Monday 26 April 2010

A Good Year For Rush Fans

One of my earliest posts on this blog was about Rush (My favourite band). Another Rush related post is long overdue.

Recently, Rush had a countdown clock on their website (see Rush: Countdown To… What?). Clearly an announcement was immanent and when it ran out, they announced their Time Machine Tour. On this tour (among other things I assume) they will play the whole of their Moving Pictures album - great news as this is still one of my favourite Rush albums. Not so good news is that it is a tour of North America and, unfortunately, Glasgow, Scotland doesn't qualify as being in North America. Curse!

However, there is the good news that they are working on their 20th studio album, so hopefully when that is released a European tour will follow.

Even more immanent though is the release of the new Rush documentary film: Beyond the Lighted Stage. The trailer should give you a flavour of what it will be like:



I especially like it that Closer To The Heart features so prominently at the start of the trailer. This is a track that means a lot to Glaswegian Rush fans of a certain age!

4 comments:

JT said...

What is the significance of "Closer to the Heart" (other than it being an amazing song)?

Also, I'm not sure if this has been officially confirmed, but I have read that they are planning to play a couple of new songs (from the upcoming album) on the tour, which will add somewhat of a "future" aspect to the Time Machine concept. I know that some of the premium ticket packages for this tour include a CD single with two new songs on it, though it's not clear when that CD will actually be released.

It is indeed an exciting time to be a Rush fan. I'm hoping to be able to make it to one of the shows. They're not coming to my city this time, but they are playing a few shows nearby, so if things work out I'll be able to catch my first Rush show. :)

JT said...

Wait, is it because of Exit... Stage Left? It's been ages since I've had a chance to look through the liner notes for that album, but I'm pretty sure that's it.

David said...

Hello Jeff

Yes indeed. The liner notes say: "A special tribute to the Glaswegian Chorus for the background vocals on Closer to the Heart. Nice one, folks!"

As a result, I have always claimed that I have sung background vocals on a Rush album and that they thanked me in the liner notes. While this may not be entirely true... it's not exactly false either.

More generally, I think the Glaswegian audience was vaguely hopeful that they would do Closer To The Heart on the R30 tour when they came to Glasgow. Alas, it was not to be!

David said...

Oh... and I should have said - you have to go and see them live if you possibly can. They are outstanding live!