Errors-To: rush@syrinx.umd.edu
Reply-To: rush@syrinx.umd.edu
Sender: rush@syrinx.umd.edu
Precedence: bulk
From: rush@syrinx.umd.edu
To: rush_mailing_list
Subject: 11/09/90 - The National Midnight Star #98
** ____ __ ___ ____ ___ ___ **
** / /_/ /_ /\ / /__/ / / / / /\ / /__/ / **
** / / / /__ / \/ / / / / /__/ / \/ / / /___ **
** **
** __ ___ ____ **
** /\ /\ / / \ /\ / / / _ /__/ / **
** / \/ \ / /___/ / \/ / /___/ / / / **
** **
** ____ ____ ___ ___ **
** /__ / /__/ /__/ **
** ____/ / / / / \ **
The National Midnight Star, Number 98
Friday, 9 November 1990
Today's Topics:
Anniversary Issue - Part 1 of 2
---------------------------------------------------------
*********
******* *** *******
**** ** ** ****
*** * * ***
*** ** ** ***
** ** ** **
** * * **
***************** *****************
** *** *** **
** *** RUSH 1st ANNIVERSARY *** **
* **** SPECIAL **** *
* *** ISSUE *** *
* ** ** *
** ** Part 1 ** **
** * * **
* ** ***** ** *
*** ** *** *** ** ***
** * **** **** * **
*** ** *** *** ** ***
******* *******
**** ****
******* *******
*********
*********************************************************************
Table of Contents
-----------------
Mailing 1:
I. A word from your founding member.
II. A word from your humble rush-mgr.
III. Collection of thoughts from old veterans.
IV. A sample of the early-day Rush mailing list.
Mailing 2:
V. The Rush Tour Dates Listing.
VI. Songlist from Past Tours
*********************************************************************
*****************************************************************
* I. A Word From Your Founding Member. *
* Greetings everyone out there on the list! *
*****************************************************************
Today, is the 1st anniversary of this Rush mailing list.
Some of you, if you've been around long enough, may remember me from
last year or even years before that when I used to post quite a bit
on rec.music.misc. Anyway, our nice friendly humble rush-mgr (that's
David in case you just joined us) has allowed me the pleasure of
submitting this article as a Special Edition of the National Midnight
Star. Some of this may be boring but I just thought it would be nice
to reflect back on this last year (and maybe a little beyond).
It started all really around 1987-1988 when I was relatively
active on the USENET in rec.music.misc (and later in alt.rock-n-roll).
Discussions of Rush would frequently pop up in those newsgroups and
I found there are quite a few fanatics like myself out there who are
really into Rush. After numerous posts throughout the years and
various flame-fests here and there, I would find myself thinking,
wouldn't it be great to start some kind of a a newsgroup or forum
where much Rush-talk would take place, and none of these negative
criticism from people who don't fully appreciate Rush or flame them
without knowing much about their music? Constructive criticism is
ok, but I find people complaining about things just because they
have nothing better to do.
Well, so I decided to post about starting rec.music.rush and
got a few responses but not much. It seems that though people seemed
willing to discuss Rush, many thought the idea of a newsgroup would
not be feasible. And so it was that rec.music.rush never got off
the ground. I tried again the following year but like previous
attempts, nothing came out of it.
So last year, I finally thought to myself, I want to go
somewhere where there's Rush discussion on various aspects of their
music, rather than flames about trivial things like Geddy's voice.
How to work this was another problem. What I really wanted
was a site where I could have an account and mass-mail daily entries
into the so called "digest" at the time. But of course, not having
any root privileges I couldn't do that. I figured, the simplest way
to do this would be through private email and a shared .mailrc by
some members of the list. So now, I had to recruit some people.
That was easy enough - just read the newsgroups until I find a post
by someone who seemed to be interested enough in Rush to discuss it
on a different level than a public newsgroup.
After a week or so of reading newsgroups and sending out
requests to people asking if they were interested in a mailing list,
I find myself with around 13 or so people. My .mailrc was something
like this:
alias r1 rushmember1@machine.org
alias r2 rushmember2@machine.org
alias r3 rushmember3@machine.org
...
alias r12 rushmember12@machine.org
alias r13 rushmember13@machine.org
alias rushgroup r1 r2 r3 ... r12 r13
Then everytime I wanted to distribute something out on the
list, I'd have to type it in and use:
%mail rushgroup < file
Needless to say this was kind of a pain, though it did work,
I'd have to keep on adding new aliases to the .mailrc everytime I
got a new user and then add that alias to the rushgroup alias!
In order to keep a good count of all the current members of
the list, I'd have to also mail out my .mailrc file to everyone so
that they too could send mail to bounce off everyone else on the
list.
Though the method seemed primitive to say the least, I had
achieved basically what I wanted - a mailing list full of Rush fans
talking about Rush. After a few weeks or so, I find my .mailrc file
getting very big!! Soon I was up to 50 or so users!
The .mailrc was looking rather horrid with addresses all around the
world.
alias r1 rushmember1@machine.org
alias r2 rushmember2@machine.org
alias r3 rushmember3@machine.org
...
alias r49 rushmember49@machine.org
alias r50 rushmember50@machine.org
alias rushgroup r1 r2 r3 ................ r49 r50
I soon began to wonder how big it would grow. People would
continually mail me asking about a "supposed Rush Mailing List -
please add me". As if he could read my thoughts, I one day got a
letter from my friend David Arnold (your current rush-mgr) asking if
I needed a site! Imagine that, someone writing a letter and asking
if you wanted to use their machine. It was a blessing all right.
Now we could have a REAL mailing list. I, of course, was fully for
the idea. Now all we had to do was wait for Dave to activate the
programs and set the clouds in motion. (or something like that *<:-)
All this time behind the scenes while David and I were
talking about how to get the Rush mailing list over to Syrinx, more
talk emerged on the mailing list about starting rec.music.rush and
whether or not they liked the idea of going to a digest or
continually getting mail from the .mailrc reflector idea. I was for
the digest format as one of the drastic side effects of my .mailrc
idea was the biff command. ARGH!!! Although I didn't mind all the
talk about Rush it seemed a bit annoying at times when I'm working
and the "biff y" would interrupt with a letter every 10 or so
minutes!! The digest-format I thought would be wonderful and also
get rid of the biff annoyances.
Before I go into the transition of the mailing list over to
syrinx, I thought it'd be nice to say some things about David.
(Heh, always nice to talk about him behind his back..*<:-)
During the times I had been reading on the USENET, I had met
quite a few people with whom I've managed to still correspond with.
Probably the 2 the stick out the most (aside from Erland - my ever
so favorite Rush fan .. sic.. sic) are Karen Post and David Arnold.
Some of you may recall who Karen Post is if you've kept up with the
newsgroup all these years. She was dubbed "Rush-Goddess" and worked
down in Ohio State University. I've never really met anyone quite
like her who knew probably as much if not more Rush trivia than I
do!! (and I am quite good mind you *<:-) . So dedicated she once
drove up to Toronto to find Geddy's house and came back without even
remembering the address!! heh. I talked to her quite a few times
and exchanged some Rush stories for a year or so, then no one seems
to know but no one could ever locate the Rush-Goddess again. Gone
was she from USENET and her .signature ("...yet it was for me, not
you, I came to write this song..) I'm sure even David has wondered
from time to time whatever happened of the Rush-Goddess.
David, on the other hand, I met by chance coincident. I had
seen many of his posts on Rush in rec.music.misc back in 87-88 but
didn't really do much besides followups on his postings. Then one
day, I saw him posting something about some tapes (ahem...of the
collectible nature) and having a few collectibles and rarities myself,
I wrote him some email asking if he'd like to get together and do some
trading over USnail Mail. That was how I met the rush-mgr. After
trading through the summer over mail he informed me of a trip out to
California (LA area) and mentioned we should get together. I thought it
was a great idea.
It was on a weekend that I met David. I forget what hotel
it was but I do remember going to the wrong one!! I had to call
around to get the correct hotel where he was staying at. (There
happened to be more than one hotel on the Wilshire Blvd. down in
LA. and apparently this one - was it the Hilton? had about 2-3 on
the same street.)
Don't really remember much about the meeting, I think I wore
my Hold Your Fire tour shirt (the red one) and David found me first
down in the lobby of the hotel asking where a "Mr. Arnold from
University of Maryland" was..
We walked to my car and I remember asking him if he could
guess which car was mine (I had several Rush bumper stickers all
over the back bumper) but I don't think he got it right. heh.
Earlier that week, I was down in Hollywood where I got some Rush
banners and a Rush symbol (man with the star) made of some metal
intended to be a necklace. I bought an extra banner and the symbol
just in case David might want to bring some souvenirs back with him
*<:-).
The whole thing lasted probably 2-3 hours, we went driving
around Wilshire and stopped off at a Burger King where we sat and
talked for a while. Driving over the 101 freeway, I was playing
By-Tor and The Snowdog (from ATWAS I think it was) and while I was
humming a flawless version of Alex's guitar solo, David was
air-drumming to Neil's every beat. It was a pretty funny sight now
that I remember it. *<:-) And soon it was over. On first
impression, I had envision some Phd looking professor who was to be
very professional and stern in nature but I was much surprised by a
rather nice down-to-earth fellow with good tastes in music and very
friendly-natured from my chat with him over an order of fries and a
whopper at Burger King!! It was hard not to get along with him, so
I'm glad the trip was worth it.
We would have met again this past year but alas, due to
scheduling, Presto tour tickets went on sale the very same weekend
that David was down in LA and there was no way I could go unless I
wanted to miss the concert!! So I'm sure he could understand my
reasoning behind that. *<:-) Maybe this year again eh??
Well, now that you know a little bit about the background as
to how David and I met and how the list got formed, you could
understand that I was more than willing to move the list to a real
machine like syrinx and have David handle the overhead and the
distribution. It was a great gesture on his part to ask, for I
could not live with a .mailrc with over 500 entries!!!!! Thanks
again David for doing the great job you've done this past year.
You certainly deserve a lot of credit and I'll see to it you get a
batch of rewards soon yes? (hope your tape deck still works!! heh
*<:-) hint hint..
A lot of thanks have to go out to some of the very original
members who were a big help in keeping the conversation going! Special
personal thanks have to go to people like Dan Delany has always contributed
a lot ever since I can remember and to Chris Michael (from Ted's account)
who posted the Presto tour dates back when everyone was looking for them!
These 2 guys really help keep it going in the early days. Even today,
they continue to contribute and I can certainly appreciate their efforts.
You'll get a chance to hear from Dan and see a sample of an old mailing
list to see what I mean talking about the starting days.
I haven't met Dan myself but then again, that one is in the
works and we'll probably hit it off come Thanksgiving. (Looking
forward to it Dan!)
Ok, enough of that now, hopefully people are still with me
(some probably bored no doubt) but as I close out this section, I
wanted to thank everyone on the list for keeping the list alive.
I really don't post much anymore but you can be sure I'm still
reading and I hope to post more in the future. And now, here's some
thoughts and comments from David himself, followed by words from some
of the original members of the Rush Mailing List.
Once again, thanks for the past year, and looking forward to
an even better year.
-Jimmy Lang
*****************************************************************
* II. A Word From Your Humble Rush-Mgr. *
*****************************************************************
Well, this is my section to ramble on about the list. I don't know
how long this will turn out, but I'll try to keep it short.
I first must say that this list has been a real experience for me, in
several ways. For starters, little did I know when I suggested to Jimmy
we use Syrinx for this that it would balloon to over 500 people! The sheer
number of RUSH fans staggers me; I had no idea there would be so many. At
the same time, with a list that large, there are certain problems I've had
to overcome; more on these later. Also, the wealth of knowledge I've gained
through this list never ceases to amaze me! I thought I was a big RUSH-head,
but many of you out there have astounded me with your knowledge and con-
nections. Lastly, there are the the people I've met, both electronically
and in person - all of you wonderful, interesting people. I like to believe
I'm a better person for it.
The people of r.m.m and the Digest - an interesting crowd! I too remember
the "RUSH Goddess" Karen Post, ex-operator at Ohio State (anyone know where
she is now??). She knew quite a bit, and soon made me realize (though her
posts) that while I knew some trivia, she was in a whole different league!
I have to say at that time, Jimmy also impressed me both with his knowledge,
and also his fervor in spreading the word and defending the band to various
flamers. Then, there was the actual meeting between Jimmy and I. Boy, was
that an experience. I had reservations about it - it was my first time I'd
arranged to meet a person based entirely on mail contact, it was my first
time in LA, or on the west coast, for that matter. I had no idea what he
would be like, or if we would hit it off. On top of that, he was driving
up from San Diego (~2 hours) just to meet for a couple of hours! He'd be
spending more time on the road than talking with me! I told him I'd be at
the Hilton hotel on Wilshire Blvd; just ask for me at the desk. Good enough
directions? Nooooo, there are *two* Hiltons on Wilshire! We finally got
together, and still remember to this day, "What does (did) he think about
me?" I felt so out of place, not knowing what to say; I'm basically a shy
person, which is why e-mail is so great. It turned out to go pretty well,
in spite of my verbal clumsiness. Jimmy was a nice guy, easy to talk to.
I don't know why I would have expected different. He'd even given me a
banner and a medallian (which I'm looking at as I type), and on top of that,
he loaned me a couple of bootleg albums to take back and make copies of!!!
"Here, take these - my tape deck isn't so good; you could probably make
better copies. Just mail 'em back when you're done." I was floored, not
to mention terrified that I might damage his albums. I couldn't have packed
eggs more carefully in my suitcase for the return flight. They made it tho,
and thus began the growth of my tape collection.
But enough mush for now - time for some observations.
In response to Jimmy's statements above, I must say in reading them that
I waxed a bit nostalgic reading of 'the early days', and am amazed at his
memory too. I remember those early days of the shared .mailrc - sheesh, how
ungainly can you get? When a new member joins, everybody has to get a new
copy, and you never know if yours is the latest edition. At the same time
it was clunky, it did give us an opportunity to be able to discuss RUSH and
related issues without the flames that cropped up from time to time in the
rec.music.misc group. It was both painful and wonderful at the same time.
Finally, it got to be a bit much, and I decided to stick my neck out.
You see, I'd recently acquired a DECstation 3100 (14 mips, RISC) machine
which I'd dubbed 'Syrinx'; one of the perks of working at a University,
since I couldn't brag about salary! :-) (I'd previously had a hand in
naming another of our VAXs 'Cygnus'.) Now, I'm no great UNIX wiz, but I
did know some stuff - enough to teach an introduction course in UNIX, but
not enough to administer a system without help. I also had some experience
with figuring out mail headers & problems through my job as consultant
here at the Univ. of Maryland CSC. So, like they say, a little knowledge
can be dangerous, and so armed, I sent the mail to Jimmy.
Originally, I'd set this list up as a reflector; you sent mail to the
main address, and it re-sent it out to the whole list. I did this because
I knew how to, and I didn't have any software to create a 'fancy' digest.
This soon turned out to be a bad idea, with between 20 and 40 messages
coming in each day! Finally, after a month or so of this, I sat down and
set up some (not quite as clumsy) shell scripts to take my mailbox and
put it into a pseudo-digest form. Then I switched over to this format,
and it seemed to work passingly well. It didn't quite *look* like the
other digests out there, but hey, we were up & running.
At the same time, I began to realize the pain mail administrators go
through every day; bounces, machines disappearing & reappearing, machines
with 'personality disorders' ("I refuse to talk to myself" - really!) - you
name it, I ran into it. Then, the strangeness started - everybody got two
copies of the Digest. Well, not everybody, and the same people didn't get
doubles on the same days! After beating my head on the problem for a while,
I figured out there was a problem with the mailer on my machine. If you sent
a mail item <so large> to <so many people>, it sat in the outgoing queue too
long, and the mailer thought it needed to be re-initiated. Finally, I split
the list into two, and that seemed to solve the problem. For the time being.
Then after a couple of attempts to get 'real' digest software, I got a copy
that worked on my machine, and the new version of the Digest evolved. Later
came more changes; the list is now four lists, the software has been poked
and prodded and changed so much it would only work on a machine like mine
without major changes, and we now have a name. We've come a long way, baby!
I want to close by thanking all those who have helped make this a
possibility - Jimmy (of course), the memory of Karen Post, and the many list
members who have offered help, tips, encouragement, and services. To name
a few, Helen for archival, Dan for the FAQL, David for the discography, the
old-timers (you know who you are), Barry (my connection to 'the biz' and
sounding board), and all the list members, without whom all this would be a
waste of time.
David Arnold,
Editor, The National Midnight Star
(RUSH Fans Digest)
*****************************************************************
* III. Collection of thoughts from old veterans. *
* Dan Delany Speaks!! (and others) *
*****************************************************************
>From ddelany@raven.calpoly.edu Sun Nov 4 13:24:57 1990
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 90 13:21:56 PST
From: ddelany@raven.calpoly.edu (Dan Delany)
Subject: Rush anniversary issue..
It's hard to believe that the trusty Rush fans group has been running
for a year, isn't it? I think that all of the people who have been going
out of their way to keep this going deserve thanks, and I'll buy any of
them lunch (or at least a beer) if I meet any of them.
The trusty rush-mgr definitely deserves thanks!
Jimmy deserves something for starting this thing.
(Do I deserve something for keeping the FAQL?)
Most recently, Helen started making my life easier by keeping the
archives of old Digests, so I've stopped getting mail asking for
articles! (Well, I'm happy about that...)
Anyway, it has been an interesting year, hasn't it? How many people
remember all of the "That's Nice" messages when _Presto_ came out? (I'm
guilty too - I posted one of them!) We've had a tour go by. We've even
seen Neil Peart's reaction to the Digest.
We've seen messages from new members several times a month telling us
what "YYZ" really means. "The Pass" has been analyzed to within an inch of
it's life. (Look for the definitive word on this in a future FAQL, thanks
to a tape I recently received.) I finally got to read "A Nice Morning
Drive." I got to meet some real interesting people as well.
And now, we're starting to get rumors about a new album! Looks like the
Digest will have a good second year... (or is that a second good year?)
+------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| "Rising falling at force ten | ddelany@polyslo.calpoly.edu |
| we twist the world and ride the wind..." | Daniel Alan Delany |
+------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
*****************************************************************
>From sasak_ee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu Fri Oct 26 08:53:10 1990
Subject: Fond Rememberences?
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 90 11:48:24 EDT
Hey Jimmy --
..... I'm an original member...
I remember really enjoying the list at its inception because I
got to kind of "know" everyone on it - and it was a lot easier to hold
lengthly discussions. Now, there are a lot of requests for explanations
for old topics (which is to be expected, I know), but it kind of breaks
up the continuity of some of the discussions.
......
-- Erin Sasaki
sasak_ee@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
*****************************************************************
>From burian@barney.bgsu.edu Thu Nov 8 16:36:51 1990
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 90 19:36:20 -0500
From: John M. Burian<burian@barney.bgsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Rush list
>From my end, the list hasn't changed much. Sure, it's picked up a header,
a footer (and a _big_ ol' disclaimer, which is kinda sad that we have to
include one), and about 3-4 hundred readers. The digest is better than
the billions of individual mailings we used to get - it's more organized
in general. While I'm not wild about someone editing posts, it seems
the best way to keep out bashers, and it says something about the
people on the list that the rush-mgr has only had to edit one or two
posts. For the future, I say keep up the good work, and keep the list
friendly - too often a good idea gets impersonal as it grows.
There you are, later days.
john
burian@barney.bgsu.edu
[ Quick note: there have never been any 'bashing' posts while I've been
moderating - keep it up! :rush-mgr ]
*****************************************************************
>From mjahnke@sdcc13 Thu Nov 8 03:47:45 1990
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 90 03:47:40 PST
From: mjahnke@sdcc13 (******* Meg *********)
Subject: remembering
Well it's been a year already has it? Amazing! I haven't been on
the list since the VERY beginning; I hadn't even really heard of
Rush until Jimmy (my boyfriend and founder of this list) started
talking about them just last year. I had seen two of their videos
("The Big Money" played incessantly on MTV when I was watching it)
and my dad had bought _Power Windows_, but that's as far as I knew
Rush. But since Jimmy kept talking about them, I decided to see
what was up, and when I went back to Japan for Christmas I listened
to them. Okay, so it was only a tape of _Power Windows_ that I had,
but after listening to them on infinite repeat, I kept wondering how
come I hadn't heard of them before? These guys were great! (Now I
know, no radio air time!) Before I left for Christmas though, I
began to read some of the original posters' mail (when it was just
a mailer sending out individual articles to people) and found it
very interesting. Even though I didn't know who Rush were. At first
I signed up so I'd have something to read, as I didn't know much
about them (and I really liked the idea of having individual mail
sent around to everyone, but by the time I got on the list it had
become the digest). Thanks to the list I've learned quite a bit about
them, and I can listen from _A Farewell to Kings_ onward (the first 5
albums I'm still getting used to!).
I really like the digest and the different discussions that keep
it going. They're quite interesting and fun to read (even if I just
ask questions about them and don't really discuss anything -- by the
way, anyone know how tall Geddy, Neil or Alex is? :) ). I thought the
individual aritcles mailed around were even more fun, since everyone
got the letter right away and could respond. Too bad it's impractical
though.
I wondered at first how long this digest would go on (I figured
come summer and it would disband) and here it is a year. Here's to
the digest and the 500+ people that keep it going nowadays! Enough
of my rambling, I'm outta here. Keep up the good work everyone!
-Meg
*****************************************************************
>From tedi@apple.com Fri Nov 9 01:24:20 1990
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 90 01:21:49 -0800
From: Ted Ives <tedi@apple.com> (Chris Michael actually)
To: jlang%sdcc13@ucsd.edu
Subject: essay
Jimmy,
I somehow found the time to write a little essay for you:
Thoughts from a Rush Mailing List "veteran":
I began tuning into the Rush talk on the various internet SIGs
a few years ago. After awhile it became obvious that much of the
talk concerned Rush. Most of it was either important Rush info,
discussions or "Rush bashing". A few folks talked about setting
up a Rush SIG or mailing list. As you may recall, the "bashing"
was definitely a problem and was probably a major factor in
creating the "Rush Mailing List". A typical flame-throwing
incident would usually involve an ignorant-sounding "non-Rush
fan" putting down the band or a fan. The result was an
uncontrollable avalanche of "bashing" from both sides which only
resulted in our mailboxes getting clogged. (Personally, I never
let "bashing" get to me).
To make a long story short, by October 1989 a short list had
been put together. By November 1st the list totalled 22 fans! 1
month later, the December 1st posting, we had grown to 36 fans.
That day's message read:
...Hi all, and welcome to the 'official opening' of the
new-improved Rush mailing list! This is brought to you by an
initial effort from Jimmy Lang and via a machine donation from
yours truley......Thank you for your support, and let the games
begin! - The Rush Mailing List Management
At that time, the bulk of the mail was in the form of
transcribed interviews, tourbooks and articles. It took awhile
for the "chemistry" to develop between the contributors. Things
were slow at first and there were a few minor differences between
members, (I'm don't recall exactly why). Things picked up and
membership grew steadily. I definitely noticed a decline in the
frequency of "typed-in" published interviews and articles.
Personally, I see this as one of the best features of a mailing
list like this one. I hope folks continue to post items like
this. There are plenty of rare, pre-80 articles out there which
we would all like to read. Local newspaper concert reviews are
always interesting, too. It's important that things remain
"interesting" or we will risk losing members and won't attract
new ones. I feel that "quality" is more important than
"quantity".
As the membership gets larger, so does filesize of each issue.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has often not had time to read
particular issues and thought, "damn. I wonder what I
missed....". The "table of contents" idea was fantastic and
really solved this problem!
Well kids, that's the story of how I became a "Rush Mailing
List Veteran". Here's to another successful year!
Take care,
- Chris Michael
*****************************************************************
* IV. A sample of the early-day Rush mailing list. *
* I thought it might be neat looking back through my *
* old mbox's and finding some of the early mail from *
* the "original" mailing list. Here's a small *
* sample of how it was: *
*****************************************************************
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>From pa1216 Sun Nov 19 02:47:23 1989
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 89 02:46:01 PST
Subject: Hello Fans
Status: R
Guess what? The new CD is out, in case you haven't heard..
Picked it up today but got caught up in things and never got around
to listening to it! (What? What's this? The Rush moderator of the list
not having time for a new album? Blasphemy! Hang him!)
Anyway, I'll give a report later.
So go out and get it if you haven't done so yet! Looks good.
bye all
and let's hear from some people eh?
>From ddelany@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU Sun Nov 19 08:42:47 1989
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 89 08:37:54 -0800
Subject: Presto
Status: R
Well, I'm pretty pleased with it. (Now that's an understatement...)
"Thaaaaaaaat's Niiiiiice."
(After listening to "Chain Lighting", you'll know why I typed that.)
Here's some information of interest to those of you who are in Southern Ca:
2 ticket places are accepting deposits for Rush tickets
in the LA times this morning:
Ticket Time:
(213)202-0053
9925 Venice Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034
(714)832-5800
17395 17th St., Suite F, Tustin, CA 92680
(818)783-1033
16060 Ventura Blvd, #103, Encino, CA 91436
(818)440-9700
150 S. Los Robles Ave., #2, Pasadena, CA 91101
Front Row Center Ticket Service:
(213)488-0020
404 So. Figuero #105, Los Angeles CA 90071
(213)478-0848 or (213)879-6957
1355 Westwood Blvd., W. Los Angeles, CA 90024
(714)751-9800
675 Paularino St. #6, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(213)427-7488
3393 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807
(818)701-5995
8454 Reseda Blvd., Northridge, CA 91324
___ddelany@polyslo.calpoly.edu________________________________________________
Elvis Sucks!
>From xenitec!wolf@watmath.waterloo.edu Sun Nov 19 15:32:56 1989
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 89 13:24:54 EST
Subject: Re: Hello Fans
Status: R
I've listened to it quite a few times now and like it more each
time. Nice proggression from Hold Your Fire, I think. Geddy's vocal
performance on Available Light is perhaps the best he's done on record.
I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of it live, should be interesting
to hear how the background vocals are handled. They are superb on cd.
-Dave
>From tedi@apple.com Wed Nov 22 15:07:00 1989
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 89 14:38:05 PST
Subject: LOTS OF RUSH NEWS
Status: R
I'd like to post this to the RUSH mailing group for my friend Chris.
PLEASE DO NOT inundate me with questions for Chris unless it's really
important or unless you have information...I can, however, be
reached at tedi@apple.com
11-20-89
Rush bulletin:
Hi Rush fans,
I have a few tidbits of information to post this week. I assume
you have all heard Presto! Pretty neat, eh? I have three main
news items: My recent visit to the Backstage Club, the official
"Chronicles" news release, and the latest Rush tour itinerary.
Starting with my trip.... While working at the Poqet booth
at Comdex, I took a brief trip to the Rush "Backstage Club"
office in Las Vegas, NV. There, I had a chance to chat with
Dot, the woman who runs the place. It's really a small
operation but they had tons of merchandise! She also
had a few platinum records. Apparently, she and her
son used to to promotional work for the band as early
as 1971 and she is still at it! It makes an exciting little
trip if you are ever in Las Vegas.
About Chronicles... Apparently the rumor is false
that there would be a 58 minute long track on the
album. Here is a transcription of the original Mercury
press release. Notice that no vinyl album is planned:
<Mercury Logo>
RUSH
CHRONICLES
<Album photo: H.Y.F. "RUSH" font in big letters across
top third of cover. Along the bottom, "C H R O N I C L E S".
The cover is shaded and darker on the bottom>
Cassette 838 936-4 2R
CD 838 936-2 2G
PRICE CODE 2CT/2CD
- Chronicles, the first ever RUSH compilation, compiles 28
tracks from one of the most influential bands of the
70's and 80's. All phases of the band's career are
represented.
- Chronicles features 3 non-CD tracks -
- What you're Doing (Live)
- A Passage to Bangkok (Live)
- Take Off featuring Geddy Lee
(from Bob & Doug - Great White North)
- Chronicles features an essay by noted rock
historian John Swensen.
- Chronicles was prepared from the original
master tapes.
SONG TITLES:
DISC 1 - Find my Way/Working Man/FLy By Night/
Anthem/Bastille Day/Lakeside Park/2112 (a) Overture, (b) Temples of Syrinx/What You're Doing/A Farewell To Kings/
Closer To The Heart/The Trees/La Villa Strangiato/
Freewill/The Spirit Of Radio
DISC 2 - Tom Sawyer/Red Barchetta/Limelight/
Take Off featuring Geddy Lee/A Passage To Bangkok (Live Version)/Subdivisions/New World Man/
Distant Early Warning/Red Sector A/The Big Money/
Manhattan Project/Force Ten/Time Stand Still/
Mystic Rhythms (Live Version)
UPC BAR CODE NUMBERS
422 838 936-4(CT)/422 838 936-2(CD)
IN STORE OCTOBER 3
Here is an exact copy of a fax sent to the Backstage
Club from Rush's home office, (in very messy handwriting):
February
17th Greenville, SC
19th Jacksonville, FL
20th St. Petersburg, FL
22nd Miami, FL
23rd Orlando, FL
25th New Orleans, LA
26th Houston, TX
29th San Antonio, TX
March
1st Dallas, TX
2nd Kansas City, KS
5th St. Louis, MO
6th Cincinatti, OH
8th Detroit, MI
9th Detroit, MI
20th Edmonton, ALB
21st Calgary
23rd Vancouver, BC
25th Seattle, OR
26th Portland, OR
28th Sacramento, CA
30th Oakland, CA
31st Oakland, CA
April
2nd Los Angeles, CA
3rd Los Angeles, CA
5th San Diego, CA
6th Costa Mesa, AZ
8th Phoenix, AZ
9th Tucson, AZ
Please note that this is a tentative itinerary and
changes will be made as they are received.
How about that, folks???! Please, if anybody gets any
updated information, post it! Also, I haven't heard
anything about the Bar dates. However, I do know
for a fact, (a very reliable source), that they will be
warming up for this tour at Radio City in NY. If
anybody has any dates, post them ASAP before we
all miss it! This tour should be very different for
the group and crew. SRO productions cancelled
the retainers for all of Rush's long-time roadies
except for Liam and Howard. Well, here's to a
great tour and hopefully some great videos, too!
Oh, I would appreciate it if somebody could send
me (via TEDI@apple.com) IN ONE FILE everything
ever posted on the subject of RUSH.
Somebody recently mentioned
that they had all the old postings on disk. (However,
don't eveybody bombard Ted with a million copies
of everything!). This is Chris, signing off.... P/G
- This is Ted. If you're going to send me anything big,
please run StuffIt on it or something (or whatever
the UNIX utility it is that squashes stuff - I forget.)
>From pa1216 Mon Nov 27 21:04:44 1989
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 89 17:50:34 PST
Subject: Presto
Status: R
Hi folks, hopefully by now you've already gotten Presto and listened to
it about 100 times.. Well, as with the last couple of Rush albums, first
listening all songs sounded kinda the same..then after repeated listening
I could discern all the different things that was going on! and come to
the conclusion that Neil Peart is a genius...
heh
Favorites on the album so far has got to be "Scars" (dig that bass and the
drums!! and strong Alex guitar).. and "Show Don't Tell"
The drums are just awesome in "Scars" definitely a standout from the rest
of the tracks. Lyrics seem to be up to par though I didn't particularly
care for "THIS IS NOT A FALSE ALARM..THIS IS NOT A TEST", which I think
sounds kinda weak..hehe..but at least it's cool to see another return of a
"RED" song eh? How many is that now? Red Barchetta, Red Lenses, Red Sector A
and Red Tide right? Hmm..seem to be losing some memory here..anyways, the
vocal range on "Available Light" is pretty good.. I don't care what
ERLAND the Rush-Basher says, Geddy's voice has definitely improved.
OH well.. time for me to get out of here so hope everyone's doing ok..
time to catch "the boys" on tour now! boy am I excited!
-Jimmy
(Let's here some more from you guys out there..hopefully if everything goes
ok, the Rush mailing list will be a bit different - you get to work on that
one David! on a new machine too.. could it be syrinx? I hope so! anyway
more details as I get them.)
bye
awaiting more reviews from you Rush fans..
>From livia@blake.acs.washington.edu Thu Nov 30 00:46:21 1989
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 89 00:45:40 -0800
Subject: Re: Mailing list
Status: R
_Presto_ ROCKS!
Really. I haven't stopped listening to it since I got it. I put it on about
twice a day. My
favorites so far are "Chain Lightning", "Scars", "Presto", "Superconductor",
"Red Tide", and "Hand Over Fist"--hell, I like everything on there. Especially
things like the acoustic guitar on "Presto", Neil's neat drumming on "Scars",
the choruses to "Chain Lightening" and "Anagram", Geddy's mellow voice on some
of the tracks ("Red Tide", "Available Light"), and the lyrics to "Anagram" are
just a kick!
Now if they'd just tour and make a date for the Seattle area...
[ End of part one of the anniversary edition of The National Midnight Star ]
----------------------------------------------------------
To submit material to The National Midnight Star, send mail to:
rush@syrinx.umd.edu
For administrative matters (additions, deletions & changes), send
mail to:
rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu
To obtain previous issues of The National Midnight Star (in it's current
incarnation), send a request containing your name, e-mail address, and
the digest number(s) to:
htodd@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
Please specify The National Midnight Star (the RUSH Digest), as she handles
archiving for other lists also. These requests are processed in a batch
fashion once a week.
The contents of The National Midnight Star are solely the opinions and
comments of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the management.
List Management
*********************************
End of The National Midnight Star
*********************************