Originally Posted by
skipdaly
Hi Folks,
I'm new to the Forum, and am one of the authors of this upcoming Rush book ("Wandering The Face Of The Earth"). Eric Hansen is my co-author - you all may know him as the guy who runs the excellent Rush fan site "Power Windows."
Just wanted to quickly provide a bit more info/context, as well as address some of the specific questions that have arisen...
This project has been a labor of love and has been in progress for almost ten years. It started quite honestly as a conversation between Eric and myself, as we were collaborating on research to further flesh out the historical tour dates listing on his site ("Wouldn't it be cool if there was a book of this info, along with road stories, other data, etc.?").
It took a while, but we eventually got the blessing of the band's management, which led to access to their archives, as well as the ability to interview a lot of the road crew (past and present) for anecdotes and stories from their 40+ years of touring.
As others have pointed out, a lot of information on the internet is either incomplete or wrong, and we've taken great pains to get things right. To be fair, some of the band's own data had gaps, so a TON of original research went into this effort. This book literally contains some dates that no one has documented/published before (and, in some other cases, corrects previously stated inaccuracies).
To answer someone's question, yes, we also include ticket prices, attendance/capacity figures, and grosses (whenever this data can be unearthed). Did we bat 100%? No - some things are simply (at least at time of publication) still lost to the mists of time, and 40+ years is a huge amount to cover. But I can honestly say that this is the most comprehensive record of the band's touring history that has been done thus far. And that was really what motivated us --- i.e. a desire to own a book like this as a fan. (What to do if you want a book and the book doesn't exist? Spend 10 years writing it! LOL)
Someone else mentioned the Kiss book as a potential comparison, I believe? That book was absolutely one of multiple reference points that helped drive the vision. So, yes, if you enjoyed the general concept of that book (i.e. a detailed accounting of tour dates), then I do believe you will enjoy what we've compiled here.
Anyway, I just wanted to shed a little more light on what this is, and how it came to pass. Rather than being some cynical, marketing driven cash grab, it really was a labor of love from a couple of hardcore fans, who eventually got the band's blessing (and thereby the "official" title). We're beyond excited about it finally coming to fruition and seeing light of day here in a couple months, and I hope people will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together!
Cheers,
-Skip
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