Just as I was beginning to look forward to a new year and getting back out on my motorcycle again, I have been left reeling with sad news of the passing of Neil Peart after his private three year battle with brain cancer age 67. To many, Neil will be remembered as drummer and lyricist during the last forty years for the rock band 'Rush'. For me Neil was and always will be a great source of inspiration, not only as a fan of the band and his wonderful contribution to their music, a great drumming style and a poetry of song lyrics, but in later years I've enjoyed his excellent book writing journals about his motorcycle travels around the world on various BMW GS Motorcycles.
My first introduction to Alex, Geddy and Neil's music came while at a school friends house one lunch-time in late 1978 listening to their first live album 'All the Worlds a Stage'. At a time when the Punk Rock wave was still at its peak along with Police and Blondie in the UK charts, I became hooked on this relatively unheard of Rock band from Toronto, Canada. After my brief introduction to their prog rock classic '2112' and the heavy 'Working Man/Finding My Way' medley that launched Neil into his incredible drum solo (a staple of every Rush gig for the next four decades), my entry into this sub-culture as lifelong Rush fan was sealed. I soon bought their latest album 'Hemispheres' after hearing the amazing instrumental 'La Villa Strangiato', and next what I consider their Punk/Prog influenced album 'A Farewell to Kings' (both on vinyl of course) along with taped copies of their back catalogue on loan from our small school fan-base and local record library.
Thereafter, what followed was and still is my complete fascination with three of the best Rock musicians in the world, and a real appreciation of Neil's thought-provoking poetic lyrics that wasn't all about 'I love you yeah yeah' and more about Sci-Fi, Science, and Socio-Political subjects based on his bookish knowledge of authors like Ayn Rand, George Orwell and Coleridge to name a few. Back then at age 15 with the song lyrics printed on the inner sleeve of a 12" it was possible to really enjoy some of Neil's song poetry - 'The Trees', 'Xanadu', 'Circumstances', 'Closer to the Heart' , 'Lakeside Park' while being astounded by Alex's guitar solos, Neil's majectic percussion/rhythm and Geddy's thundering rumbling bass riffs. This was much more fun than studying poetry and English Literature at school at that time. Over the years Neil had a great way of melding Science with Humanities something that is so rare in music.
"The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles
We keep holding our ground
Indifferent circles
We keep spinning round and round"
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles
We keep holding our ground
Indifferent circles
We keep spinning round and round"
(Territories, Rush, Power Windows)
It would be a year or so later, June 1980 before I finally had my chance to see Rush live for the first time at Birmingham Odeon just after the release of their next Album 'Permanent Waves' and the UK chart success of the 'Spirit of Radio' single. A group of us bunking off school and missing a Maths lesson, heading off up to the Odeon by train to queue and buy the ticket, and then suffering school detention the following evening as punishment. It was all worth it, to get my hands on that long awaited ticket, and a few months later attend this gig with such excitement to watch them open with almost all of '2112'. I recall the three of them shrouded in a cloud of a dry ice mist revealing Alex and Geddy with Neil centre stage sat within that huge drum kit consisting of his trade-mark gilded cage of cymbals and tubular bells. My favourite track off the 'Kings' album has always been the double-neck guitar classic 'Xanadu', so seeing this performed live for the first time as the chorus line "Xa .. na .. du" echoed back by us fans punching the air was incredible. During the show Neil would launch in to his trademark drum solo, one of many I would witness over the years.
"Xa .... na .... du"
Rush music would change over time, moving away from the '70's Progressive Rock whole side of an album epics, to explore different subjects with different instruments and later synthesisers giving us such classics as 'Freewill' about our spirituality and beliefs, 'Natural Science' the similarity of human lives and those found in tidal rock pools, and then that well known classic 'Spirit of Radio' where Rush introduced a Reggae section that shocked most die hard rockers at that time. If you listen to the album Permanent Waves now, it's easy to hear the influence of Stings band the Police who were high in the charts at this time too. It's no coincidence that Neil became very friendly with their drummer Stewart Copeland and remained so for many years.
"When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society
A simple kind mirror
To reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools
They soon forget about the sea"
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society
A simple kind mirror
To reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools
They soon forget about the sea"
(Natural Science, Rush, Permanent Waves)
I was able to see Rush live in concert several times during the eighties, and back in those days Stafford Bingley Hall (the county showground cattle shed) would be a popular Rock concert venue, basically a huge mosh pit of fans. At the front of stage below Alex, Geddy and Neil during 2112, the crowd would sway so much you could lift your legs with the fans compressed together shoulder to shoulder would be carried twenty feet in either direction.
Jump to the ground
As the Turbo slows to cross the borderline
Run like the wind
As excitement shivers up and down my spine
Down in his barn my uncle
preserved for me an old machine
For fifty odd years
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream
I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better vanished time ...
(Red Barchetta, Rush, Moving Pictures)
When the band released 'Moving Pictures' in 1981 now considered their most popular album, I couldn't get enough of it. So many great tracks, musically brilliant, lesser hard-rock but still with Neil's drumming in-fills, triples and Geddy's incredible base line and synth' work. Not just following the song lyrics now but also memorise Alex's riffs copied with 'air-guitar' and Neil's in-fills and drum rolls by 'air-drumming' too. The album introduced us and many new fans to 'Tom Sawyer' about a modern day warrior, decisive and determined go-getter ('80s yuppie) and other favourites tracks from their 'Moving Pictures' album 'Red Barchetta' a futuristic song about a young kid driving a sports car given to him by his uncle where motor vehicles are now outlawed, and the classy 'The Camera Eye' a track I constantly had in mind on my first visit to New York only a few years ago. They even took a cue from their coming home signature beacon of Toronto airport 'YYZ' into an instrumental that extended out in live shows to combine Neil's solo.
Spanning 40 years of Rush, my programmes, LP's and ticket stubs.
Sadly, I no longer have my original Moving Pictures tour sweatshirt not that it would fit now anyway!
On each successive tour his drum solo would be re-composed into a different theme and given names like The Rythm Method, O Baterista, Moto Perpetuo, and Der Trommler He later brought along a Jazz/Swing element while sat higher on spinning drum riser. The incredible thing about Neil was his constant learning and re-invention. Not being content with being voted number one rock drummer in the world year after year he changed his style, studied the great Jazz drummers Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, learned how to play traditional, and contributed to the Buddy Rich tribute project.
All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah your honesty
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah your honesty
(Spirit of Radio, Rush, Permanent Waves)
More albums would come throughout the '80s and '90s, ranking them 3rd behind the Beatles and Rolling Stones for most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band. Some of my favourites tracks during this time include 'Big Money', 'Analog Kid', 'Territories', 'Marathon', 'Bravado' and 'Test For Echo' to name just a few.
Neil's introduction to Motorcycling came after he decided to change from a bicycle taken on the tour bus used for fitness and exploration to trailer his BMW R1100 GS behind the bus to explore further distance while travelling between concert venues.
Sadly, around this time just after the Test for Echo tour in 1997 his daughter and only child Selena was tragically killed in a car accident, and within a short time after, his long term partner and mother of his daughter died of breast cancer. At the time I can remember reading about this double tragedy in Neil's life, and like most fans thinking that was Rush finished wondering how anyone could live with that situation. Thankfully, Alex and Geddy decided to support him and simply wait it out for a few years causing a hiatus in their Rush career to explore other personal projects.
From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light
That gets in your eyes
One moment's high
And glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightning
That flashes and fades
In the summer sky
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light
That gets in your eyes
One moment's high
And glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightning
That flashes and fades
In the summer sky
...
Incredibly in 2002, I heard Rush were back, they had released a new album 'Vapour Trails' and were on tour for the first time in South America as captured in their live DVD 'Rush in Rio'. In 2004 their 'R30' tour followed to celebrate the past 30 years, and thankfully I was there back in Birmingham to see them again. With my own life commitments, marriage, family and work I hadn't seen them live now for many years so the 'R30' show was a real treat.
A few years later just after I got back into Motorcycling, I discovered purely by chance while looking for books on motorcycle touring a book called 'Ghost Rider, Travels on the Healing Road' by Neil Peart, obviously I recognised the authors name but had no idea he had become such an enthusiastic rider. Ghost Rider is about Neil's healing as he embarked on an epic lone tour from Canada through the US and into South America between '1998-2000'. The book is a good adventure read as a travel log and a very open and honest account of how travel helped him cope with such huge personal trauma and loss.
...
You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance
First you've got to last
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance
First you've got to last
(Marathon, Rush, Power Windows)
Later books would follow, 'Far and Away', 'Far and Near' and 'Far and Wide' these would be written in an autobiographical travel log style with pictures of his motorcycle touring between concert venues to include other aspects of his life. The bike would be transported in trailer attached to his tour bus, after a show he would spend the night on the bus, often camped in a Walmart car park (he refers in the books amusingly as Chateau Walmart), the following morning he would set off with his security guy and fellow GS rider Michael, or close friend Brutus. They would often ride a fair distance of 500 plus miles between cities finding unknown by-ways and back-roads across the USA, Canada and Europe arriving just in time for the next gig.
When I ride my motorcycle I'm glad to be alive.
When I stop riding my motorcycle I'm glad to be alive.
(NP)
I have now read several motorcycle adventure books over the years by a variety of authors and Neil's are up there with the best of them, not just because of the connection with Rush, but because they are so well written and represent a unique way of around the world touring by someone who could ride in all weathers, huge distances all with a great sense of adventure. In all, Neil covered over 250,000 miles riding several models of the BMW GS, and at the end of most rides he would take to his drum stool and complete a two hour concert behind Alex and Geddy! Many bikers believe all GS riders want to emulate Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor after their Long Way TV series, but for me the reason I ride a GS these days is probably more down to inspiration born out of reading books and blogs about Neil's latest rides.
The 'R30' show was spectacular and it felt like being back amongst old friends again. Rush were always a bit of a cult band and now the audience consisted of middle age rockers like me with the odd youngster in tow (probably one of their kids). On the way to the gig a young girl approached us walking in the opposite direction asking fans on the way 'who the hell are Rush? Never heard of them'. Quite amusing at the time I thought, platinum albums, countless world tours. At least Rush won't sell out and go to Glastonbury! This was the first time to see Neil on the revolving drum riser performing his solo too, it was good to see him back in action and the chance to hear the new Vapor Trails tracks 'One Little Victory' and 'Ghost Rider'.
I would get to see them live a few more times afterwards, the fantastic Snakes and Arrows tour in 2007 and then the Time Machine Tour in 2011 would provide most of their older material using a clever HG Wells 'Time Machine' backdrop as we travelled back in time to select songs. The real treat was seeing them play the entire Moving Pictures album from start to finish in the second half. Soon after Rush were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by the Foo Fighters, Dave and Taylor being massive fans too. See their tribute here
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech. Alex's is the best!
And then a strange thing happened in 2015, the band announced their final tour 'R40' and at the time I felt a little disappointed they finished up in LA and didn't come over to the UK too. After 40 years I found it odd they would not at least tour parts of Europe to say farewell. By now Neil had married Carrie, who he met at the end of his 'healing' Ghost Rider motorcycle travels and they now had Olivia their daughter, so it was understandable he needed to spend less time out on tour and more time with his young family and perhaps as we know now his illness maybe the reason 'R40' stopped in LA near his home.
A few weeks back while on holiday in Florida, I heard the unmistakable riff from Alex and the opening bars of 'Limelight' on the car radio, a Rush song from Moving Pictures album Neil wrote to reflect on his shy persona struggling with fame and recognition as the band found their popularity. It's a great song, probably his most personal. I turned the radio up to listen and wondered what bike he was riding these days without knowing that very day would be one of his last.
RIP Neil and thanks!
"Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme"
(Limelight, Neil Peart,
Rush, Moving Pictures)
