USA / CANADA: Canadian Band Rush celebrate their 30th anniversary and reflect on their long journey together

Not many popular rock bands last 30 long years But Canadian power trio, "Rush" received this distinction recently. Considered by many as one of the most successful Canadian rock bands of all time, the group has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and remains one of the biggest grossing arena rock bands ever. It comprises of bassist, keyboardist and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart. Reflecting on their 30 years together, vocalist of the group, Geddy Lee, spoke of some of the most challenging aspects of their journey. "The most challenging thing is coming up every time you do a new creative project, with something that you feel is fresh, something that you feel is vital and contributes to your body of work in a positive, forward moving way. That's always the biggest challenge and when you do accomplish that, it's also the most gratifying," he said. "One of the scariest times is the day before you start writing, where you don't know what the direction is, where it's going, how many times can you move those twelve notes in a different order to make them work. But we seem to do it and we seem to live up to that challenge and once you're in it, it's the best," pitched in Alex Lifeson, the guitarist of Rush, when it came to the subject of challenges. As part of the group's 30th Anniversary celebrations, the group released a multi-CD and DVD package "Rush-R30" on November 22, 2005 in U.S. and Canada and November 28th in U.K and Europe. The package gives Rush aficionados the chance of experiencing the band's performances in various arenas around the world. The first DVD captures the band's 21-million in U.S. dollar grossing, sell-out 30th Anniversary World Tour and was filmed with 14 hi-definition cameras at the Festhalle, Frankfurt Germany on September 24, 2004. The set list spans the band's diverse 30-year career, and includes fan favorites like "Xanadu," and "Tom Sawyer." Most of all eighteen studio albums are represented through an energetic set of 22 songs. The second DVD is a historical retrospective that features rare and classic performance footage dating from the 1970's to their recent 2005 Tsunami relief benefit concert. The disc also includes interview footage culled from the past three decades. While talking about the attractions of their anniversary package, Lee pointed out that there were things in there that amused even the band members. "The other elements that are included in this package I think are very fun and interesting for a lot of our fans because the second disc includes interviews and rare performances that go back to 1975 and some things that we even ourselves had forgot existed and some of them are just hilarious to look at because we were so young and so kind of goofy and some terrible fashion crimes were committed in those early days," he said. One of the changes that the band has seen over the years is their nature of lyrics. Some of their earlier pieces like "2112" and "Hemispheres" grappled with bigger, metaphorical themes and allegories. Over the years, the lyrics turned more concrete. Reflecting on that change, Lifeson said, "Different stages in your life hit you in different ways - the external climate of what the world is going through effects you in different ways and it becomes a natural progression I think to move away from that style of writing (simpler lyrics) to something that is little more direct." Rush has been also been seen as a musicians' musicians band. When asked whether they try and consciously create a balance between their technical complexities and making their music accessible, Lee said that they don't have to be very aware of that because the nature of their music itself is accessible. "The nature of the genre of music that we work is in itself accessible. It's a hard rock band, it's a high energy band, I think those two factors make our music accessible to a lot of people. And whether we go off on another tangent or spend doing a lot of time doing very technically complex things, I don't think that necessarily detracts from the whole," he said. Despite the band's huge success, Rush is still to have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When asked about this, Lee said that they did not spend time thinking about it. "We're obviously far too young to be voted in yet, that's the way I look at it," the lead singer said jokingly. The band will most likely produce a new album next summer and will begin tour in the latter part of 2006.

ITN Source | December 7, 2005

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