Simon Rushworth
The Rush is on for tickets to the hottest show in town after Canada’s best-loved progsters announced a series of summer 2013 arena dates across the UK.
Rush will release new record Clockwork Angels next month – their first studio album for five years.
And after completing an autumn/winter tour of North America in support of their latest opus later this year the band will focus on the rest of the world in 2013.
And there is still talk of Rush headlining the High Voltage Festival in 12 months’ time with the London-based festival set to return next year following the decision to postpone this summer’s Victoria Park event.
Next year’s concerts will be the first UK dates since the band brought their three-and-a-half hour Time Machine Tour to Britain in May 2011 – the tour was met to widespread critical acclaim and included a sold out date at London’s O2 Arena.
This follows the band unveiling details of its highly anticipated new album Clockwork Angels. This is the renowned trio’s first new collection of original material in more than five years and their first studio release via Anthem/Roadrunner Records.
The band’s 20th studio album will be released in the UK on June 11 as an exclusive Classic Rock Fan Pack – providing a unique collectible package containing the 12 track studio album alongside a specially created magazine with unseen behind-the-scenes content put together by Classic Rock.
The Fan Pack cover will also feature brand new exclusive artwork from Rush’s longtime collaborator Hugh Syme (who also designed the Clockwork Angels artwork).
The Fan Pack format will also come with free gifts including a limited edition Clockwork Angels keyring and artwork poster and will be available to buy via more than 2000 retail outlets on newsstands nationally as well as the traditional high street and online music retailer.
The Fan Pack is available for pre-order now at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/rush where all early bird orders will receive a personalised Rush poster. Roadrunner Records will simultaneously release the record digitally. The standard physical release of the Rush album will follow through Roadrunner Records on July 9.
The recording of Clockwork Angels began in April 2010 with Grammy Award winning producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Deftones) – who also collaborated with the band on their last studio album, 2007’s Snakes And Arrows. Rush co-produced both records.
The first two songs, Caravan and BU2B were completed during that first session at Nashville’s Blackbird studios and performed nightly during the wildly successful Time Machine Tour, which ran from June 2010 to June 2011.
Work on Clockwork Angels resumed in the autumn of 2011 at Revolution Recording in Toronto after the tour’s finale with additional strings (arranged by David Campbell) recorded at Hollywood’s Ocean Way Studios earlier this year.
Lyrically, Clockwork Angels chronicles a young man’s quest across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy as he attempts to follow his dreams. The story features lost cities, pirates, anarchists, an exotic carnival, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.
The novelization of Clockwork Angels is being written by science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson in collaboration with Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart.
Rush heralded the release of Clockwork Angels with a new single Headlong Flight. Landing at rock radio in mid April the song is already Number One at Classic Rock in the USA and A-Listed at the UK’s Planet Rock radio.
Details of a full-scale North American tour to support the new album have also been announced – the tour runs throughout September, October, November and December 2012.
The UK tour dates are as follows:
Wed May 22 Manchester Arena
Fri May 24 London, O2 Arena
Sun May 26 Birmingham, LG Arena
Tues May 28 Sheffield, Motorpoint Arena
Thurs May 30 Glasgow, SECC
Tickets go on sale at 9am GMT Friday May 18, 2012 priced at £60/£75 (subject to booking fee) and will be available from www.ticketmaster.co.uk, www.livenation.co.uk orwww.ticketline.co.uk