Latest news with #Rush50
Forbes
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Rush Charts A New Top 10 Album As Fans Revisit The Early Days Of The Band's Work
Rush's Rush 50 debuts on four U.K. charts, including a No. 5 entry on the Rock & Metal Albums list, ... More giving the band its fifteenth top 10 on the tally. LONDON - 1st JUNE: Bassist Geddy Lee, drummer Neil Peart and guitarist Alex Lifeson from Canadian Progressive rock group Rush posed in London during the Permanent Waves tour of England in June 1980. (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns) Rush hasn't been an active band for nearly a decade, but the Canadian rock legends continue to reach generations of fans, and longtime listeners are clearly still paying attention. This week, the group finds itself back on the charts in several territories around the world, thanks to an exciting career retrospective. The aptly-titled Rush 50 celebrates half a century of the group's groundbreaking music, and it's become a big win in the United Kingdom, where the rockers maintain a loyal following. Rush 50 debuts on four charts in the U.K. this time around, and it manages to enter the top 40 on all of them. That's no small shift for a rock act that officially disbanded years ago and hasn't released brand new material in a long time. Among the quartet of tallies the group reaches, one stands out as particularly important. The rock act lands its highest debut on the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart, where Rush 50 opens at No. 5. The special release ranks as the fourth-highest new arrival on the genre-specific tally this frame. It trails only Cradle of Filth's The Screaming of the Valkyries (No. 1), Big Big Train's Bard (No. 2), and Bloodywood's Nu Delhi (No. 4). Beyond the rock and metal-onlyl ranking, Rush 50 also opens inside the top 40 on three other U.K. charts this week. The collection enters the Official Albums Sales list at No. 28, while it launches at No. 31 on the Official Albums Downloads ranking. On the Official Physical Albums tally, it starts slightly lower at No. 33. Rush's return to the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart is huge for the group, and it earns the act its fifteenth top 10 on that tally. Altogether, the band has now appeared on the genre-specific ranking 24 times, with most of those charting efforts reaching the loftiest space. On the other rosters, Rush's track record is slightly more modest, though still notable. The band now claims seven entries on the Official Albums Sales chart, eight on the Official Albums Downloads list, and 16 total appearances on the Official Physical Albums ranking.
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Alex Lifeson Reflects On Rush's Legacy Amid A New Boxed Set Celebrating The Band's 50th
To fans of progressive rock in the last five decades, the music of Rush has been the soundtrack of their lives. The songs by the Canadian rock trio of bassist/singer Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart — among them '2112,' 'Closer to the Heart,' 'The Spirit of Radio,' 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Subdivisions' — have remained staples of rock radio and streaming services. Although the band has ceased recording and touring following the death of Peart in 2020, Rush continues to be in the public eye through archival reissue projects and the activities of surviving members Lifeson and Peart. Marking 50 years since the band's self-titled album, a new 4-CD/7-LP retrospective, Rush 50, was recently released. Consisting of both studio and live tracks (some of them previously unreleased), Rush 50 is the most up-to-date anthology of the band's career: from their first-ever single, a 1973 recording of Buddy Holly's 'Not Fade Away,' to their final live performance with Peart from 2015 on 'What You're Doing/'Working Man'/'Garden Road' at the L.A. Forum. On the occasion of Rush 50's release, Lifeson, now a member of his latest rock band Envy of None, says that he and Lee don't get involved much in Rush's album reissues. In the last several years, that program has seen the 40th-anniversary deluxe re-releases of such classic Rush albums as A Farewell to Kings, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and Signals. 'We leave it up to the record company, and they always bring it to us,' Lifeson says. 'They don't have to, but they want our approvals on everything. So we know what's going on, and we look at the artwork. Hugh [Syme, who has worked on Rush's album art] Lifeson says it was up to the record company to choose the track selection for this boxed set anthology. 'But they're aware of how we work," he says. "And Andy [Curran, my Envy of None bandmate] works his main job [in A&R] there at Anthem [an indie record label whose roster included Rush]. So you know he's there looking after our interests as well.' Other never-before-heard live cuts found on Rush 50 include 'Bad Boy' and 'Garden Road,' both of them recorded from the band's early performances in 1974. Another unreleased live track, a performance of 'Anthem,' was taken from Rush's 1974 visit to Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The new anthology comes as the group recently marked the 50th anniversary of their debut album Rush, which featured their original drummer John Rutsey. In retrospect, the record reflected the influence of such groups as Cream and Led Zeppelin with songs such as 'Working Man' and 'Finding My Way.' But it wasn't until Peart's arrival as their group's drummer and lyricist on Fly by Night from 1975 that Rush forged their distinctive progressive rock sound. 'Obviously, we were huge Led Zeppelin fans,' Lifeson says. 'A lot of material from that [first Rush] album is from 1970. And they were such a big influence on us. Just listen to Ged's hooks. But when Neil came in, he brought something new and fresh. And Ged and I were already leaning towards being more progressive in our music, less bluesy rock. And Neil was definitely aligned with that way of thinking. So we naturally fell into that longer tracks, more thematic. He was certainly an influence [and] definitely part of the ride.' After a combined 30 studio and live albums — not to mention decades of touring — Rush's popularity still endures more than 50 years later. It's a milestone that Lifeson marvels at. 'Isn't it nuts?' he asks. 'It's crazy. When we first got our record deal in 1974, it was for five records. And I thought, 'This is amazing. This is going to fulfill our recording life and maybe 6-7 years of touring. This would be great.' And then 40 years later, we were doing the final show [in Los Angeles]. Who would ever thought that that would have happened the way it did? 'So it was a very unique experience for us,' he continues. 'And it blows my mind that even after 10 years of being sort of off the road and out of the scene, there's interest as keen as it was 20 years ago.' Rush 50 arrived around the same time as the release of Envy of None's second album Stygian Wavz, both involving Lifeson. 'It just so happened this record took, I don't know, a year and a bit to make,' Lifeson says about the timing of the two releases. 'So it just kind of ends up occupying the same space. But it's kind of good. There's lots of talk about stuff that I'm part of.'
South China Morning Post
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Metallica and Jack Black are fans: Canadian rock band Rush drop milestone 50-song box set
Celine Dion, Leonard Cohen, Justin Bieber, Shania Twain and Bryan Adams are just some of Canada's many, world-famous musicians. And of course, there's the unforgettable Rush trio, hailed as one of the most influential rock bands of all. Advertisement Among the avowed Rush fans are Metallica and the Foo Fighters, film stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd, US talk show host Stephen Colbert and even South Park creator Matt Stone. Now to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the band is releasing a career-spanning retrospective. Rush 50 documents the development of the band, founded in Toronto, with 50 songs on four CDs or seven vinyl LPs. Rush's sound has changed again and again from their very first, long unavailable single 'Not Fade Away' in 1973 to the live recording of the encore at their last concert in Los Angeles in 2015, What You're Doing/Working Man/Garden Road. Advertisement The line-up of singer, bassist and keyboardist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart, who died in 2020, championed all kinds of genres, as evidenced by nearly 20 albums. In 1974, Peart replaced John Rutsey after the release of the band's debut album and went on to become Rush's main lyricist.
