Rush

rush in concert

Rush was a Canadian rock band that was primarily comprised of Geddy Lee (bass guitar, keyboards, vocals), Alex Lifeson (guitar), and Neil Peart (drums, percussion, lyricist). The band formed in Toronto in 1968 with Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and bass guitarist/vocalist Jeff Jones, whom Lee immediately replaced. After Lee joined, the band went through several line-up changes before arriving at its classic power trio lineup with the addition of Peart in July 1974, who replaced Rutsey four months after the release of their self-titled debut album; this lineup remained intact for the remainder of the band’s career.

Rush first achieved moderate success with their second album Fly by Night (1975). The commercial failure of their next album Caress of Steel, released seven months after Fly by Night, resulted in the band almost getting dropped from their then-record label Mercury Records. Rush’s fourth album, 2112 (1976), reignited their popularity, becoming their first album to enter the top five on the Canadian charts. Their following two albums, A Farewell to Kings (1977) and Hemispheres (1978), were also successful, with the former becoming Rush’s first to enter the UK charts. The band’s popularity continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with albums charting highly in Canada, the US and the UK, including Permanent Waves (1980), Moving Pictures (1981), Signals (1982), Grace Under Pressure (1984), Roll the Bones (1991), Counterparts (1993) and Test for Echo (1996). Rush continued to record and perform until 1997, when the band entered a four-year hiatus due to personal tragedies in Peart’s life. The trio regrouped in 2001 and released three more studio albums: Vapor Trails (2002), Snakes & Arrows (2007), and Clockwork Angels (2012). Rush performed their last concerts in 2015, with Peart retiring from music later that year. Lifeson later commented in January 2018 that the band decided not to resume activity following the R40 Tour, which was later cemented by Peart’s death from glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, on January 7, 2020, at the age of 67. Lee and Lifeson have continued to periodically work together since Peart’s death, including performing at the 25th-anniversary celebration of South Park and tributes to then-recently deceased Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022, while tentative talks of a Rush reunion have ensued since 2023

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