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Audio 28 May 1979 - Offenbach Stadthalle, Offenbach, Germany [Soundboard]

Rush Archives

Rush Archives

Syrinx Computers

Downloads:​

Track Listing:​

01 - Anthem​
02 - A Passage To Bangkok​
03 - By-Tor And The Snow Dog​
04 - Xanadu​
xx - Something For Nothing *​
05 - The Trees​
xx - Cygnus X-1 *​
06 - Hemispheres​
07 - Closer To The Heart​
08 - A Farewell To Kings​
09 - La Villa Strangiato​
10 - 2112​
11 - Working Man​
12 - Bastille Day​
13 - In The Mood​
14 - Drum Solo​

Notes:​

  • This show was recorded by Rush's original sound engineer Ian Grandy (1968-1980), which later somehow unofficially made its way to the public. Ian Grandy also recorded the soundboard at one of the 1979 Hammersmith Odeon shows (May 4, 5, 6, 7), from which he then edited Something For Nothing and Cygnus X-1 into this show. I am convinced that the Hammersmith show Ian recorded was May 6, as these two songs do not match the audience recordings we have for May 4, 5, or 7.
  • Circumstances was dropped from the setlist towards the end of the Hemispheres tour for all European dates, which would have been from April 23 and onward.
  • Something For Nothing and Cygnus X-1 were also dropped from the setlist towards the end of the tour for all continental European dates, which would have been from May 17 and onward.
  • While Ian Grandy may have edited in Something For Nothing and Cygnus X-1, these songs were apparently not in setlist order, rather at the end of both sides of one of the tapes he made. The original Offenbach recording runs seamless and uncut, indicating no edits had been made accordingly preceding and succeeding The Trees.
  • For historical accuracy, the first recommended download link contains two versions. One is the original seamless Offenbach recording, with SFN and CX1 as separate bonus tracks at the end. The second version found at the first recommended link is identical, but with SFN and CX1 edited in setlist order, using minor cross-fading to make the song transitions mostly seamless. Ideally I wouldn't want to mix match ANY recordings from different dates, but to upload the two Hammersmith tracks on their own seems kind of pointless unless the full board ever surfaces.
  • For the record, the recommended version of this recording is as close in lineage to the master tape as possible, only featuring very minor adjustments such as speed and pitch corrections. It is a very laborious and careful mastering from the lowest generation source available, done by the Progressive Rock Remaster Project, and yes I believe it beats the other versions out there. That means it is not layered with all sorts of unnecessary tampering you'll find in old versions, yet still manages to sound amazing while feeling more natural.
  • This recording has long been known as being from Frankfurt, and Geddy clearly states Frankfurt after Anthem, however the location is a bit more complex to detail. It was recorded at the "Offenbach Town Hall" in the city of Offenbach (also known as Offenbach Am Main), which is in the German state of Hesse and not Frankfurt. However Offenbach is on the Frankfurt border and is considered part of the "Frankfurt urban area", which would likely explain why Geddy refers to Frankfurt during the recording.

Preview: (Historically Accurate / London Edit)​

​
 
JohnnySee said:
The YouTube previews have become unavailable in the past month or so. Wonder what's up?
Click to expand...
YouTube has become increasingly more and more garbage with its auto flagging system over the years.
Offenbach is blocked completely now due to Bangkok, Xanadu, The Trees, CTTH, and La Villa being flagged as Pinkpop, and 2112 as Tucson.
 
"This show was recorded by Rush's original sound engineer Ian Grandy (1968-1980), which later somehow unofficially made its way to the public. Ian Grandy also recorded the soundboard at one of the 1979 Hammersmith Odeon shows (May 4, 5, 6, 7), from which he then edited Something For Nothing and Cygnus X-1 into this show. I am convinced that the Hammersmith show Ian recorded was May 6, as these two songs do not match the audience recordings we have for May 4, 5, or 7."

The above level of detailed analysis is incredible! Thank you so much for your efforts and for sharing with fans of live Rush.

Any thoughts on Hammersmith 1979 shows? These were recorded by the band on multitracks using a mobile recording truck, correct? And also filmed (see pics from the shows with a camera mounted behind Neil). It seems that Ian Grande also recorded one or more of these shows from the soundboard (which was something he only did a very specific times - when there was good house sound...). Is there any rumor as to why the professional recordings never saw the light of day - not even on the 40th anniversary set.

Thanks.
 
@rocky chains The story about the London 1979 shows being filmed or videotaped is very obscure. Here's an excerpt from a magazine interview with Alex around January 1980:

With Permanent Waves now out of the starting block, Rush is preparing for another assault on the Hemispheres which will be kicked off with a Western Canadian tour in March and April. Anthem stablemates, Wireless will serve as the opening act promoting their new album, No Static.

"Our sets will be a lot slicker this time around," forecasted Lifeson in commenting on the upcoming tour. "On our last tour we were doing 30 minutes of Cygnus X-1 and Hemispheres which was quite an endurance test for the audience. This time our sets will be a little shorter and a lot cleaner.

Rush plans to then take their Permanent Waves tour throughout North American and Europe. Sandwiched in between their touring itineraries will be work on a 'Live In England' album which will be mixed at Morin Heights and released this summer.

Recorded during a string of dates at London's famed Hammersmith Odeon last summer, the concerts were also filmed for a possible feature movie. A project that Lifeson has mixed feelings about.

"We'd like to do a movie but I wouldn't want it to be like the Neil Young or Rolling Stone films that were almost all concert footage. Those things bore me to tears," noted Lifeson. "You've got to be careful how you handle those things. I saw the Gino Vannelli television special and I couldn't believe how bad it was, they had this one bit where they filmed him intently watching his television set. I thought, "Give me a break, this is awful."
Click to expand...

It's true you can also see cameras behind Neil's kit, but photos from these have been seen online credited to Fin Costello, so I don't think it had any relation to the lost footage.
I will upload the entire photo set eventually, but here are two as an example: left photo is one where you see the mounted camera, right photo is one of the shots from it.

1770062973821.png
1770063014448.png


If the band multitrack recorded any of these shows, I have not been able to confirm it, but the article quoted above does make it clear that it was both recorded and "also" filmed. If so, you'd think they'd have used the multitrack audio for the Hemispheres 40th Anniversary set, rather than grabbing the Pinkpop soundboard which is a very shortened festival set, and still also an incomplete recording. Worst show to pick as a proper representation of the tour, which never made sense to me, even when they had longer soundboard shows to pick from. Though since they used multitracked shows for the anniversary boxsets of AFTK, PeW, MP, and GUP sets, even 2112 considering the two teaser tracks, it makes me question if they had a multitracked Hemispheres show. I can see why they'd loose track of where film is stored (e.g. ESL), but not for loosing multitrack live shows. I could go on and on with my thoughts, but if I start talking about Anthem's apparent logic for releasing content, I'll be here all day.

Obviously Ian Grandy did record a standard 2-track cassette soundboard recording in London 1979, and used two tracks from it on this copy of Offenbach that leaked out. Where the unedited master tapes are, I don't know. Ian has confirmed he doesn't have any of his tapes anymore, and via my own investigation it didn't look like they ended up with Jon Erickson either. Like you said, Ian recorded only when he felt like it, which wasn't much. If the band were multitrack recording a show for a potential live album, Grandy wouldn't have had any involvement with the mobile unit anyway. So this existing isn't necessarily a "piece of evidence" for the shelved live releases.
 
Oh my, that camera on the kit now makes perfect sense! I've always marveled at the Fin Costello photos from behind the kit, and lazily never matched those photos up with the camera that I had hopefully assumed was part of the "Live in London" filming. A Costello mounted film camera makes much more sense!

Related question - does anyone know if the live (no audience) videos of The Trees (first out on the Chronicles VHS set) and La Villa Strangiato (came out later, I think as an extra on one of the later concert DVD releases - R30?) have any relation to the rumored "Live in London" 1979 filming? Perhaps they were recorded as test runs for the equipment - camera placing, sound checking the mics for the mobile recording studio? Or maybe those 2 videos are the source of the Live in London story, and the concerts were in never recorded? Or maybe these weren't done in London in May 1979 at all (although it sure seems like that time period).

Thanks.
 
@rocky chains Oh boy, that is digging years back into my memory of research, but I do seem to recall those promo videos for Hemispheres were shot in Canada in 1978 not long before the tour started, and not in front of an audience. I'll have to dig through old articles again to cite my memory, but no I can't see there being any sort of connection to the claim of the London 1979 video.

Edit note, you can read a bit about it here, they were indeed shot in Toronto, at Seneca College's Auditorium. I'll try to find other sources later.
 
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