Metallica’s All Within My Hands foundation is granting $500,000 to relief efforts carried out by the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund and the Pasadena Community Foundation’s Eaton Canyon Fire Relief and Recovery Fund.
The fires raging in the Los Angeles area have relentlessly wreaked havoc and widespread destruction since January 7 and, sadly, do not show signs of slowing down. Despite containment progress over the weekend, officials warn residents to stay vigilant as the Santa Ana winds return and are expected to reach up to 70 MPH over the coming days, creating critical fire conditions.
In the past week, the community has suffered at least 24 lives lost, nearly 100,000 people under evacuation orders, 40,000 acres burned, and more than 12,000 structures—commercial and residential—destroyed. However, numbers cannot articulate the magnitude of anguish as the disaster upends families and dismantles livelihoods.
The California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund and the Pasadena Community Foundation’s Eaton Canyon Fire Relief and Recovery Fund are both focused on providing urgently needed immediate relief as well as support for critical long-term recovery efforts when the community transitions to the rebuilding phase.
John Lodge, legendary bass player, songwriter and vocalist of The Moody Blues, and Rock And Roll Hall of Famer, will be back on the road in February and March with his electrifying ‘Performs Days Of Future Past’ show, featuring a first set of Moody Blues classic hits, and a second set of this iconic album, performed in its entirety.
The tour kicks off on February 19 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, and includes 12 dates in the NE, Midwest and Florida, plus his appearance on the Rock and Romance Cruise, sailing out of Fort Lauderdale on March 15. Then John will be taking his show to the UK for the very first time – ‘Bringing It Home’!
All dates are now on sale, with limited VIP packages available, go to johnlodge.com/tour.
This is a unique opportunity to hear fan favorites such as “Isn’t Life Strange”, “Legend Of A Mind”, “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)” and “Ride My See-Saw”, plus this groundbreaking album. John and his band lovingly recreate these classic songs, in full symphonic glory, and together with his tributes to his bandmates, and the mesmerizing video of Graeme Edge reciting his poetry, the audience is truly transported back to Moody Blues concerts of the past.
Following a stroke at the end of 2023, John has gone from strength to strength, driven by his love for this music, and his deeply held desire to continue to share it with the fans. The critically acclaimed shows in July and November 2024 are testament to his passion and commitment, and as John says, his hope is that people leave with a little bit of joy, and certainly the audience can be seen leaving with Moodies magic around them.
Joining John on stage are his 10,000 Light Years Band featuring Alan Hewitt and Billy Ashbaugh (from the Moody Blues touring band), Duffy King and Jason Charboneau, plus Jon Davison of YES will again be joining John on stage to provide his soaring vocals on “Nights In White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon”.
“A lot of these places we used to go to as the Moody Blues, and I just want to give the fans a sense of that time again. It may not be a Moody Blues show, but Alan, Billy, Duffy, Jason and, of course Jon, create an incredible energy on stage, and such beautiful music. Then when Graeme appears on screen, and I turn to hear his beautiful words, it all makes me feel part of something very special, and I can feel I share it with the audience. Being on stage with them all, I think we all smile together, all of us on stage, and all of those in the audience. It’s a little moment away from the challenges of life.”
Check out the tour video below.
Tour dates
February 19 – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY 20 – Cary Hall – Lexington, MA 22 – Shubert Theater – New Haven, CT 23 – The Vogel – Red Bank, NJ 25 – Keswick Theatre – Glenside, PA 26 – Westbury Music Fair – Westbury, NY 28 – Brown County Music Center – Nashville, IL
March 1 – Genesee Theater – Waukegan, IL 3 – Orpheum Theatre – Sioux City, IA 5 – Pabst Theatre – Milwaukee, WI 15 – 22 – Rock and Romance Cruise 23 – The Villages, FL 24 – The Center of Anna Maria Island, FL
April 6 – Birmingham Town Hall – Birmingham, UK 8 – Royal Northern College of Music – Manchester, UK 9 – Pavilion Theatre – Glasgow, UK 11 – Union Chapel – London, UK 14 – St George’s – Bristol, UK 15 – G Live – Guildford, UK
Days Of Future Passed was released 58 years ago, and was arguably the start of progressive rock. John has surrounded himself with a band who put simply, love performing together, and who appreciate and respect the legacy of the music. The Moodies may not perform any more, and the loss of Graeme, Ray and Mike is felt deeply, but this show honours John’s friends and the music.
The electrifying show will also be in support of John’s new EP Love Conquers All out on February 14, and available now for pre-order on Amazon and other online stores. Signed copies are also available including limited edition vinyl. The first single, “Love Will Conquer All” is available now on all streaming services and hit the #1 spot over New Year on the Fab Chart.
For the US (including the limited edition 180g violet vinyl, hand signed by John), head here. For the UK (including the limited edition 180g blue vinyl with a special hand signed insert), head here.
Check out the first single, “Love Will Conquer All”, below:
Sweet guitarist and band lynchpin Andy Scott has revealed why he keeps touring, despite the advancing years and his well-publicised battles with ill health.
Speaking in the new issue of Classic Rock, Scott – who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009, and revealed just over a year ago that the disease had reached stage 4, having spread to other parts of his body – says that he has no option but to keep touring.
“I’ve had that conversation with [Uriah Heep‘s] Mick Box,” Scott says. “Both of us agreed that without playing live, what on earth would we do? So doing it sensibly remains the only option.
“It might kill me to be on the road, but it will certainly kill me to not be on the road. So I may as well keep things together.”
The interview arrives in the wake of Sweet’s recent and well-received album Full Circle, which, it turns out, might not be their last.
“I’m not saying that we’ll do another album, but the success of this one changes my outlook,” says Scott. “If we were to release new songs individually, then why not scoop them all together into an album? So there could be another one.
Scott also reveals that he’s considered the option of Sweet continuing with him.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
“There would need to be someone to steer the ship,” he says. “If I wasn’t around then maybe guest guitar players could replace me? I haven’t thought it all through yet. But Foreigner go out and tour without Mick Jones, and apparently it works very well.”
Sweet’s 2025 tour kicks off in Germany next month, with dates in Cardiff and London scheduled for April. Full dates below.
Feb 12: Augsburg Spectrum, Germany Feb 13: Stuttgart LKA Longhorn, Germany Feb 19: Oberhausen Turbinenhalle Oberhausen, Germany Feb 20: Osnabrück Rosenhof GmbH, Germany Feb 22: Rostock Moya, Germany Mar 07: Schaffhausen TapTab Musikraum, Switzerland Mar 22: Nuremberg Löwensaal, Germany Mar 23: Regensburg-Galgenberg Eventhall-Airport, Germany Mar 25: Mannheim Capitol Mannheim, Germany Apr 03: Cardiff Tramshed, UK Apr 05: London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, UK Apr 15: Munich Circus Krone, Germany Jun 13: Hallstadt Marktplatz Hallstadt, Germany Jun 15: Gifhorn Castle, Germany Jun 28: Tilloloy Château de Tilloloy, France Jul 04: Klam Burg Clam, Austria Jul 05: Eisenstadt Schlosspark, Schloss Esterhazy, Austria Jul 18: Appenzell Postplatz Festival Appenzell, Switzerland Jul 20: Maidstone Made of Stone Festival, United Kingdom Jul 25: Beelitz Freilichtbühne Beelitz, Germany Aug 01: Dinslaken Freilichtbühne Burgtheater, Germany Aug 23: Newark on Trent Stonedead Festival, UK Oct 21: Augsburg Spectrum, Germany Oct 22: Augsburg Spectrum, Germany Oct 24: Bochum Christuskirche, Germany Oct 25: Bochum Christuskirche, Germany
Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazinesince 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
Alabama Shakes leader Brittany Howard just played her first gig with her new hardcore band Kumite, and personally offended punk rock gatekeepers are already crying hot salty tears just thinking about it
(Image credit: Bryan Bedder/Penske Media via Getty Images)
In November last year, Alabama Shakes vocalist/guitarist Brittany Howard announced that her new hardcore punk band, Kumite, would be making their live debut in Nashville on January 12, with all proceeds from the show being donated to local charitable organisations.
“Remember, it’s hardcore as f*ck to community organize!” she posted on social media when sharing the news.
Live music booker Ben Mench-Thurlow was among the audience for the show at Basement East, which also featured Snooper, Inner Peace and Second Spirit, and he shared video footage of Kumite with the Lambgoat website, which you can view below.
While this documentation of the show seems to indicate that Kumite went down well with the Nashville crowd, the comments section on the gig report on Lambgoat is largely negative, with various anonymous posters venting their pain and despair at what they seem to view as a violation of everything sacred and true about punk rock.
“Another person who just found out about hardcore trying to jump on the train for cool points”, writes one poster, while another true ‘punx4lyfe’ comments, “First show at a packed club with a f*cking light show= hardcore 2025. f*ck these grifters, go back to submitting your albums for Grammy consideration. So punk.”
And there’s more:
“I’m sure Kumite is going to grind it out, play local shows, support the local scene and mosh…oh wait nah this will die out in a year after they get some unearned festival spots. REAL HARDCORE SURE.”
“A little too late to start this virtue signalcore band, trump will be in office in a week.”
We’ll round off this compendium of warm-hearted, supportive community sentiments with a final howl of anguish from another online punk who isn’t over-reacting in the slightest to news of a band playing a gig.
Our anonymous hero writes: “Delete the world seriously time for the asteroid to hit time for a reboot ftw.”
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Dream Theater keyboardist, Jordan Rudess, has released a music video for “The Final Threshold”, a track from his new solo album, Permission To Fly, released last September via InsideOutMusic.
Says Rudess: “Step into ‘The Final Threshold’ with this stunning video by my friend Wayne Joyner! Using Lightricks’ amazing LTX.Studio software, Wayne brought this song from my solo album Permission To Fly to life in a way that’s truly next level. Big thanks to Wayne and Lightricks for making creativity soar!”
No stranger to experimentation, Rudess is known for leading the charge in pushing creative, sonic, and technological boundaries. His latest endeavour, epitomizes this ethos, delving into the complexities of human existence within our multifaceted world. While some of his previous releases were true solo pursuits, this time, Rudess assembled a core group of musicians to support and elevate his vision. The album features Jordan alongside That Joe Payne on vocals, Darby Todd (Devin Townsend) on drums & Steve Dadaian on guitar, as well as guest guitar solos from Bastian Martinez.
Upon the album’s release, Jordan commented: “Permission to Fly is here! This album is a dream come true and features an incredible team of collaborators. My vision has turned into reality, and I can’t wait for you to join me on this journey.”
The first single released from the album was “Embers”, and you can watch the official video for that track, filmed earlier in 2024 on Cruise To The Edge, below:
With the music in capable hands, Rudess wanted to make sure to give the lyrics their proper attention. For that, he turned to a source close to home, his daughter. “All the lyrics on the album were written by my daughter, Ariana. While I enjoy writing lyrics myself, my primary focus tends to be on the sonic quality of the words. For this album, I wanted to delve deeper and offer something that resonated on a more profound and cerebral level. Ari did an exceptional job.”
Permission To Fly is available as Limited CD Digipak & Gatefold 180g 2LP (both incl. bonus material), as well as digitally. Order here.
World-renowned guitarist Kiko Loureiro, known for his work with Angra and Megadeth, shared fascinating stories about creating some of his most iconic solos. From classics like “Carry On” to “Conquer or Die!”, Kiko opened up about the creative processes behind these songs.
Recently, Kiko announced his highly anticipated 2025 tour in Brazil, promoted by Top Link Music. The Theory of Mind Tour celebrates the release of his latest album, Theory of Mind, marking a new chapter in his solo career. Known for his flawless technique and musical creativity, Kiko promises a show full of innovation and emotion, revisiting his career while showcasing new compositions from the critically acclaimed album.
A major highlight of this tour will be the special guest appearance by Marty Friedman, former Megadeth guitarist and global guitar legend. “I’ve always had a strong musical connection with Marty, and in recent years, that relationship has grown even stronger. I was thrilled when he accepted the invitation to join me on this tour in Brazil as my guest. It will be incredible to share the stage with him and bring this energy to Brazilian fans,” said Kiko. The union of these two guitar giants promises unforgettable nights for instrumental music and heavy metal fans.
Here’s more about some of his most famous solos:
“Carry On”: The Connection Between Mozart and an Unforgettable Composition
“Carry On” is one of the most emblematic songs in Kiko Loureiro’s career with Angra. Released on the Angels Cry album, the track quickly became a melodic metal anthem and remains one of the most requested by fans at concerts. Both the riff and the solo have interesting backstories, showcasing Kiko’s talent and dedication to the art of guitar.
Kiko explains that the iconic intro riff wasn’t his creation but Andre Matos’. “The riff was composed by André Matos on the piano. Andre had a very orchestral vision for the song, inspired by Mozart, and created that rhythmic sequence reminiscent of classical symphonies. We later adapted it for guitar, and the introduction became one of the song’s most memorable parts. It’s curious because, although it’s a guitar-famous riff, it was born entirely on the piano,” Kiko reveals.
The solo in “Carry On” carries a personal story. “It was the first solo I ever recorded professionally. I remember it being the last solo recorded for the album. At the time, we were in Hamburg, at Charlie Bauerfeind’s studio, and we’d already done all the bases and solos. Only André had to record his vocals. Since we had some free days, I went backpacking through Europe, visiting Italy and France. When I returned to Hanover, only the ‘Carry On’ solo was left to close the album.”
Kiko recorded the solo spontaneously. “It was somewhat improvised, using a small amplifier and my Tagima guitar. Everything happened last minute, but somehow, it turned out exactly as it should have. This solo has a lot of emotion because it reflects that unique moment when we were wrapping up Angra’s first album, full of dreams and expectations.”
The song represents Angra’s essence: refined technique, striking melodies, and a connection to classical music elements. To this day, “Carry On” remains one of the band’s best-known tracks, continuing to move fans across generations.
Kiko shares more details below:
“Conquer or Die!”: Kiko Loureiro’s “Eruption”
When Dave Mustaine invited Kiko Loureiro to join Megadeth, he challenged him to create an instrumental piece as a standout moment for the guitarist on the Dystopia album. “Mustaine said, ‘I want something like ‘Eruption’, by Van Halen. It was an enormous responsibility since he was referencing the most famous guitar solo piece in rock history. I thought a lot about how to create something unique while bringing my identity to it.”
Kiko decided to embrace the nylon-string guitar, blending his Brazilian and classical influences into metal. “I wanted something that showcased virtuosity without falling into clichés. I drew inspiration from Villa-Lobos and classical guitar pieces. The introduction came during an afternoon of improvisation, and I spent days refining it to balance technique and emotion.”
The name “Conquer or Die!” reflects the track’s intensity and significance within the album. “Initially, the piece was just an introduction for another song, but it gained its own strength. Mustaine liked it so much that he decided to make it a standalone track, complete with Latin narrations and an epic atmosphere.”
Kiko also explained how the transition from nylon guitar to electric guitar in the track was planned for maximum impact. “I wanted the moment the electric guitar comes in to feel almost cinematic, as if the song evolved from something intimate to something explosive. It’s a sonic journey reflecting my path, uniting Brazilian roots with metal.”
With “Conquer or Die!”, Kiko demonstrated to Megadeth’s audience and metal fans worldwide that his virtuosity extends beyond rapid notes, integrating his culture into the global music scene uniquely.
“Morning Star”: Virtuosity with Brazilian Roots
In “Morning Star”, Kiko showcases how Brazilian music can dialogue with metal in an innovative way. “The introduction was born from maracatu, a traditional Brazilian rhythm. I was listening a lot to Livro, by Caetano Veloso, and that inspired me to create something that blended this Brazilian essence with heavy riffs.”
The composition evolved into a technical challenge that tested Kiko’s skills. “The transition to the arpeggios came naturally. I wanted the solo to bring an explosion of energy, so I worked on fast, almost baroque arpeggios that are very challenging. The song’s fast tempo makes this part even more difficult to execute.”
Kiko also shared that “Morning Star” was one of the first songs composed for the Temple of Shadows album. “Rafael and I started working on it very early in the writing process. Initially, the song had a completely different vibe, almost like Caetano Veloso, with more laid-back chords in the verse. We even joked about calling the song ‘Julia,’ referencing the Beatles’ track, because of the similarity in chords.”
As the composition developed, “Morning Star” became an epic piece with multiple layers, blending Brazilian rhythms, power metal, and virtuosic instrumental sections. “I wanted something that sounded universal but still had a strong connection to my roots. This fusion is something that defines me as a musician.”
Today, “Morning Star” is remembered not only for its technical complexity but also for the way it translates Brazilian cultural richness into the context of progressive metal.
Kiko shares more details below:
“Point of No Return”: A Tribute to 80s Virtuosity
With “Point of No Return”, Kiko Loureiro pays homage to the classic 80s shred style, a genre that shaped his musical development and influenced generations of guitarists. Featured on the album Theory of Mind, the track is an explosion of technique and energy, marked by rapid scales, rhythmic precision, and dynamics that keep listeners on edge.
Kiko explains that the idea for the song came from a desire to revisit the roots of virtuosity. “I thought: why not create something that captures the essence of the 80s, when guitarists like Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, and Vinnie Moore were at their peak? It was a time when I would spend hours and hours practicing fast scales, trying to understand how they did it. ‘Point of No Return’ is a kind of homage to that era, but with my own approach.”
The composition was structured to emphasize speed and technical impact. “The song has a fast-paced rhythm that feels like a high-speed race, which made me think of it almost as a soundtrack for something electrifying, like a Formula 1 race. That energy is the essence of the song.”
Kiko reveals that the title choice was intentional to reflect this intensity. “The name ‘Point of No Return’ suggests that moment when you fully commit, without looking back. It’s about the determination to keep moving forward, whether in a race, a musical challenge, or life. The idea of pushing limits has always fascinated me.”
The recording also posed technical challenges, even for an experienced guitarist like Kiko. “The song is filled with rapid scales and rhythm changes that require a lot of precision. Even though it’s something ‘in my hands’ because I’ve practiced this style so much, creating something fluid and musical at this speed was an exercise in balancing technique and melody.”
An interesting detail is how Kiko added a narrative layer to the music, inspired by the world of Formula 1 racing. “I’ve always loved the speed and sound of engines. During the composition, I thought about how to translate the sound of a race into the guitar. Years ago, I played a piece on stage that mimicked the sound of a car accelerating with a slide, and that idea inspired me to bring something similar to ‘Point of No Return’. The song is like a high-speed journey, full of twists and emotion.”
In the end, “Point of No Return” became one of the highlights of Theory of Mind, representing the perfect combination of technique, creativity, and emotion that defines Kiko Loureiro’s style. It’s a song that not only pays tribute to the great guitarists of the past but also shows how Kiko continues to push the boundaries of the guitar in his own work.
“It’s a track for those who love the guitar and its intensity. For me, it symbolizes the relentless pursuit of breaking barriers and finding new ways to express oneself,” concludes the guitarist.
Kiko Loureiro’s Creative Diversity
From his creations with Angra to his contributions to Megadeth, Kiko’s stories show a guitarist who balances technique and emotion. “I never aim to just showcase technique but also to create something with a melody that tells a story.”
These accounts reveal not only Kiko Loureiro’s talent but also his dedication to the art of guitar, combining classical, Brazilian, and metal influences into a unique style.
Dead Sky Publising has announced the July 1 release of the new book, Fireproof: Memoir Of A Chef, by Curtis Duffy and Jeremy Wagner. Pre-order here.
About the book:
With rare intensity and candor, world-renowned, Michelin-starred Chef Curtis Duffy shares his epic journey from child of an outlaw biker father to famed culinary iconoclast. Fans of no holds-barred stories such as Motley Crue’s The Dirt, memoirs by celebrity chefs, and brutally honest personal memoirs will love this raw and inspiring true story.
“Chef Curtis Duffy’s Fireproof is like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential meets Sons of Anarchy.” – Peter Blauner, New York Times bestselling author of The Intruder
Description:
Fireproof charts Chef Curtis Duffy’s rise in spite of trauma, to being mentored by and recognized among the world’s top chefs. Amid childhood chaos in rural Ohio, a young Duffy first found refuge in Home Ec class, then at one of Columbus’s best restaurants, where he honed his skills. His passion ignited, Duffy was dead set on leaving Ohio and breaking the Duffy family curse.
But the tragic deaths of his parents jeopardized his promising trajectories. Summoning extraordinary fortitude, Duffy ate pain, graduated culinary school, and moved to Chicago to work in Chef Charlie Trotter’s kitchen—a hotbed of talent that produced prominent alumni such as Grant Achatz, Graham Elliot, and Homaro Cantu. Inspired by stellar peers and staging for Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, Duffy’s drive only grew.
His meteoric rise would cost him a marriage—the price of ambition, focus, and Grace restaurant. Grace earned three Michelin stars four years in a row, solidifying Duffy’s place as one of the world’s greatest culinary artists. But in a heartbreaking act of defiance, Duffy walked out after disputes with Grace’s owner.
Unstoppable, Duffy created Ever restaurant—a launch nearly derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Duffy persisted where many others would have resigned their craft, and Ever earned two Michelin stars from 2021-2024. Duffy was ranked one of the “50 Most Powerful People in American Fine Dining” in 2024 by the Robb Report.
Zakk Wylde has released the new video below, demoing his riff on “Miracle Man”, the first he wrote for Ozzy Osbourne.
“Miracle Man” was written by Osbourne, Wylde, and bass player Bob Daisley. According to SongFacts, in this song, Ozzy ridicules televangelist (and longtime foe) Jimmy Swaggart, referring to him as “Jimmy Sinner.”
Daisley, who wrote the lyric, originally mentioned Swaggart by name, but decided it would be more effective to keep it nonspecific.
In 1985, after a teenager killed himself while listening to Ozzy’s song “Suicide Solution,” Swaggart went on a crusade against rock music and took every opportunity to point out Osbourne’s depravity. Ozzy got the last laugh in 1987 when Swaggart was caught with a prostitute and admitted an addiction to pornography. Swaggart became known as one of the biggest hypocrites ever to walk the earth, while Ozzy got his own TV show.
Ozzy used an English church as his stage to skewer Swaggart in the music video, but events took an unexpected turn when some of his guests befouled the chapel. “When the music went on, the pigs all took a massive s–t at the same time,” he remembered. “Because it was so f—ing loud in there. My wife went, ‘Oh, f—!’ The playback started and they all went pfffffftttt! Sixty pigs s–tting! I had a pair of brand-new suede boots on, and I never wore them again. I couldn’t get the f—ing smell of pig s–t out of them.”
KnuckleBonz has announced a new limited edition statue of Exodus guitarist, Gary Holt. The ship date is estimated for fall 2025. Pre-order here.
Description: Each piece is hand-crafted. Only 3,000 pieces created. All Rock Iconz statues are officially licensed, limited edition collectibles. This is a fine-arts process where each statue is hand-cast, painted and numbered. These statues are created in 1/9 scale. Each statue comes with a certificate of authenticity on the base of the statue.
In 2020, Rush released the 40th anniversary edition of their classic album Permanent Waves. To celebrate the occasion, Classic Rock despatched writer and band confidante Philip Wilding to Toronto to speak with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson about the album that saved Rush from themselves.
If you take the spiral staircase down to Geddy Lee’s basement studio in his Toronto home, you enter a veritable Aladdin’s cave with guitars and basses hanging from every available space on the tartan-covered walls.
Classic and obscure models in every conceivable colour make up a lacquered rainbow of instruments in a room where musical history has been made more than once. At the far corner of the room hangs a hand-tooled bass that holds almost as much history as this entire home studio: a pale Fender Jazz model with a Le Studio logo imprinted into its headstock.
Geddy takes it down from the wall and starts plucking abstractedly at its strings.
“This was gifted to me from a guy called Mike Bump and the Fender Custom Shop people,” he says. “The wood came from the door to the sound room at Le Studio. Alex [Lifeson] got aTelecaster and Neil [Peart] got a pair of drumsticks.
“I guess one of the ex-employees had contacted Fender and told them that this wood existed, and he took it upon himself to have it sent to Mike. We knew nothing about it, and so it was a very emotional thing when they arrived because all these memories of recording in that studio came flooding back.”
Le Studio, set on Lake Perry and in the foothills of the spectacular Laurentian Mountains (“It was truly a part of the great Canadian landscape,” says Geddy), not only marked a new decade and studio for Rush, but also an era when they would change the way they worked, how they wrote songs and, not to overstate things, their place in the world.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
To understand how Rush were moving forward in 1980, you first have to go back to the tail end of the 1970s. After the relative ease of the recording of A Farewell To Kings, Rush returned to Rockfield Studios in Wales in the summer of 1978 – and hit a wall. Songs came slowly, creative energy was sapped, day became night, their working habits inverted.
“During Hemispheres we were like these monks,” says Lee. “At one point during that album we stopped shaving, we sort of turned into these fucking grotesque prog creatures in this farmhouse making this record, working all night, sleeping all day. Permanent Waves was quite the opposite.
“You have to remember that Hemispheres was the record that wouldn’t end. Everything about making that was exceedingly difficult. We were in Wales for far too long. I don’t remember more than three moments where we actually left the farm in over three months. We were very happy with the record, but it felt like we lost a chunk of ourselves in it.
“The other realisation I had was that I felt that we were becoming formulaic – these long, epic, side-long pieces were becoming inadvertently down pat; overture, theme here, repeat theme here… In and of itself, it was complex, but in actuality we were repeating ourselves, and I didn’t want to do that.
“So we concertedly tried to shift direction. You know: can we work in a seven-minute time frame? Can we put that limit on what we’re doing and see if we can make that more tuneful, more interesting and still complex? That was our goal.”
Rush recording Permanent Waves at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada in October 1979 (Image credit: Fin Costello / Getty Images)
Ready to write in earnest for the next album, which would become Permanent Waves, Rush headed to the quiet solitude of northern Ontario (a regular thing for the band when getting ready to record a new album), this time settling into a cottage at a place called Windermere in the Muskokas.
They fleshed out some new ideas, tempered by the notion of bringing some brevity to their songwriting. “That’s the thing about Rush music though,” Lee says with a laugh, “five minutes feels like twenty.”
Lifeson, Lee and Peart set up home, with all the equipment they had brought with them filling the basement. Throughout the day, Lee and Lifeson would sit at either end of the sofa, the two of them trading riffs and ideas on acoustic guitars.
“We’d write all day,” recalls Lifeson, “and record our ideas on a cassette player while Neil worked on lyrics in his room. After dinner we would get together in the basement, with Neil’s drums taking up most of the space, and we would work on the arrangements as a band. Although [producer] Terry Brown didn’t move in with us, he did join us from time to time as the arrangements began to blossom.”
“I spent a few days up at Windermere with the boys doing pre-production,” Terry Brown tells Classic Rock. “That was time well spent. The guys might correct me on this, but I don’t think we did any writing in the studio, it had gone that well up the cottage. We would still be fine-tuning and making adjustments until we captured a take for the album, but most of that was happening in Le Studio.”
“We were very well-rehearsed and wellprepared. The songs were there,” says Lee. “We’d had really good writing sessions tucked away in that cottage. I have very strong memories of writing Spirit Of Radio and songs like that there, the two of us in the living room, hammering away at our acoustic guitars, and Neil appearing intermittently with his sheets of lyrics.”
Rush – The Spirit Of Radio (From “Snakes and Arrows”) – YouTube
“Spirit… stands out for me too,” says Lifeson. “But Freewill and Jacob’s Ladder do too, and that’s just side one. I think we were very pleased that our writing was moving in multiple directions yet carried the sonic stamp of us as players.”
“The strength of the songs and Alex starting his fascination with remote-control airplanes,” says Lee. “Those are my enduring memories of the cottage. As soon as we got a break from writing, he would go out and try to fly these planes. And of course they’d eventually get lost and we’d have to send out a search party for the plane! He carried his fanatical love of model aeroplanes to Le Studio, and we lost a few there too.”
Neil Peart visited the now near-derelict Le Studio in 2014 (a fire would destroy the site a few years later) and stood among the remains to reflect on the memories of his time there.
“It’s sad that’s it’s gone, and it’s especially sad that no rock band will enjoy that retreat,” he told George Stroumboulopoulos. “What it meant artistically and personally together, to work in the studio all day then go play volleyball at night. Those experiences, artistically and as a collaborative unit.”
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 274 (May 2020)(Image credit: Future)
Whatever magic was falling through the Canadian sky in the autumn of 1979 was turning into creative pay dirt for Rush. Each day unearthed some new gem. With all six songs already almost fully formed (this was Rush, so there was always going to be some tinkering), the band fine-tuned each one until it shone brilliantly.
“Freewill stands out the most for me,” says Lifeson. “It was such a challenging song to play for all of us, but I remember being so excited on the day we recorded it. I can still remember clearly sitting on the tall stool directly behind [engineer] Paul Northfield, with Terry at the console to my right smoking Gitanes.
“I’m sure we did Spirit Of Radio in the control room too, because that’s how we worked: on a stool, sitting behind Paul, with Terry there giving Paul a kick in the back of his chair every so often when he drifted away!”
Look back now at the photographs taken during those sessions, they show a band brimming with energy, each member laughing and at ease. Compared with the Herculean, energy-sapping task that was the making of Hemispheres, a band working in the dark and sleeping all day, making Permanent Waves was a relative breeze.
“It was the little things,” Lee recalls fondly. “We were more connected to our families – they were just hours away, not across the ocean – and we were in this beautiful, natural environment. The house we lived in was walking distance to the studio, through the forest every day. We were in this beautiful, natural environment. It was a more invigorating vibe. It was more spontaneous, and the album does reflect that energy.”
“At times, Hemispheres was soul crushing,” says Lifeson. “On the other hand, Permanent Waves was so positive and fun. We had come some way as a touring band, playing to larger and more supportive audiences, and all the touring made us better players. Individually we were all in a good space, and it showed in the way we treated each other and those around us. Life was fun and exciting.”
No doubt in part due to their preparation, the band ended up recording Permanent Waves relatively quickly.
“Within six weeks we had the record sort of in the can,” remembers Lee. “Then we went to mix it in Trident, as that had been such a joy to work in even on the Hemispheres album. So we went back to London, and it was a magical mixing room and even the mix went very quickly. You never know what you get when got to make a record – you don’t know if it’s going to be a slog or if it’s going to be a treat. And Permanent Waves was a treat.”
The band started the sessions with what would become the album’s opener and surprise hit record, The Spirit Of Radio. Lee talks fondly of how quickly it came together as a song up at the cottage, and as an opening track it’s so very Rush – a brilliant pealing guitar riff, a complex arrangement, a drum pattern you’d be hard-pushed to follow, and a reggae nod on the outro over a lyric railing against the commercialisation of modern-day radio.
Permanent Waves was so positive and fun. And all the touring made us better players. Life was fun and exciting
Alex Lifeson
If those sentences were about any other band, you’d be left scratching your head. Frame it as a reference to a Rush song, however, and it makes total sense. Because sometimes Rush really make no sense at all. Somehow they make the unworkable work. And never more so than on Permanent Waves.
“I think if you look through our history internationally,” says Lee, “Tom Sawyer probably has the most resonance and has garnered the most attention, followed by Spirit…, and then Closer To The Heart. Those are probably our three biggest individual songs.”
“I think we kicked off the sessions with The Spirit Of Radio, which excited me,” says Terry Brown. “It was something quite different and was fairly challenging, but as we zeroed in on the final performances it was obvious that it was something very special. I wouldn’t say any of our sessions were easy – the boys had a knack of challenging themselves on every record. Certainly The Spirit of Radio is a very challenging track to play and yet they make it sound so simple.”
Rush at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada in October 1979 (Image credit: Fin Costello / Getty Images)
“That song felt and sounded so positive,” says Lifeson. “It was one of those songs that seems to capture a moment in time. Not that we had any idea we were doing any capturing! But the response was strong, and we were happily surprised. You think: Spirit… was really a statement of where radio was going, where it had been.”
“Growing up in the early 70s, FM radio was such a free forum for music. You’d have DJs who would play stuff for an hour. They’d just talk about the songs, there were no commercials or anything. Free-form, really – a platform for expanding music at the time. And then it was moving more towards a format, and away from that freedom. It was becoming more regulated, more about selling air time. It speaks about that, really.
“We wanted to give it something that gave it a sense of static – radio waves bouncing around, very electric. We had that sequence going underneath, and it was just really to try and get something that was sitting on top of it, that gave it that movement.” The Spirit Of Radio charted on both sides of the Atlantic, and set the tone, for sales at least, for Permanent Waves and the commercial peak that was to come.
“We’re always surprised when we have a hit anywhere,” Lifeson says with a laugh. “We’ve never really been a radio band. But, ironically, it made sense.”
With Permanent Waves, it wasn’t just the band’s music that was being reshaped and reappraised. Who could forget the Hemispheres album cover: a naked man floating on a human brain, staring down a bowler-hatted figure lifted from a Magritte painting, as they both bobbed gently through time and space?
“When it came to the models for that cover,” says Hugh Syme, Rush’s long-standing art director and Neil Peart’s collaborative foil, “the Magritte man in bowler hat was my old friend Bobby King, also from the Niagara region where Neil and I both hailed from. The other figure was a dancer we found who was studying at the Toronto Ballet School.
“For my entire experience with Rush, never did they ‘pitch’ me, ” Syme continues. “Take Hemispheres, for example. I hadn’t even heard any music by then, as they were in Wales [at Rockfield Studios] for the album. Things got a little easier after that, when they started recording at Le Studio. I could fly or drive up to see the boys working, and that was much more convenient. I’d usually stay for about a week, and sometimes get invited to play on their records, something that had started on 2112 when I’d added some colour to Overture and Ged’s Tears.”
It was at one of those extended stays at Le Studio that Syme was invited to play piano on Different Strings, another new curve ball in Rush’s canon. With lyrics by Lee, it was plaintive yet rich. and examined the way in which the listener, or critic, consumed art and music. So far, so very Rush.
Its inclusion on the record hinted even more at the way the band were now willing to play with form and the sort of music people might yet expect from them. I tell Geddy that I had always assumed Different Strings was a simple love song coming from a very sincere place.
“No it’s not, actually,” he says. “That song was really born out of the idea that: here we were, this band that had been together for quite a long time and we had this ability to polarise people, our music did that. And in writing that song I was addressing that, about what we do and about art. And it really is about that individual way one reacts to it.
“Whether it’s music or visual or whatever, it’s an emotional response. It’s about our differences. It’s like Entre Nous and Different Strings are sort of two parts of the same concept. They are sister and brother.”
Alex Lifeson playing acoustic guitar in the studio during the recording of Permanent Waves (Image credit: Fin Costello / Getty Images)
Different Strings aside, Hugh Syme wasn’t at Le Studio just to sample the charismatic sunsets and watch the light at play on the lake.
“Neil and Hugh used to deal with the cover designs,” says Lee. “I think Hugh used to take his cue from what he heard and read, and he would get bits of music and lyric sheets and he would take his image fix from that. And it was clear that we had turned a page. Remember, this was a period where everyone was talking about new wave; there was a new wave of pop and rock. In a way, the title of that album is a comment and a play on the words. There’s all those different wave images on the cover, and it was about the permanence of music.
“Not to sound pompous, but we really wanted to say that this new movement and new wave is exciting and everything, but rock’n’roll is here to stay, and there will be different waves and there will be different styles of it but it can never really be washed away.”
“Me and Neil spoke all evening about Rush growing up,” says Syme, “and how we were going to do these ECG [electrocardiogram] readers of each member as they were recording. So Permanent Waves was going to be a technical statement, and we were going to treat that with red and gold foil and do a nice study in design, as opposed to a photographic thing.
“Then – and I’m still not sure why – I said: ‘Let’s try something with a [model] walking out of a tidal wave situation.’ Neil gave me this blank look and said: ‘Get out of here.’ But the following day he asked me to consider doing just that.”
Syme ran riot. Against a background shot of the Galveston Seawall in Texas during Hurricane Carla in 1961, he superimposed Canadian model Paula Turnbull flashing her knickers and sporting a permanent-wave hairdo that looked like it could weather any storm. Hugh gave himself a walk-on part – waving happily in the distance. The band’s surnames were referenced on a rain-lashed signpost.
When the Chicago Daily Tribune railed against their newspaper being blown about in the foreground with the infamous front page from 1948 (when the paper wrongly reported the result of the US presidential election as ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’), the threat of legal action resulted in the headline being obscured on all but the earliest pressings of the album. All things considered, it was a long way from the brains and buttocks that made up the central image of Rush’s previous album.
(Image credit: Mercury Records)
You only have to look at the structure and form of the six songs that make up Permanent Waves to realise this latest journey the band were on. Much like Syme having some fun with the album’s cover, Rush were determined to break out of some of their own, self-imposed, shackles.
“That’s exactly what we wanted to do,” says Lee. “We wanted to do something different. Even the longer songs – and there are a couple of profoundly important longer songs in our history. But songs like Natural Science and Jacob’s Ladder are on there too, right? So those two are both indicative of what I’m taking about.
“They’re quite different, and again they’re long concepts, but contained in a ten-minute time frame, as opposed to dragging this concept over a side-long thing. We didn’t feel that Jacob’s Ladder was profound enough to be a one-side thing, you know? And over the years our affection for that song has grown, largely because of how much affection our fans have shown it.”
Are you saying you weren’t originally a fan of Jacob’s Ladder? That’s like hearing that Stephen King doesn’t like books about horror.
“Ha! I guess it was hard for us to tell how different it was at that time,” Lee says. “We played it initially on the first couple of tours and then we stopped playing it for a while. We lost interest in it. But it was constantly one of the top five requested songs from fans for us to bring back into the live show. We resisted that until the last R40 tour when we did bring it back.
“I was really not thrilled with the idea of playing it. The other guys were up for it, and I wasn’t until we were in rehearsals, where I went: okay, now I remember what I liked about this song. So I got back into that head space for it. And then during the last tour I enjoyed the hell out of playing it. We all did. It was clearly a highlight of the show. It’s got those great, relentless signature moments that Rush fans love so much!”
The album and the single Spirit… propelled Rush up the charts. It was their biggest-selling record to date, and would be surpassed only by the album that followed, Moving Pictures.
“I think the decision to stop the concept album thing was big,” Lee says. “To put a pause on the whole concept, and to look at writing as a series of individual concepts – a series of smaller movies, in a way, which is what led to Moving Pictures. The energy of Permanent Waves bled into Moving Pictures for a number of reasons. And the fact that Permanent Waves was received so well was really a huge boost to us, from a confidence point of view… Every time in life you try something different and it’s well received, that’s about the greatest reward you can have.”
Lifeson agrees with Lee about the domino effect that Permanent Waves had on the band and their subsequent career: “That is true,” he says. “It was very much like that. Moving Pictures is the cute, sweet, happy offspring [of Permanent Waves]. We learned a lot about writing and how we work best to accomplish our goals, so that an ambitious album such as Moving Pictures could be made without wanting to kill ourselves.”
That’s the thing about Rush music though: five minutes feels like twenty
Geddy Lee
Such was the band’s momentum that they canned the idea of releasing a live album off the back of what had become their most successful tour, and headed into the Canadian countryside and back to Le Studio, a place they’d call home, off and on, for more than a decade.
“We were scheduled to do this big live album after Permanent Waves [it would eventually appear as Exit Stage Left, after Moving Pictures was released] and at the last minute we said: ‘You know what? Fuck this, we’re not going to do a live album, we’re going to go back into the studio and do our next album’,” recalls Lee. “And that’s how Moving Pictures came to be.
“It rode the wave of exuberance that we found through making Permanent Waves. And it turned out to be the most important decision of our careers. Or the second most important decision. The first one being 2112, because without 2112 there would be no Rush.
“If you look at our zig-zag history, we sort of started as a heavy rock band, and then with the addition of Neil and Fly By Night [1975] we realised we finally had a third member that had progressive thinking, that confirmed our progressive tendencies. And that’s why you see what began on Fly By Night reach its apogee on 2112, and we developed that once we had found our style. That style worked itself to the end of Hemispheres, and then it was time to change.
“In a way it [Permanent Waves] was really the beginning of our third period. The second period was once we had established who we were, and created our own voice.”
Alex Lifeson and I are reminiscing just before our conversation ends. I once got to stand on stage with Rush as they played The Spirit Of Radio, a song I vividly remember buying as a single all those years before as a teenage boy, and both those events still thrill me to this day.
“Isn’t it great, it still moves you now?” he says “That’s the thing, I have such fond memories of that time, so hearing those songs transports me to then. Isn’t that the amazing thing about music and how it marks different stages in one’s life? To be moved and reminded of a time forty years ago and to smile as I am now is a great blessing.”
Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.
