Rush Might Return in 2010

Rush fans take note -- the legendary progressive rock band could be back on the road with a new album in 2010. The trio would love to work again with Nick Raskulinecz, who co-produced the last studio album, 'Snakes & Arrows,' but he'll have to hang on a bit longer.
"I think Nick calls the office once a week," laughs guitarist Alex Lifeson, "just to make sure we're still planning on getting back to work at some point."
Lifeson, lead singer-bassist Geddy Lee and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart played 120 shows behind 'Snakes & Arrows' and "were pretty beat by the end of it," says Lifeson. "We'd been working constantly for the last eight years or so, and really needed a break, and decided to take a year off. We're sort of coming to the end of that period.
"Neil and his wife had a baby just a couple of weeks ago, so he's asked if we can just wait a little bit until he gets settled and see how he feels about getting back to work or when to get back to work. So we're sort of playing it open right now."
Lifeson says he's been doing a little writing at home in Toronto, "just getting myself back into the groove again with recording and stuff like that. I would guess that sometime in the early fall we would get back together and start writing again, and then hopefully by next summer, we'd be ready to tour."

Rush gearing up for new album and tour in 2010?

Rush gearing up for new album and tour in 2010?

September 9, 2:15 PMCanada Music ExaminerRobert Rheubottom

Rush live during their 30th Anniversary tour.

Good news for Rush fans. There’s word circulating that the Canadian progressive rock trio may be gearing up for another album and tour.  The band has been on hiatus since touring behind their 2007 studio release Snakes and Arrows.  At least 2 of the band members, singer/bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson are anxious to get back to work on new material.

It’s possible drummer Neil Peart may have a different idea. Peart’s wife Carrie Nuttall recently gave birth to their first child which the band announced on their official website:

“The Rush family congratulates Neil and his wife Carrie on the birth of their healthy, beautiful daughter Olivia Louise Peart.”

With Peart under the thrall of domestic bliss, it may take some persuading on Lee and Lifeson’s behalf to crowbar their drummer away from his family.

But a recent post from NoiseCreep.com hints that the power trio may resume work soon and, if things go smoothly, have a new album ready in time for a tour next summer.

Rush co-produced Snakes and Arrows with producer Nick Raskulinecz and it appears he may be onboard to produce the next album as well.  “I think Nick calls the office once a week just to make sure we’re still planning on getting back to work at some point,” says  Lifeson.

The band had been working hard for 8 years leading up to their highly successful Snakes and Arrows tour.  But the tour, consisting of 120 shows performed at venues around the world, took its toll on group members. Afterwards, the band decided it needed to take a year off to relax and recuperate.

Although the band has not released an exact time frame on when they will regroup in the studio, Lifeson says he has been doing some writing and hopes he will get together with fellow Rush members soon to start planning their next album. “I would guess that sometime in the early fall we would get back together and start writing again, and then hopefully by next summer, we'd be ready to tour."

It might be a bit premature for fans to start booking hotel rooms for a Rush tour next summer tour, but it’s gratifying to know that it appears Rush aren’t ready to hang up their instruments anytime soon. It’s not a matter of “if” they’ll be back, it’s just a matter of “when?”

Rush in concert.

Great shots of Rush in action live from their Snakes and Ladder Tour and from their 30th anniversary tour.

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More About: Rush · hard rock · progressive rock · classic rock

The Beatles Stereo Box Set remasters

The Beatles Stereo Box Set, The Beatles, Music CD

 

The Beatles - Within You Without You (Sgt. Peppers)

We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.

The Beatles - Elanor Rigby

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from ?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong ?

Father mckenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working. darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Eleanor rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father mckenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

The Beatles - Nowhere Man

He's a real nowhere man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man,the world is at your command!

(lead guitar)

He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else
lends you a hand!

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen,
you don't know what your missing
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command!

He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody!

National Geographic Wallpapers

 

September 9, 2009, could be a Beatles perfect storm

 

On September 9, the Beatles will release their entire catalog, digitally re-mastered for the first time, on CD. The same day, The Beatles: Rock Band will be released, and there is speculation of an Apple music-related event the same day. Could it be an entertainment perfect storm?

(Credit: The Beatles)

What is it with the Beatles and nines?

As my colleague Caroline McCarthy pointed out in March when the launch date (September 9, 2009) for The Beatles: Rock Band was announced, the band's song "Revolution 9" ends with the words, "number nine, number nine, number nine."

So clearly, the date 09/09/09 has at least some symbolic significance for the band. And now, in addition to that date being the launch of the Rock Band title, it was announced Tuesday that on that same day, the Beatles will release a CD box set of their entire catalog, digitally re-mastered for the first time, re-confirming reports from months ago.

At the same time, many people have been talking about the high likelihood of an all-music-related Apple event around some unknown product announcement on September 9. So, with all these facts--and some informed speculation--in hand, one has to think seriously that we may get a star-studded event with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (who, you may remember, showed up at Microsoft's E3 press conference to promote The Beatles: Rock Band) and, of course, Steve Jobs, to announce the availability of that same digitally re-mastered catalog on iTunes.

If that were to come to pass, it would seem to me an entertainment perfect storm. Of course, as is always the case with these things, we have to temper our enthusiasm because the most exciting speculation could well turn out not to be true. But if it does happen like this, well, it would easily be worth the price of admission.

As for today's news, EMI Music and Apple Corps--the Beatles' publishers--said that it took engineers at the famed Abbey Road Studios four full years "of utilizing state of the art recording technology, alongside vintage studio equipment, to create these amazing re-masters."

Having talked to the folks behind both The Beatles: Rock Band and the Cirque du Soleil's Beatle-themed "Love" about the re-mastering processes, I know that this is something that those involved with the band have been putting a lot of effort into over the last few years. And assuming that there will be a digital distribution element to this whole 09/09/09 thing, it's nice that after being very strict for years and years about how their music got out into the world, the band may finally have agreed to loosen the reins a little bit.

Of course, it's not altruism. There will no doubt be massive amounts of money flowing into the coffers of everyone financially involved with the band. And that's because even for people like me who already own the entire catalog on old mono CDs or records, there may be a few extra dollars available for legitimate digital copies of songs like "Hey Jude," "Yesterday," and "A day in the life."

But, of course, as of today, we don't know anything for certain about the Beatles and iTunes. What we do know is that The Beatles: Rock Band will have 45 songs, and that the digitally re-mastered CD collection will comprise all 12 Beatles studio albums--in stereo, no less--as well as "Magical Mystery Tour" and a combined "Past Masters Volume I and II," for a total of 14 titles on 16 CDs. The whole thing will be available, along with a DVD set of Beatles documentaries in one--presumably pricey--stereo boxed set.

Hawkwind: 'It was basically freak-out music'

They created 'space rock', are
probably the most influential British group ever – and prefer picking
raspberries to stardom. Hawkwind explain their 40-year survival

 

Space cowboys ... Hawkwind. Photograph: Lee Millward

The approach to intergalactic headquarters runs along a narrow lane in Devon,
under the bridge of a railway closed decades ago and through a number of gates
with signs warning that "Our Dogs Bite". There is a carved totem pole in the
garden, and a studio like the Tardis, banked up with electronic equipment and
posters for concerts spanning the four decades since Hawkwind formed. This is
the home world of the band that became a project, the project that became a
tribal gathering, of the tribe that became a great British institution and
probably the most influential group ever in British music, bar the Beatles –
only those under the influence often don't know it. Hawkwind: the band that has
impacted on every "genre", hence the need for a genre all of their own: space
rock.

Forty years ago, Hawkwind played their ever first gig, in Notting Hill in
west London. As a local adolescent, it was my first gig, too – and as everyone
knows, the branding iron of a first love leaves a mark like no other. As a
result, I own more Hawkwind music than any other band's; I've seen them play
more than any other band. And tonight and tomorrow, Hawkwind will return to
their old neighbourhood – to Porchester Hall, just up the road from Notting Hill
– to celebrate that anniversary and their own endurance. "I suppose we always
kept that down-to-earthness," says singer-guitarist Dave Brock, "which kept us
sane and kept us in touch with our people. Eating our tea in cafes, kind of
thing, so we never got too big-headed."

At the kernel of Hawkwind is Brock, the band's founder, driving engine and
sole remaining original member. If some 50 musicians have passed through
Hawkwind – some loyal forever, some dead, others leaving acrimoniously – then
"all the more reason for the captain of the ship to keep it afloat", Brock says.
"Because according to the rules, the crew get to bugger off in lifeboats if it
sinks, while the captain stays aboard." He prefers a different analogy: "I love
football, and don't want to compare myself to Arsène Wenger, but it is like
managing a team. And as a team, we are top of our league, even if it's not the
Premiership."

In the mid-60s, like many of his British rock contemporaries, Brock was
hanging around the blues and jazz clubs of west London. But while they
concentrated on getting their Sonny Boy Williamson licks perfect, Brock was at
work with other forces. He worked at a design studio and visited Holland with
his band Famous Cure, and then the embryonic Hawkwind investigated psychedelic
visual effects and electronic experiments in German music. By the time of their
debut gig (billed as Group X) in August 1969, Hawkwind had fused blues, folk,
British symphonic rock and a driving electronic pulse into something of epic
proportions.

"Well, it was basically freak-out music, wasn't it?" Brock says. "We were
using plenty of LSD, tape loops, repetitive riffs, colours and lights. But I was
still making more money busking. After Don Partridge made that bloody song
called Rosie, everyone wanted a try, and there'd be punch-ups for the cinema
queue pitches in Leicester Square. But at some point Doug Smith [the band's
promoter] had to tell me: 'Dave, either you turn up and play in this group or
you go busking.' So I turned up to play, and that became Hawkwind."

The band became the local fixture in turbulently psychedelic Notting Hill.
They were our local band, carving their own furrow, with politics driving the
music and vice-versa. They became the beacon of the benefit circuit, playing for
the White Panthers, Friends of the Earth, Release and striking coal miners in
1985 – so much so that Brock would tire with band members forever promising his
and everyone else's time: "We had to do something for money, dammit."

Crucially, though, Hawkwind remained the emblematic band of early Glastonbury
and the free festival movement, of the peace convoys and solstice gatherings at
Stonehenge, cut down brutally and bloodily by the police and Thatcher government
at the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985. "I am serious about people's right to
make music and dance where they have made music and danced for centuries," Brock
says. "We are tribal, and want our music to be accessible to all ages. That has
been important to me ever since I saw the West Indian bands in Notting Hill,
grandparents and kids, all together. That is what I understand by a music
festival."

"We never supported a cause which encouraged violence," says the effervescent
Kris Tait, who joined Hawkwind in the 1980s as one of the famous dancers that
became integral to the shows, and is now Brock's wife and the band's manager.
"Well, we did sometimes," chides Brock. Every attempt to tour America is still
dogged not only by spent marijuana convictions but by the song Urban Guerrilla:
"Let's not talk about love and flowers/ And things that don't explode/ We've
used up all our magic powers / Trying to do it in the road."

But among all this, between the gigs among pagan stones and the
bloody-mindedness and the drugs stories, the music sometimes gets forgotten. So
what is space rock? "Actually," Brock concedes, "although it was simple to play,
it has always been as complicated as you want it to be, and musically there is
rather more there than meets the eye." Space rock, apparently, has energy and
eschatalogical direction.

"Ultimately, it is optimistic," says Brock, in comparison to, say, Pink
Floyd, whose music is, "Well, a bit doom-laden, isn't it?" Space rock aligned
itself to the writing of – and performances by – the poet Robert Calvert and
novelist Michael Moorcock. "We were all reading science fiction and after the
first moon landing, exploring the idea that everything could change," says
Brock. "We were taking LSD, and the journey outward was also an inner journey, I
suppose."

Crucial to Hawkwind's endurance has been the group's ability to connect with
successive generations – "The audiences are now younger than ever," says Tait.
Rather than try to keep up with the underground music of the time, Hawkwind have
tended to prefigure it. Punk and grunge listened attentively (John Lydon was a
dedicated fan; Mudhoney have covered Urban Guerrilla). Hawkwind were gurus to
the trance generation, both musically and philosophically – pioneers in both
electronic exploration and the connection between ancient ley lines and
psychotropic technology, so much so that the Orb recorded a tribute called
Orbwind. From 2002, as the raves subsided (just as the free festivals had years
earlier), Hawkwind began their annual Hawkfests, "which was a way," says Brock,
"of carrying on free festivals as a membership occasion, just as you might hold
a gathering of custom car enthusiasts. They are membership occasions, though the
idea is to stay accessible – there's no backstage at a Hawkfest."

The band emerges from the studio to join us. "I'm one of those people who
loved Hawkwind before I knew who they were," says the bassist, Mr Dibs. "I was
into the Buzzcocks and Joy Division, but was given a tape of Hawklords [a
pseudonym Hawkwind adopted briefly for legal reasons in the late 1970s] without
knowing what it was, and thought 'This is me.' So I was a fan, then a roadie for
12 years and now I'm in the band – a dream come true."

"We create a sound which is our own, whatever music it is," says drummer
Richard Chadwick – at 21 years, the band's longest-serving member apart from
Brock. "The model is the Beatles, in as much as whatever they did – be it the
first heavy metal in Helter Skelter or the first world music on a sitar – the
sound was the Beatles. That's our intention: what you hear is Hawkwind and could
only be Hawkwind, whatever we are playing. I came to Hawkwind through the
anarcho-punk scene of the 1980s, so for me the music is the politics and the
politics is the music, which means not becoming a 'star', but playing what could
only be Hawkwind. If you take this sound to the audience in a stadium or at
Glastonbury as it is now, it will inevitably change. So we survive, with a sense
of decency. I've seen Dave [Brock] turn down those opportunities time and time
again – his own show on MTV, this supergroup or that. And that is how this band
has lasted 40 years in the way it has."

"Yes, there have been plenty of chances to become a star," Brock says. "Just
the other day, they wanted me to get together with Lemmy and that bloke from
Jefferson Starship – Paul Kantner – but I thought, 'Oh Christ, please no.' If I
get pushed into that, they'll push me into something else, then something else.
I've seen people do it, doing it the way someone else wants it, away from their
families, away from home. Some people like it – Lemmy's got his place in Los
Angeles with a pool and that, lives on the road and will die on the road. But
I've got raspberries to pick as well as Hawkwind music to work on. I mean, we
can't play the same old stuff the same every time."

Brock smiles, more to himself than to anyone around the table, and tells the
story about how he found Hawkwind's old red lighting-gear van for sale in Auto
Trader. He bought it – and there it is in the farmyard. "Lots of my friends have
got yachts," he says, "but how many yachts does a person need?"

Then Brock explains what he needs. "First, we bought that field, but we were
still visible, and audible. So we bought that meadow there – and Kris and I
raised horses for a while. Now, we have that piece of woodland, and from the top
of it, there's a sea view, right as far as where my parents retired." The idea
is, clearly, that intergalactic headquarters be as close to sealed off as it
possible to be on this crowded island, and thereby as close as possible to – to
what? Space? Or something Hawkwind are still looking for.

At Porchester Hall, London, tonight and tomorrow (returns only: 0871
230 1101)

Roger Waters - Walled Horizons Part 2

 

YouTube - walled horizons Part 2