By Douglas Maher - All Headline News Staff Reporter/www.allheadlinenews.com
Montreal, Canada (AHN) - Rush's producer and director Pierre Lamoureux sheds light on the upcoming
"R:30 - Rush Live In Frankfurt, Germany" DVD package that is set to hit stores November 22.
Lamoureux is responsible for the huge undertaking of not only the "R:30" package but the
DVD releases of "Exit Stage Left...," "Grace Under Pressure Tour - 1984," and "A Show of Hands" all
of which are being released in 2006 in both a special box set and individual package.
"There is a lot of work that has gone on with the band over the last year," Lamoureux says
in an exclusive with All Headline News.
"We have the entire Rush catalog in our hands. Not just the studio material they
have released on albums, but every single demo or song that has not been released
as well. We are setting Rush up for the future for releases that will be able to
have 5.1 audio mixes along with SACD formats down the road."
The news is obviously going to make every Rush fan shine from Bangkok to Lakeside
Park in Canada, but Lamoureux insists it only gets better from here.
"For obvious reasons I can't get into every detail about the band's business and
future but I can assure you the concerts that we are re-releasing are not straight
VHS to DVD transfers. These are color touched, remastered, and re-mixed in 5.1 stereo
and we are deciding which extras we will add to each in the coming days. We are basically
done with everything except the extras and that decision lies with the band.
Lamoureux reveals that the "Grace Under Pressure" DVD in particular might hold
special surprises for fans down the road; some suprises, never thought to be
possible.
"We found the footage for 'Grace'," Lamoureux says.
"The concerts will be released in the same format as the original releases
including track listing and running time of the actual concert. But down the
road when Blue-Ray technology becomes more popular and we are able to extend things
out to levels beyond where we are at currently...we can then go back and release
the found footage that was not on the original release."
Lamoureux adds that the frustration of the job has been finding the footage
to begin with. As a matter of fact, he is asking for any information leading
to people who worked on the crews of the filming of "Exit Stage Left..." and
"A Show of Hands" to please come forward and contact them.
"We know someone has the film from those shows... we just need to get them at
this point. It could be someone who worked with a former producer, a film
crew member... anyone at this point. We didn't expect to find the
'Grace Under Pressure stuff... and we did.'"
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson and engineer Rick Chycki did the engineering
for the 2-audio CDs for the deluxe package of "R:30" and Lamoureux's brother
Francois did the audio chores for the recording of the concert itself.
"The band decided they wanted to do this half-way through the tour so it was
a matter of getting things going quickly and trying to find venues," Lamoureux
adds. "I approached the band's management SRO about filming Rush on their
anniversary tour and they turned me down being so close to their "Rush In Rio"
project. As the tour went on they decided it would be a great idea but it was too
late to film Radio City Music Hall and Red Rocks although we talked about it, we
just couldn't get crews into the cities at the right time."
Lamoureux admits that the DVD was almost filmed in Montreal but the band opted
for Germany instead.
"It was a great crowd in Frankfurt and the DVD will display that. It was originally
going to be even shorter (R:30 is not a complete concert) but the band decided
they wanted to add even more material from the concert because it all came out
so well, thankfully we didn't have a glitch the entire night... so that material
will probably be used somewhere down the road."
Stating the fact that a Rush show is not an easy task (clocking in at over 3 hours and 15 minutes)
Lamoureux says,"I have never worked so hard in my life, it was like working two concerts in
one night..a double shift, but watching the guys in Rush perform is just an amazing experience."