If you haven't seen the news yet, the Moving Pictures 40th Anniversary sets have finally been revealed as of Friday, February 11.
This is said to* feature the complete concert at Maple Leaf Gardens on 25 March 1981 during the Moving Pictures tour, mixed by Terry Brown from multi-track soundboard recordings.
*Note: After the official release of Vital Signs, the performance undoubtedly being from 24 March 1981, I am yet to be sure if they just labeled the date wrong or swapped around a few songs.
It is planned for release on April 15, and you can pre-order from the official Rush Backstage store.
Pre-orders are now also available on Amazon: 3-CD / 5-LP / Super Deluxe
Instead of rewriting all my personal thoughts, I'll just copy paste what I posted on "The Rush Forum" yesterday:
I pre-ordered last night, I'm more than pleased. Despite some who still kept doubting it was going to happen, I've been confident that this was still coming after Alex and Hugh Syme re-confirmed it last year. Though I expected another mashup of select live tracks from various MP tour dates like they did for the PeW 40th (with the annoying fades between songs). I initially suspected some would be from Edmonton June 25, since that version of 2112 Overture / Temples was used for the 2112 Deluxe Edition released in 2012, which also featured A Passage To Bangkok from Manchester 1980 later reused for the PeW 40th set.
More recently I also had had a feeling some tracks would be from Toronto March 25, because they randomly blocked the old audience recording on YouTube a couple weeks ago.
I'm more than ecstatic they're releasing a complete setlist again from a single show, something they haven't done since the AFTK 40th.
I did not expect that at all. I sadly didn't think they'd put in the time, effort, and money for this type of output again.
In the meantime, I'm going to relisten to the audience recording of the March 25 show (and the previous two nights in Toronto) this weekend to reacquaint myself with the performance, in anticipation for the new mix.
I was dreaming for a remastered release of the Montreal footage (ESL), ideally even the complete concert if the full footage still exists, but I knew that was a lot to expect, so I didn't have high hopes.
It seems all they have left are old tape transfers used for the MTV premiere in the early 80s, which don't look that amazing. I'm not even really a serious videophile, it's just too dark and grainy.
I've heard mixed stores whether the original film reels still exist or not, but I imagine the truth is no one really knows, even if someone (here I think) once claimed the original film canisters were seen during making "Beyond The Lighted Stage".
All the other miscellaneous items in the package are what I'd expect based on previous 40th releases, but the drum sticks and die-cast Red Barchetta were a surprise and are really cool.
I don't have any complaints, and despite having certain feelings/concerns about some of the previous 40th sets (which I still love), I'm not hard to please when it comes to live material and am still always happy they give us anything in the first place. I hope the trend of using full concerts continues if they'll keep on with the 40th releases. Ideally I'd like to see them just launch a new line of purely CD releases (and digital for the non-physical audience), each release being a set of discs with all recordings they have sitting around in the archives for each tour (or at least 5 or so of the best concerts), something akin to Yes's "Seven Shows from Seventy-Two", and call each set something like "Rush Archives Legacy: Moving Pictures Tour 1981", etc. It would be easier to produce and sell cheaper (and probably sell better), and would give us dedicated fans satisfaction knowing cool live recordings are no longer sitting around unused and rotting for decades. These could even feature unheard demos and rare singles. Assuming recordings from the early tours in their possession is just as scarce as has been hinted, one set could be "Rush Archives Legacy: The Early Years 1973 - 1976", and finally feature a re-release of Not Fade Away / You Can't Fight It, and stuff like the Agora shows we all know if that's all they have. I don't think they have much pre-1978, but at the least we know they still have the three June 1976 Massey Hall recordings used to compile All The World's A Stage, all three which I'd personally love to hear in completion. Considering they pulled The Twilight Zone from the 17 April 1977 audience recording (and ruined it by upping the pitch way too high) for the 2112 40th, I don't imagine they really have much else, if anything, recorded from that era.
I hope someone at the record company sees this and at least takes note of the idea. Anyway, getting off my fantasy ramblings, I don't really expect them to go on too much longer with these huge, physical content filled, pricey 40th Anniversary sets, based on the overall audience scope, but I'm at least hoping for Signals since there are no known soundboards from that tour in circulation. As for that topic [quoting a comment wondering about which show may be used for a theoretical Signals 40th set], for me it'd ideally be a gig before Chemistry was dropped from the setlist.
Though if the May '83 shows yield the preferred performances, if they edit in Chemistry from an earlier recording into one of the European shows, I wouldn't be upset about that.
Kind of like how they replaced 2112 in the Pinkpop show with the one from Offenbach (Frankfurt) for Hemispheres 40th, but in proper setlist order this time. (Re-releasing a non-headlining gig like Pinkpop was a bit of a disappointment itself, but that's another topic)
I imagine the Nov 15, 16, & 17 Toronto gigs of 1982 and any of the May 1983 UK gigs would be the most likely candidates to have been recorded by the band. I think I'm seeing a slight trend that they tended to record hometown and overseas the most it seems, as well as consecutive nights marathoned at the same venue.
This is said to* feature the complete concert at Maple Leaf Gardens on 25 March 1981 during the Moving Pictures tour, mixed by Terry Brown from multi-track soundboard recordings.
*Note: After the official release of Vital Signs, the performance undoubtedly being from 24 March 1981, I am yet to be sure if they just labeled the date wrong or swapped around a few songs.
It is planned for release on April 15, and you can pre-order from the official Rush Backstage store.
Pre-orders are now also available on Amazon: 3-CD / 5-LP / Super Deluxe
Instead of rewriting all my personal thoughts, I'll just copy paste what I posted on "The Rush Forum" yesterday:
I pre-ordered last night, I'm more than pleased. Despite some who still kept doubting it was going to happen, I've been confident that this was still coming after Alex and Hugh Syme re-confirmed it last year. Though I expected another mashup of select live tracks from various MP tour dates like they did for the PeW 40th (with the annoying fades between songs). I initially suspected some would be from Edmonton June 25, since that version of 2112 Overture / Temples was used for the 2112 Deluxe Edition released in 2012, which also featured A Passage To Bangkok from Manchester 1980 later reused for the PeW 40th set.
More recently I also had had a feeling some tracks would be from Toronto March 25, because they randomly blocked the old audience recording on YouTube a couple weeks ago.
I'm more than ecstatic they're releasing a complete setlist again from a single show, something they haven't done since the AFTK 40th.
I did not expect that at all. I sadly didn't think they'd put in the time, effort, and money for this type of output again.
In the meantime, I'm going to relisten to the audience recording of the March 25 show (and the previous two nights in Toronto) this weekend to reacquaint myself with the performance, in anticipation for the new mix.
I was dreaming for a remastered release of the Montreal footage (ESL), ideally even the complete concert if the full footage still exists, but I knew that was a lot to expect, so I didn't have high hopes.
It seems all they have left are old tape transfers used for the MTV premiere in the early 80s, which don't look that amazing. I'm not even really a serious videophile, it's just too dark and grainy.
I've heard mixed stores whether the original film reels still exist or not, but I imagine the truth is no one really knows, even if someone (here I think) once claimed the original film canisters were seen during making "Beyond The Lighted Stage".
All the other miscellaneous items in the package are what I'd expect based on previous 40th releases, but the drum sticks and die-cast Red Barchetta were a surprise and are really cool.
I don't have any complaints, and despite having certain feelings/concerns about some of the previous 40th sets (which I still love), I'm not hard to please when it comes to live material and am still always happy they give us anything in the first place. I hope the trend of using full concerts continues if they'll keep on with the 40th releases. Ideally I'd like to see them just launch a new line of purely CD releases (and digital for the non-physical audience), each release being a set of discs with all recordings they have sitting around in the archives for each tour (or at least 5 or so of the best concerts), something akin to Yes's "Seven Shows from Seventy-Two", and call each set something like "Rush Archives Legacy: Moving Pictures Tour 1981", etc. It would be easier to produce and sell cheaper (and probably sell better), and would give us dedicated fans satisfaction knowing cool live recordings are no longer sitting around unused and rotting for decades. These could even feature unheard demos and rare singles. Assuming recordings from the early tours in their possession is just as scarce as has been hinted, one set could be "Rush Archives Legacy: The Early Years 1973 - 1976", and finally feature a re-release of Not Fade Away / You Can't Fight It, and stuff like the Agora shows we all know if that's all they have. I don't think they have much pre-1978, but at the least we know they still have the three June 1976 Massey Hall recordings used to compile All The World's A Stage, all three which I'd personally love to hear in completion. Considering they pulled The Twilight Zone from the 17 April 1977 audience recording (and ruined it by upping the pitch way too high) for the 2112 40th, I don't imagine they really have much else, if anything, recorded from that era.
I hope someone at the record company sees this and at least takes note of the idea. Anyway, getting off my fantasy ramblings, I don't really expect them to go on too much longer with these huge, physical content filled, pricey 40th Anniversary sets, based on the overall audience scope, but I'm at least hoping for Signals since there are no known soundboards from that tour in circulation. As for that topic [quoting a comment wondering about which show may be used for a theoretical Signals 40th set], for me it'd ideally be a gig before Chemistry was dropped from the setlist.
Though if the May '83 shows yield the preferred performances, if they edit in Chemistry from an earlier recording into one of the European shows, I wouldn't be upset about that.
Kind of like how they replaced 2112 in the Pinkpop show with the one from Offenbach (Frankfurt) for Hemispheres 40th, but in proper setlist order this time. (Re-releasing a non-headlining gig like Pinkpop was a bit of a disappointment itself, but that's another topic)
I imagine the Nov 15, 16, & 17 Toronto gigs of 1982 and any of the May 1983 UK gigs would be the most likely candidates to have been recorded by the band. I think I'm seeing a slight trend that they tended to record hometown and overseas the most it seems, as well as consecutive nights marathoned at the same venue.