I fear overloading the board by starting the second Rush thread in two days, but I just have to share. I have, I believe, the genuninely and absolutely most current word on our Canadian pals, having just finished listening to Geddy doing a by-phone interview on the morning radio show - only minutes old and straight from the bassist’s mouth.
Geddy reports that no work has yet been done by the group in regard to a new album, but that they will be meeting as they typically do (holing up together in some private and doubtlessly lovely chateau or resort) in January to begin writing. Paraphrasing only slightly, his comment was, “and hopefully we will end up with some decent material, and that will lead to the album, which will lead to a tour”. So live shows are definitely in the plan! After the writing is done Geddy hopes to do a bit of solo touring “in the spring” in support of his own album. (I haven’t heard it yet myself, but am hoping maybe Santa will bring it). After that, the trio will enter the studio to begin recording, so if the album does make it out in 2001, it will certainly be late in the year, and touring would seem highly unlikely before 2002.
Geddy, as usual, was charming and fun to listen to, low-key, modest, and funny as always. He discussed making his album, answering the “why a solo project” question by saying that several serious events in other bandmembers’ personal lives (I know about Neil’s losses but don’t know what might have happened with Alex) made it obvious that no collaborative work would be done for, he figured, about five years (so this haitus does not appear to have been as excessive or uncertain as we fans feared), which was too long for him to go without working; he made some insightful comments about how crucial writing is to him, at one point describing hiself as a “failed perfectionist”. He chatted about baseball, told the story of his name again, revealed that the name of the first band he was ever in, in junior high, was “The Dusty Coconuts” (my favorite mundane and pointless tidbit), and most of all, told how much he was looking forward to getting back to work with the band.
Hope that I have managed to bring a brief, tiny, happy moment to the day of other Rushians out there - cheers!
(Yes, I like Rush; he’s great.)