TrevorR

I remember I was listening to Steve Wright In The Afternoon and the did a “tracks from albums coming out soon - guess the band” and they played a track from Counterparts. I recognised Geddy’s voice but thought, blimey, that’s a change of style for Alex with the grungy guitar.

It’s a shame that Steve Lillywhite pulled out of producing Grace Under Pressure at the last minute(Geddy still bears a grudge apparently). Given the direction that album went, I think that could have been a really interesting collaboration. Peter Henderson did a fine job but I’d have loved to have travelled to an alternative timeline/dimension to listen to the Lillywhite-produced version. Love the sound he got on Big Country’s The Crossing album around the same time.

Yeah, but you have to admit that the green screen stuff is SOOOOO badly done, even by 1987 standards. As it happens one of my top 5 fave Rush tunes, one of my all time fave songs… doesn’t make that video effects production values any less naff.

I’ve heard folks say that the video hasn’t aged well. I disagree. It was just as abysmal back in 1987!

Perhaps a reference to side 2 which, though less immediate than side 1 is no less glorious! Permanent Waves is one of those albums I really like but want to really love. Funny thing is that Jacob’s Ladder and Natural Science have never grabbed me as much as “the algorithm” of my musical taste says they should. We hear Neil and Geddy (rightly) lionised a lot. Shout out though for Alex. Such a creative player/arranger in terms of fitting his guitar into an already busy space. Strangely I think some of his most creative playing is on those albums where folk complain “it’s all keys and no guitar”. There’s some amazing, creative, tasteful, brilliant playing on there if you remove the blinkers of all guitar needing to riff away like Slash or whoever. Also, I love the fact that he never plays an obvious guitar solo - they always come out of left field and avoid just pentatonic shredding but still shred harder than most. Who other than him would ever come up with the solos on playlist friendly tracks like Tom Sawyer or The Spirit of Radio.

Still loving the Weekly Monday Night Jam in Woking. It’s a great atmosphere and really supportive environment to play in. The organisers always try to make sure that everyone who comes gets a fair shout at playing and trying to hog the stage is highly frowned on. Also, it heads to be proper tunes from all genres played - not just 2 hours of turgid pentatonic blues widdling. The tunes can vary from pub cover standards to some swing and jazz to indie to pop… It’s an offshoot from the Woking Music school hence the ethos. We’ve got a fabulous house band led by an amazing guitar player called Nicolas Meier who is a bit good - as in he used to tour in Jeff Beck’s band good (we’ve had some amazing band leaders - Carl Orr (an Aussie jazzer) and Pete Roth (a jazz guitarist who is currently touring his trio which includes Bill Bruford)) but they’re all lovely and ego free. Last week we did a hair metal themed night. I played on You Give Love A Bad Name, a car crash version of Deadringer For Love where the singers got completely lost half way through, and Ozzy’s Crazy Train (which was a blast and such a fun line to play). Here’s Nic and the house band opening the evening with some obscure White Lion tune… We were due to do Here I Go Again that week but our singer and drummer had work things come up that they couldn’t dodge - so we did it the previous jam (and Nick joined us on lead).

Ssssshhhhhh, guys! Nobody show him a picture of a Bongo… 😬🤫

So much great music to explore. This is actually one of my least fave Rush albums so the only way is up… check out Moving Pictures, Hemispheres, Counterparts, A Farewell To Kings, Signals… all so different. Rush were a band that never stagnated and kept on growing through their career.

You’d get a really nice Sandberg for your budget. That would be my pick!

…just remembered, they finished one song, something from Abacab I think, and Phil pointed over to the other side of the stage and said something like “Oh look, Tony’s pulled out a 12 string acoustic… well that can only mean one thing…” The whole crowd were already going ape-poo (saving the filter some work there) before he got the words “Supper’s Ready” out!

Saw them in 82 at the St Austell Colosseum on the warm up tour for the Milton Keynes Gabriel reunion gig. They were spectacular and all the more so being in a modest sized hall, not too far from the stage. This medley was on the set list along with a rare 80s appearance of Supper’s Ready (practicing for Pete). The gig was the perfect combination of prog and pop Genesis. One of my all time favourite gig experiences.

Pete did toy with that overseas budget model concept before he retired and was in discussions with a corporate partner. Ultimately he didn’t trust that the Wal brand wouldn’t be diluted with Wal badged basses featuring stock aftermarket pickups and BBOT bridges. He pulled the deal in the end before they reached agreements. Paul simply isn’t thinking in terms of higher volume and outsourcing. Not his ethos. He just wants to hand building the highest quality instruments. Like when he first moved on from Wal to hand build arch top jazz boxes… it’s all about the art and the craft.

Yes, and the fact it’s a two man, hand building business with a very limited output hasn’t helped se and hand prices any! Not to mention the closed order book and waiting list!

Yeah, they were my two main basses that have come to a bazillion gigs with me. Some folks have said to me “…but how can you bear to take a couple of 5 grand basss to clubs and pubs?” Thing is I wasn’t taking 5 grand basses out for most of the time I’ve owned them… they’ve just been my basses… the ones I love playing. Back then they were pretty unfashionable basses and that was a decent, reasonable second hand market price at the time. It was only when Pete started getting ill in the early 2000s and then stopped building a few years later that the prices started to skyrocket.