Tom Sawyer Promotions presents - SIGNALS TO THE HEMISPHERES

I have spent some quite considerable time recently exploring and participating in, first hand, the phenomenon that is internet fan forums. These are something I have not had an awful lot of time to participate in over the years but I was curious to partake in a few all the same should the opportunity (spare time) ever arose in order to see if I could contact like minded people to myself.

For many years I have assumed these places were set up as a haven for fans to share a comradary that stems from the love of certain things... bands, music, sports, cars etc etc.

However, much to my surprise and enlightenment I have found that such places are all too often merely sounding boards for the arrogant, ignorant and just plain rude people who inhabit the cyberworld regularly. Ironically, quite often the forums are fragmented and tribal in nature. Populated by people who somehow end up divided in opinion and often excessively negative over what is meant to be a positive element of their lives.

One such forum I have been involved with contains a stronghold of members who by and large actively demote rather than promote the very thing the forum exsists for.

This is quite a shock for someone like myself who as a musician expends a lot of time and energy celebrating the music and integrity of 3 people who have given me great listening pleasure over the years... I do of course mean the greatest band in the world... RUSH!

In a period of only twelve weeks or so I have found myself bruised and battered, figuritively speaking and quite in the minority when speaking out in a positive way about the forums' very subject of focus.

Insults are flung (and of course countered) in trench warfare fashion that at times leave the reader/poster in a state of sheer bewilderment. I have found it quite amazing how many people are incapable of accepting a counter arguement without resorting to attempts to discredit the oppositions' integrity as a last ditch resort in trying to win over a point view or quite simply in the end just become abusive and insultory.

This is quite common on forums in general to a certain extent I have found... but in most cases it ends up being a fairly balanced affair... or more often the positive opinions outweigh the the negative ones... trollish posts I believe the term is.

It is quite a bizarre experience to go onto a fan forum only to find that the majority of posters do not particularly like the subject in question.

I even found my comments removed by the moderator when I expressed an opinion that this particular site was not fulfilling its supposed role as a proclaimed 'fan' site with the following comment added... 'We will also no longer tolerate posts that flame or otherwise bad mouth (said site) as a place to visit'.

Astonishing. Talk about dictatorial style sensorship of free speach and arrogance of unlimited proportion. You can bad mouth the subject of the forum but not the forum itself. These people need to get real.

Needless to say this site is populated by only a handful of people as most fans avoid it quite actively.

The reason for this trip into Forum-ville is that I am keen to promote any site that I feel worthy of peoples' attention via providing a link from this website and have been looking to see which was the one most worthy of being brought to the attention of RUSH fans who visit here.

The one site I can strongly recommend to any discerning and ardent RUSH fan is (click the following link)...

THE RUSH FORUM 

This site offers a balanced set of opinions on all things RUSH and whilst not all who post there are positive, any negative posts are by and large from a small faction of the site and on the whole most posts are well reasoned and well delivered.

Please visit The Rush Forum and join in the celebration of 3 of the worlds finest musicians ever.

It was an unexpected pleasure to meet another one of rocks longest standing icons at The Uni Campus Bar in Sunderland on Saturday 28th Nov, that being Gary Numan.

Gary is one of my all time favourite musicians and teenage idols. It was the huge synth sounds that Rush were using around the late 70's and early 80's that first really turned me on to them having listened avidly to bands like Numan, Ultravox (I enjoyed their come back tour earlier this year) and Kraftwerk for quite some time previously.

Thanks especially to Gary's wife Gemma for taking the following photo.

I can strongly recommend anyone to go see Gary's shows which are a recreation of his Pleasure Principle Tour back in 1979.

Visit Garys' website for more info....

NuWORLD

The band now have a new name!

Following a recent partnering with Glenn Povey Management and subsequent consultation with Peggi Cecconi, Vice President of RUSH management company SRO/Anthem Entertainment in Canada it has been agreed that a name change is in order.

Introducing.... SIGNALS TO THE HEMISPHERES.

Teaming up with Glenn Povey, probably most noted as the person who put the hugely popular and successful Aussie Floyd together, means that the band will be venturing far and wide to bring some RUSH-ness to everyone's lives on a regular basis.

We look forward to bringing a little bit of entertainment to RUSH fans everywhere in these rather sombre recession tainted times of late.

Roll the bones!

Visit the Photo Album to check out a host of classy pics taken by Billy Hepburn at the Town House show in Hamilton last Friday.

Billy of MusicPro Photography is a top Glasgow based photographer who specialises in music events but also covers all kinds of other requirements.

Check out his website here.

Do not hesitate to contact Billy if you need some great photos!!!

(Top tip - view all images in the Photo Album using Cooliris. Just click the option 'view as slideshow' and download the viewer if necessary. It really is cooool!).

It was great (and a little odd) to travel back from the Hamilton gig on Saturday morning listening to my two band mates on Radio 1.

The guys (plus Conals' brother) were invited by Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kaye to provide the live music, as The Duffy Brothers, for Vernons' show which was Pheonix Nights themed and they both had to shoot straight off after the gig on Friday night in order to be there.

The show was broadcast from the real 'Pheonix Club' in Farnworth and hosted many top stars from that area including of course Peter Kay, Paddy McGuinness, stars from Coronation Street....etc etc.

Highlights of the proceedings were Chris Moyles joining The Duffy Brothers on drums for a striking rendition of 'Sex On Fire' by Kings Of Leon and Peter Kays' famously lamenting 'Wind Beneath My Wheels'.

In Conals' own words.......'What a crazy 24 hours'!

I'm looking forward to hearing all about it lads and maybe there'll be an amusing little story or two to share with us all here.

We are proud to be entered into the hallowed halls of Planet Rock radio station.

Planet Rock will be keeping listeners up-to-date on RUSH UK gigs on-air and also listing our gigs on their website.

Planet Rock is a fantastic national UK rock station playing all genres of classic rock - past and present!

Links will appear on this site soon but for now please click here....

Please be aware that our appearance at the Limelight Club in Crewe has now been amended by the venue to THURS 19TH NOV due to a clerical error.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused to anyone and we hope to still see a room full of Rush nuts at this fantastic venue that famously takes it's name from a certain Rush song and has regularly played host to the annual Rush Conventions over the years!

Really looking forward to this one.

A big RUSH UK thankyou to everyone who came along to the debut gig in Hamilton on Friday!

What a night. Fantastic venue, fantastic crowd. Good as ever to see the European Rush Fan Forum TNMS guys out in force.

The Town House Theatre certainly looked after us all! Many thanks to the fabulous management and staff.

See you all next time.

Tickets are now on sale for our appearance at The Town House Theatre in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.

The Town House is a lovely 800 seat theatre situated in Hamilton near Glasgow.

This show will be our 2009 debut and we're looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces as well as new ones as the Glasgow area has always been a special place for afficiondos of Rush.

Call the Town House box office for all booking enquiries on 01698 452299.

Click here for full venue details.

While Conal and Rick beaver away at the material we're working on for the RUSH UK set list, I've been amusing myself by doing a little recording to keep my guitar chops in shape.

Visit the new Audio page to hear my latest offering - a rendition of La Villa Strangiato.

In the absense of any full band demos at the moment, it'll give an idea of how one third of RUSH UK sounds and the lads are certainly no slouches either folks!

I'll be posting a few more up soon.

Ian.