Rush To Take Strings On The Road

The band's new album, Clockwork Angels, features string arrangements by David Campbell and he is writing new arrangements for Rush's forthcoming tour, which kicks off in Manchester, NH in September.

"Our intention is to take strings out on the road," guitarist Alex Lifeson tells Billboard.com, and he says that Rush will employ the small string ensemble to recreate the pieces from Clockwork Angels and also add them to some of their older material. "It's just something different for us, and I can't wait to hear what it sounds like."

The band haven't settled on a set list for the tour just yet, but it's not likely to feature a performance of Clockwork Angels in full.

"The set list is quite fluid these days," Lifeson reports. "We're dropping and replacing songs constantly, and that's the way it always goes before we get into rehearsals. There's a great deal of pressure on us now to do the whole record, which we don't anticipate. I think our intention is probably to prepare the whole thing; whether we'll do it or not we're still not sure, especially on the first leg of the tour. There's still a lot of older stuff we want to do, and we've got some great songs lined up from the past. We'd be loathe to drop them to add more of 'Clockwork Angels,' at least on the first leg. It's always nice to switch up on the second leg and make it a little different."

Meanwhile in a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Lifeson has revealed that the band really don't care about their continued Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame omission. 

"Honestly, we really, really don't care about it," he said. "It's someone's thing, and they can do whatever they want with it. They can have whomever they like. It's their thing." He added, "It's a little bit different here in Canada. We've received awards that mean an awful lot more to us than being in the Hall Of Fame. We got the Governor General's Performing Arts Award a couple weeks ago. That's really the highest accolade you can get in this country for the performing arts, and it's recognized nationally, and I felt so proud as a Canadian to be in this esteemed group of artists that have been there for the last 20 years."

(Billboard)