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Thread: Rush Demos Thread

  1. #1
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Rush Demos Thread

    Are you kidding? There's no such thing as enough Rush threads!

    I just found this, and I'm pretty sure somewhere on CDROM I have a demo version of Grace Under Pressure - can anyone confirm that exists?

    Meanwhile, is this for real?:


  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I just found this, and I'm pretty sure somewhere on CDROM I have a demo version of Grace Under Pressure - can anyone confirm that exists?

    Meanwhile, is this for real?:





    this remains the only set of Rush demos I've ever had or even have heard
    2trevorsforlife

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Well, in case I was wrong and there are no GUP demos, here's a consolation prize, a GUP boot I just found - never heard this one before, fun to hear Geddy say "Aloha!"



    Seems to skip the first track...

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    actually Geddy would program new songs on his computer.
    he would have complete demos of songs to be recorded.

    when you listen to those PW demos it make to appreciated the influence Peter Collins had on their albums.
    Last edited by BravadoNJ; 09-23-2017 at 01:02 PM.

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    Wow, this is the first time I've heard any Rush demos, outtakes or anything like that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Well, in case I was wrong and there are no GUP demos, here's a consolation prize, a GUP boot I just found - never heard this one before, fun to hear Geddy say "Aloha!"



    Seems to skip the first track...
    That's a favorite Grace Under Pressure show for me. One of the last gigs of that tour. They only ever played four shows in Japan and two in Hawaii.

    There are also Counterparts demos but as with the ones from Power Windows there aren't huge wholesale differences.

    There are also variations on some songs for Power Windows and Hold Your Fire on the Sector 3 set. But those appear to be unintentionally used for that set.

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    Member dgtlman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Are you kidding? There's no such thing as enough Rush threads!

    I just found this, and I'm pretty sure somewhere on CDROM I have a demo version of Grace Under Pressure - can anyone confirm that exists?

    Meanwhile, is this for real?:

    This almost sounds like a live soundboard, possibly soundchecks, then compiled together as tracks from that album rather than an actual demo of the songs in their creation stage. Definitely an analog tape dub too.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by dgtlman View Post
    This almost sounds like a live soundboard, possibly soundchecks, then compiled together as tracks from that album rather than an actual demo of the songs in their creation stage. Definitely an analog tape dub too.
    I suppose that's possible. If I recall correctly Geddy said at the time the band used "bed tracks" for this album.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ytserush View Post
    I suppose that's possible. If I recall correctly Geddy said at the time the band used "bed tracks" for this album.
    Yes, according to Lee, Peter Collins persuaded them to start using a guide track with a click, working up the arrangement around that, then recording just the drums and finally replacing and overdubbing other parts. In that respect, you might be right in thinking that these are early mixes rather than pre-production demos.

    However, while the overall arrangements are pretty similar to the finished articles, minus the choral and string overdubs, some of the sections are slightly or in different order, particularly on ”The Big Money” and ”Marathon”. Moreover, ”Manhattan Project” (which Collins supposedly co-arranged) has a very different keyboard sound during the verses and lacks the fretless bass sounds played by Andy Richards on a synth. As Rush went to rehearsals with the idea of recreating most of the studio parts live via sampling and sequencing, they had the parts worked out at that stage. So these can hardly be recordings from the tour or soundchecks.

    I believe that when these recordings first surfaced online a decade or so ago, it was claimed that the source was a tape given to the original uploader by Alex Lifeson's son.

  10. #10
    Rush should think about releasing demos and studio outtakes instead of an endless stream of live albums. Or, they can put out an album of pre-release live recordings. There are several of those that were performed live before they were finished for an upcoming album.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    Rush should think about releasing demos and studio outtakes instead of an endless stream of live albums. Or, they can put out an album of pre-release live recordings. There are several of those that were performed live before they were finished for an upcoming album.
    I remember the three I saw them do - Red Sector A, Kid Gloves, and Red Lenses at Radio City Music Hall before GuP was released. What other songs do you know they previewed live?
    Last edited by JKL2000; 09-29-2017 at 03:44 PM.

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    Member gearHed289's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I remember the three I saw them do - Red Sector A, Kid Gloves, and I See Red at Radio City Music Hall before GuP was released. What other songs do you know they previewed live?
    Freewill and Spirit of Radio on the "Semi-tour of Some of the Hemispheres" AKA PeW warmup tour.

  13. #13
    An early version of Body Electric was also debuted at RCMH on that 1983 run.

    Subdivisions was previewed on the ESL tour in 1981.

  14. #14
    there are pre-release Xanadus as well. slightly different lyrics



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmuxd99w7I8

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLXuzfA5WPE





    but the PW and MP 'pre-releases performances were songs still in their formative stage; there's embryonic versions of Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio without Lifeson's iconic solos for instance


    I think that it's either Red Lenses or Kid Gloves with longer verses as well
    2trevorsforlife

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Score2112 View Post
    An early version of Body Electric was also debuted at RCMH on that 1983 run.

    Subdivisions was previewed on the ESL tour in 1981.
    Oops, I should have said The Body Electric, not Red Lenses.

  16. #16
    I read that there were one or two from Power Windows. played before the album was released. Maybe "Grand Designs"...

  17. #17


    A little rough, but Alex screams!
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    Rush should think about releasing demos and studio outtakes instead of an endless stream of live albums. Or, they can put out an album of pre-release live recordings. There are several of those that were performed live before they were finished for an upcoming album.
    Well now, unfortunately, we won't be seeing any new live stuff. Archival shows would be interesting, like the one that was included in the Different Stages CD from the AFTK tour. I really wish there was more live video footage, especially from the older tours. I have tons of boots but official releases with actual mixed & refined audio would be extra nice. That Pink Pop show from the Hemispheres tour has got to be out there somewhere... I hope.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Score2112 View Post
    Subdivisions was previewed on the ESL tour in 1981.
    So was "Analog Kid."

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by dgtlman View Post
    That Pink Pop show from the Hemispheres tour has got to be out there somewhere... I hope.
    I believe the footage we've seen is from a soundcheck, and I suspect it may have been done for some type of TV news piece, with some of the bits of them playing cut together with interview footage with Geddy. Hence, I suspect the stuff we've seen is all there is, and most likely, they didn't shoot the actual concert performance, either.

    Unless there's something like video screen feeds from the 70's era tours, I don't imagine there's much out there. Unfortunately, back in those days, doing a proper video or film shoot of any kind was massively expensive, and unless you had a specific project in mind, most such things just didn't happen.

    What I'd love to know is if there isn't more footage from the shoot that was done for the Exit...Stage Left video. Did they just shoot the songs that appear in the official release, or is there a bunch of reels sitting on a shelf somewhere of most (if not all) of the setlist they did on the Moving Pictures tour?

    One thing I'd actually like to see are just the various films they used in concert to accompany the performances. I've always been curious to see some of those. When they put out the concert videos from the 80's on DVD, I kinda wish they had done what Pink Floyd did on the Pulse DVD, and included the films on their own.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post

    What I'd love to know is if there isn't more footage from the shoot that was done for the Exit...Stage Left video. Did they just shoot the songs that appear in the official release, or is there a bunch of reels sitting on a shelf somewhere of most (if not all) of the setlist they did on the Moving Pictures tour?

    One thing I'd actually like to see are just the various films they used in concert to accompany the performances. I've always been curious to see some of those.
    When Peart sends his daughter off to college, I'm sure we'll be able to buy that footage.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post


    A little rough, but Alex screams!
    Wow, very interesting! I agree 100% with your assessment...it was cool to hear Alex just plow through that solo. Nice!

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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post

    What I'd love to know is if there isn't more footage from the shoot that was done for the Exit...Stage Left video. Did they just shoot the songs that appear in the official release, or is there a bunch of reels sitting on a shelf somewhere of most (if not all) of the setlist they did on the Moving Pictures tour?

    Yeah, this one too. I remember reading somewhere back, after this video came out, where they said that they were videoing all of their tours from here on out. I have several boots of pro shot vids from tours back thru Signals. However, there are many many flaws in those recordings & the final products were scrapped for whatever reasons.

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    Do you guys know if there a list somewhere online that denotes what instruments each of the chaps used on every album and tour? (e.g. Geddy plays Ric 4001 on PWaves, same bass on the 1980 tour.....etc etc)?
    If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.

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  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Do you guys know if there a list somewhere online that denotes what instruments each of the chaps used on every album and tour? (e.g. Geddy plays Ric 4001 on PWaves, same bass on the 1980 tour.....etc etc)?
    Didn't they list that info in some of the tour programs? Geddy obviously used the Rickenbacker 4001 on most of the tours from something like 74 onwards (I think before that he used a Precision bass, which he eventually had cut into the shape of a tear drop). WHen they did Passage To Bangkok he used a white Rickenbacker doubleneck (with a six string guitar neck), and on Xanadu, he had the black doubleneck (with the 12 string guitar neck).

    I believe I've read that on the Moving Pictures tour, at least, he occasionally used a Jazz Bass, possibly also on the Signals tour.

    By the time of the Grace Under Pressure tour, he was playing the Steinberger (because it made it easier to move around the larger synth rig), but he switched to a Wal bass for a couple tours. I forget when he switched to using the Jazz Basses full time, sometime in the early 90's, I think.

    For synths, it was the Minimoog and Taurus pedals on the A Farewell To Kings tour. For the Tour Of The Hemispheres, he added the "white elephant" Oberheim 8 voice. On the Permanent Waves tour, he added an Oberheim OB-One, though I think I read he used it just for sequences and "sound effects".

    On the Moving Pictures, I'm not sure if the OB-One stayed around, but he also added the Oberheim OB-X, which like the 8-Voice, he had rigged up so he could trigger from the Taurus pedals.

    On the Signals tour, it was the Minimoog, OB-X, and I believe by then he had added both the OB-Xa and the Roland Jupiter-8. On the Grace Under Pressure tour, the OB-X was replaced by a PPG 2.2. I'm not sure what he used on the tours after that, but as I recall, he started using a MIDI master keyboard, controlling a bunch of synths hidden offstage.

    WIth Alex, I'm a bit vague on the early stuff, but he had a late 60's ES-335 that was his main axe in the early days. Watch the first Don Kirshner's Rock Concert appearance, that's the guitar he's playing. That's the main guitar on the first three or four records (though I think there were a few others here and there) and tours. Unfortunately, this was guitar was crushed under the weight of a improperly secured PA horn that got knocked over by a gust of wind during an open air gig, opening for Blue Oyster Cult, in 78 or so.

    Other guitars Alex has used over the years include a sunburst ES-345 (seen int he Pink Pop footage from 79), a white ES-355 (his main axe in the late 70's, and which has made recurring appearances from time to time since then), a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion (that's the hollowbody guitar he's playing in the Exit...Stage Left video, which he later had fitted with a Kahler tremolo) and two different Gibson EDS-1275 doublenecks (the red one, which he used on the A Farewell To Kings tour was also damaged beyond repair in that PA horn mishap, at which point he replaced it with the white one).

    Starting around the time of Permanent Waves, Alex started occasionally using Strats. He had several that he used in the early and mid 80's. I think by the time you get up to Grace Under Pressure, he had two or three that had been fitted Floyd Rose tremolos, custom electronics (a Bill Lawrence humbucker in the bridge position and a Gibson style pickup switch) and custom necks. As a joke, these became known as the Hentor Sportscaster guitars, which apparently led some fans to believe that this was an actual make and model of guitar, but it was apparently a prank concocted by his guitar tech or some other crew member. I believe he said in Guitar Player that he played a Telecaster for the first time in his life on Kid Gloves.

    Then around the time of Hold Your Fire, he started playing guitars made by a short lived Canadian company called Signature guitars. These are the guitars he's playing in the A Show Of Hands video. Then somewhere in the early 90's, he started endorsing PRS guitars, and that's what he used for most of the 90's, even using one of those guitars with the piezo-electric pickups built into the bridge for songs like Closer To The Heart, so he wouldn't have to switch back and forth between acoustic and electric guitars like he had in the past.

    But when I saw them on the Vapor Trails tour (only time I ever got to see them, unfortunately), he alternated between a bunch of different guitars. He had the white ES-355, a Tom Anderson Telecaster style guitar, and I think at least one Les Paul.

    As for acoustic guitars, I think he used mostly Gibsons in the old days. Ir ecall reading that in the 80's, his favorite 12 string was actually a doubleneck instrument built by Alvarez-Yairi circa 1980 or so (if you watch the Vital Signs video, you can see this guitar sitting on a stand, behind Geddy's synth rig near the start of the coda section).

    I haven't a clue about Neil's drums, other than that he started using assorted percussion instruments on A Farewell To Kings. That's where he started using the chime trees, the orchestra bells and glockenspiel. He added tympani on Hemispheres, and I forget what all else appears on the subsequent albums, apart from the "plywood" on YYZ and the Simmons drums on Grace Under Pressure.

    Any other questions?

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