musical life, that will never change.

All eras of Rush are excellent, that has nothing to do with being a fanatic but a lover of great music and the brilliance of change.

Somewhere on this site many years ago I remember mentioning the day that Rush retire was going to be a tough, tough day to swallow. They are literally the last band to be able to put on live shows like they did with such grand presence and production, at least within this genre...there is nobody left that can do that....
Retiring from touring was tough although something kept telling me at least maybe we will still get new music but no huge tours, maybe a few shows here and there....I kept a candle burning.

In interviews (recent) Geddy has mentioned that there is no unreleased Rush music in a vault somewhere...

Losing Neil Peart was simply massive, 10 yrs from now I understand it but still he was only 67......Last week I read the announcement over and over and over just to make sure....The Professor is gone.

"....though its just a memory, some memories last forever..." (Lakeside Park)

I know it well......I'm on my 3rd vinyl copy of Hemispheres. My original is packed away.....

Great pic of the band during the Rush debut album tour, Agora Ballroom 1974.

I thought I heard somewhere that their first show with Neil was opening for Manfred Mann and Uriah Heep. Is that correct or was that a bit later(maybe on FBN tour)?

Yup, Neil joined and had to learn the songs within 2-3 weeks of going on the road. My daughter gave me the Wandering the Face Of the Earth Complete Tour book for Christmas. It's filled with great backstage info and commentary about pretty much every show they did from start to finish.

Even have listed dates they were suppose to play but either could not be confirmed by band or label or venue, because they can't remember that far back....It's cra-cra.

It clearly details how they built a touring empire from nothing but dirt and sweat. Also the roadies that stuck with them for so long....excellent book.

Great pix, Catcher! 

Catcher10 wrote: All eras of Rush are excellent, that has nothing to do with being a fanatic but a lover of great music and the brilliance of change.

 

That's right.

It's a never before released song by Rush though. You didn't say "no covers allowed."  In case you forgot they did a whole album of covers called "feedback."

No Rush fan should be without it......Your right, here's mine!

 

Text from  https://ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=backroom;pid=633867;d=this" rel="nofollow - https://ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=backroom;pid=633867;d=this

Well Feedback is not your typical covers album.....It is songs that made an impact on each one of them growing up. Rush did not record those songs because they were popular, the songs were who they were and influenced them to get into a band and play rock n roll.

This portion from the liner notes, which of course all of it written by Neil.

"It was April of 2004, but Geddy, Alex, and I were channeling back to 1966 and 1967, when we were thirteen- and fourteen -year-old beginners. We thought it would be a fitting symbol to commemorate our thirty years together if we returned to our roots and paid tribute to those we had learned from and were inspired by. We thought we might record some of the songs we used to listen to, the ones we painstakingly learned the chords, notes, and drum parts for, and even played in our earliest bands."

I couldn't quite get there in terms of appreciation until I heard the Roll The Bones album. If that sounds like a joke it isn't. At the time prog was still in long term hibernation and I was just looking for a band that wrote songs that actually meant something. It was only then that I went back and gathered up the back releases. 

Moving Pictures remains a favourite album. The first four tracks are sheer perfection. Rush were the finest rock band ever in terms of tightness and just nailing the damn thing! But the lyrics of Neil are probably what elevates the music just that bit higher.

I was talking to a young lad at work yesterday and he was gutted to find out about Peart. We had a good natter but it also illustrates how this band were still making inroads into audiences much younger than them. A very special band that we will never see the like of again imo.

My family moved to a new town in '79. I was 11 and up to that point, my musical tatses were Beatles and whatever was on pop radio stations. My new neighbors were huge Rush fans. They tried to get me into them but at first, it just didn't click. In fact, I wanted no part of that weird music.  However by Moving Pictures I had started to like a few songs. I had a mix tape (taped off the radio) of songs like Vital Signs, Spirit of Radio, etc and that blossomed into full on love for their music.

My first record was Moving Pictures. My second was Caress of Steel. As a Rush neophyte, hearing CoS was quite the interesting experience.  It became one of my favorites though.

https://www.cbr.com/neil-peart-rush-defenders-homage/" rel="nofollow - https://www.cbr.com/neil-peart-rush-defenders-homage/

I received Chronicles (double CD) in '93 at my 15th birthday, already having borrowed moving pictures on cassette and taken it everywhere. So I started with the: Tom Sawyer - Red Barchetta - YYZ - Limelight pathway.. also I remember having listened to 'Where's my thing' with great interest before that. After that it was long hot summer afternoons on vacations listening to fly by night on a recorded cassette.

Then obviously I went to review all the 70's albums one by one and I ended up stationed there for good. When I listen to Rush, I look for Alex Lifeson distorted strumming (and solos obviously, but those perfectly tuned up, distorted strummings always fascinate me; I play guitar and I don't find it easy to make the electric guitar sound so neat strumming entire chords, or chords progressions like an acoustic guitar, with distortion), also his unusual power chords and arpeggiated transitions (ex. Anthem), his solos with that blessed wrist for the vibratos and all kinds of color with harmonics.    Geddy's screams and bass, and Neil Peart's (a hero) clockwork drumming; for me there's nothing like that. It fulfils all my musical power needs and I think with Yes is the progressive rock band that I have most consistently listened to through the years.

On that matter I can also remember a period when with friends it got into our heads to start loathing Geddy's voice.. now I find that ridiculous (no offense to anyone but me), but you know, perhaps is one of those 'acquired tastes'. Now I simply love Geddy's voice (screams I like most). Take for example 2112, Temple Of Syrinx.. after all that instrumental introduction he starts the song screaming at max!    Wow..     I was in a band called 'Jacob's Ladder'.. and we had fun playing some of the more "playable" Rush songs.. but when it came to singing them… there was our problem..   much later I reunited with another friend and put effort to play subdivisions and YYZ...   there I attempted some singing on subdivisions (plus the guitar) and there you can really appreciate Geddy's singing (screaming sometimes) and seemingly unrelated bass playing!   other-worldly.

That's also why I like best records like Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, and I suppose I'm a rock-driven progressive kind of fan (Close To The Edge, Hemispheres, Relayer, and Bruford era King Crimson) I like 'hard' progressive rock, that flows with momentum (I like the other kind also). In that sense Rush is not a beginning or 'introduction' to other bands, but an end on itself; it is for me the culminating point of hard rock with perfect musicianship, awesome and clever fantasy/sci-fi lyrics and perfectly employed bits of synthesizer. That's it!

Machinemessiah wrote: When I listen to Rush, I look for Alex Lifeson distorted strumming (and solos obviously, but those perfectly tuned up, distorted strummings always fascinate me; I play guitar and I don't find it easy to make the electric guitar sound so neat strumming entire chords, or chords progressions like an acoustic guitar, with distortion), also his unusual power chords and arpeggiated transitions (ex. Anthem), his solos with that blessed wrist for the vibratos and all kinds of color with harmonics.

He really came a long way stylistically between Hem and MP.   By the time Signals came out ~ with his emphasis on phrasing, tone, and restraint ~ he was almost unrecognizable from the post-Page shrieks & squeals of his earlier days.

Dude, I envy you 😪😢😥

I remember reading online somewhere a few years ago or so about how Alex's approach(especially on Perm. Waves and later)would have sounded different without the first Van Halen album. Although it's been well documented that Alex was influenced by Andy Summers(and you can certainly hear that in some of the 80's albums)it's been mentioned far less frequently(if at all)that he was influenced by Eddie Van Halen when he first came on the scene. Yet the fast guitar intro at the beginning of "spirit of radio," although a bit different than Eddie's tapping technique(which itself was probably "borrowed" from Steve Hackett), would nonetheless be different without that first VH album. I read this somewhere although I happen to agree with it. I don't feel Alex stole anything from these guys. He merely borrowed ideas which is something most great musicians do. 

 ^  As a total guitar geek I have to nitpick that.   Eddie VH's influence on Alex pretty much begins & ends with with 'YYZ'.   The hammer/pull phrases on Permanent Waves were long-established guitar techniques and had little to do with Eddie other than that he influenced well over a decade of players in the late 70s/early 80s.  

Alex's new approach reminded me much more of Jeff Beck, and as you point out, Andy Summers.   He had matured as a musician and was more interested in getting to the point with tasteful, carefully considered phrasing, ultimately creating his own very unique sound.

The article goes into details about it though which sounded pretty convincing to me. If I ever find the article online then I'll post it here.

Everyone was influenced by Eddie, but the only one who can say how & when he influenced Alex Lifeson is Alex Lifeson.

True, but I seriously doubt that intro to spirit of radio would have happened the way it did without that first VH album. We all have our opinions but I'm not budging on that and I'm not the only one who thinks that. Like I said I never thought of it until I read it but again the site isn't loading otherwise I would share it here.

I did find this though where he mentions Eddie as a general influence.  http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19960900guitarone.htm" rel="nofollow - http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19960900guitarone.htm

Not sure why his death has hit me quite so hard. I guess its because that this music we love speaks to us so personally. Usually we don't share our taste with family members or even close friends and the only time we get to be with others that are so passionate are at gigs.

In the main, its a one to one relationship. These pieces have sustained us during our darkest hours, or during our greatest triumphs and as such we share a close personal affection for the people who created them.

To be honest I just wanted to stand with some other Rush fans who understood

Did Rush ever play this live?

They did Scott, early in career........here are pics from the tour history book that just came out, my daughter gave it to me for Christmas, excellent book! This was on the CoS tour.

Yes.....I am at the 2112 period right now. Up to that point there are many pics of posters and tickets from various shows.

I don't recall a tour book that is more comprehensive than this one, with notes on many of the dates.....the early shows and comments are really interesting read.

Nah....My daughter got it off the Rush website but I think they are out now.........I've seen it on Amazon.

I had a friend at University who was a fanatic. I got 2112 and struggled with it initially. He had told me that as I as was a fan of Yes, Crimson and classic Rock (Sabbath, Purple and Zeppelin) that I would love them - but I just didn't. Then I gave Hemispheres a go and that did strike a chord - I loved it. But still I as I listened to more, I didn't love them like I did Yes, Floyd, Genesis etc.

Then fast forward to the news of Neil's passing and they have all of a sudden theu make complete and utter sense. I cannot work out work out what has happened in order for me to suddenly love them - but I do. I am so frustrated it has taken nearly 30 years and as such I missed the chance to see them live. But I guess, better late than never!

My current faves;

Hemishpeheres, 

A farewell to Kings

2112

Waves

Pictures

Looking forward to getting to hear the rest of their albums. 

It depends what you mean by "headline shows". There are dates before the release of Rush debut where they played venues as the only act. Sure a lot of them were HS gyms and church basements, but all bands started this way.

I remember hearing Working Man but not knowing who the band was, and later on realizing it was Rush. Anthem and Fly By Night I also remembering hearing on KMET 94.7FM "The Mighty Met", in Los Angeles, KMET was a pioneer of playing progressive rock in LA, that's where I first heard Genesis also....This was around '76 I remember, that's about the time I started getting into Rush.

I was referring to headline shows as in a larger crowd(say over 200)not counting bars or small clubs and where they would have someone supporting them as opposed to the other way around. 

As for hearing fly by night and anthem did you hear them before or after 2112 was released? Just wondering. I remember reading in a rush biography(the red book if you remember that one)where the guy said they struggled to get on the radio in the early days.

Rush indeed got off to a rocky start. Things changed when one day a deejay flipped the record and played the B-side, called "Working Man."

Yeah, that's the one. It was written by "the B Man" who apparently later had a falling out with the band unfortunately. 

Actually there was no record flipping involved. No, the story I heard was that Donna Halper who was the dj(and music director) at a rock station in Cleveland caled wmms was looking for a "bathroom song" and came across "working man" which was the longest track on the album. She played it and knew it would go down well in Cleveland which was very working class. This was documented in the Beyond the lighted stage dvd. Historically some djs have been known to flip records and have the b side become a "hit" but that wasn't the case here. While there were two singles released from that first album neither of those singles had "working man" as a b side so I'm not sure what you are referring to. Like I said it was an album track that was chosen as a bathroom break song because of it's length. Then people started calling in asking about the new Led Zeppelin song! Lol. 

I still don't know how Peart had just two hands.

Or two feet.

You are correct. But that is the song that got played, and it led to Rush getting a lot of airplay in that market as a result. 

There are many dates where they headlined before 2112, in small venues of 200+. Once 2112 and ATWAS were released they began more headline shows. The larger attendance shows were still as a support act with bands like Ted Nugent, BOC, Kiss and Aerosmith anywhere from 2k-18k seat venues. For the most part in those shows that usually included 3 acts, they were the support not the opening act and played an hour to 1.5 hr sets. Also understand at this time was their first trip outside NA, where they played Hammersmith Odeon as headliner.

What is super interesting to read are some of the reviews that basically slam the band as not being very good, being tooooooo loud but the common theme of Neil being the highlight of the band talent wise. And how when they toured the Maritimes they mentioned not wanting to go back because the crowds basically suxed there.

2112 came out in '76 and that is when I got into Rush, its tough to remember. My thought is I heard Anthem and Fly By Night before the Bicentennial year, which I remember that time vividly and again Working Man too but not knowing it was Rush.

Edit: Ok, I see they were referring to Canada which is kind of strange considering they were from Canada. I wouldn't expect them to have less airplay in their home country than in the US but I guess that's how it was.

I am here to appreciate RUSH

That's awesome! Did you make that?

richardh wrote: Thye just seemed to become absolutely massive in the UK and Europe towards the end of the seventies. Not everyone was on board with punk. There was still plenty of room for a more cerebral and sophisticated approach to rock music. I remember Trees being played on the radio in 1978 and it stuck out like a sore thumb, but in a good way!

 

They are one of the very few bands who get labelled prog who have a big audience outside of prog. There are people into country and rap who like Rush also.

That's even weirder. 

No i didn't! I just found it on the internets. So wickedly cool how could i not share it!

Blacksword wrote: Of all the 70's prog bands Rush were the only one who went into the 80's with any dignity and without loss of integrity IMO. Permanent Waves to GUP was a run of albums which far exceeded anything by Yes, Floyd, Tull, KC or Genesis in terms of quality, for that era, IMO.

 

I agree, with the exception of King Crimson. Robert Fripp wanted to do anything but a retread of the '70s. You may recall that '80s KC was initially a band called Discipline, kind of like Yes calling themselves Cinema before they found out they couldn't.

I love '80s KC. That said, Rush from Permanent Waves through Hold Your Fire certainly enjoyed more spin time. I couldn't begin to tell you how many hours of Rush I've heard in my lifetime.

I never heard that Yes couldn't call themselves Cinema. I think it was more that they figured they could sell more by calling it Yes.

No, King Crimson in the 80's wasn't a retread of 70's prog it was a retread of the Talking Heads. 

Word....pretty crazy.

Well I am certain they were on the radio well before 1980. I grew up in SoCal and listening to KMET which was a huge player of prog and lesser known bands. SoCal was a radio market large enough to support Rush, Genesis and the like that was not common hard rock like Aerosmith, LZ, Journey.....So I think the city you might have been in could be a reason.

My family moved to New Orleans in 1980 and an eventual friend in my new neighborhood had all Rush albums on LP and cassette. Rush was pretty big in NO.......they were on the radio there too early on.

I've seen that YT before, but heck in the course of their career I still don't think they got massive airplay

Anyway, yeah I know about the band Cinema that evolved into Yes just like I know about Maybel Greer's Toyshop. :P Thanks for those links. I'll look into that further.

Re: Remain in Light

^The '80s was my "era"...lol. I heard all that stuff, the good, the bad, the best, the worst, the rad, the meh. 

Fripp was already moving in that direction, as we can hear on Exposure two years earlier. He thought Daryl Hall was the best vocalist in the biz, too.

Maybe but I seriously doubt Discipline would have sounded the way it did if it wasn't for Remain in Light  and yes the fact that Adrian was on it is a big part of that. 

The 80's was my era too but at the time I was more into older bands. Still, not a big fan of 80's music(at least compared to other decades) for the most part. It serves mostly as nostalgia for me and not much else.

The '80s was great if you were into the advancement of synthesizer technology. I was into synths and all throughout high school, one of my biggest goals was getting my first synth. I was into Tangerine Dream years before I got into Rush. I never understood the hate some fans gave Rush for incorporating synths into their sound. The decade was also great for neo-prog and film scores. A lot of really good hard rock and metal, too. Prog keyboardists like Wakeman, Banks, Bardens and Watkins released some fine solo albums. Larry Fast (Synergy) only did a couple, but they're excellent, nonetheless.

Yeah, there's a lot of crap from the '80s, too. But that goes for any decade, when you think about it.

My biggest issue with the 80's was the production and the big drum sound. I'm not talking about gated reverb either just the way the drums were put up front and produced. Listen to the Cars "heartbeat city" or ZZ Top's "afterburner." There's just something about the production that rubs me the wrong way. It's almost as if they were trying to give rock albums a dance music aesthetic or something. Yeah you can still enjoy it if you are in the right mindset or just accept it as it is but it just comes across as sounding try too hard or something. Some of the pop music actually wasn't too bad especially compared to today but again the cheesey production is the biggest offender imo.

I agree with you about neo prog, hard rock(I guess there was some) and metal(except for hair metal) and I actually like a lot of the new wave from that era. I also think some of the early alternative stuff was good. However, if I have to choose between decades for me it would go 70's, 90's, 60's then 80's. For prog it would be about the same although the last two decades would be before the 80's and you can take out the sixties since the genre hardly existed then. So no it wasn't all bad but I prefer other decades more. Plus I admit I do need to discover and rediscover more from the 80's. Back then I was mostly into(including the latest albums by) KC, Yes, Genesis, Rush, PF and MB. I liked other stuff too but not too much that was current at the time.

By their own admission they didn't get massive airplay in the U.S. However, I'm sure the amount of airplay they did get was a regional thing. In the 80s here in CT, the only time they got significant airplay was when a new album was released (and then not even a ton of airplay) and when they had a tour date in the state. At most other times, airplay on local radio was very spotty. That's going by memory or course. 

Airplay doesn't always equal success though. Metallica, Iron Maiden, NIN, and Tool all seemed to have sold a lot of albums before they got much airplay(especailly with IM and Metallica). It seems to be mostly a thing with metal and hard rock bands though. I don't think Black Sabbath were played much on the radio either(at least in the 70's and 80's). As for Rush I am a bit too young to say about the early days but I certainly heard them on the radio after signals(first by them I bought on cassette). But I am from the northeastern US and so things might have different elsewhere.

Roll The Bones, with the exception of Dreamline and a couple others, puts me to sleep. Might be my least favorite Rush album. Side two in particular is mostly a big snoozer. 

They are the ones I am the least familiar with(especially vapor trails)which is why I have been listening to them lately.

1974-75 : I used to go back to a friends house most days after school and we would listen to the first Rush album and marvel at Alex's guitar work.  I forgot about them for a year or two after that until one day in 1976 when I was scratching around in the "Listen" record shop at the bottom of Renfield Street in Glasgow looking for an album to buy.  Who should walk in to the shop but that same friend who I had lost touch with as I had moved away after leaving school,  and he recommended I should buy All The Worlds a Stage, which I did.  That was it - I was hooked and couldn't stop listening to it. 

Then came the Farewell to Kings tour : 12th June 1977 at Glasgow Apollo, where Xanadu was first aired live as a track from the forthcoming album and which is still seared into my memories 43 years later.  Those double necks and the Taurus Bass Pedals..!!  I remember the caption on the back of the tour programme from that show which read  - "Rush : They must have been one hell of a band"

 The following year saw them do 2 nights at the Apollo in February and I was there again.  I remember Alex's sound wasn't so great that time, and I was such a daft 17 year old kid that I rang up the Albany Hotel at around 5.30pm on the second night before running out to catch the bus in to town to mention it to him.  I didn't expect to be put through, but bloody hell - suddenly there he was on the other end of the phone line waiting for me to say something, so I came straight out with it.  Alex told me that Apparently they had been having some issues with some transformers they were having to use to step up the voltage as all their amps were configured to US voltage which is 110V whereas in the UK we used 230V and it was this which was causing the problem with the sound.  I don't know if that was actually the case or not, but it's what he told me and it sounded plausible enough....

After that I continued to attend every show Rush played at Glasgow Apollo until 1982,  and can proudly state that I am a fully fledged member of the Glasgow Apollo "Choir" on the live version of Closer to the Heart on Exit Stage Left.

As far as I'm concerned the best time for Rush was the 1970s and 80s up to and including Hold your Fire.  After that I thought they kind of went a bit flat.  I saw them in 1987 in a big barn-like arena made of concrete and steel, and the sound was totally sh*te, and same again in 2007 in a similar big arena where the sound was again totally sh*te.  I don't know why any self respecting bands even consider such venues where the sound is always so poor but there you go....    Anyway, that was the last time I saw them and I can only offer humble thanks and the greatest appreciation for all that they gave me over the years both in terms of listening and watching enjoyment,  and their collective influence on my own playing technique.

RIP Neil. You will be sorely missed.

I'm in the same place as you. You're right, they're not bad but I'm not sure how good they are overall. Certainly, there are standout tracks but I wish those albums had a more varied sound. There is a sameness to the songs. I find that when I get the urge to listen to one of those, I spin it once and then I'm good for years before I need to hear it again. For me, that's pretty telling.

Also, even though Power Windows is considered one of their more pop albums I like it a lot. 

Moving Pictures was released in 1981.

I also love Power Windows.

M27Barney wrote: ^ Argo. If your house was on fire and you could only save five rush cd's from the blaze...bet none of them would be from the 80's or later...

 

that's a completely ridiculous hypothetical situation

I'd say clockwork angels is better than TFE. S&A is about the same though.My personal favorite Rush albums are in the 70's and 80's though. They lost a certain magic after Hold your fire imo. That album in fact is very underrated imo. I'll admit part of is because I'm a synth/keyboard guy and synths didn't really appear all that much after HYF.

If aliens landed and started slaughtering the populace and even though that was happening you still wanted to introduce them to the majesty that is Rush which five albums would you play for them, or try to play for them while dodging laser fire?